Authentik on Google Cloud Run
authentik (goauthentik.io) is an open-source (MIT, open-core) identity provider: single sign-on via OIDC and SAML, LDAP and SCIM, multi-factor authentication, and proxy authentication — a self-hosted alternative to Okta, Auth0, and Keycloak. This module deploys authentik 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 authentik 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.
What Authentik costs on RAD, and how that compares
Authentik on RAD's Cloud Run module costs about US$170 a month in a project you own, with no licence fee for the software itself. RAD charges a one-off module fee of 175 credits (US$17.50 at the top-up price) in a project you own, and 157.5 credits (10% lower) in a project RAD manages. If Authentik needs to run continuously across pods or beside other Kubernetes workloads, see the GKE guide instead. Figures are as at 8 October 2026; sources are listed at the end of this section.
If you only need it occasionally — studying for a certification, a demo, a seasonal need — a RAD-managed project can be deleted and restored within 30 days for a handful of credits, so that about US$170 a month becomes close to nothing instead. See Pause it for free, below.
What you pay on RAD
You pay for three things:
| In a Google Cloud project you own | In a project RAD manages for you | |
|---|---|---|
| Module fee, once per deployment | 175 credits (US$17.50 at the top-up price) | 157.5 credits (10% lower) |
| Build time | A few credits, metered per minute of build time | The same |
| Google Cloud running cost | Billed by Google to your own billing account, about US$170 a month for the default configuration (table below) | Metered hourly in credits; RAD publishes 78 credits a day, about 2,340 a month (about US$234 at the top-up price, US$187 at the Scale plan's rate) |
| Who owns what | You own the project and its billing; RAD deploys and updates it | RAD owns the project, with guardrails, quotas and budget alerts; you get console access, and a minimum purchased balance is held in reserve |
10 credits cost US$1 on a one-off top-up, and less on a monthly plan. In a project RAD manages, the database and file/cache server are shared by every application in the project, so a second application does not add a second one.
Default running cost in your own project (us-central1, Google list prices):
| Resource (module default) | Per month |
|---|---|
| Cloud Run, 2x vCPU / 2 GiB (alwaysOn) | US$99.90 |
| Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, 1 vCPU / 3.75 GB, zonal, 10 GB SSD | US$51.02 |
| NFS/cache file server (small VM) | US$13.43 |
| Cloud NAT and networking | US$5 |
| Cloud Storage (add-ons, backups) | US$1 |
| Total | about US$170 |
How it compares
- Auth0, one of the identity providers authentik exists to replace, prices by monthly active users: its B2C Essentials plan starts from $35/month, Professional from $240/month; B2B starts even higher (Essentials from $150, Professional from $800) — and the free tier caps out at 25,000 MAUs. authentik's cost here is flat infrastructure, independent of how many identities you manage.
- RAD runs the open-source project itself, not a vendor's hosted tenancy. You get the same software, under your own (or RAD's) infrastructure, instead of a per-seat or per-usage subscription that grows independently of what you actually use.
- Against a bare self-managed server: Running the same open-source software yourself, a Hetzner CPX22 (2 vCPU/4 GB, about $24/month) or a DigitalOcean 2 vCPU/4 GB Droplet (also $24/month) is roughly the same shape; a GCP Compute Engine e2-standard-2 (2 vCPU/8 GB) runs about $49/month. RAD is not cheaper than that in cash terms — the difference is the managed database, Secret Manager and monitoring that come with the module instead of being your own job.
Pause it for free: delete a RAD-managed project, restore it when you need it
If Authentik runs in a project RAD manages for you, you have an option that goes well beyond scaling to zero: delete the whole project, and restore it within 30 days for close to nothing. This suits occasional use — studying for a certification, a demo, a seasonal need — far better than running Authentik continuously.
