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Mautic on GKE Autopilot

Mautic on GKE Autopilot

Mautic is an open-source marketing-automation platform for email campaigns, contact management, landing pages, and lead scoring. This module deploys Mautic 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 Mautic 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.


What Mautic costs on RAD, and how that compares​

Mautic on RAD's GKE Autopilot module costs about US$150 a month in your own project, with no per-contact licence. RAD charges 175 credits once per deployment in your own project (157.5 credits, 10% lower, in a project RAD manages), plus build time. The same app also deploys on Cloud Run for about US$102 a month — see the Cloud Run guide for the lower-cost option. If you only need it occasionally, a RAD-managed project can be deleted and restored within 30 days for a few credits, so that monthly figure becomes a few dollars instead — see Pause it for free, below.

What you pay on RAD​

In a Google Cloud project you ownIn a project RAD manages for you
Module fee, once per deployment175 credits (US$17.50 at the top-up price)157.5 credits (10% lower)
Build timeA few credits per buildThe same
Google Cloud running costBilled by Google to your own billing account, about US$150 a month for the default configuration (table below)Metered hourly in credits; RAD publishes 115 credits a day, about 3,450 a month (about US$345.00 at the top-up price, less on a plan)
Who owns whatYou own the project and its billing; RAD deploys and updates itRAD 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 / 4 GiBUS$79
Cloud SQL for MySQL, 1 vCPU / 3.75 GB, zonal, 10 GB SSDUS$51
NFS/cache file server (small VM)US$13
Cloud NAT and networkingUS$5
Cloud Storage (add-ons, backups)US$1
GKE cluster management feeshared across every GKE app in the project; US$0 if this is your only cluster, else ~US$73
Totalabout US$150

How it compares​

  • HubSpot's Marketing Hub Professional plan starts at US$800 a month (including 3 core seats; additional seats from US$45 each) and requires a one-time US$3,000 onboarding fee. Its entry Starter plan is far cheaper (from US$7/seat/month) but drops most marketing-automation features Mautic ships by default.
  • RAD's Mautic module costs about US$150 a month in your own project — a small fraction of HubSpot Professional's price, with no per-contact licensing tier to outgrow and no onboarding fee, because it deploys Mautic's own open-source automation engine rather than a vendor's metered platform.
  • Self-managed comparison: at 2 vCPU / 4 GiB with a MySQL database, a GCP Compute Engine e2-standard-2 (~US$49/month) is in range, but you run MySQL, email deliverability, backups and upgrades yourself.

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

If Mautic 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 Mautic you only need occasionally — evaluating it, a demo environment, a seasonal or intermittent workload — 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 the database, any VM or the compute resource one by one — the whole project, and everything in it, simply stops.
  • Restoring costs a few 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. For Mautic behind Services_GCP (a GKE cluster, a small NFS/cache VM, a Mysql database) and Project_GCP, that is roughly a handful of credits (under US$1) in total, against the about 180 credits (US$18.00) a full redeploy costs.
  • So a month of occasional use can cost a few dollars, not US$150. Deploy Mautic, use it for a while, delete the project. Restore it next time you need it, confirm with Update, and delete it again when you're done. You pay only for the module fee once, the builds, and whatever time it was actually live.
  • What this needs. You must own the project (not 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 evaluation 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 and other generated files 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 Mautic and want to keep that work, copy a backup out (to Google Drive, or a bucket outside the project) before you delete. 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​

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 — roughly 180 credits (US$18.00) in total. Deleting saves money only once Mautic would otherwise sit unused long enough to clear that redeploy cost against its own running cost — about 4 days or more, both in your own project (about US$4.99 a day) and in a RAD-managed one (115 credits a day).
  • Most of the running cost is usually shared. For Mautic that is the database and the shared file/cache VM. They stop only when nothing else in the project uses them, so deleting this app while something else shares the project saves only this app's own compute part.
  • Keep your data first. Nightly backups go to a bucket inside the deployment and are deleted with it, so copy the latest backup out before deleting if you want to keep it.

Lab sessions and Managed Environments​

  • Lab sessions, for training. A trainer runs a session for a class. Each participant gets the app 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 the app 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 fees and the daily-credit estimate from radmodules.dev/pricing; Delete and restore projects for the pause/restore mechanics and what it says about Cloud Storage objects without soft delete; HubSpot. Prices change; check each source before relying on a figure.

