Google Antigravity Access Denied? How Gemini Extensions Cause Account Lockouts
- Olivia Johnson
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
You attempt to log in to Google Antigravity, ready to code, but instead of your IDE loading, you are met with a generic error or a refusal of service. You check your credentials, clear your cache, and try again. Nothing works.
If you recently installed the Gemini Code Assist extension in VS Code or used the Gemini CLI, you have likely triggered a specific identity conflict within Google’s cloud backend. This isn't just a bug; it is a fundamental clash between how Google Antigravity validates personal accounts and how Gemini’s developer tools manage permissions.
The issue stems from automated "shadow projects" that silently convert your personal profile into something Google Antigravity no longer recognizes. Here is the reality of the situation and the steps to reclaim your access.
The Immediate Fix: Restoring Your Google Antigravity Access
If you are currently locked out of Google Antigravity, the problem is not in the browser—it’s deep in your Google Account security settings. The conflict arises because an external application has applied "enterprise" attributes to your personal account.
To fix the Google Antigravity lockout, you must strip these permissions manually.
Steps to Revoke the Conflicting Permissions
This procedure removes the "shadow" configuration that forces Google Antigravity to reject your login.
Open Google Account Connections: Navigate to your account management page, specifically the "Third-party apps & services" or "Connections" section (myaccount.google.com/connections).
Locate the Culprit: Look for an entry labeled "Gemini Code Assist and Gemini CLI".
Inspect the Permissions: Click on "See Details." You will likely see a permission line stating it can "See, edit, configure, and delete your Google Cloud data." This high-level access is what triggers the account re-classification.
Revoke Access: Select the option to remove or delete this connection entirely.
Clear Data: Log out of your Google account, clear your browser cookies for Google domains, and log back in.
Retry Google Antigravity: Attempt to access the Google Antigravity IDE again.
By removing this connection, you are effectively telling Google to stop treating your account as a managed workspace user, which is often the prerequisite for getting back into Google Antigravity.
How to Use Gemini Without Breaking Google Antigravity Again
Once you regain access, you might still want to use coding assistants. If you simply reinstall the extension and click "Login," you will recreate the exact same problem.
To use Gemini tools without triggering another Google Antigravity ban, you must prevent the extension from creating its own managed project.
Create a Manual Project: Go to the Google Cloud Console and create a new project (e.g., manual-gemini-safe).
Enable the API: In that new project, manually enable the "Gemini for Google Cloud API".
Force the Connection: When you use the VS Code extension, do not let it auto-configure. Instead, select your manual-gemini-safe project.
This keeps the "enterprise" logic contained within a specific project you control, rather than letting it infect your main account identity that Google Antigravity relies on.
Why Google Antigravity Rejects Your Account
Understanding the "why" helps you avoid this trap in the future. Google Antigravity is currently positioned—at least in its current rollout phase—as a tool primarily for personal Google accounts. It expects a standard "consumer" identity.
The conflict happens because different Google teams built their tools with different assumptions. The Gemini Code Assist team built their tool to assume that if you are coding, you are likely an enterprise user.
The "Shadow Account" Mechanism
When you initialize Gemini Code Assist on a personal Gmail account, the system tries to be helpful. It automatically generates a Google Cloud project (often named restful-backup-xxx) and assigns your account a role like roles/cloudaicompanion.user.
This seems harmless, but it essentially creates a "Shadow Account." It tags your personal Gmail with corporate-grade Cloud IAM (Identity and Access Management) policies.
The Google Antigravity Identity Check
When you try to log in to Google Antigravity, the system performs an eligibility check. It looks at your account metadata.
Google Antigravity sees the cloudaicompanion roles and the associated managed projects.
It interprets these signals as "This is a Workspace/Enterprise account," or "This account has complex managed policies."
Since Google Antigravity (in this specific context) restricts access to personal accounts or has strict policy separators between personal and enterprise data, it blocks the login to prevent policy violation.
The result is a lockout. You are a personal user who "looks" like an enterprise user to the system, so you fail the checks for both.
The "Three-Day" Trap in Google Antigravity
One of the most frustrating aspects of this issue is the delay. Users rarely lose access to Google Antigravity immediately after installing the Gemini extension.
Typically, there is a grace period of about three days.
Day 1: You install Gemini Code Assist. It works. Google Antigravity works.
Day 2: The background processes at Google begin syncing the new IAM policies across their infrastructure.
Day 3: The eligibility sweep occurs. Your account is flagged. Google Antigravity goes dark.
This delay makes troubleshooting difficult because most users don't correlate a VS Code extension they installed earlier in the week with a sudden inability to log into their web-based IDE today. They assume Google Antigravity is down or that their internet connection is faulty.
Long-Term Account Health for Google Antigravity Users
If you rely on Google Antigravity for your daily development workflow, you must be hyper-vigilant about "OAuth scopes" (permissions) you grant to other development tools.
The ecosystem is currently fragmented. Until Google unifies the identity management between their Cloud Platform (GCP) tools and the Google Antigravity environment, these conflicts will continue.
Identifying Risky Extensions
Before authorizing any new tool that claims to integrate with Google services:
Check if it asks to "manage your Google Cloud data."
Read community forums to see if it creates "managed projects."
Be wary of tools that do not allow you to select your own Google Cloud Project during setup.
Any tool that automates the backend setup is a potential risk to your Google Antigravity access because it applies configurations you cannot easily see or reverse.
The Role of Google Cloud Console
Your best defense is familiarity with the Google Cloud Console. Even if you only use Google Antigravity for frontend web development and never touch cloud infrastructure, your account is a cloud entity.
Regularly visiting the Cloud Console allows you to spot "zombie" projects like the restful-backup folders created by Gemini. While you often cannot delete these Google-managed projects, spotting them early gives you a warning that your Google Antigravity access might be at risk, prompting you to perform the revocation steps mentioned earlier.
Summary of the Conflict
The battle for your account's identity is silent but disruptive. On one side, you have the automated convenience of coding assistants trying to upgrade your account to a power-user status. On the other, you have Google Antigravity enforcing strict personal-use boundaries.
You can have both, but not on default settings. The default path leads to the Google Antigravity lockout. The manual path—managing your own API keys and Cloud Projects—is the only way to maintain the delicate balance required to keep your IDE open and your assistant talking.
FAQ: Google Antigravity Access and Errors
Q: Can I use a different Google account for Gemini to save my Google Antigravity access?
A: Yes, this is the safest workaround. Use your primary personal account for Google Antigravity and a separate, disposable Google account for Gemini Code Assist and CLI experimentation. This completely isolates the permission sets.
Q: Does the Google Antigravity lockout happen to paid Workspace users?
A: Reports indicate this is primarily a conflict for personal Gmail accounts. Paid Workspace users operate under different agreements where enterprise attributes are expected, so Google Antigravity (if enabled for the org) usually handles the identity correctly.
Q: I removed the permission, but Google Antigravity still won't load. Why?
A: Identity propagation can take time. After revoking the Gemini permissions, it may take anywhere from 15 minutes to 24 hours for the "Enterprise" flag to clear from your account metadata.
Q: Is Google Antigravity the same as Project IDX?
A: Google Antigravity is often associated with the internal or early-access naming conventions for Google's next-generation cloud development environments, similar to or encompassing Project IDX. The authentication strictness applies similarly across these personal-focused cloud IDEs.
Q: Why does Google create these "restful-backup" projects?
A: These projects are intended to be a user-friendly way to host the backend services for the AI assistant without forcing the user to learn Google Cloud Platform. Unfortunately, this "helpfulness" is exactly what triggers the Google Antigravity incompatibility.
