Directus on Cloud Run

Directus is an open-source headless CMS and Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform that wraps any SQL database with auto-generated REST and GraphQL APIs and a no-code admin application. This module deploys Directus 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 Directus 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 — Workload Identity, ingress, autoscaling, 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.

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1. Overview

Directus runs as a Node.js container on fully managed Cloud Run. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	Cloud Run v2	Serverless, auto-scales to zero between requests
Database	Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15	Required — Directus hardcodes DB_CLIENT = "pg"
Shared files	Filestore (NFS)	Uploaded assets and media shared across all instances
Object storage	Cloud Storage	A dedicated uploads bucket; GCS is the default Directus storage driver
Cache	Redis	Enabled by default; defaults to the NFS host IP when no explicit host is set
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated KEY, SECRET, ADMIN_PASSWORD, and REDIS connection URL
Ingress	Cloud Load Balancing	HTTPS via serverless NEG + optional custom domain and managed certificate

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• PostgreSQL 15 is required. Directus hardcodes DB_CLIENT = "pg". Switching to MySQL or NONE prevents startup.
• GCS is the default file storage driver. Directus_Common automatically injects STORAGE_GCS_DRIVER, STORAGE_GCS_BUCKET, and STORAGE_LOCATIONS = "gcs", so all uploads go to the dedicated Cloud Storage bucket.
• Auto-migrate and bootstrap run on every start. AUTO_MIGRATE = "true" applies any pending database schema migrations on startup. BOOTSTRAP = "true" seeds the admin user and system collections on first boot — both are idempotent.
• Scale-to-zero is the default (min_instance_count = 0). Directus uses Redis-backed sessions, so cold starts are acceptable for non-latency-critical deployments. Set min_instance_count = 1 to eliminate cold starts in production.
• The Directus KEY and SECRET are generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager. Rotating them after the first deployment invalidates all active sessions and JWTs.

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2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume PROJECT, REGION, and SERVICE_NAME are set. The service name and other identifiers are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. Cloud Run service — the Directus workload

Directus runs as a single Cloud Run service. Each new deployment creates a new revision; traffic management controls which revision receives traffic.

• Console: Cloud Run → select the service to see revisions, traffic splits, 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"
  # Stream live logs:
  gcloud run services logs tail "$SERVICE_NAME" --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  # Verify the health endpoint manually:
  curl -sf "$(gcloud run services describe "$SERVICE_NAME" --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" --format='value(status.url)')/server/ping"

See App_CloudRun for autoscaling, concurrency, execution environments, and traffic splitting.

B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15

Directus stores all application data in a managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 instance. Instances connect by default over TCP (Cloud SQL connector, no Unix socket by default on Cloud Run). A db-init job runs on every apply (idempotent) and creates the application database, user, grants privileges, and installs the uuid-ossp extension.

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

  gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
  # Open an interactive shell to inspect schema/data:
  gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database name, user, and the Secret Manager secret holding the password are all surfaced in the Outputs. For the connection model, automated backups, and password rotation, see App_CloudRun.

C. Filestore (NFS) and Cloud Storage

Uploaded assets are written to a Filestore (NFS) share mounted into every instance so all replicas see the same files. A dedicated Cloud Storage uploads bucket is also provisioned; Directus is configured to use GCS as its primary storage driver via STORAGE_GCS_DRIVER = "gcs".

• Console: Filestore → Instances for the NFS share; Cloud Storage → Buckets for the uploads bucket.
• CLI:

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

See App_CloudRun for NFS provisioning, GCS Fuse, and CMEK options.

D. Redis cache

Redis backs Directus's API response caching and rate-limiting state. When no explicit Redis host is configured and NFS is enabled, the NFS host IP is used as the default Redis endpoint. The full Redis connection URL (including any auth password) is stored as a Secret Manager secret and injected as the REDIS environment variable.

• Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance).
• CLI:

  # Confirm REDIS is injected into the Cloud Run service environment:
  gcloud run services describe "$SERVICE_NAME" --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" \
    --format='yaml(spec.template.spec.containers[0].env)'

E. Secret Manager

Four secrets are generated and stored automatically: KEY (data encryption), SECRET (JWT signing), ADMIN_PASSWORD (initial admin account), and REDIS (Redis connection URL when Redis is enabled). The database password is managed separately by the foundation.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

  gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT"
  # Retrieve the admin password:
  gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<prefix>-admin-password --project "$PROJECT"
  # Retrieve the DB password:
  gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<database_password_secret> --project "$PROJECT"

The database_password_secret name is in the Outputs. See App_CloudRun for the secret injection model.

F. Networking & ingress

The Cloud Run service is fronted by a serverless Network Endpoint Group attached to a global Cloud Load Balancer. HTTPS is managed automatically. A custom domain with a Google-managed certificate can be enabled, and a static IP can be reserved.

• Console: Network services → Load balancing; Cloud Run → service → Networking tab.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services describe "$SERVICE_NAME" --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" \
    --format='value(status.url)'
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun for custom domains, Cloud CDN, and static IP details.

G. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Container stdout/stderr flow to Cloud Logging. Cloud Run metrics and optional uptime checks flow to Cloud Monitoring.

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

  gcloud logging read \
    'resource.type="cloud_run_revision" AND resource.labels.service_name="'"$SERVICE_NAME"'"' \
    --project "$PROJECT" --limit 50

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3. Directus Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. A db-init job runs on every apply (execute_on_apply = true). It creates the Directus database user with the generated password, creates the directus database, installs the uuid-ossp extension, and grants full privileges. The job is idempotent.
• Bootstrap on first start. BOOTSTRAP = "true" seeds the initial admin user and Directus system collections on first boot. The admin email defaults to admin@example.com — override this via environment_variables = { ADMIN_EMAIL = "you@example.com" } before the first deploy.
• Migrations on every start. AUTO_MIGRATE = "true" causes Directus to run database migrate:latest on each instance start, so upgrading application_version applies schema changes automatically.
• Health probe. The startup probe targets /server/ping with a 30-second initial delay and a generous failure threshold (failure_threshold = 10, period_seconds = 20) to accommodate first-boot database setup. The liveness probe also targets /server/ping.
• TCP database connections by default. Unlike the GKE variant (which uses a Unix socket via the Auth Proxy sidecar), the Cloud Run variant connects to Cloud SQL over TCP using the Cloud SQL connector (enable_cloudsql_volume = false by default). Outbound traffic travels to private IPs only (vpc_egress_setting = "PRIVATE_RANGES_ONLY").
• KEY and SECRET rotation. Rotating the KEY secret immediately invalidates all active user sessions. Rotating SECRET invalidates all issued JWTs. Never rotate either without a planned maintenance window and client notification.
• Admin login. Retrieve the generated admin password from Secret Manager (see §2.E). The default admin email is admin@example.com unless overridden.

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4. Configuration Variables

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

Group 1 — Project & Identity

Variable	Default	Description
project_id	(required)	Target Google Cloud project.
region	us-central1	Region for the Cloud Run service and regional resources.

Group 2 — Deployment Environment

Variable	Default	Description
tenant_deployment_id	demo	Short suffix that makes resource names unique per environment. Do not change after first deploy.
support_users	[]	Emails granted project access and monitoring alerts.
resource_labels	{}	Labels applied to all resources for cost/ownership tracking.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	directus	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy — embedded in Secret Manager secret IDs.
display_name	Directus CMS	Friendly name shown in the Console.
application_version	11.1.0	Directus image version tag; increment to roll out a new version. Pin to a specific tag — avoid latest in production.
description	Directus - Open Source Headless CMS and Backend-as-a-Service	Service description annotation.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only (Cloud SQL, storage, secrets) without deploying the Cloud Run service.
cpu_limit	1000m	vCPU per instance; 1 vCPU is suitable for light workloads.
memory_limit	1Gi	Memory per instance; defaulted to 1 GiB for light/typical usage (observed ~150Mi) — raise to 2 GiB for production or large schemas/image transformations.
cpu_always_allocated	false	Request-based billing — safe for Directus's default request/response mode. Set true only if enabling realtime/WebSocket subscriptions or scheduled flows that must run without an inbound request.
min_instance_count	0	Minimum instances. Set 1 to eliminate cold starts in production.
max_instance_count	1	Maximum concurrency ceiling. Increase for production traffic.
container_port	8055	Directus default listening port.
execution_environment	gen2	Cloud Run second-generation execution environment (recommended).
enable_cloudsql_volume	false	TCP connection by default; set true to enable the Unix socket via Auth Proxy sidecar.

