Client

To use the API, the :class:`~google.cloud.spanner.client.Client` class defines a high-level interface which handles authorization and creating other objects:

from google.cloud.spanner.client import Client
client = Client()

Long-lived Defaults

When creating a :class:`~google.cloud.spanner.client.Client`, the user_agent and timeout_seconds arguments have sensible defaults (:data:`~google.cloud.spanner.client.DEFAULT_USER_AGENT` and :data:`~google.cloud.spanner.client.DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS`). However, you may over-ride them and these will be used throughout all API requests made with the client you create.

Configuration

• For an overview of authentication in google.cloud-python, see :doc:`google-cloud-auth`.

• In addition to any authentication configuration, you can also set the :envvar:`GCLOUD_PROJECT` environment variable for the Google Cloud Console project you'd like to interact with. If your code is running in Google App Engine or Google Compute Engine the project will be detected automatically. (Setting this environment variable is not required, you may instead pass the project explicitly when constructing a :class:`~google.cloud.storage.client.Client`).

• After configuring your environment, create a :class:`~google.cloud.storage.client.Client`

  >>> from google.cloud import spanner
  >>> client = spanner.Client()
  

  or pass in credentials and project explicitly

  >>> from google.cloud import spanner
  >>> client = spanner.Client(project='my-project', credentials=creds)
  

Tip

Be sure to use the Project ID, not the Project Number.

Next Step

After a :class:`~google.cloud.spanner.client.Client`, the next highest-level object is an :class:`~google.cloud.spanner.instance.Instance`. You'll need one before you can interact with databases.

Next, learn about the :doc:`spanner-instance-usage`.