Firebase tools: login as service account

firebaser here

Since version 7.1 of the Firebase CLI/tools it is possible to authenticate with a service account.

Also see Michael's answer here: Login to firebase using gcloud service account

Previous answer:

To use the Firebase CLI/tools you need to be signed in as an actual user. There is no way to run the Firebase CLI as a service account.

It's been noted as a valid and interesting feature request though! Some work that might help towards this feature is being done in this PR. As usual: no commits on if/when/how this may land. Keep an eye on the release notes for the latest updates.

This works:

$> gcloud iam service-accounts keys create ./secrets.json --iam-account=<SERVICE_ACCOUNT_EMAIL>

$> export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="./secrets.json"

$> firebase deploy --project <PROJECT_ID>

You can actually use the refresh token of a Google account (service account or otherwise) that has access to Firebase roles, and set it to the FIREBASE_TOKEN environment variable.

For example I use Cloud Build (which has an associated service account that is already logged into gcloud) and then set FIREBASE_TOKEN to the output of gcloud auth application-default print-access-token.