Documenso on GKE Autopilot

Documenso is an open-source DocuSign alternative — a Next.js application for sending, signing, and managing e-signature documents on infrastructure you control. This module deploys Documenso on GKE Autopilot on top of the App_GKE foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud and Kubernetes infrastructure.

This guide focuses on the cloud services Documenso uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics that are common to every GKE application — Workload Identity, ingress, autoscaling, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_GKE foundation guide rather than repeating them here.

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What Documenso costs on RAD, and how that compares

Documenso on RAD's GKE Autopilot module costs about US$142.62 a month with no per-signer licence. This compares against US$25 a month for Documenso's own Individual plan or US$40 a month for its Teams plan (5 users, US$8 per extra user). A self-managed server is cheaper in cash, but then you run the database, backups, security patches and upgrades yourself. For the lowest cost, the Cloud Run guide runs the same Documenso for about US$83.61 a month. Figures are as at 8 October 2026; sources are listed at the end of this section.

If you only need it occasionally — studying, a demo, a seasonal business — a RAD-managed project can be deleted and restored within 30 days for a handful of credits, so that US$142.62 becomes a few dollars a month instead. See Pause it for free, below.

What you pay on RAD

	In a Google Cloud project you own	In a project RAD manages for you
Module fee, once per deployment	110 credits (US$11 at the top-up price)	99 credits (10% lower)
Build time	A few credits per build	The same
Google Cloud running cost	Billed by Google to your own billing account, about US$142.62 a month for the default configuration (table below)	Metered hourly in credits; RAD publishes 108 credits a day, about 3,240 a month (about US$324 at the top-up price)
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, file server and network are shared by every application in the project, so a second application does not add a second database.

Default running cost in your own project (us-central1, Google list prices):

Resource (module default)	Per month
GKE Autopilot pod, 2x vCPU / 2 GiB	US$72.16
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
GKE cluster management fee	shared across every GKE app in the project; $0 if this is your only cluster, else ~73
Total	about US$142.62

How it compares

Option	Per month	Who runs it
Documenso, Individual plan	US$25 a month	Documenso
Documenso, Teams plan (5 users)	US$40 a month	Documenso
RAD, GKE Autopilot, your own project	About US$142.62	RAD's automation, in your project
RAD, GKE Autopilot, a RAD-managed project	About US$324	RAD

• Documenso's hosted plans charge per month regardless of how many documents you actually sign; RAD's cost is the infrastructure, which is the same whether you send one envelope a month or a hundred.
• Documenso's own Free plan caps you at 5 documents a month — RAD's module runs the same open-source software with no document cap.

Pause it for free: delete a RAD-managed project, restore it when you need it

If Documenso runs in a project RAD manages for you, you have a second option that goes well beyond scaling to zero: delete the whole project, and restore it within 30 days for close to nothing. This suits Documenso you only need occasionally — studying, a demo, a seasonal business — far better than running it continuously.

• How it works. Deleting a RAD-managed project unlinks its billing first, then asks Google to delete the project. Google does not remove the project immediately: it keeps it, recoverable, for 30 days. Because billing is already unlinked, nothing is charged while it waits. Unlike deleting one module, this does not tear down Cloud SQL, the NFS VM or the GKE pod one by one — the whole project, and everything in it, simply stops.
• Restoring costs a handful of credits, not a rebuild. Within 30 days, 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. That costs a handful of credits (under US$1) in total for a typical Documenso-sized deployment chain, against the 104 credits (US$10.35) a full redeploy costs.
• So a month of occasional use can cost a few dollars, not US$142.62. Deploy Documenso, use it for a while, delete the project. Restore it next time you want it, confirm with Update, and delete it again when you're done. You pay only for the module fee once, the builds, and whatever hours Documenso was actually live.
• What this needs. You must own the project (not a bring-your-own one RAD only manages billing for), and you restore it yourself within the 30 days — after that, Google deletes it for good. Restoring is admitted like creating a new project: 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: nightly backups do not survive. Backups are written to a bucket inside the project, and that bucket is not protected by Cloud Storage's soft-delete, so it is very likely gone as soon as you delete the project — even though the project itself is recoverable for 30 days. If you have customised the data and want to keep it, copy a backup out (to Google Drive, or a bucket outside the project) before you delete, the same as the redeploy workflow below. For a default installation with nothing irreplaceable in it, this does not matter.

