1. After cloning the repo and running 'git submodule init' i had to edit the .git/config file to retrieve the server submodule via http rather than ssh: [submodule "server"] active = true url = git@github.com:corda/node-server.git updated to: url = https://github.com/corda/node-server to avoid a public key error. I could then run git submodule update. 2. On gcp i had to substitute localhost with the ip of the compute engine in /src/store/Actions.js: export const SERVER_BASE_URL = "http://_your_ip_address_:8580"; to avoid a 'Network Error' and a failure to initialise the node explorer.