Group 5 — Ingress & IAP

Variable	Default	Description
ingress_settings	all	"all" (public) or "internal-and-cloud-load-balancing" (private).
vpc_egress_setting	PRIVATE_RANGES_ONLY	Route only private-range traffic through the VPC connector.
enable_iap	false	Require Google sign-in in front of Directus.
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups	[]	Who may access when IAP is enabled.

Group 6 — Environment Variables & Secrets

Variable	Default	Description
environment_variables	(SMTP defaults)	Extra non-secret settings. The default includes SMTP placeholder variables. Override ADMIN_EMAIL here before first deploy.
secret_environment_variables	{}	Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name.

Group 7 — Backup & Maintenance

Variable	Default	Description
backup_schedule	0 2 * * *	Automated backup cron (UTC).
backup_retention_days	7	Retention; raise to 30–90 for production/compliance.
enable_backup_import / backup_source / backup_uri / backup_format	restore options	Restore from a backup on deploy. Set enable_backup_import = false immediately after a successful restore.

Group 8 — CI/CD & GitHub Integration

Standard App_CloudRun Cloud Build / Cloud Deploy integration — see App_CloudRun. Key inputs: enable_cicd_trigger, github_repository_url, github_token, enable_cloud_deploy.

Group 9 — Custom SQL Scripts & NFS

Variable	Default	Description
enable_custom_sql_scripts / custom_sql_scripts_bucket / custom_sql_scripts_path	run SQL from GCS	See App_CloudRun.
nfs_instance_name / nfs_instance_base_name	references shared Filestore instance	Set when the Filestore instance was not created by the same Services_GCP deployment.

Group 10 — Cloud Armor, Domains & CDN

Variable	Default	Description
enable_cloud_armor	false	Attach a Cloud Armor (WAF) policy to the load balancer backend.
admin_ip_ranges	[]	CIDRs allowed privileged access.
application_domains	[]	Custom hostnames — enable for production with a real DNS name.
enable_cdn	false	Enable Cloud CDN via the load balancer.

Group 11 — Cloud Storage & NFS

Variable	Default	Description
create_cloud_storage	true	Provision additional buckets beyond the auto-provisioned uploads bucket.
storage_buckets	[{ name_suffix = "data", location = "" }]	Additional GCS buckets, on top of the auto-provisioned uploads bucket from Directus_Common.
enable_nfs	true	Shared Filestore volume for uploaded assets (keep enabled for multi-instance).
nfs_mount_path	/mnt/nfs	Mount path inside the container.
gcs_volumes	[]	GCS buckets to mount via GCS Fuse CSI driver.

Group 12 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	POSTGRES_15	Directus requires PostgreSQL. Do not change.
db_name	directus	PostgreSQL database name. Do not change after first deploy.
db_user	directus	Application user. Do not change after first deploy.
database_password_length	32	Generated password length (16–64).
enable_auto_password_rotation	false	Zero-downtime DB password rotation.

Group 13 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks

Variable	Default	Description
initialization_jobs	[]	Leave empty to use the built-in db-init job supplied by Directus_Common.
cron_jobs	[]	Recurring Cloud Run jobs (e.g., cache purge, data sync).

Group 14 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe	/server/ping, HTTP, 30s delay, failure_threshold=10, period=20s	Cloud Run startup probe. Allows up to ~230 s for first-boot migrations.
liveness_probe	/server/ping, HTTP, 15s delay	Instance restarted after 3 consecutive failures.
uptime_check_config	disabled by default, path /	Optional Cloud Monitoring uptime check.