Pay only while you use it, the other way: delete and redeploy

GKE keeps at least one pod running, so it never scales to zero on its own. The option above only applies to a RAD-managed project; in your own project, or once the 30-day window has passed, the way to stop paying is to delete the deployment and deploy it again when you need it.

• What a redeploy costs. The module fee again plus the builds: about 114 credits (US$11.45), and about an hour, because RAD recreates the project and shared services before Documenso. Deleting saves money once Documenso would otherwise sit unused for about 2 days or more in your own project (about US$4.75 a day), or about 1 day or more in a RAD-managed one (108 credits a day).
• Delete everything Documenso uses. Most of the running cost is the database and the NFS/cache VM. They stop only when nothing else in the project uses them, so deleting it while something else shares the project saves only Documenso's own compute part.
• Keep your data first. The nightly database backups are written to a bucket inside the deployment, and that bucket is deleted with it. Before deleting, copy the latest backup to Google Drive, or to a bucket you keep.
• Note your settings. RAD does not recreate a deleted deployment for you; you enter the settings again when you deploy.

Lab sessions and Managed Environments

• Lab sessions, for training. A trainer runs a session for a class. Each participant gets Documenso 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 Documenso 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 own fees and daily-credit estimates from radmodules.dev/pricing; Delete and restore projects for the pause/restore mechanics and window. Documenso pricing for the Individual and Teams plan figures;

1. Overview

Documenso runs as a single Next.js workload built from a thin custom image on top of the official documenso/documenso image. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	GKE Autopilot	Next.js pods on port 3000, 2 vCPU / 2 GiB by default
Database	Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15	Required — the engine is fixed at POSTGRES_15; MySQL is not supported
File persistence	Cloud Filestore (NFS)	Enabled by default, mounted at /mnt/nfs, but not used for document storage (see below)
Object storage	Cloud Storage	An uploads bucket + HMAC service account, provisioned for optional S3-compatible upload transport
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated NEXTAUTH_SECRET, NEXT_PRIVATE_ENCRYPTION_KEY, NEXT_PRIVATE_ENCRYPTION_SECONDARY_KEY, HMAC keys, and (optionally) SMTP password; database password
Ingress	Cloud Load Balancing / Gateway API	Custom domain enabled by default with a reserved static IP; falls back to a nip.io hostname if no domain is set

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• PostgreSQL 15 is mandatory. database_type = "POSTGRES_15" is the default. Documenso's Next.js + Prisma stack does not support MySQL, but unlike some other modules this is not enforced by a plan-time precondition — changing database_type away from Postgres silently breaks the app rather than failing the plan.
• Custom build, not prebuilt. container_image_source = "custom" builds a thin image FROM docker.io/documenso/documenso:${DOCUMENSO_VERSION} that adds bash, curl, postgresql-client, and openssl, plus a custom entrypoint. The upstream image's own sh start.sh runs Prisma migrations and starts the Next.js server — there is no separate migrate job.
• Cloud SQL is reached via the Auth Proxy sidecar. enable_cloudsql_volume = true runs a cloud-sql-proxy sidecar; the entrypoint assembles NEXT_PRIVATE_DATABASE_URL from the injected DB_* values, branching on Unix socket, 127.0.0.1 proxy, or direct-IP+SSL depending on what is injected.
• Redis is disabled by default and not required. Documenso uses a PostgreSQL-backed local jobs provider (enable_redis = false). Enable it only if you switch Documenso to the bullmq (Redis) jobs provider.
• NFS is enabled by default but Documenso doesn't use it for documents. Documents are stored in PostgreSQL by default (NEXT_PUBLIC_UPLOAD_TRANSPORT = "database"). The Filestore instance this provisions exists mainly as the fallback Redis host required by the plan precondition when enable_redis = true — with Redis off (the default) it is effectively unused overhead.
• A signing certificate is required for actual document signing. NEXT_PRIVATE_SIGNING_TRANSPORT = "local" expects a .p12 certificate. If none is supplied, the entrypoint self-generates a throwaway self-signed certificate so the app still boots — but signing with it is not production-safe.
• webapp_url is empty by default. Until set, NEXTAUTH_URL and NEXT_PUBLIC_WEBAPP_URL default to http://localhost:3000; the entrypoint upgrades them to the platform-injected GKE_SERVICE_URL automatically on boot, but setting webapp_url explicitly is recommended once a stable domain is known.
• Scale-to-zero by default. min_instance_count = 0, max_instance_count = 3.

