Directus_CloudRun Module — Configuration Guide

Directus_CloudRun is a wrapper module that deploys Directus — an open-source headless CMS and data API platform — on Google Cloud Run. It composes two underlying modules:

• App_CloudRun — provides all Cloud Run infrastructure: service configuration, scaling, networking, security, CI/CD, storage, observability, and backup.
• Directus_Common — generates the Directus application configuration, database initialisation scripts, migration jobs, and Directus-specific environment variables. Its outputs are injected into App_CloudRun via the application_config, module_env_vars, module_secret_env_vars, and module_storage_buckets inputs.

How to use this guide: Every variable available in App_CloudRun is also available in Directus_CloudRun under the same name and with the same behaviour, unless noted below. For the full description of those variables, consult the App_CloudRun Configuration Guide. This guide documents only what is unique to Directus_CloudRun: variables that use different names from their App_CloudRun equivalents, and variables whose default values have been tuned for Directus.

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Standard Configuration Reference

The following configuration groups are provided by the underlying App_CloudRun module with no Directus-specific differences. Consult the linked sections of the App_CloudRun Configuration Guide for full documentation.

Group	App_CloudRun Guide Section	Notes
Module Metadata & Configuration	Group 0	Directus-specific module_description, module_documentation, and module_services defaults are pre-set.
Project & Identity	Group 1	Identical.
Application Identity	Group 2	Directus-specific defaults; display_name and description are Directus-specific aliases — see Application Identity below.
Runtime & Scaling	Group 3	Directus-specific defaults for container_port, execution_environment, enable_cloudsql_volume, and scaling counts; also exposes cpu_limit, memory_limit, startup_probe, and liveness_probe — see Runtime Configuration below.
Environment Variables & Secrets	Group 4	Identical. Note that environment_variables includes SMTP defaults pre-populated for Directus.
Observability & Health	Group 5	Directus exposes startup_probe and liveness_probe shorthand variables pre-tuned for the /server/health endpoint — see Runtime Configuration below.
Jobs & Scheduled Tasks	Group 6	The Directus database migration job is injected automatically by Directus_Common; jobs defined in initialization_jobs are appended after it. Cloud Run cron jobs differ from GKE: they use Cloud Run Jobs triggered by Cloud Scheduler rather than Kubernetes CronJobs.
CI/CD & GitHub Integration	Group 7	Identical, including enable_cloud_deploy, cloud_deploy_stages, and enable_binary_authorization.
Storage & Filesystem — NFS	Group 8	enable_nfs defaults to true for Directus to support shared asset storage. Requires execution_environment = "gen2".
Storage & Filesystem — GCS	Group 9	Identical. GCS Fuse mounts also require execution_environment = "gen2".
Redis Cache	Group 10	enable_redis defaults to true for Directus. All four variables (enable_redis, redis_host, redis_port, redis_auth) are fully documented in the App_CloudRun guide.
Database Backend	Group 11	Directus-specific defaults and simplified interface — application_database_name and application_database_user are exposed as db_name and db_user. Postgres extension installation is handled internally by Directus_Common. See Database Configuration below.
Backup & Maintenance	Group 12	Identical. backup_file in App_CloudRun is exposed as backup_uri in Directus_CloudRun.
Custom Initialisation & SQL	Group 13	Identical.
Access & Networking	Group 14	Identical (ingress_settings, vpc_egress_setting).
Identity-Aware Proxy	Group 15	Identical.
Cloud Armor & CDN	Group 16	Identical (enable_cloud_armor, admin_ip_ranges, application_domains, enable_cdn).
VPC Service Controls	Group 17	Identical.

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Directus-Specific Defaults

The following variables are shared with App_CloudRun but have different default values in Directus_CloudRun, pre-tuned for a Directus deployment. Where the variable name differs from its App_CloudRun equivalent, the App_CloudRun name is shown in parentheses.

Variable	Directus_CloudRun Default	App_CloudRun Default	Reason
application_name	"directus"	"crapp"	Identifies the Directus workload across all resource names.
application_version	"11.1.0"	"1.0.0"	Pins the Directus container image version.
container_port	8055	8080	Directus listens on port 8055 by default.
execution_environment	"gen2"	"gen2"	Gen2 is required for NFS mounts and GCS Fuse; the default is the same.
min_instance_count	0	0	Scale-to-zero is the default; set to 1 or more to eliminate cold starts.
max_instance_count	1	1	Start with 1 and increase based on observed load.
cpu_limit (container_resources.cpu_limit)	"1000m"	"1000m"	1 vCPU is the default; increase to "2000m" for production workloads.
memory_limit (container_resources.memory_limit)	"2Gi"	"512Mi"	Directus requires at minimum 512Mi; 2Gi is recommended for production.
enable_cloudsql_volume	false	true	Cloud Run connects to Cloud SQL natively via the service's cloudsql-instances annotation. The Auth Proxy sidecar volume is not required unless your application code explicitly uses Unix socket paths.
enable_nfs	true	(varies)	Shared NFS storage is used for Directus uploaded assets and media. Requires execution_environment = "gen2".
enable_redis	true	true	Directus uses Redis for caching and rate limiting. See App_CloudRun Guide — Group 10.