- How it works. Deleting a RAD-managed project unlinks its billing first, then asks Google to delete the project outright. Google does not remove it immediately: it keeps the project, recoverable, for 30 days, and because billing is already unlinked nothing is charged while it waits. Unlike deleting one module, this does not tear down the database, any VM or the compute resource one by one — the whole project simply stops, and nothing is billed in the meantime.
- Restoring costs a handful of credits, not a rebuild. Within 30 days, only the project's owner can restore it. RAD asks Google to undelete the project and reattaches its billing account, then asks you to run Update on each deployment to confirm everything came back. Because nothing was individually destroyed, that Update finds the same resources already there — it is a check, not a rebuild, and an Update never charges the module fee again. This costs only a handful of credits in total (under US$1), against paying the module fee and a full build again.
- What this needs. You must own the project (not one RAD only manages billing for), you must restore it yourself within the 30 days — after that Google deletes it for good — and restoring is admitted like creating a new project, so your purchased credit balance must still clear the tier's floor (100 credits for the sandbox tier most study and demo use fits). Google says most services are fully working again within 36 hours of a restore.
- One real gap: backups do not survive. Anything Authentik writes to a backup bucket inside the project is very likely gone as soon as you delete the project, even though the project itself is recoverable for 30 days — that bucket has Cloud Storage's soft-delete explicitly turned off. Anyone who has customised the deployment and wants to keep that work should copy a backup out (to Google Drive, or a bucket outside the project) before deleting. For a default install with nothing irreplaceable in it, this does not matter.
Pay only while you use it, the other way: delete and redeploy
This is the fallback for a project you own, or once the 30-day restore window above has passed: delete the deployment, and deploy it again when you next need it.
- What a redeploy costs. The module fee again, plus the builds: roughly 180 credits (about US$18) in your own project, or 162.5 credits in a RAD-managed one, because RAD rebuilds the resources from scratch. Deleting saves money once Authentik would otherwise sit unused long enough to clear that redeploy cost against its own running cost — roughly 3 days or more in your own project (US$5.68/day) or 2 days or more in a RAD-managed one (78 credits/day).
- Most of the running cost is usually shared infrastructure. The database and file or cache VM stop only when nothing else in the project uses them, so deleting Authentik while another application shares the project saves only Authentik's own compute part.
- Keep your data first. Anything Authentik writes to a backup bucket inside the deployment is deleted with it — copy the latest backup out (to Google Drive, or a bucket you keep) before deleting if you want to keep it.
- RAD does not recreate a deleted deployment for you. You enter the settings again when you redeploy.
Lab sessions and Managed Environments
- Lab sessions, for training. A trainer runs a session for a class. Each participant gets Authentik in their own Google Cloud project for 15 minutes to 24 hours, within an allowance the trainer sets. Either the trainer funds every place, or each participant pays for their own. Everything is deleted when the session ends and unused credits go back to the trainer.
- Managed Environments, for consultancies. A partner runs Authentik for a client from a ring-fenced wallet it funds, and settles with the client directly. If the wallet runs low, billing pauses and the data is kept, so nobody receives an unexpected charge. At the end the partner hands the project over and the deployments become the client's own.
Credits can be bought in more than 20 currencies, including XAF, XOF, NGN, GHS, KES and ZAR, by card, bank transfer or mobile money.
Sources (8 October 2026): Google Cloud list prices from the Cloud Billing Catalog API; RAD's fees and daily-credit estimate from radmodules.dev/pricing; Delete and restore projects for the pause/restore mechanics; Auth0 pricing. Prices change; check each source before relying on a figure.