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2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume you have run gcloud container clusters get-credentials <cluster> --region "$REGION" --project "$PROJECT" and that PROJECT, REGION, and NAMESPACE are set. The namespace and other identifiers are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. GKE Autopilot — the Documenso workload

Documenso pods are scheduled on Autopilot, which bills for the CPU/memory the pods actually request. The workload is a standard Deployment (not NFS-backed in the sense that matters for rollout strategy, since documents live in Postgres, not on the mounted NFS share).

• Console: Kubernetes Engine → Workloads → select the Documenso workload for pods, revisions, and events. Kubernetes Engine → Services & Ingress shows the external IP/hostname.
• CLI:

  kubectl get pods,svc -n "$NAMESPACE" --selector="app.kubernetes.io/name=documenso" 2>/dev/null \
    || kubectl get pods,svc -n "$NAMESPACE"
  kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> --tail=100
  kubectl describe pod -n "$NAMESPACE" -l app=<service-name>

See App_GKE for how Autopilot, scaling, and the workload type (Deployment vs StatefulSet) are managed.

B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15

Documenso stores all application data (users, documents, recipients, audit events) in a managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 instance. Pods reach it through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar; no public IP is exposed. On first deploy the db-init job creates the application role and database; the Documenso image itself then runs its own Prisma migrations at container startup.

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

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

The instance name, database, user, and the Secret Manager secret holding the password are all in the Outputs. See App_GKE for the connection model, automated backups, and password rotation.

C. Cloud Storage & file persistence

A dedicated Cloud Storage bucket (suffix uploads, CORS-enabled for browser-direct access) and a service account holding an HMAC key are provisioned automatically, granting the storage SA roles/storage.objectAdmin on the bucket. This is opt-in infrastructure: Documenso only writes to it if you set NEXT_PUBLIC_UPLOAD_TRANSPORT=s3 and wire the S3_ACCESS_KEY / S3_SECRET_KEY secret env vars — by default documents are stored in PostgreSQL. Separately, an NFS (Cloud Filestore) volume is mounted at /mnt/nfs but is not written to by the application in its default configuration.

• Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets; Filestore → Instances.
• CLI:

  gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~documenso"
  gcloud filestore instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  kubectl get pvc -n "$NAMESPACE"

See App_GKE for CMEK options and GCS Fuse mounts.

D. Secret Manager

Documenso requires three secrets at boot — NEXTAUTH_SECRET, NEXT_PRIVATE_ENCRYPTION_KEY, and NEXT_PRIVATE_ENCRYPTION_SECONDARY_KEY — all Zod-validated by the Next.js app, which will not start without them. Additionally S3_ACCESS_KEY / S3_SECRET_KEY (HMAC credentials, only used if S3 upload transport is enabled) and, when smtp_host is set, NEXT_PRIVATE_SMTP_PASSWORD are generated. The database password is managed separately by the foundation. On GKE, secrets are projected into pods via the Secret Store CSI driver.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

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

See App_GKE for the Secret Store CSI integration and rotation.

E. Networking & ingress

Unlike many application modules, Documenso defaults enable_custom_domain = true: a Kubernetes Gateway with a reserved static IP is provisioned automatically. If application_domains is left empty, a nip.io hostname based on the auto-generated static IP is used so the app is reachable over HTTPS immediately.