1. Overview​

Mautic runs as a PHP/Apache web workload. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

CapabilityGoogle Cloud serviceNotes
ComputeGKE AutopilotPHP/Apache pods, 2 vCPU / 4 GiB by default, horizontally autoscaled
DatabaseCloud SQL for MySQL 8.0Required — Mautic does not support PostgreSQL
Shared filesFilestore (NFS)Uploaded media and assets shared across all replicas
Object storageCloud StorageA dedicated media bucket
Cache & sessionsRedisEnabled by default; falls back to the NFS host IP when no Redis host is given
SecretsSecret ManagerAuto-generated admin password and database password
IngressCloud Load BalancingExternal LoadBalancer, optional custom domain + managed certificate

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

  • MySQL 8.0 is mandatory. The database engine is fixed; selecting PostgreSQL or NONE breaks startup.
  • Redis is enabled by default. With more than one replica, a shared cache is required to keep session and campaign state consistent.
  • Session affinity is ClientIP. Mautic relies on PHP sessions, so requests from a browser are pinned to one pod.
  • Database migrations run on every pod start (idempotent), so version upgrades apply automatically. The startup probe allows ~90 seconds for first-boot setup.
  • The Mautic admin password is generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager; you never set it in plain text.

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 Mautic workload​

Mautic pods are scheduled on Autopilot, which bills for the CPU/memory the pods actually request. Horizontal Pod Autoscaling sizes the deployment between the minimum and maximum replica counts.

  • Console: Kubernetes Engine → Workloads → select the Mautic workload to see pods, revisions, and events. Kubernetes Engine → Services & Ingress shows the external IP.
  • CLI:
    kubectl get pods,svc,hpa -n "$NAMESPACE"
    kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> --tail=100
    kubectl describe hpa -n "$NAMESPACE" # current vs target utilisation

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

B. Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0​

Mautic stores all application data (contacts, campaigns, segments) in a managed Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0 instance. Pods reach it privately through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar over a Unix socket, so no public IP is exposed. On first deploy an initialization Job creates the application database and user.

  • 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_GKE.

C. Filestore (NFS) and Cloud Storage​

Uploaded media is written to a Filestore (NFS) share mounted into every pod so all replicas see the same files. A Cloud Storage media bucket is also provisioned, but nothing mounts or writes to it — it is kept only because removing it from an existing deployment trips a Terraform dependency cycle.

  • Console: Filestore → Instances for the NFS share; Cloud Storage → Buckets for the media bucket.
  • CLI:
    gcloud filestore instances list --project "$PROJECT"
    gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
    gcloud storage ls gs://<media-bucket>/ # bucket name is in the Outputs
    # Confirm the share is mounted inside a pod:
    kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- df -h | grep -i nfs

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

D. Redis cache​

Redis backs Mautic's caching and, in multi-replica deployments, keeps cache and lock state consistent. When no external Redis host is configured and NFS is enabled, the NFS host IP is used as the Redis endpoint.

  • Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance).
  • CLI:
    redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping        # from a host with network access
    redis-cli -h <redis-host> info keyspace

E. Secret Manager​

The Mautic admin password and the database password are stored as Secret Manager secrets and injected into pods at runtime; plaintext never appears in configuration.

  • Console: Security → Secret Manager.
  • CLI:
    gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT"
    gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> --project "$PROJECT"

The database password secret name is in the Outputs. See App_GKE for the Secret Store CSI integration and rotation.

F. Networking & ingress​

By default the workload is exposed through an external Cloud Load Balancing IP. A custom domain with a Google-managed certificate can be enabled, and a static IP can be reserved so the address survives redeploys.

  • Console: Network services → Load balancing; VPC network → IP addresses.
  • CLI:
    kubectl get ingress,svc -n "$NAMESPACE"
    gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

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

G. 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

3. Mautic Application Behaviour​

  • First-deploy database setup. An initialization Job creates the Mautic database and user and grants privileges before the application starts. It is idempotent and safe to re-run.

  • Migrations on start. Each pod runs Mautic's database migrations during startup, so upgrading the application version applies schema changes automatically.

  • Scheduled commands (essential). Mautic's campaigns, email queue, and segment updates are driven by scheduled commands. Without them, campaigns never fire and no email is sent. Mautic has no in-process scheduler, so they run as Kubernetes CronJobs:

    CommandPurposeCadence
    mautic:segments:updateRefresh segment membershipevery 15 min (:00, :15, …)
    mautic:campaigns:updateRebuild campaign membershipevery 15 min (:05, :20, …)
    mautic:campaigns:triggerFire scheduled campaign eventsevery 15 min (:10, :25, …)

    These three are scheduled by the module itself, staggered so they never overlap, and run through mautic-cron.sh (which maps the database settings the way the web container does and waits for the Cloud SQL proxy). Anything else Mautic offers — for example mautic:queue:process if you queue email, or mautic:maintenance:cleanup — is added through cron_jobs, which is appended to the built-in three.

