Miniflux on GKE Autopilot

Miniflux is a minimalist, self-hosted RSS/Atom feed reader — a single static Go binary that stores all state in PostgreSQL. This module deploys Miniflux 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 Miniflux 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.

1. Overview

Miniflux runs as a single-container Go web workload. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	GKE Autopilot	Single Go binary in a Deployment, horizontally autoscaled between `min`/`max` replicas
Database	Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15	Required — Miniflux stores all state here; no MySQL/other engine
Object storage	Cloud Storage (none)	Miniflux needs no bucket; an optional Filestore NFS mount is available but unused by default
Cache & queue	None	Miniflux has no Redis dependency and no separate worker
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated `ADMIN_PASSWORD` (initial owner); database password
Ingress	Cloud Load Balancing	External LoadBalancer with `ClientIP` session affinity, optional custom domain + managed certificate

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

PostgreSQL 15 is mandatory. The database engine is fixed by the shared application layer; selecting any other engine breaks startup.
The feed poller runs in-process. Miniflux has no separate worker — the same pod serves the UI and refreshes feeds on POLLING_FREQUENCY. Keep at least one replica running so polling continues (GKE does not scale to zero).
The initial owner is seeded, not self-registered. CREATE_ADMIN = 1 seeds the admin account from the ADMIN_PASSWORD secret on first boot; open self-service signup stays off. Retrieve the password from Secret Manager to log in.
Schema migrations run on boot (RUN_MIGRATIONS = 1) — there is no separate migrate job, so upgrading the version applies schema changes automatically.
No Redis. enable_redis = false — Miniflux keeps every feed, entry, and session in PostgreSQL. Leave it off. Because there is no shared queue, running multiple replicas simply shares request load (each still polls independently).
Session affinity is ClientIP. Keeps a client pinned to one pod for a consistent UI session.
DATABASE_URL is composed at runtime by the container entrypoint (libpq keyword/value form), branching on the GKE Auth Proxy loopback (127.0.0.1, sslmode=disable) so the same image works on Cloud Run and GKE.

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 Miniflux workload

Miniflux pods run as a Deployment on Autopilot listening on port 8080, billed for the CPU/memory they request. Horizontal Pod Autoscaling sizes the deployment between the minimum and maximum replica counts.

Console: Kubernetes Engine → Workloads → select the Miniflux 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 PostgreSQL 15

Miniflux stores all application data (feeds, entries, users, sessions, categories) in a managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 instance. Pods reach it privately through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar over loopback (127.0.0.1); no public IP is exposed. On first deploy the db-init Job creates the miniflux database and role and installs the hstore extension owned by the app role.

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

CLI:

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

The instance name, database, user, and password secret are surfaced in the Outputs. For the connection model, automated backups, and password rotation, see App_GKE.

C. Cloud Storage / NFS

Miniflux needs no object storage — it keeps all state in PostgreSQL, so no data bucket is provisioned by the application layer. The variant does default enable_nfs = true (a Cloud Filestore mount at /opt/miniflux/storage) for operators who want shared attachment storage, but Miniflux does not require it; disable it to save cost if you have no such need.

Console: Filestore → Instances (if NFS is enabled); Cloud Storage → Buckets.

CLI:

gcloud filestore instances list --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_GKE for CMEK options and GCS Fuse mounts.

D. Secret Manager

One secret is generated automatically: ADMIN_PASSWORD — the initial owner password seeded into Miniflux on first boot. The database password is managed separately by the foundation.

Console: Security → Secret Manager.

CLI:

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

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

E. Networking & ingress

By default the workload is exposed through an external Cloud Load Balancing IP with ClientIP session affinity. A custom domain with a Google-managed certificate can be enabled, and a static IP can be reserved so the address survives redeploys. When a custom domain is used, set BASE_URL so Miniflux emits correct absolute links.

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.

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. The entrypoint logs its DATABASE_URL connection mode at start — useful when diagnosing DB connectivity.

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. Miniflux Application Behaviour

First-deploy database setup. The db-init Job runs db-init.sh using postgres:15-alpine. It connects through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy and idempotently creates the miniflux database and role, grants privileges, re-owns the public schema, and installs the hstore extension owned by the app role (so Miniflux migration v119, which drops hstore, succeeds). The job then posts to the proxy sidecar's /quitquitquit so the Job pod completes; it is safe to re-run.
Schema migrations on boot. The entrypoint sets RUN_MIGRATIONS=1, so Miniflux applies its own schema migrations on every start — no separate migrate step. Allow extra time on the first boot for the initial schema build.
Initial owner is seeded. CREATE_ADMIN=1 seeds the admin account (ADMIN_USERNAME) from the ADMIN_PASSWORD secret. It is idempotent — later boots log "user already exists". Retrieve the password to log in:
```
gcloud secrets versions access latest \
  --secret=secret-<resource-prefix>-miniflux-admin-password --project "$PROJECT"
```
Health path. This module's startup and liveness probes default to HTTP / (the login page, an unauthenticated 200 OK). Miniflux also serves an unauthenticated 200 OK at /healthcheck if you prefer a dedicated probe path. Do not point probes at authenticated pages.
The feed poller is in-process. Feeds refresh on POLLING_FREQUENCY inside each pod. Keep min_instance_count >= 1 so polling runs; extra replicas each poll independently (there is no shared queue to coordinate them).
BASE_URL drives absolute links. It defaults to the injected internal service URL; set it explicitly (via environment_variables) to the external LoadBalancer or custom-domain URL once the address is known.

Inspect the db-init job and pods:

kubectl get jobs -n "$NAMESPACE"
kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" job/<job-name>

4. Configuration Variables

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