• Console: Network services → Load balancing; VPC network → IP addresses.
• CLI:

  kubectl get svc,gateway -n "$NAMESPACE"
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

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

F. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Pod stdout/stderr flow to Cloud Logging; GKE and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring. Optional uptime checks and alert policies are available.

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

  gcloud logging read 'resource.type="k8s_container" AND resource.labels.namespace_name="'"$NAMESPACE"'"' \
    --project "$PROJECT" --limit 50

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3. Documenso Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. The db-init job runs db-init.sh using postgres:15-alpine. It waits for Cloud SQL to accept connections, then idempotently creates the application role and database (CREATEDB privilege, ownership set on the target database), grants schema privileges, and finally signals the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar (POST /quitquitquit) to shut down so the job can complete. The job is safe to re-run (execute_on_apply = true, max_retries = 3).
• Migrations run automatically, no separate job. The official Documenso image's own start.sh runs Prisma migrations against NEXT_PRIVATE_DATABASE_URL on every container start, then launches the Next.js standalone server.
• NEXT_PRIVATE_DATABASE_URL is assembled at boot. The custom entrypoint builds it from the platform-injected DB_USER/DB_PASSWORD/DB_HOST/ DB_NAME/DB_PORT, branching on whether DB_HOST is a Unix socket path, a 127.0.0.1 Auth Proxy loopback, or a direct IP (in which case sslmode=require is forced). NEXT_PRIVATE_DIRECT_DATABASE_URL mirrors it.
• No bootstrap admin account. This module does not create a Documenso admin/owner user. The first person to complete sign-up through the app's own web UI becomes the account owner — standard upstream Documenso behaviour, not something this module provisions.
• Signing certificate is a required post-deploy step for real signing. With no certificate supplied, the entrypoint self-generates a throwaway self-signed .p12 at /opt/documenso/cert.p12 so the app boots and non-signing features work, logging a loud warning. For production signing, supply a real certificate via secret_environment_variables mapping NEXT_PRIVATE_SIGNING_LOCAL_FILE_CONTENTS (base64-encoded .p12) and NEXT_PRIVATE_SIGNING_PASSPHRASE.
• Webapp URL resolution. NEXTAUTH_URL / NEXT_PUBLIC_WEBAPP_URL default to http://localhost:3000. If still at that default when the container starts, the entrypoint overwrites both with the platform-injected GKE_SERVICE_URL. Set webapp_url explicitly once a custom domain is registered so OAuth/email links stay stable across redeploys.
• Health path. Startup probe is HTTP GET / on port 3000 with a generous budget (period_seconds = 30, failure_threshold = 20, ≈10 minutes) to absorb cold start plus Prisma migrations; liveness probe is HTTP GET / with a 60s initial delay. Documenso has no dedicated health endpoint.
• Inspect the init job and running config:

  kubectl get jobs -n "$NAMESPACE"
  kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" job/<db-init-job-name>
  kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- env | grep -E 'DATABASE_URL|WEBAPP_URL|SIGNING'

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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 Documenso are listed; every other input is inherited from App_GKE with its standard behaviour and defaults. The full list of every declared variable, including ones inherited unchanged from the Foundation, is in the module README.

Group 1 — Project & Identity

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

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 for cost/ownership tracking.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	documenso	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
application_display_name	Documenso	Human-readable name shown in the GCP Console.
application_version	latest	Sets the DOCUMENSO_VERSION build arg for the custom-build FROM docker.io/documenso/documenso:${DOCUMENSO_VERSION} base image.
description	"Documenso - The Open Source DocuSign Alternative"	Populates the GKE workload description field.
application_description	"Documenso on GKE Autopilot"	Not referenced — description (above) takes precedence and controls the workload description instead.
webapp_url	""	Public URL of the instance. Set after first deploy (or a custom domain is registered) so NextAuth callbacks and email links are stable.
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only, without deploying the workload.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
cpu_limit	2000m	2 vCPU per pod (app-specific override; the generic container_resources variable is not forwarded for this module).
memory_limit	2Gi	Memory per pod.
min_instance_count	0	Scale-to-zero by default.
max_instance_count	3	HPA ceiling.
container_port	3000	Documenso's Next.js server port.
container_protocol	http1	HTTP/1.1; h2c is available if a future upstream needs gRPC/HTTP2.
timeout_seconds	300	Maximum request duration.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Auth Proxy sidecar — required for DB connectivity on GKE.
enable_image_mirroring	true	Mirrors the built image into Artifact Registry.
container_image_source / container_image / container_resources / container_build_config	—	Not referenced. Documenso_Common always performs the custom build and sets its own resource limits from cpu_limit/memory_limit; these Foundation-mirrored variables have no effect on this module.