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Variable Name Differences

Several variables in Directus_CloudRun use different names from their App_CloudRun equivalents. This provides a Directus-focused interface without exposing the generic application naming.

Directus_CloudRun Variable	App_CloudRun Equivalent	Notes
display_name	application_display_name	Human-readable name shown in the Cloud Run console. Default: "Directus CMS".
description	application_description	Brief description of the application. Default: "Directus - Open Source Headless CMS and Backend-as-a-Service".
db_name	application_database_name	Name of the database within the Cloud SQL instance. Default: "directus".
db_user	application_database_user	Username of the database user. Default: "directus".
cpu_limit	container_resources.cpu_limit	Top-level convenience variable; overrides the cpu_limit field of container_resources.
memory_limit	container_resources.memory_limit	Top-level convenience variable; overrides the memory_limit field of container_resources.
startup_probe	startup_probe_config	Shorthand probe object pre-configured for Directus. See Runtime Configuration.
liveness_probe	health_check_config	Shorthand probe object pre-configured for Directus. See Runtime Configuration.
backup_uri	backup_file	URI of the backup file to import. For GCS: gs://bucket/path/file.sql. For Google Drive: the file ID.

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Application Identity

Directus_CloudRun renames two of the App_CloudRun application identity variables to use shorter, Directus-idiomatic names. The underlying behaviour is identical.

Variable	Default	App_CloudRun Equivalent	Description
display_name	"Directus CMS"	application_display_name	Human-readable name for the Cloud Run service, displayed in the Cloud Run console and monitoring dashboards. Can be updated freely without affecting resource names.
description	"Directus - Open Source Headless CMS and Backend-as-a-Service"	application_description	Brief description of the application's purpose. Populated into the Cloud Run service description.

For application_name, application_version, and deploy_application, see App_CloudRun Guide — Group 2.

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Runtime Configuration

CPU and Memory

Rather than nesting resource settings inside the container_resources object, Directus_CloudRun exposes cpu_limit and memory_limit as top-level variables for convenience. These override the corresponding fields of container_resources.

Variable	Default	Options / Format	Description & Implications
cpu_limit	"1000m"	Cloud Run CPU string (e.g. "1000m", "2000m")	Maximum CPU allocated to each Directus instance. Cloud Run supports 1000m, 2000m, 4000m, 6000m, and 8000m. CPUs above 1000m require cpu_always_allocated = true. For busy production deployments, "2000m" is recommended.
memory_limit	"2Gi"	Cloud Run memory string (e.g. "1Gi", "4Gi")	Maximum memory allocated to each Directus instance. 2Gi is the recommended minimum for production. Directus loads schema definitions, extension metadata, and cached API responses into memory; larger deployments with many collections should increase this value.

For full resource configuration including container_resources.cpu_request and container_resources.mem_request, use the container_resources variable as documented in App_CloudRun Guide — Group 3.

Health Probes

Directus_CloudRun exposes two shorthand probe variables pre-configured with Directus-appropriate settings. These are applied in addition to (and take precedence over) the startup_probe_config and health_check_config structured objects from App_CloudRun. All probes target the /server/health endpoint, which reflects live Directus application and database connectivity status.

Variable	Default	Description & Implications
startup_probe	See below	Configures the Cloud Run startup probe used to determine when a newly started Directus instance is ready to receive traffic. Cloud Run will not route requests to the instance until this probe succeeds.
liveness_probe	See below	Configures the Cloud Run liveness probe that periodically checks whether a running Directus instance remains healthy. An instance is restarted if this probe fails failure_threshold consecutive times.

startup_probe default:

startup_probe = {
  enabled               = true
  type                  = "HTTP"
  path                  = "/server/health"
  initial_delay_seconds = 30
  timeout_seconds       = 5
  period_seconds        = 20
  failure_threshold     = 10  # Allows up to 230 seconds for Directus to start
}

The initial_delay_seconds = 30 and high failure_threshold (10 × 20s = 200 seconds after the initial delay) accommodate Directus startup, which includes database migration checks, extension loading, and schema caching. Reduce only if your deployment consistently starts within a shorter window.

liveness_probe default:

liveness_probe = {
  enabled               = true
  type                  = "HTTP"
  path                  = "/server/health"
  initial_delay_seconds = 15
  timeout_seconds       = 5
  period_seconds        = 30
  failure_threshold     = 3
}

After startup, an instance is considered unhealthy and restarted if /server/health fails three consecutive times within 90 seconds.

