Update: 2020-09-24 Three updates since I wrote the post: gcloud alpha cloud-shell get-mount-command ${DIR} It’s possible to use sshfs to mount the Cloud Shell home directory locally: DIR=/path/to/dir gcloud alpha cloud-shell get-mount-command ${DIR} Which generates something of the form: sshfs [[USERNAME]]@[[HOST]]: ${DIR} \ -p [[PORT]] \ -oIdentityFile=~/.ssh/google_compute_engine \ -oStrictHostKeyChecking=no You may then code --new-window ${DIR} curl command may lack .sshHost curl’ing the cloudshell.googleapis.com endpoint will result in a null value for .