    Inspect scheduled tasks and their runs:

    kubectl get cronjobs -n "$NAMESPACE"
    kubectl get jobs -n "$NAMESPACE" --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp
  • Health path. Readiness/liveness use Mautic's login page, which returns HTTP 200 only when the application is fully initialised.

  • Admin login. The initial admin user name and email are configurable; the password is retrieved from Secret Manager (see §2.E).


4. Configuration Variables​

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

Group 1 — Project & Identity​

VariableDefaultDescription
project_id(required)Target Google Cloud project.
regionus-central1Region for the workload and regional resources.

Group 2 — Deployment Environment​

VariableDefaultDescription
tenant_iddemoShort 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​

VariableDefaultDescription
application_namemauticBase name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
application_display_nameMauticFriendly name shown in the Console.
application_descriptionMautic Marketing Automation on GKE AutopilotWorkload description annotation.
application_version5Mautic image version tag; increment to roll out a new version.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling​

VariableDefaultDescription
deploy_applicationtrueSet false to provision infrastructure only.
cpu_limit2000mCPU per pod; 2 vCPU recommended for Mautic.
memory_limit4GiMemory per pod; 4 GiB recommended (avoids PHP OOM on imports).
min_instance_count1Minimum replicas. Keep ≥ 1 so scheduled tasks have a target.
max_instance_count5Maximum replicas (autoscaler ceiling).
container_port80Mautic/Apache listens on port 80.
enable_cloudsql_volumetrueCloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar for socket connections.
enable_vertical_pod_autoscalingfalseLet Autopilot tune resource requests automatically.

Group 5 — Environment Variables & Secrets​

VariableDefaultDescription
environment_variables{}Extra non-secret settings. Core MAUTIC_* values are set automatically.
secret_environment_variables{}Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name.

Group 6 — GKE Backend & Cluster​

VariableDefaultDescription
service_typeLoadBalancerHow the Service is exposed.
session_affinityClientIPSticky routing required for Mautic PHP sessions.
workload_typenullAuto-resolves to StatefulSet when per-pod storage is enabled.
network_tags['nfsserver']Node/pod tags; nfsserver is required for NFS connectivity.

Group 7 — Resource Quota​

VariableDefaultDescription
enable_resource_quotafalseCap namespace CPU/memory/object counts.
quota_memory_requests / quota_memory_limits""Must use binary units (4Gi, 8192Mi) — bare integers are read as bytes and block scheduling.

Group 8 — Reliability Policies​

VariableDefaultDescription
enable_pod_disruption_budgettrueProtect availability during node upgrades.
pdb_min_available1Raise min_instance_count above 1 if you need eviction headroom.
enable_topology_spreadfalseSpread pods across zones.

Group 9 — Observability & Health​

VariableDefaultDescription
startup_probe / liveness_probeOverridden to HTTP /healthzThe module overrides both probes away from Mautic's login page: /index.php/s/login returns HTTP 500 (installer redirect) until the database is configured, so kube-probes instead hit the static /healthz file, which returns 200 regardless of application state.
uptime_check_configdisabledOptional Cloud Monitoring uptime check.
alert_policies[]Optional metric alert policies.

Group 10 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks​

VariableDefaultDescription
initialization_jobs[]Leave empty to use the built-in database setup job.
cron_jobs[]Extra scheduled jobs, appended to the three Mautic commands the module schedules itself (§3).

Group 11 — 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.

Group 13 — Filesystem (NFS)​

VariableDefaultDescription
enable_nfstrueShared Filestore volume for Mautic media (keep enabled for multi-replica).
nfs_mount_path/var/www/html/docroot/media/filesMount path inside the container.

Group 14 — Cloud Storage & Artifact Registry​

VariableDefaultDescription
create_cloud_storagetrueProvision the media bucket.
storage_buckets / gcs_volumes(set)Additional buckets / GCS Fuse mounts.
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmekfalseCMEK options.

Group 15 — Redis Cache​

VariableDefaultDescription
enable_redistrueUse Redis for caching/sessions.
redis_host""Leave empty to use the NFS host IP; set explicitly when NFS is disabled.
redis_port6379Redis port.
redis_auth""Optional Redis auth password (sensitive).

Group 16 — Database Backend​

VariableDefaultDescription
database_typeMYSQL_8_0Fixed — do not change.
application_database_namemauticDatabase name. Immutable after first deploy.
application_database_usermauticApplication user. Immutable after first deploy.
database_password_length32Generated password length (16–64).
enable_auto_password_rotationfalseZero-downtime DB password rotation.