For the structured probe configuration variables (startup_probe_config, health_check_config, uptime_check_config, alert_policies), see App_CloudRun Guide — Group 5.

Validating Runtime Configuration

# View health probe configuration on the latest Cloud Run revision
gcloud run services describe SERVICE_NAME \
  --region=REGION \
  --format="yaml(spec.template.spec.containers[0].livenessProbe,spec.template.spec.containers[0].startupProbe)"

# Manually verify the Directus health endpoint
curl -sf https://SERVICE_URL/server/health

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Environment Variables

All environment variable and secret injection behaviour is documented in App_CloudRun Guide — Group 4. Directus_CloudRun differs in one respect: the environment_variables map is pre-populated with SMTP configuration keys to make email integration straightforward. These placeholders are injected into the Cloud Run revision and recognised directly by Directus.

Pre-populated Key	Default Value	Description
EMAIL_SMTP_HOST	""	Hostname of the outgoing SMTP server. Set to your mail provider's SMTP host (e.g. smtp.sendgrid.net, smtp.mailgun.org). Leave blank to disable outgoing email.
EMAIL_SMTP_PORT	"25"	SMTP port. Common values: 25 (unencrypted), 465 (TLS), 587 (STARTTLS). Use 587 with EMAIL_SMTP_SECURE = "false" for most modern providers.
EMAIL_SMTP_USER	""	SMTP username for authentication. Required by most providers.
EMAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD	""	SMTP password. Move this to secret_environment_variables for any non-development environment — do not leave plaintext credentials in environment_variables.
EMAIL_SMTP_SECURE	"false"	Set to "true" to enable TLS wrapping on the SMTP connection (port 465). Set to "false" for STARTTLS (port 587) or unencrypted (port 25).
EMAIL_EMAIL_FROM	"admin@example.com"	The sender address displayed in outgoing Directus emails (invitations, password resets, flow notifications). Update this to a valid address associated with your SMTP account to avoid delivery failures.

Security note: If your SMTP provider requires a password, set EMAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD to an empty string in environment_variables and supply the actual password via secret_environment_variables — for example { EMAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD = "directus-smtp-password" } — where "directus-smtp-password" is the name of an existing Secret Manager secret in your project.

You can override or extend these defaults by passing additional keys in environment_variables. Any key explicitly set in your configuration takes precedence over the module's pre-populated values.

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Database Configuration

Directus_CloudRun exposes a simplified database interface. The application_database_name and application_database_user variables are renamed to db_name and db_user with Directus-appropriate defaults. PostgreSQL extension installation (including uuid-ossp) is handled internally by Directus_Common and is not configurable through this module's variables.

Variable	Default	Options / Format	Description & Implications
db_name	"directus"	[a-z][a-z0-9_]{0,62}	Name of the database created within the Cloud SQL instance. Injected into the Directus container as the DB_DATABASE environment variable. Do not change after initial deployment — renaming requires manual data migration.
db_user	"directus"	[a-z][a-z0-9_]{0,31}	Username of the database user created for the Directus application. Injected as the DB_USER environment variable. The password is auto-generated, stored in Secret Manager, and injected as DB_PASSWORD.
database_password_length	16	Integer 8–64	Length of the randomly generated database user password. Recommended minimum for production: 32.

For all other database variables (database_type, sql_instance_name, enable_auto_password_rotation, rotation_propagation_delay_sec, enable_postgres_extensions, postgres_extensions, enable_mysql_plugins, mysql_plugins), see App_CloudRun Guide — Group 11.

Validating Database Configuration

# List databases on the Cloud SQL instance
gcloud sql databases list \
  --instance=INSTANCE_NAME \
  --project=PROJECT_ID \
  --format="table(name,charset,collation)"

# Confirm DB environment variables are injected into the Cloud Run revision
gcloud run services describe SERVICE_NAME \
  --region=REGION \
  --format="yaml(spec.template.spec.containers[0].env)" \
  | grep -E "DB_"