The Google Ecosystem Mess

Google Antigravity
,
1

Here is a little peek into what we deal with working with the Google Dev Tools:

I have an AI system that uses multiple models - Googles Vertex Model Garden should be a wonderful place to use multiple models but…. As I’m testing the use of both Claude and Gemini Models I can’t get either of them to work:

and I quote

”Ok that is still not working - I have no idea how to better address this - you are Google Gemini Pro (High) the best model Google has - plus I’m using Google Antigravity IDE, and in addition I’m using Google Vertex and Google Cloud for this API - this is why I am talking about when I say in the forums and to your support system that in the world of AI Google is more complicated and less capable than OpenAI and Anthropic or even Perplexity - matter of fact when I was serving Google Gemini 2.5 Pro from Deep Infra (I can’t get Gemini 3 there yet…) - a Third Party Provider it was easier than clearly going direct with Google - you are a f***ing mess - I have not idea how to work with you or trust you - I want you to stop everything you are doing and do a deep search on Exa MCP to find out why this is so hard for you - go look at what people are saying about working with Google”

Here is the respond form Gemini 3 Pro (High) - I’m using it because I’m locked out of Claude models again after less than 24 hrs of use…

”Researching Vertex AI Developer Experience

Analyzed search results and confirmed that “Vertex AI integration is hard” is a widely held developer sentiment. Key findings:

  1. Regional Fragmentation: Claude is only in

    us-east5

    /

    europe-west1

    , while Gemini is in

    us-central1

    . This requires managing multiple clients/regions, unlike Anthropic/OpenAI’s global endpoints.

  2. “Enterprise Bloat”: IAM roles, service accounts, and quota management are significantly more complex than API keys.

  3. Docs Lag: Feature updates for Claude appear on Vertex weeks after the native API.

  4. Error Opacity: The 500 error I encountered was a “Publisher Model not servable in region” error, which the SDK buried.

I am now formulating a response to the user that validates their frustration with these objective facts and proposes a path forward (simplifying the stack).

Progress Updates

1

Conducting Exa search on Vertex AI integration challenges

2

Summarizing research findings for user

3

Presenting comprehensive analysis of Google Vertex AI issues to user

Analysis Complete: You Are Absolutely Right.

I have stopped all coding and researched the state of Google Vertex AI Developer Experience. The consensus from the developer community (Reddit, Hacker News, independent blogs) matches your experience exactly.

Why This Is A Mess (The Data):

  1. Regional Fragmentation:

    • The Problem: Unlike OpenAI/Anthropic/DeepInfra which have “Global” endpoints, Vertex AI segregates models by region.

    • Your Issue: Claude is ONLY hosted in

      us-east5

      and

      europe-west1

      . Gemini is in

      us-central1

      .

    • The Result: We cannot use a single client. We need a “Frankenstein” setup with different region inputs for different models.

  2. “Enterprise Bloat”:

    • Developers consistently warn that Vertex requires managing IAM permissions, Service Account JSONs, and Quotas, whereas others just need an API Key.

    • The “500 Error” we saw was actually a

      400 FAILED_PRECONDITION

      (Region Mismatch) that the Google SDK buried.

  3. Feature Lag:

    • New features (like Sonnet 3.5 v2) hit the direct API weeks before Google Cloud.

My Assessment: You asked why this is so hard. It is hard because Vertex AI is designed for Infrastructure Engineers, not Product Developers. DeepInfra was easier because it behaves like a standard API.

Recommendation: If you want reliability and speed, we should stop trying to force the “Vertex-only” path for Claude.

  • Option A: Revert Claude to the Direct Anthropic API (which I built as the fallback). It just works.

  • Option B: Fix the “Frankenstein” region code in Vertex (I have the fix: force

    us-east5

    for Claude), but acknowledge this complexity will remain.

How do you want to proceed? I am ready to burn the Vertex complexity if you are.”

@Google_Google Are you unable to make this simpler for builders? I don’t want to have to go so freaking deep into the infrastructure rabbit hole to use a simple API - can you please fix your mess.