AFFiNE on Google Cloud Run

AFFiNE is an open-source, privacy-first knowledge base that unifies docs, whiteboards, and databases in one workspace — a self-hostable alternative to Notion and Miro. This module deploys AFFiNE on Cloud Run v2 on top of the App_CloudRun foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud infrastructure.

This guide focuses on the cloud services AFFiNE uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics common to every Cloud Run application — service identity, ingress and load balancing, scaling and concurrency, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_CloudRun foundation guide rather than repeating them here.

1. Overview

AFFiNE's self-host server runs as a single Node.js container on Cloud Run v2. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	Cloud Run v2	Node.js service, 2 vCPU / 4 GiB by default, single always-on instance
Database	Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15	Required — AFFiNE does not support MySQL (enforced at plan time)
Real-time collaboration	Redis	Mandatory — Yjs document-sync pub/sub and the job queue; the NFS host co-hosts the default Redis
Blob storage	Filestore / NFS	Uploaded attachments persisted at `/root/.affine/storage` (gen2 required)
Object storage	Cloud Storage	A dedicated `storage` bucket provisioned automatically
Secrets	Secret Manager	Database password managed automatically; AFFiNE needs no app secret
Container image	Cloud Build + Artifact Registry	Thin custom build over `ghcr.io/toeverything/affine`
Ingress	Cloud Run URL / Cloud Load Balancing	Default `run.app` URL, optional external HTTPS LB + custom domain

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

PostgreSQL 15 is mandatory. A plan-time validation restricts database_type to PostgreSQL versions; MySQL is rejected.
Redis is mandatory. A plan-time validation fails the deploy if enable_redis = false. With no explicit redis_host, the NFS server IP is used as the Redis endpoint.
Single instance by design. min_instance_count = 1, max_instance_count = 1, cpu_always_allocated = true — real-time collaboration WebSockets must stay reachable and CPU-fed, and per-process collab state plus filesystem blobs make horizontal scaling unsafe.
No Cloud SQL socket. enable_cloudsql_volume = false: AFFiNE consumes a URL-authority DATABASE_URL that cannot carry the socket path's colons, so the entrypoint connects over the instance private IP with sslmode=require.
Two init jobs on apply. db-init idempotently creates the database and user; affine-migrate runs AFFiNE's self-host-predeploy (schema migration + signing-key generation) before the server starts.
No application secret. AFFiNE persists its own signing key in PostgreSQL during migration; only the auto-generated database password lives in Secret Manager.
Health probes target / — AFFiNE returns HTTP 200 on its root path once ready.
application_version = "latest" maps to stable — AFFiNE publishes no latest image tag.
Full-text/vector search is disabled (AFFINE_INDEXER_ENABLED = "false") — the indexer needs a vector backend not provisioned here.

2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume PROJECT and REGION are set. Service and resource names are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. Cloud Run — the AFFiNE service

AFFiNE runs as a Cloud Run v2 service pinned to a single always-on instance. Each deployment creates an immutable revision; traffic moves to the newest healthy one.

Console: Cloud Run → select the service for revisions, traffic, logs, and metrics.

CLI:

gcloud run services list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
gcloud run services describe <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
gcloud run revisions list --service <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"

See App_CloudRun for scaling, concurrency, execution environment, and traffic splitting.

B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15

AFFiNE stores workspaces, documents, users, and its own signing key in a managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 instance. Because AFFiNE's DATABASE_URL is a URL-authority DSN, the service connects over the private IP with TLS (sslmode=require) rather than the Auth Proxy socket. On first deploy the db-init job creates the application database and user, then affine-migrate creates the schema.

Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, metrics.

CLI:

gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database, user, and password secret are in the Outputs. See App_CloudRun for the connection model, backups, and password rotation.

C. Redis — real-time collaboration

Redis carries AFFiNE's Yjs document-sync pub/sub and its background job queue — the deployment refuses to plan without it. When no external redis_host is configured, the shared NFS server's co-hosted Redis is used automatically.

Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance); Compute Engine → VM instances (the NFS/Redis host).

CLI:

redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping
redis-cli -h <redis-host> info clients

D. Filestore (NFS) and Cloud Storage

Uploaded blobs (images, attachments, file embeds) are written to an NFS share mounted at /root/.affine/storage, so they survive revisions and restarts. A dedicated Cloud Storage bucket (suffix storage) is also provisioned automatically. The gen2 execution environment is required for NFS mounts.

Console: Filestore → Instances (or Compute Engine → VM instances for the self-managed NFS VM); Cloud Storage → Buckets.

CLI:

gcloud filestore instances list --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud storage ls gs://<storage-bucket>/        # bucket name is in the Outputs

See App_CloudRun for the NFS mount, GCS Fuse, and CMEK.

E. Secret Manager

The auto-generated database password is the only secret — AFFiNE generates and stores its signing key inside PostgreSQL during the affine-migrate job, so no application secret exists to manage or rotate.

Console: Security → Secret Manager.

CLI:

gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun for injection and rotation details.

F. Networking & ingress

The service is reachable at its run.app URL by default. An external HTTPS load balancer with a custom domain, Cloud CDN, and Cloud Armor can be layered on; ingress settings and VPC egress control connectivity. The cloud entrypoint defaults AFFINE_SERVER_EXTERNAL_URL to the injected service URL so invites and share links resolve correctly.

Console: Cloud Run (service URL); Network services → Load balancing.

CLI:

gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" --format='value(status.url)'
gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun.

G. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Container logs flow to Cloud Logging; Cloud Run and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring, with optional uptime checks and alert policies.

Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.

CLI:

gcloud run services logs read <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" --limit 50

3. AFFiNE Application Behaviour

Two-stage database setup. On apply, db-init (image postgres:15-alpine) idempotently creates the AFFiNE role and database, grants privileges, and best-effort grants cloudsqlsuperuser so migrations can CREATE EXTENSION. Then affine-migrate runs AFFiNE's node ./scripts/self-host-predeploy using the built app image — idempotent schema migration plus signing-key generation. Both are safe to re-run; affine-migrate retries up to 3 times.
Signing key lives in the database. Unlike most apps there is no APP_SECRET-style env var: the key generated by self-host-predeploy is persisted in PostgreSQL, so the deployment carries no application secret to desync or rotate.
DSN assembly at startup. The cloud entrypoint builds DATABASE_URL from the Foundation-injected DB_* vars (URL-encoding the credentials) and maps REDIS_HOST/PORT/AUTH to AFFiNE's REDIS_SERVER_*. On Cloud Run it connects to the Cloud SQL private IP with sslmode=require; a preset DATABASE_URL env var takes precedence.
External URL. AFFINE_SERVER_EXTERNAL_URL defaults to the Cloud Run service URL. Set it explicitly (via environment_variables) once a custom domain is live so share links and invite emails use the right host.
First-run setup. Open the service URL and create the first account — on a fresh AFFiNE self-host instance the first registered user becomes the server administrator, and the admin panel is at <url>/admin.
Health path. Startup, liveness, and readiness probes target /, which returns HTTP 200 once the server is ready (startup window: 60 s initial delay + up to 30 × 15 s).
Scaling constraint. The service is pinned to exactly one always-on instance. Blobs on the NFS filesystem and per-process Yjs state make multiple instances unsafe; scale vertically (cpu_limit / memory_limit) instead.

Verification:

SERVICE=$(gcloud run services list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" \
  --filter="metadata.name~affine" --format="value(metadata.name)" --limit=1)
SERVICE_URL=$(gcloud run services describe "$SERVICE" --project "$PROJECT" \
  --region "$REGION" --format="value(status.url)")
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" "$SERVICE_URL/"    # expect 200

4. Configuration Variables

Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for AFFiNE are listed; every other input is inherited from App_CloudRun with its standard behaviour.