Mixpost on Google Cloud Run

Mixpost is an open-source, self-hosted social media scheduling and management platform — a Buffer/Hootsuite alternative for composing, scheduling, publishing, and analysing posts across multiple social accounts from one dashboard. It ships as a single Laravel application (nginx + PHP-FPM + supervisord running the queue worker and scheduler inside one container, the official inovector/mixpost image). This module deploys Mixpost 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 Mixpost 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 — service identity, ingress and load balancing, scaling and concurrency, 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

Mixpost runs as a single, self-contained web container on Cloud Run v2 — no separate build step, since the official prebuilt image is deployed directly.

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	Cloud Run v2	nginx + PHP-FPM + supervisord container listening on port 80, 2 vCPU / 2 GiB by default; serverless autoscaling
Database	Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0	Required and fixed — Mixpost_Common hardcodes MYSQL_8_0
Queue, cache & sessions	Redis	Enabled by default; drives QUEUE_CONNECTION/CACHE_DRIVER/SESSION_DRIVER; defaults to the co-located NFS server IP when no external host is given
Object storage	Cloud Storage	A storage bucket provisioned automatically by Mixpost_Common
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated Laravel APP_KEY; database password
Ingress	Cloud Run URL / Cloud Load Balancing	Default run.app URL; optional external HTTPS load balancer + custom domain

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• MySQL 8.0 is mandatory. Mixpost_Common sets database_type = "MYSQL_8_0" and DB_CONNECTION = "mysql" unconditionally; the database_type variable's face value is not actually forwarded from the application module for the Mixpost engine choice — only MySQL is supported.
• The database is reached over a Cloud SQL Auth Proxy Unix socket, not TCP. enable_cloudsql_volume defaults false on this module (unlike most MySQL/Laravel Cloud Run modules) — check the deployed revision if the app cannot reach the database; enabling it mounts the socket at /cloudsql and db-init.sh auto-detects the connection type (-S <socket> vs -h <host> --get-server-public-key).
• Redis is on by default and effectively required. enable_redis = true wires QUEUE_CONNECTION, CACHE_DRIVER, and SESSION_DRIVER to redis (falling back to sync/file only when disabled) — this merge happens in the Application module's own main.tf locals, not in Mixpost_Common. When redis_host is empty, the NFS server VM's IP is used as the Redis endpoint (requires enable_nfs = true).
• min_instance_count = 0, cpu_always_allocated = false — cold-start, request-based billing. Unlike the GKE variant (which defaults min = 1 to keep the in-pod scheduler running continuously), the Cloud Run variant scales to zero between requests. Trade-off: the Laravel schedule:run cron and queue worker only run while an instance is warm/serving a request, so scheduled social posts do not reliably publish on their own — externalise schedule:run with Cloud Scheduler hitting a cron endpoint (every minute), or set cpu_always_allocated = true and min_instance_count >= 1 to restore continuous in-process operation (mirroring the always-on apps documented in the repository's CLAUDE.md).
• NFS is enabled by default (enable_nfs = true, /mnt/nfs) for shared media/file storage, and doubles as the default Redis host when redis_host is left blank.
• APP_KEY is generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager in Laravel's native base64:<value> format — never rotate it after first boot.
• Laravel DB env mapping is hardcoded in main.tf. db_user_env_var_name = "DB_USERNAME", db_name_env_var_name = "DB_DATABASE", and service_url_env_var_name = "APP_URL" are set in the Application module's main.tf (not operator-configurable) so the Foundation's tenant-scoped DB_USER/DB_NAME/service URL land on the environment variable names Laravel's env() actually reads.
• The startup probe is TCP, the liveness probe is HTTP. main.tf overrides Mixpost_Common's config to use a TCP startup probe on port 80 (Cloud Run health checks arrive over plain HTTP from a Google-internal address, and TCP is sufficient to confirm the port is listening) and an HTTP liveness probe against /, which Mixpost answers with 200.
• container_image_source = "prebuilt" deploys inovector/mixpost:<version> directly; there is no custom Dockerfile build for this module.

