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Payload CMS on Cloud Run — Lab Guide

📖 Configuration Guide

Overview​

Estimated time: 45–90 minutes

Payload CMS is a TypeScript-native, code-first headless CMS and application framework built directly on Next.js. Unlike most modules in this catalogue, there is no official Payload Docker image — this module builds a real, locally-verified starter application from source (a blank create-payload-app template using the PostgreSQL adapter). This lab takes you through the full operational lifecycle of the Payload on Cloud Run module on Google Cloud: deploy it, access and verify it, run it day-to-day, observe it, diagnose common problems, and tear it down.

The lab focuses on operating the Cloud Run module and the Google Cloud platform, not on Payload's own content-modeling features. For the complete list of provisioned services and every configuration input (organised by group), see the Configuration Guide — this lab deliberately does not duplicate that detail so it stays accurate over time.

Objectives​

By the end of this lab you will be able to:

  • Deploy the module from the RAD platform and locate the resources it provisions.
  • Access and verify the running service, including creating the first Payload admin account.
  • Perform day-2 operations — inspect, scale, update, and manage secrets and backups.
  • Observe the service with Cloud Logging and Cloud Monitoring.
  • Diagnose and resolve the most common deployment and runtime issues.
  • Tear the deployment down cleanly.

Prerequisites​

  • Services_GCP deployed in the target project (provides the VPC, Cloud SQL, Artifact Registry, and shared service accounts this module depends on).
  • A Google Cloud project with billing enabled.
  • gcloud CLI authenticated: gcloud auth login and gcloud auth application-default login.
  • Project Owner (or equivalent) IAM on the project.
  • RAD platform access with permission to deploy modules into the project.

Set these shell variables once; every task below reuses them:

export PROJECT="<your-gcp-project-id>"
export REGION="us-central1"          # the region you deploy into

Task 1 — Deploy the module [Automated]​

  1. In the RAD platform, open Payload (Cloud Run), set project_id, and review the inputs. Configure only what you need — the Configuration Guide documents every input by group, with defaults. Review the estimated cost (if credits are enabled) and click Deploy, which opens the deployment status page with real-time logs.

  2. The platform provisions the Cloud Run service, a Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL 15) database with its Secret Manager secrets (PAYLOAD_SECRET and the database password), builds the Payload application from source via Cloud Build (there is no prebuilt image to pull), and runs two sequential jobs: db-init (creates the database role and database) followed by payload-migrate (applies the Payload schema — this needs the full application source and dependency tree, not just the trimmed runtime that serves traffic). First deploys take roughly 20–35 minutes (Cloud SQL creation and the from-source Cloud Build dominate).

  3. When it completes, discover the resources with name-agnostic filters (so the commands keep working regardless of the deployment suffix):

    SERVICE=$(gcloud run services list --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" \
      --filter="metadata.name~payload" --format="value(metadata.name)" --limit=1)
    SERVICE_URL=$(gcloud run services describe "$SERVICE" \
      --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" --format="value(status.url)")
    echo "Service: $SERVICE"
    echo "URL:     $SERVICE_URL"

Task 2 — Access & verify [Manual]​

  1. Confirm the service is healthy. Payload's admin UI route responds unauthenticated once the Node.js server has booted:

    curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' "$SERVICE_URL/admin"   # expect 200

  2. Open $SERVICE_URL/admin in a browser. Payload has no CLI command to create the first admin user non-interactively — with an empty users collection, Payload automatically shows a signup form. Fill in your email and a password and submit to create the first administrator; you are then logged into the admin dashboard. This is a required, one-time manual step — there is no pre-seeded admin credential in Secret Manager.

  3. Confirm the REST and GraphQL APIs are wired up (both require the auth you just created):

    curl -s "$SERVICE_URL/api/users" -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n'   # 401/403 without auth — expected

Task 3 — Operate & keep it running (Day-2) [Manual]​

  1. Inspect the service and its revisions (each deploy creates an immutable revision; traffic shifts to the newest healthy one):

    gcloud run services describe "$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION"
    gcloud run revisions list --service="$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION"

  2. Scale by changing the min/max instance inputs and clicking Update on the deployment details page — the module owns the service spec, so scaling is a configuration change, not a manual gcloud edit (a manual edit would be reverted on the next apply).