Group 17 — Backup & Maintenance​

VariableDefaultDescription
backup_schedule0 2 * * *Automated backup cron (UTC).
backup_retention_days7Retention; raise to 30–90 for production/compliance.
enable_backup_import / backup_source / backup_urirestore optionsRestore from a backup on deploy.

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​

VariableDefaultDescription
enable_custom_domaintrueProvision Ingress for custom hostnames + managed certificate.
application_domains[]Hostnames to serve.
reserve_static_iptrueStable external IP across redeploys.

Group 20 — Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP)​

VariableDefaultDescription
enable_iapfalseRequire Google sign-in in front of Mautic.
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups[]Who may access.
iap_oauth_client_id / iap_oauth_client_secret""Required when IAP is enabled (sensitive).
iap_support_email""Shown on the OAuth consent screen.

Group 21 — Cloud Armor​

VariableDefaultDescription
enable_cloud_armorfalseAttach a Cloud Armor (WAF) policy to the Ingress backend.
admin_ip_ranges[]CIDRs allowed privileged access.
cloud_armor_policy_namedefault-waf-policyPolicy name.

Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging​

VariableDefaultDescription
enable_vpc_scfalseEnforce a VPC-SC perimeter (requires organization_id).
vpc_cidr_ranges / vpc_sc_dry_run(set)Access level CIDRs / dry-run mode.
enable_audit_loggingfalseDetailed Cloud Audit Logs.

Group 23 — Mautic Application Settings​

VariableDefaultDescription
mautic_admin_usernameadminInitial administrator login.
mautic_admin_emailadmin@example.comAdmin email — set to a real address (system notices go here).
mailer_from_nameMauticDisplay name on outbound campaign email.
mailer_from_emailmautic@example.comFrom address — use a domain with valid SPF/DKIM or mail is rejected/spam-filed.

5. Outputs​

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

OutputDescription
service_nameKubernetes Service name.
namespaceNamespace the workload runs in.
service_cluster_ipIn-cluster ClusterIP.
service_external_ipExternal LoadBalancer IP (when a static IP is reserved).
service_urlURL to reach Mautic.
database_instance_nameCloud SQL instance name.
database_nameApplication database name.
database_userApplication database user.
database_password_secretSecret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_portDB endpoint (127.0.0.1 via the Auth Proxy) / port.
storage_bucketsCreated Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regionsVPC network, presence, available regions.
container_image / container_registryDeployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channelsMonitoring status and channels.
initialization_jobs / db_import_jobNames of the setup and (optional) import jobs.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefixNaming identifiers.
project_id / project_numberProject identifiers.
cicd_enabled / cicd_configurationCI/CD status and details (repo, trigger, registry).
kubernetes_readyWhether the cluster/workload is ready.
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_modeVPC-SC status.
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabledAudit 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).

SettingSensible valueRiskConsequence if wrong
database_typeMYSQL_8_0CriticalMautic requires MySQL; PostgreSQL/NONE breaks startup.
Built-in scheduled commands (§3)leave in placeCriticalNo campaigns fire without them; add email-queue processing via cron_jobs if you queue email.
enable_nfstrueCriticalWithout shared storage, uploads are lost on restart and not shared across replicas.
application_database_name / _userset onceCriticalImmutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and destroys data.
enable_backup_importfalse unless restoringCriticalEnabling without a valid backup_uri fails the import job.
quota_memory_requests / _limitsbinary unitsCriticalBare integers are bytes and block all scheduling.
enable_redistrueHighWith >1 replica, isolated per-pod caches cause inconsistency.
redis_host"" (NFS) or explicitHighNo valid endpoint if Redis is on but NFS is off and no host is set.
memory_limit4GiHighToo little memory causes PHP OOM during imports/sends.
session_affinityClientIPHighWithout stickiness, multi-replica logins lose session state.
mautic_admin_email / mailer_from_emailreal addressesHighPlaceholders send to nowhere and get rejected/spam-filed.
min_instance_count1High0 leaves scheduled tasks with no pod to run on.
enable_iap / enable_cloud_armorenable for admin-facingMediumThe admin UI is otherwise publicly reachable.
backup_retention_days7 (raise for prod)MediumToo short for compliance retention.
pdb_min_available vs min_instance_countleave headroomMedium1/1 can stall node upgrades (single pod cannot be evicted).

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. Mautic-specific application configuration shared with the Cloud Run variant is described in Mautic_Common.

Need RAD to do something it does not do yet? Request it on the roadmap, or vote on what is already there.