Group 5 — Environment Variables & Secrets

Variable	Default	Description
environment_variables	{}	Extra plain-text env vars; core Documenso vars are injected automatically.
secret_environment_variables	{}	Extra Secret Manager references injected as env vars.
smtp_host	""	SMTP server hostname. Leave empty to disable email (invitations, signing notifications).
smtp_port / smtp_secure_enabled	587 / false	Use 465 + true for implicit TLS, otherwise STARTTLS on 587.
smtp_user	""	SMTP authentication username.
smtp_password	""	Auto-generates a Secret Manager value when left empty and smtp_host is set.
mail_from	""	Sender address for outgoing Documenso email.

Group 6 — GKE Backend & Cluster

Variable	Default	Description
service_type	LoadBalancer	External IP/Gateway for the Documenso UI.
workload_type	Deployment	Documenso does not use a StatefulSet/PVC.
session_affinity	ClientIP	Sticky routing so a client reaches the same pod.
network_tags	["nfsserver"]	Required for NFS connectivity when enable_nfs = true (the default).
gke_cluster_name / namespace_name	""	Leave empty for auto-discovery / auto-generated namespace name.
gke_cluster_selection_mode / enable_multi_cluster_service / prereq_gke_subnet_cidr / extra_service_ports	—	Not referenced by this module — Foundation-mirrored variables with no effect here.

Group 7 — StatefulSet

Not used by Documenso (workload_type = "Deployment" by default). All stateful_* variables are inherited unchanged from App_GKE.

Group 8 — Resource Quota

enable_resource_quota and all quota_* variables are declared for Foundation convention parity but are not forwarded by this module — they have no effect on the Documenso deployment.

Group 9 — Reliability Policies

Variable	Default	Description
enable_pod_disruption_budget	true	Protects availability during node upgrades.
pdb_min_available	1	Minimum pods available during voluntary disruptions.

Group 10 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe	HTTP /, failure_threshold=20, period_seconds=30	Documenso-specific probe forwarded through the Common module's config output; effectively supersedes the generic Foundation startup_probe_config default for this app.
liveness_probe	HTTP /, initial_delay_seconds=60, failure_threshold=3	Same mechanism as startup_probe; supersedes the generic health_check_config default.
uptime_check_config	disabled	Optional Cloud Monitoring uptime check.

Group 11 — Workload Automation

Variable	Default	Description
initialization_jobs	[]	Leave empty to use the built-in db-init job (creates the database and role only).
cron_jobs / additional_services	[]	No scheduled jobs or sidecars by default.

Group 12 — CI/CD & GitHub Integration

Standard App_GKE Cloud Build / Cloud Deploy integration — see App_GKE. Key inputs: enable_cicd_trigger, github_repository_url, github_token, enable_cloud_deploy, enable_binary_authorization, binauthz_evaluation_mode (this last one is forwarded by Documenso, unlike several other Group-12 mirrored variables in other modules).

Group 13 — Filesystem (NFS)

Variable	Default	Description
enable_nfs	true	Provisions Filestore. Not used for document storage by default — see Overview. Mainly relevant as the fallback Redis host if enable_redis is later enabled.
nfs_mount_path	/mnt/nfs	Mount path inside the container (unused by the app's default configuration).
nfs_instance_name / nfs_instance_base_name	"" / app-nfs	Existing NFS VM to reuse, or the base name for an inline one.
nfs_volume_name	nfs-data-volume	Not forwarded by this module — has no effect.