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2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume PROJECT and REGION are set. Service and resource names are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. Cloud Run — the Mixpost service

Mixpost runs as a Cloud Run v2 service that autoscales by request load between the minimum and maximum instance counts. Each deployment creates an immutable revision; traffic can be split across revisions for safe rollouts.

• Console: Cloud Run → select the service for revisions, traffic, 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"

See App_CloudRun for scaling, concurrency, execution environment, and traffic splitting.

B. Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0

Mixpost stores all application data (social accounts, posts, media metadata, users) in a managed Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0 instance. On first deploy the db-init initialization Job creates the application database (utf8mb4) and user and grants privileges; the connection method (socket vs TCP) is auto-detected from $DB_HOST.

• 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"
  gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --database=<db-name> --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database, user, and password secret are in the Outputs. See App_CloudRun for the connection model, backups, and password rotation.

C. Cloud Storage

A dedicated Cloud Storage storage-suffixed bucket is provisioned automatically by Mixpost_Common. Additional buckets can be declared via storage_buckets.

• Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets.
• CLI:

  gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~storage"
  gcloud storage ls gs://<bucket-name>/        # bucket name is in the Outputs

See App_CloudRun for GCS Fuse and CMEK options.

D. Redis (queue, cache & sessions)

Redis is enabled by default (enable_redis = true), driving QUEUE_CONNECTION, CACHE_DRIVER, and SESSION_DRIVER. No dedicated Memorystore instance is provisioned by this module — unless redis_host is overridden to an external instance, Redis is expected at the NFS server VM's IP (the same Compute Engine VM that serves NFS also runs Redis in this repository's shared-infrastructure convention).

• Console: Memorystore → Redis (only if pointed at a managed instance); otherwise Compute Engine → VM instances for the NFS/Redis host.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" \
    --format='value(spec.template.spec.containers[0].env)' | grep -E 'QUEUE_CONNECTION|CACHE_DRIVER|SESSION_DRIVER'
  gcloud compute instances list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~nfs"

E. Secret Manager

One Mixpost-specific secret is generated automatically: the Laravel APP_KEY (secret-<resource_prefix>-<application_name>-app-key), a random 32-character value base64-encoded in Laravel's native base64:<value> format. The database password is managed separately by the foundation.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

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

See App_CloudRun for injection and rotation details.

F. Cloud Filestore (NFS)

Enabled by default (enable_nfs = true), mounted at /mnt/nfs for shared media/upload persistence, and — when redis_host is left blank — also the default Redis endpoint.

• Console: Filestore → Instances; or Compute Engine → VM instances if the Redis/NFS host is the repository's self-managed NFS VM.
• CLI:

  gcloud filestore instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud compute instances list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~nfs"

G. Networking & ingress

The service is reachable at its run.app URL by default. An external HTTPS load balancer with a custom domain, Cloud CDN, and Cloud Armor can be layered on; ingress settings and VPC egress control connectivity.

• Console: Cloud Run (service URL); Network services → Load balancing.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" --format='value(status.url)'
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun.

H. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Container logs flow to Cloud Logging; Cloud Run and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring, with optional uptime checks and alert policies.

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

  gcloud run services logs read <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" --limit 50

