---
title: Gke Workload Identity — Invoked Exchange skill
description: Configures and diagnoses Workload Identity Federation for GKE authentication failures for Pods (403 "iam.serviceAccounts.getAccessToken" / permission denied, "could not find default credentials", or GKE metadata server unreachable) by verifying cluster and node-pool Workload Identity configuration, the Kubernetes ServiceAccount (KSA) to IAM binding (direct principal binding and legacy Google ServiceAccount impersonation), target-resource IAM roles, and gke-metadata-server health. Use when setting up KSA/GSA bindings (`roles/iam.workloadIdentityUser`, `iam.gke.io/gcp-service-account`) or when a Pod cannot authenticate to Google Cloud APIs. Don't use for in-cluster Kubernetes RBAC errors (API-server authorization), general workload crashes (use gke-workload-troubleshooting), or Pod Security Standards and NetworkPolicies (use gke-workload-security).
doc_version: "1.0"
last_updated: "2026-11-05T11:03:38.053Z"
canonical: https://invoked.ai/skills/gke-workload-identity
---

# Gke Workload Identity

Configures and diagnoses Workload Identity Federation for GKE authentication failures for Pods (403 "iam.serviceAccounts.getAccessToken" / permission denied, "could not find default credentials", or GKE metadata server unreachable) by verifying cluster and node-pool Workload Identity configuration, the Kubernetes ServiceAccount (KSA) to IAM binding (direct principal binding and legacy Google ServiceAccount impersonation), target-resource IAM roles, and gke-metadata-server health. Use when setting up KSA/GSA bindings (`roles/iam.workloadIdentityUser`, `iam.gke.io/gcp-service-account`) or when a Pod cannot authenticate to Google Cloud APIs. Don't use for in-cluster Kubernetes RBAC errors (API-server authorization), general workload crashes (use gke-workload-troubleshooting), or Pod Security Standards and NetworkPolicies (use gke-workload-security).

- Shared by: google/skills
- Composes surfaces: 
- Tool chain: 
- Add to Invoked: https://invoked.ai/skills/gke-workload-identity

## Community usage

_Building — published once enough workspaces have run this skill._

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