Group 14 — Cloud Storage

Variable	Default	Description
storage_buckets	[{ name_suffix = "data" }]	Documenso_Common additionally always provisions its own uploads bucket (CORS-enabled), independent of this setting.
gcs_volumes	[]	No GCS Fuse volumes mounted by default.
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmek	false	CMEK options.
max_images_to_retain / delete_untagged_images / image_retention_days	7 / true / 30	Artifact Registry image retention.

Group 15 — Redis Cache

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	false	Documenso uses a PostgreSQL-backed local jobs provider and does not require Redis.
redis_host / redis_port / redis_auth	"" / 6379 / ""	Only relevant if you switch Documenso to the bullmq jobs provider.
cubejs_api_url / hub_api_url	http://localhost:4000 / http://localhost:8080	Inert leftovers from this module's Formbricks-derived variable template — forwarded to Documenso_Common but never read by any environment variable, Dockerfile, or entrypoint logic. No effect on deployment.

Group 16 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	POSTGRES_15	Not enforced at plan time — changing this away from Postgres breaks Documenso's Prisma schema at runtime rather than failing the plan.
db_name	documenso	The database actually created and injected as DB_NAME.
db_user	documenso	The role actually created and injected as DB_USER; password auto-generated in Secret Manager.
database_password_length	32	Auto-generated password length.
enable_postgres_extensions / postgres_extensions	false / []	Documenso's Prisma schema requires no custom extension.
enable_mysql_plugins / mysql_plugins	false / []	Not applicable — Documenso requires PostgreSQL.
sql_instance_name / sql_instance_base_name	"" / app-sql	Existing Cloud SQL instance to reuse, or the base name for an inline one.
enable_auto_password_rotation / rotation_propagation_delay_sec	false / 90	Zero-downtime DB password rotation.

application_database_name (default documensodb) and application_database_user (default documensouser) are also declared on this module but are not forwarded to the Foundation — main.tf wires db_name/db_user (above) instead. Setting the application_database_* variables has no effect. The five db_*_env_var_name variables (host, name, password, port, user) are likewise declared but not forwarded.

Group 17 — Backup & Maintenance

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_uri / backup_format	restore options	Restore from a backup on deploy. backup_uri is the value actually forwarded to the Foundation.
backup_file	backup.sql	Not referenced — backup_uri (above) is what's actually used; setting backup_file has no effect.

Group 18 — Custom SQL Scripts

enable_custom_sql_scripts, custom_sql_scripts_bucket, custom_sql_scripts_path, custom_sql_scripts_use_root — run SQL from a GCS bucket after provisioning. See App_GKE.

Group 19 — Custom Domain, Static IP & Networking

Variable	Default	Description
enable_custom_domain	true	Provisions a Gateway + static IP by default (unlike most other modules, which default this off).
application_domains	[]	If empty, a nip.io hostname based on the auto-generated static IP is used.
reserve_static_ip	true	Keeps the external address stable across redeploys.
static_ip_name	""	Leave empty to auto-generate.
network_name	""	Not referenced — network discovery is hardcoded internally; has no effect.

Group 20 — Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP)

enable_iap, iap_authorized_users/iap_authorized_groups, iap_oauth_client_id/iap_oauth_client_secret (sensitive), iap_support_email — standard App_GKE IAP gating in front of the Gateway. See App_GKE.

Group 21 — Cloud Armor

enable_cloud_armor, admin_ip_ranges, cloud_armor_policy_name, enable_cdn — standard App_GKE WAF/CDN configuration. See App_GKE.

Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging

enable_vpc_sc, vpc_cidr_ranges, vpc_sc_dry_run, organization_id, enable_audit_logging — standard App_GKE VPC-SC perimeter configuration. See App_GKE.

Group 0 — Module Metadata

Platform/UI-only metadata (module_description, module_documentation, module_dependency, requires_services, module_services, credit_cost, require_credit_purchases, enable_purge, public_access, require_services_gcp_module, shared_users, technical_support_users, resource_creator_identity, impersonation_service_account, job_execution_wait_timeout) plus three declared-but-inert variables (application_module, explicit_secret_values, scripts_dir — the module wires its own secret values and scripts path internally from Documenso_Common). None of these affect the deployed infrastructure; see the module README for the full table.