Group 21 — Redis Cache

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	true	Use Redis for caching and rate limiting.
redis_host	""	Leave empty to use the NFS host IP; set explicitly for a dedicated Memorystore instance.
redis_port	6379	Redis port.
redis_auth	""	Optional Redis auth password (sensitive). The full connection URL is stored in Secret Manager.

Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging

Variable	Default	Description
enable_vpc_sc	false	Enforce a VPC-SC perimeter (requires organization_id). Use vpc_sc_dry_run = true first.
vpc_cidr_ranges / vpc_sc_dry_run	(set)	Access level CIDRs / dry-run mode.
enable_audit_logging	false	Detailed Cloud Audit Logs.

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5. Outputs

These values are returned on a successful deployment and are the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

Output	Description
service_name	Cloud Run service name.
service_url	The public HTTPS URL to reach Directus.
service_location	Region where the service is deployed.
stage_services	Service URLs per Cloud Deploy stage (when multi-stage deploy is enabled).
load_balancer_ip	External IP of the load balancer frontend.
load_balancer_url	HTTPS URL via the load balancer (when a custom domain or static IP is used).
database_instance_name	Cloud SQL instance name.
database_name	Application database name.
database_user	Application database user.
database_password_secret	Secret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host	DB host (sensitive — returned as (sensitive) in plan output).
database_port	DB port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regions	VPC network, presence, available regions.
container_image / container_registry	Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels / uptime_check_names	Monitoring status, channels, and uptime checks.
initialization_jobs	Names of the setup jobs.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix	Naming identifiers.
project_id / project_number	Project identifiers.
cicd_enabled / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details.
github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name	CI/CD GitHub 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.

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6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults

Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
database_type	POSTGRES_15	Critical	Directus requires PostgreSQL; changing to MySQL or NONE prevents startup and orphans the existing database.
application_name	set once	Critical	Embedded in Secret Manager secret IDs (KEY, SECRET, ADMIN_PASSWORD). Changing recreates all secrets — all active sessions and JWTs are immediately invalidated.
tenant_deployment_id	set once	Critical	Changing after first deploy orphans the Cloud SQL instance and generates a new empty database plus new KEY/SECRET, invalidating all sessions.
KEY / SECRET secrets	auto-generated, never rotate casually	Critical	Rotating KEY logs out all users. Rotating SECRET invalidates all API tokens. Only rotate during a planned maintenance window.
ADMIN_EMAIL env var	a real email address	High	Default admin@example.com creates the admin account with a guessable email. Override via environment_variables = { ADMIN_EMAIL = "you@example.com" } before first deploy.
enable_nfs	true	High	Without shared NFS, uploaded assets written by one instance are invisible to others and lost on scale-down (unless using GCS exclusively).
enable_redis	true for multi-instance	High	Without Redis, each instance has an isolated cache; rate-limiting is per-instance and Directus caching breaks across replicas.
redis_host	"" (NFS) or explicit	High	No valid Redis endpoint if Redis is enabled, NFS is off, and no host is set.
startup_probe.failure_threshold	10 on first deploy	High	Too low: Directus migrations can take 1–3 minutes on a fresh database; the instance is killed before migrations complete.
enable_backup_import	false after restore	High	Leaving true re-runs the import on every apply, overwriting live data with the stale backup.
memory_limit	2Gi	High	Too little memory causes OOM kills during schema loading or image transformation.
min_instance_count	1 for production	Medium	0 in production causes 20–40 s cold starts on the first API request after an idle period.
max_instance_count	scale for traffic	Medium	1 blocks horizontal scaling and causes request queuing under load.
enable_iap / enable_cloud_armor	enable for admin-facing	Medium	The admin UI is otherwise publicly reachable.
backup_retention_days	7 (raise for prod)	Medium	Too short for compliance retention.
enable_vpc_sc + vpc_sc_dry_run	start with vpc_sc_dry_run = true	Critical	Enabling enforcement without the SA in the access level blocks Cloud SQL, Secret Manager, and Artifact Registry simultaneously.

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For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — IAM and Workload Identity, autoscaling, ingress and certificates, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_CloudRun. Directus-specific application configuration shared with the GKE variant is described in Directus_Common.