Hello Google DevRel & Product Managers,
I am publishing this detailed report to highlight a severe breakdown in the Developer Experience (DX) for Gemini Code Assist. There is a P0 backend routing regression currently locking paying Individual users out of the IDE. More critically, there is a systemic support Catch-22 that actively prevents this verified bug from being escalated to the correct engineering team.
As we scale out our 16-app Shopify ecosystem, having a reliable AI IDE environment is critical. However, Google’s siloed support infrastructure is bouncing paying developers between dead ends, ultimately refusing to provide support for the tools they are actively billing for.
### 1. The Technical Bug (Identity Backend Regression)
As an Individual tier Google One AI Premium subscriber, I should have seamless access to Gemini Code Assist. However, the Google Cloud Identity backend has a severe OAuth routing regression: **it misclassifies my Individual `@gmail.com` token as an Enterprise token.**
Upon logging into the VS Code extension, the backend demands a Google Cloud Project. It then aggressively bypasses local OS-level Read-Only file locks to force-inject a shadow Google Cloud project (e.g., `inlaid-matrix-n87pw`) into my local `.vscode/settings.json`. Because I am an Individual user without an Enterprise environment, this triggers a permanent HTTP 403 “Permission Denied” lockout from Agent mode.
**To definitively prove this is a Google server-side failure and not a local environment issue, I have already performed and recorded:**
* A completely clean OS reinstallation.
* Testing with a brand new, secondary Google account (which immediately generated a new shadow project).
* Downgrading the VS Code extension to v2.72.
* Locking the `.vscode/settings.json` file to Read-Only at the OS level (which the extension forcefully overwrote).
### 2. The Support Catch-22 (Continuous Refusal of Service)
Because this is an IAM service-side binding failure, I attempted to escalate it. Here is the inescapable loop of internal silos refusing to take ownership:
1. **Google One Support (Case 0-4044000041034):** Verified the bug is on the Code Assist service side, but stated they lack the internal IAM backend permissions to fix my profile binding. They directed me to Google Cloud Support.
2. **Google Pay Support (Case 9-9345000041315):** The shadow project generated a glitched $10 billing hold. Pay Support confirmed my core profile was clear but stated they lacked Cloud access to wipe the hold. They directed me to Google Cloud Support.
3. **Google Cloud Support Portal:** I manually paid the phantom $10 charge just to access the portal. However, the Cloud support system physically blocked my ticket creation with a *“You do not have permission”* error, demanding a $29/month Enterprise billing package. Individual subscribers are locked out by design.
4. **Cloud Issue Tracker:** Triage acknowledged the bug “requires in-depth debugging,” yet closed the escalation as “Infeasible.” Their solution? They instructed me to ask *Stack Exchange* to fix Google’s private backend servers, and told me to open a Cloud Support ticket (which, as established, their system physically blocks me from doing).
### The Documentation & Evidence
Google successfully processes payments for Gemini Code Assist from Individual developers, but physically lacks an internal mechanism to support them when their own cross-platform authentication backend fails.
Can someone from DevRel or the Gemini Product team please manually route this to the Cloud Identity/IAM backend engineers? The standard triage walls are completely impenetrable.
I have documented this entire architectural failure. Please review the canonical tracking link and the video evidence vault below.
*(Note: For client-side tracking, this is also fully documented on the `cloud-code-vscode` GitHub repository under issue #1217).*
* **The Master Issue Tracker (Newly Escalated):** Google Issue Tracker
* **Complete Video Evidence Vault (Drive):** Bug Evidence - Google Drive