Google Ads API Assistant 4.0 requires a reinstall

Upgrading the Google Ads API Developer Assistant in place no longer works. Version 4.0.0 shipped on 25 August and breaks compatibility with everything before it: if the assistant already sits inside a working project, it has to be removed and installed again through a platform installer. Otherwise the tool simply will not load.

The reason is architectural. The assistant used to live as a local project inside a working folder; it is now a global plugin, installed once per machine and available in any project. That shift is exactly what makes an in-place update impossible — the release notes describe it as a major release that is not compatible with prior releases. PPC Land covered the release, noting that the previous major build landed in February and 4.0 arrived six days after Google Ads API v25.1.

What is inside:

• ten slash commands, from /validate-gaql and /inspect-object to /troubleshoot-conversions, /pmax-filter and /sync-client-libs;
• local GAQL validation: fields, resources and date clauses are checked deterministically in one step instead of three or four debugging round-trips through a model;
• code generation for Python, Java, PHP, .NET and Ruby — only Python, PHP and Ruby run directly, while Java and C# need compilation;
• native support for two environments at once: Google's Antigravity and Claude Code.

That last point stands out: Google's advertising tooling now officially lives outside its own ecosystem too.

What to do this week:

• check your current build with /ext-version if the assistant is already installed;
• delete the old local copy from the project so config conflicts do not carry over;
• install 4.0 with the installer for your OS and confirm account access via /get-cids;
• run your working GAQL queries through /validate-gaql — the savings in tokens and debugging time show up immediately.