1. Overview
authentik runs as a Python/Django container on Cloud Run v2, with its background
worker (ak worker) co-located in the same container. The deployment wires
together a focused set of Google Cloud services:
| Capability | Google Cloud service | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Compute | Cloud Run v2 | Server + co-located worker, 2 vCPU / 2 GiB by default, always-on CPU, min 1 instance |
| Database | Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 | Required — authentik needs PostgreSQL ≥ 14; MySQL is blocked |
| Cache & queue | None — no Redis | authentik ≥ 2025.10 moved cache, sessions, task queue, and the WebSocket channel layer into PostgreSQL |
| Media storage | Cloud Storage (GCS Fuse) | Bucket mounted at /media for uploaded icons and flow backgrounds |
| Secrets | Secret Manager | Stable AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY, akadmin bootstrap password, database password |
| Image | Artifact Registry + Cloud Build | Thin custom build FROM ghcr.io/goauthentik/server (cloud entrypoint + worker launcher) |
| 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 and is the only datastore. No Redis, no search backend — sessions, cache, and the task queue all live in Cloud SQL.
- The worker is co-located. The container entrypoint starts
ak workerin the background next to the server (the same pattern as Chatwoot's Sidekiq worker). This is whycpu_always_allocated = trueandmin_instance_count = 1are the defaults: scheduled tasks, outpost sync, and the Postgres-backed queue must keep processing between requests, outposts hold a WebSocket to the server, and login latency matters for an IdP. The variable documents the lab/demo flip-back (false+min_instance_count = 0). max_instance_count = 5. authentik is stateless across instances — all state is in PostgreSQL — so multiple instances (each with its own worker) are safe.AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEYis generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager. It must remain stable for the deployment's life — rotating it invalidates all sessions and makes encrypted fields unreadable.- The
akadminadmin account is bootstrapped on first boot withbootstrap_email(defaultadmin@techequity.cloud) and a Secret Manager-backed password. Bootstrap variables apply on the first boot only. application_version = "latest"is pinned. authentik publishes nolatesttag on GHCR; the build pinslatestto a known-good release (2026.5.4) via the app-specificAUTHENTIK_VERSIONbuild ARG.- Migrations run automatically at startup (advisory-lock guarded), so version upgrades need no separate migration job — the startup probe's generous threshold covers the first-boot migration suite.
- Health endpoints are unauthenticated: startup
GET /-/health/ready/, livenessGET /-/health/live/. - LDAP/RADIUS outposts are out of scope on Cloud Run (non-HTTP long-running listeners). Browser SSO (OIDC/SAML) and the embedded outpost work normally.
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 authentik service
authentik runs as a Cloud Run v2 service with instance-based billing (always-on CPU) so the co-located worker keeps processing between requests. Each deployment creates an immutable revision.
- 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 "$REGION"
See App_CloudRun for scaling, concurrency, execution environment, and traffic splitting.
B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15
authentik stores everything here — users, groups, flows, providers, sessions,
cache, and the background task queue. The service connects privately through the
Cloud SQL Auth Proxy over a Unix socket; the container entrypoint maps the
injected DB_* variables onto authentik's AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__* convention
and sets the SSL mode by connection type. On first deploy a single db-init job
creates the tenant-scoped database and role.
- Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, metrics.
- CLI:
gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --database=<db-name> --project "$PROJECT"
The instance name, database, user, and password secret are in the Outputs (database and user names are tenant-prefixed). See App_CloudRun for the connection model, backups, and password rotation.
C. Cloud Storage — media
A dedicated bucket is mounted at /media via GCS Fuse for uploaded media
(application icons, flow backgrounds). Uploads survive instance replacement and
scaling.
- Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets.
- CLI:
gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud storage ls gs://<media-bucket>/ # bucket name is in the Outputs
D. Secret Manager
Two authentik secrets are generated automatically:
-
AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY— signs sessions/cookies and derives internal encryption. Never rotate it. -
AUTHENTIK_BOOTSTRAP_PASSWORD— the initialakadminpassword, applied on first boot only. -
Console: Security → Secret Manager.
-
CLI:
gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~authentik"
gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> --project "$PROJECT"
See Authentik_Common for the full secret model.
E. Networking & ingress
The service is reachable at its run.app URL by default. An external HTTPS load
balancer with a custom domain, Cloud CDN, and Cloud Armor can be layered on. For
an IdP a stable, TLS-fronted hostname matters — the OIDC/SAML redirect URIs you
register in client applications must match the URL users reach authentik on.