  3. Update the application version tag by changing the version input in the RAD platform and applying it via Update; a new Cloud Build run rebuilds the bundled Payload starter app from source and rolls out a new revision (there is no upstream image tag to bump — this always rebuilds).

  4. Manage secrets and backups:

    gcloud secrets list --project="$PROJECT" --filter="name~payload"
    gcloud run jobs list --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION"   # db-init + payload-migrate + scheduled backup jobs

  5. Open a database session for inspection or maintenance:

    INSTANCE=$(gcloud sql instances list --project="$PROJECT" --format="value(name)" --limit=1)
    gcloud sql connect "$INSTANCE" --user=payload --project="$PROJECT"

Task 4 — Observe: Logging & Monitoring [Manual]​

  1. Logs — from the CLI or the Logs Explorer:

    gcloud run services logs read "$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" --limit=50

    Logs Explorer filter: resource.type="cloud_run_revision" AND resource.labels.service_name="<service>".

  2. Monitoring — open the Cloud Run dashboard for the service and review request count, request latency (P50/P95/P99), instance count (scaling behaviour), and CPU / memory utilisation. The module can provision an uptime check (when uptime_check_config.enabled = true — it defaults to false); if enabled, confirm it is green under Monitoring → Uptime checks, and review Alerting → Policies.

Task 5 — Troubleshoot & debug [Manual]​

Durable techniques for the failure modes you are most likely to hit. These are platform-level diagnostics and do not change with Payload releases.

  • Revision unhealthy / service won't serve: inspect the latest revision and its logs for startup errors. The startup probe targets /admin and allows roughly 12 minutes on first boot for the payload-migrate job to complete. 
    gcloud run revisions list --service="$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION"
    gcloud run services logs read "$SERVICE" --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION" --limit=100
  • Database queries fail / "relation does not exist": the schema was never applied. Confirm payload-migrate completed successfully (it depends on db-init finishing first): 
    gcloud run jobs executions list --job="${SERVICE}-payload-migrate" \
      --project="$PROJECT" --region="$REGION"
  • Database connection errors: confirm the Cloud SQL instance is RUNNABLE and the DB password secret exists.
  • Image build failed: review Cloud Build history for the failed build's log — remember this module always builds from source, so a broken Dockerfile or dependency change surfaces here, not as an image-pull error. 
    gcloud builds list --project="$PROJECT" --limit=10
  • First admin account missing / can't log in: the first admin is created manually via the /admin signup form — there is no pre-seeded credential in Secret Manager to fall back to.
  • 403 / permission errors: verify the runtime service account's IAM roles.

See the Configuration Guide's Configuration Pitfalls section for setting-specific gotchas (including why enable_gcs_storage and the Redis variables have no effect on this module).

Task 6 — Tear down [Automated]​

On the Deployments page, open the deployment and click the Trash icon (Delete). Delete runs terraform destroy and is irreversible (the deployment record is retained for history). If a deployment is stuck and the RAD platform can no longer manage it (for example after manual changes that conflict with the Terraform state), use Purge instead — it removes the deployment from RAD's records without destroying the cloud resources (it makes RAD forget the project). This removes everything the module created — the Cloud Run service, Cloud SQL database, Secret Manager secrets, and Artifact Registry images. Resources owned by Services_GCP (the VPC, shared Cloud SQL, registry) are managed separately and are not removed here.

Summary​

TaskTypeOutcome
1 — DeployAutomatedModule builds the Payload app from source via Cloud Build and provisions Cloud Run, Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL 15), secrets, and runs db-init → payload-migrate
2 — Access & verifyManualHealth check passes; create the first admin account via the /admin signup form
3 — OperateManualInspect revisions, scale, update version (rebuilds from source), manage secrets/backups, DB access
4 — ObserveManualQuery Cloud Logging; review Cloud Monitoring metrics and uptime check
5 — TroubleshootManualDiagnose revision, database, migration-job, build, and IAM issues
6 — Tear downAutomatedDelete (Trash) removes all module resources

By · Google Cloud certified: ACE · PCA · PCD · PDE · PSE · CDL

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