All other inputs follow standard App_GKE behaviour.

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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	Kubernetes Service name.
namespace	Namespace the workload runs in.
service_cluster_ip	In-cluster ClusterIP.
stage_service_cluster_ips	Map of ClusterIPs for stage-specific services.
service_external_ip	External LoadBalancer IP (when a static IP is reserved).
service_url	URL to reach Documenso.
database_instance_name	Cloud SQL instance name.
database_name / database_user	Application database name / user.
database_password_secret	Secret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_port	DB endpoint (via the Auth Proxy) / port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets (the uploads bucket).
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	Monitoring status and channels.
initialization_jobs / db_import_job	Names of the setup (db-init) and (optional) import jobs.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix	Naming identifiers.
project_id / project_number	Project identifiers.
cicd_enabled / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details (repo, trigger, registry).
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.
kubernetes_ready	Whether the cluster/workload is ready.
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).

Inherited plan-time validation. This module passes its configuration through the App_GKE foundation engine, which validates values and combinations at plan time — a StatefulSet forced alongside a stateless setting, IAP with no authorized identities, quota_memory_* given as bare integers, an out-of-range container_port/backup_retention_days. This module's own validation.tf additionally blocks min_instance_count > max_instance_count, enable_redis = true with neither redis_host nor enable_nfs, enable_iap = true without both OAuth credentials, and enable_cloudsql_volume = true with database_type = "NONE". Invalid configuration fails the plan with a clear, named error before any resource is created — but database_type away from Postgres is not one of the checks, so that mistake is only caught at runtime.

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
database_type	POSTGRES_15	Critical	Not plan-validated — switching to MySQL/SQL Server breaks Prisma and every query at runtime, not at plan time.
Signing certificate (NEXT_PRIVATE_SIGNING_LOCAL_FILE_CONTENTS)	Supply a real .p12 post-deploy	Critical	Without it, the entrypoint self-signs a throwaway cert — documents "sign" but the signature is untrusted by PDF readers; not production-safe.
NEXT_PRIVATE_ENCRYPTION_KEY / _SECONDARY_KEY (auto-generated)	Never change directly	Critical	These encrypt Documenso data; rotate only via the secondary-key slot, never by regenerating the primary in place.
webapp_url	Set once the URL/domain is known	High	Left unset, NEXTAUTH_URL/NEXT_PUBLIC_WEBAPP_URL track whatever GKE_SERVICE_URL resolves to at each boot; an explicit value keeps auth callbacks and email links stable across redeploys.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	High	The Auth Proxy sidecar is required for the entrypoint's default DB connectivity path on GKE.
db_name / db_user	Set once	High	Renaming after first deploy points the app at a different (empty) role/database — application_database_name/application_database_user are inert decoys; changing those has no effect.
quota_memory_requests / _limits	binary units (4Gi, 8192Mi)	Critical	Bare integers are treated as bytes and block all pod scheduling in the namespace.
enable_nfs	true (default) or false if Redis stays disabled	Medium	Filestore is billed whether or not the app writes to it; with enable_redis = false (the default) the NFS mount is unused overhead.
smtp_host	Set for production	Medium	Left empty, no NEXT_PRIVATE_SMTP_* variables are injected — no invitation or signing-notification emails are sent.
enable_custom_domain / reserve_static_ip	true (defaults)	Medium	Without a stable IP or domain, the nip.io fallback can shift, breaking webapp_url/OAuth callbacks across redeploys.
backup_retention_days	7 (raise for prod)	Medium	Too short for compliance retention.

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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_GKE. Documenso-specific application configuration shared with the Cloud Run variant (secrets, the db-init job, and the custom entrypoint) is described in Documenso_Common (module source: modules/Documenso_Common).

Related guides

• Hands-on lab: Documenso on GKE Autopilot — deploy it step by step, with the console screens and commands at each stage.
• Documenso on Google Cloud Run — the same application on Cloud Run, for when you need the other deployment target.
• Documenso Common — Shared Application Configuration — the configuration shared by both deployment targets.