- Console: Cloud Run (service URL); Network services → Load balancing.
- CLI:
gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" --format='value(status.url)'
gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"
F. Cloud Logging & Monitoring
Server and worker logs both flow to Cloud Logging (they share the container's stdout/stderr). Cloud Run and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring.
- Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.
- CLI:
gcloud run services logs read <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" --limit 50
3. authentik Application Behaviour
- First-deploy database setup. A single initialization job runs
db-init.shusingpostgres:15-alpine: it waits for PostgreSQL, creates the tenant-scoped role and database, grants privileges, and defensively grantscloudsqlsuperuser(so any futureCREATE EXTENSIONin upstream migrations succeeds). The job is idempotent and safe to re-run. - Self-migrating startup. authentik's server runs its own Django migrations on
every startup, guarded by a PostgreSQL advisory lock. There is no separate
migrate job. The first boot runs the full suite — expect several minutes before
/-/health/ready/returns 200; the startup probe allows ~11 minutes. - First login. Sign in as
akadminusing thebootstrap_emailvalue and the password in the...-bootstrap-passwordsecret. If the bootstrap variables were absent on the first boot, complete setup at<service-url>/if/flow/initial-setup/instead. - Applications and providers are configured in-app after deploy. OIDC/SAML
providers, applications, outposts, and flows are authentik configuration, not
Terraform inputs — create them in the Admin interface (
<service-url>/if/admin/) once the service is up. - Worker co-location.
ak workerruns in the same container; its log lines are interleaved with the server's in Cloud Logging. It requires the always-on CPU default — flipping to request-based billing throttles the worker between requests. - Health endpoints.
curl -s "$SERVICE_URL/-/health/ready/" -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' # 200 = migrated + DB reachable
curl -s "$SERVICE_URL/-/health/live/" -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' # 200 = process alive - Inspect job execution:
gcloud run jobs list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
gcloud run jobs executions list --job <job-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
4. Configuration Variables
Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for authentik are listed; every other input is inherited from App_CloudRun with its standard behaviour.
Group 1 — Project & Identity
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
project_id | (required) | Target Google Cloud project. |
region | us-central1 | Region for the service and regional resources. |
bootstrap_email | admin@techequity.cloud | Email of the built-in akadmin account, set on first boot. |
bootstrap_password | "" (auto-generated) | Initial akadmin password. First boot only; stored in Secret Manager. |
Group 2 — Deployment Environment
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
tenant_id | demo | Short suffix that makes resource names unique per environment. |
support_users | [] | Emails granted project access and monitoring alerts. |
resource_labels | {} | Labels applied to all resources. |
Group 3 — Application Identity
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
application_name | authentik | Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy. |
application_version | latest | authentik version tag; latest is pinned to 2026.5.4 at build time (no upstream latest tag). Pin explicitly in production. |
Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
deploy_application | true | Set false to provision infrastructure only. |
container_image_source | custom | Thin wrapper image built via Cloud Build (adds the cloud entrypoint + worker launcher). |
cpu_limit | 2000m | CPU per instance — shared by server and worker. |
memory_limit | 2Gi | Memory per instance — 2 GiB is the reliable floor for server + worker. |
cpu_always_allocated | true | Keep true. The co-located worker and outpost WebSockets do work between requests. Flip to false + min_instance_count = 0 only for lab/demo cost-first cold-start. |
