GTM API Automation

Overview

This skill provides comprehensive expertise for the Google Tag Manager REST API v2, enabling programmatic management of GTM containers, tags, triggers, variables, and configurations.

When to Use This Skill

Invoke this skill when:

• Automating GTM container management
• Building tools for GTM configuration backup/restore
• Syncing tags across multiple containers
• Bulk creating or updating tags, triggers, variables
• Exporting GTM configuration to JSON
• Migrating containers between accounts
• Programmatically publishing GTM versions
• Building custom GTM management dashboards
• Implementing GTM configuration as code
• Integrating GTM with CI/CD pipelines

GTM API Basics

Authentication

Use OAuth 2.0 with service accounts (recommended for automation):

from google.oauth2 import service_account
from googleapiclient.discovery import build

SCOPES = ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/tagmanager.edit.containers']
SERVICE_ACCOUNT_FILE = 'service-account-key.json'

credentials = service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_file(
    SERVICE_ACCOUNT_FILE, scopes=SCOPES)

service = build('tagmanager', 'v2', credentials=credentials)

API Resource Hierarchy

Account → Container → Workspace → Tags/Triggers/Variables

Common Operations

List Containers:

containers = service.accounts().containers().list(
    parent='accounts/123456'
).execute()

Create Tag:

tag_body = {
    'name': 'GA4 Event',
    'type': 'gaawe',
    'parameter': [
        {'key': 'eventName', 'value': 'click', 'type': 'template'}
    ],
    'firingTriggerId': ['trigger_id']
}

service.accounts().containers().workspaces().tags().create(
    parent=workspace_path, body=tag_body
).execute()

Publish Version:

version = service.accounts().containers().workspaces().create_version(
    path=workspace_path,
    body={'name': 'API Version', 'description': 'Auto-deployed'}
).execute()

service.accounts().containers().versions().publish(
    path=version['containerVersion']['path']
).execute()

Automation Patterns

Backup Container

def backup_container(workspace_path, output_file):
    tags = service.accounts().containers().workspaces().tags().list(
        parent=workspace_path
    ).execute()

    triggers = service.accounts().containers().workspaces().triggers().list(
        parent=workspace_path
    ).execute()

    variables = service.accounts().containers().workspaces().variables().list(
        parent=workspace_path
    ).execute()

    with open(output_file, 'w') as f:
        json.dump({
            'tags': tags.get('tag', []),
            'triggers': triggers.get('trigger', []),
            'variables': variables.get('variable', [])
        }, f, indent=2)

Bulk Operations

def disable_all_tags(workspace_path):
    tags = service.accounts().containers().workspaces().tags().list(
        parent=workspace_path
    ).execute()

    for tag in tags.get('tag', []):
        tag['paused'] = True
        service.accounts().containers().workspaces().tags().update(
            path=tag['path'], body=tag
        ).execute()

Error Handling

from googleapiclient.errors import HttpError

try:
    tag = service.accounts().containers().workspaces().tags().create(
        parent=workspace_path, body=tag_body
    ).execute()
except HttpError as error:
    if error.resp.status == 404:
        print("Resource not found")
    elif error.resp.status == 403:
        print("Permission denied")

Best Practices

• Use service accounts for automation
• Implement rate limiting
• Always backup before modifications
• Test in workspaces before publishing
• Log all operations
• Handle errors gracefully
• Version control your configs

References

• references/api-overview.md - Complete API reference

Integration with Other Skills

• gtm-general - Understanding GTM concepts and architecture
• gtm-tags - Understanding tag structure for API operations
• gtm-triggers - Understanding trigger structure for API operations
• gtm-variables - Understanding variable structure for API operations
• gtm-datalayer - Creating data layer variables via API
• gtm-custom-templates - Managing templates programmatically
• gtm-setup - Container setup concepts for API automation

Quick Reference

Install: pip install google-api-python-client google-auth-oauthlib

List: .list(parent=parent_path)

Get: .get(path=resource_path)

Create: .create(parent=parent_path, body=resource_body)

Update: .update(path=resource_path, body=resource_body)

Publish: .create_version() then .publish()