min_instance_count | 1 | Keeps the worker running and outpost WebSockets connected. |
max_instance_count | 5 | Safe to raise — authentik is stateless across instances. |
container_port | 9000 | authentik's HTTP port. |
enable_cloudsql_volume | true | Auth Proxy Unix socket — the entrypoint sets SSLMODE=disable for the Auth Proxy (socket directory or loopback TCP; the proxy doesn't speak SSL itself), require only for direct TCP to any other host. |
timeout_seconds | 300 | Maximum request duration. |
Group 5 — Access & Ingress Control
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
ingress_settings | all | authentik is a user-facing IdP; browsers and OAuth redirects must reach it. |
vpc_egress_setting | PRIVATE_RANGES_ONLY | Route only RFC 1918 traffic via VPC. |
enable_iap | false | IAP in front of an IdP double-gates every login and blocks OIDC callbacks from non-Google identities — leave off unless you know you need it. |
Group 6 — Environment Variables & Secrets
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
environment_variables | {} | Extra AUTHENTIK_* settings (e.g. email/SMTP: AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__HOST, …). Do not set AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY or AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__* here. |
secret_environment_variables | {} | Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name. |
Group 7 — Backup & Restore
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
backup_schedule | 0 2 * * * | Automated backup cron (UTC). |
backup_retention_days | 7 | Retention; raise for production/compliance. |
enable_backup_import / backup_source / backup_file / backup_format | restore options | Restore from a backup on deploy. |
Group 8 — CI/CD & Binary Authorization
Standard App_CloudRun Cloud Build / Cloud Deploy integration — see
App_CloudRun. Key inputs: enable_cicd_trigger,
github_repository_url, github_token, enable_cloud_deploy,
enable_binary_authorization.
Group 10 — Load Balancer, CDN & Custom Domain
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_cloud_armor | false | Global HTTPS LB + Cloud Armor WAF — recommended for a public IdP. |
application_domains | [] | Custom hostname(s). Register OIDC redirect URIs against the domain users actually reach. |
enable_cdn | false | CDN adds little for an IdP (dynamic, authenticated traffic). |
Group 11 — Storage & Filesystem
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
create_cloud_storage | true | The /media bucket is declared by Authentik_Common. |
enable_nfs | true | Optional; authentik keeps media on GCS, not NFS. |
gcs_volumes | [] | Extra GCS Fuse mounts; /media is added automatically. |
Group 12 — Database Backend
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
database_type | POSTGRES_15 | authentik requires PostgreSQL — MySQL values are rejected by validation. |
db_name | authentik | Database base name (tenant-prefixed at deploy). Immutable after first deploy. |
db_user | authentik | Application DB user base name (tenant-prefixed). |
database_password_length | 32 | Generated password length (16–64). |
Group 13 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
initialization_jobs | [] | Leave empty to use the built-in single db-init job. |
cron_jobs | [] | Not needed — the co-located worker runs authentik's scheduled tasks. |
Group 14 — Observability & Health
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
startup_probe | HTTP /-/health/ready/, 60s delay, 40×15s | Unauthenticated. Generous threshold for first-boot migrations (~11 min budget). |
liveness_probe | HTTP /-/health/live/, 60s delay, 3×30s | Unauthenticated process-alive check. |
uptime_check_config | disabled | Optional Cloud Monitoring uptime check (point it at /-/health/live/). |
Group 21 — Redis
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_redis | false | Inert. authentik ≥ 2025.10 removed Redis entirely; main.tf pins enable_redis = false. |
Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_vpc_sc | false | Enforce a VPC-SC perimeter (requires organization_id). |
enable_audit_logging | false | Detailed Cloud Audit Logs. |
5. Outputs
Returned on a successful deployment — the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.
| Output | Description |
|---|---|
service_name | Cloud Run service name. |
service_url | Default run.app URL of the service. |
service_location | Region the service runs in. |
stage_services | Stage-specific service names (Cloud Deploy). |
load_balancer_ip / load_balancer_url | External HTTPS load balancer IP / URL (when enabled). |
database_instance_name | Cloud SQL instance name. |
database_name / database_user | Application database name / user (tenant-prefixed). |
database_password_secret | Secret Manager secret holding the DB password. |
database_host / database_port | DB endpoint / port. |
storage_buckets | Created Cloud Storage buckets (includes the /media bucket). |
network_name / network_exists / regions | VPC network, presence, regions. |
container_image / container_registry | Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo. |
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels / uptime_check_names | Monitoring status, channels, uptime checks. |
initialization_jobs | Names of the setup jobs (db-init). |
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix | Naming identifiers. |
project_id / project_number | Project identifiers. |
cicd_enabled / cicd_configuration / github_repository_* | CI/CD status and details. |
artifact_registry_repository / cloudbuild_trigger_name / cloudbuild_trigger_id | Registry and build trigger. |
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_mode | VPC-SC status. |
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabled | Audit logging and CMEK status. |
6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults
Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).
Inherited plan-time validation. This module passes its configuration through the App_CloudRun foundation engine, which validates values and combinations at plan time — invalid configuration fails the plan with a clear, named error before any resource is created, so most mistakes below are caught up front rather than at apply or runtime.
| Setting | Sensible value | Risk | Consequence if wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY (auto-generated) | Never rotate | Critical | Rotating it invalidates all active sessions and makes encrypted fields (stored credentials, tokens) unreadable. |
database_type | POSTGRES_15 | Critical | MySQL is blocked by validation — authentik requires PostgreSQL ≥ 14. |
db_name / db_user | Set once | Critical | Immutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and destroys all identity data. |
| Worker listen ports (entrypoint-managed) | Leave the entrypoint's AUTHENTIK_LISTEN__* loopback defaults | Critical | The co-located ak worker also starts an HTTP listener and inherits the server's default 0.0.0.0:9000; if it wins the bind race it answers every route — health endpoints included — with empty 200s: a blank UI with phantom-healthy probes. The entrypoint pins the worker to loopback ports (127.0.0.1:9001/9444/9301) so the server owns :9000 — a 200 with an empty body means the wrong process answered. |
min_instance_count | 1 (with always-on CPU) | High | 0 lets the instance scale away: outpost WebSockets disconnect, and background tasks (scheduled jobs, outpost sync) are delayed until the next request wakes an instance. |
cpu_always_allocated | true | High | Request-based billing throttles the co-located worker between requests — the task queue stalls even at min=1. |
startup_probe.path | /-/health/ready/ (unauthenticated) | Medium | Pointing the probe at an authenticated page returns 401/403 to the prober — the revision never becomes ready even though authentik booted fine. |
bootstrap_password / bootstrap_email | Set before first deploy | Medium | Applied on the first boot only. Changing them later has no effect — manage akadmin in-app, or use /if/flow/initial-setup/ if bootstrap vars were absent on first boot. |
application_version | Pin a release | Medium | latest is silently pinned to 2026.5.4; an explicit pin makes upgrades deliberate. Nonexistent tags fail the Cloud Build with MANIFEST_UNKNOWN. |
memory_limit | 2Gi | Medium | Server + worker share the limit; lower values risk OOM during migrations or flow imports. |
environment_variables → AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__* | Leave unset | Medium | The entrypoint maps the injected DB_* values; hardcoding short DB names authenticates as a non-existent role (names are tenant-prefixed). |
| LDAP/RADIUS outposts | Not on Cloud Run | Low | Non-HTTP listeners can't be served by Cloud Run — use the GKE variant or an external host for those outposts. |
enable_iap | false | Medium | IAP double-gates every login and breaks OAuth/SAML callbacks from external parties. |
For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — service identity, scaling and concurrency, ingress and load balancing, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_CloudRun. authentik-specific application configuration shared with the GKE variant is described in Authentik_Common.
Related guides
- Hands-on lab: Authentik on Cloud Run — deploy it step by step, with the console screens and commands at each stage.
- Authentik on GKE Autopilot — the same application on Kubernetes, for when you need the other deployment target.
- Authentik Common — Shared Application Configuration — the configuration shared by both deployment targets.
Need RAD to do something it does not do yet? Request it on the roadmap, or vote on what is already there.