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3. Mixpost Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. The db-init initialization Job runs db-init.sh using mysql:8.0-debian. It auto-detects whether $DB_HOST is a Unix socket path (-S) or a TCP host (-h ... --get-server-public-key, needed because MySQL 8's caching_sha2_password refuses to send a password over what looks like an unencrypted connection), idempotently creates the application database with utf8mb4, creates the application user, and grants privileges. The job is safe to re-run (execute_on_apply = true, max_retries = 1).
• No separate migration job. The prebuilt inovector/mixpost image's built-in supervisord entrypoint runs php artisan migrate --force and seeds the admin account on every boot, so there is no distinct migrate init job — upgrading application_version applies schema changes automatically on next start.
• APP_KEY is immutable after first boot. Generated once by Mixpost_Common and written to Secret Manager as base64:<32-char value>. Rotating it invalidates encrypted session/cookie data and any encrypted database fields.
• Admin account defaults are baked into the image, not configurable via this module. mixpost_admin_email is declared for forwarding but is not currently injected into the running container config — the image seeds its own default admin account regardless of this variable. Retrieve the actual first-login credentials from the image's documented defaults and change the password immediately after first login.
• Scheduled publishing depends on the instance staying warm. With the cold-start default (min_instance_count = 0, cpu_always_allocated = false), the in-container Laravel scheduler/queue worker only runs while a request is in flight or the instance is within its keep-warm window. For reliable scheduled posting, either point a Cloud Scheduler job at a cron/health endpoint every minute to keep an instance alive and trigger schedule:run, or set cpu_always_allocated = true with min_instance_count >= 1.
• Health path. The startup probe is TCP on port 80 (avoids any HTTP redirect/auth complications on first boot); the liveness probe is HTTP on /, which Mixpost/nginx answers directly with 200. REQUIRE_HTTPS = false is injected because Cloud Run terminates TLS in front of the container.
• Inspect job execution:

  gcloud run jobs list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run jobs executions list --job <job-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"

• Inspect the running configuration:

  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" \
    --format='value(spec.template.spec.containers[0].env)' | grep -E 'DB_|APP_URL|QUEUE_CONNECTION'

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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 Mixpost are listed; every other input is inherited from App_CloudRun with its standard behaviour.

Group 1 — Project & Identity

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

Group 2 — Deployment Environment

Variable	Default	Description
tenant_deployment_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.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	mixpost	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
application_display_name	Mixpost	Human-readable name shown in the Console.
application_description	Mixpost - Open-source social media management platform	Service description.
application_version	latest	inovector/mixpost image tag deployed directly (prebuilt, no custom build).

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
container_image_source	prebuilt	Deploys inovector/mixpost directly; forwarded explicitly so the Foundation does not treat this as a custom build with no Dockerfile.
container_image	""	Override to a mirrored or custom image URI.
cpu_limit	2000m	2 vCPU recommended.
memory_limit	2Gi	Mixpost requires at least 2Gi for media processing and queue workers.
cpu_always_allocated	false	Cold-start/request-based billing. Set true (with min_instance_count >= 1) to keep the Laravel scheduler/queue worker running continuously; otherwise externalise schedule:run via Cloud Scheduler.
min_instance_count	0	0 enables scale-to-zero; set 1+ to avoid cold starts and keep the scheduler warm.
max_instance_count	3	Cost ceiling; increase cautiously — Mixpost has no built-in multi-instance queue coordination beyond Redis.
container_port	80	nginx + PHP-FPM serve plain HTTP on port 80.
execution_environment	gen2	Gen2 required for NFS and GCS Fuse mounts.
timeout_seconds	300	Maximum request duration (0–3600 seconds).
enable_cloudsql_volume	false	Cloud SQL Auth Proxy Unix socket. Enable for socket-based connections; db-init.sh auto-detects socket vs TCP either way.
enable_image_mirroring	true	Mirror the Mixpost image into Artifact Registry.
traffic_split	[]	Split traffic across revisions for staged rollouts.
max_revisions_to_retain	7	Declared for convention parity; not referenced by this module's deployment.
container_protocol	http1	h2c available if the app supports HTTP/2 cleartext.
cloudsql_volume_mount_path	/cloudsql	Mount path for the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy socket.

Group 5 — Access & Ingress Control

Variable	Default	Description
ingress_settings	all	Public ingress for the Mixpost UI and any inbound social-platform webhooks.
vpc_egress_setting	PRIVATE_RANGES_ONLY	Route only RFC 1918 traffic via VPC.
enable_iap	false	Require Google sign-in.
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups	[]	Who may access through IAP.

Group 6 — Environment Variables & Secrets

Variable	Default	Description
environment_variables	{}	Extra non-secret settings. Core APP_*/DB_*/MAIL_* values are set automatically.
secret_environment_variables	{}	Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name.
explicit_secret_values	{}	Raw sensitive values written directly into Secret Manager during deployment.
secret_propagation_delay	30	Seconds to wait after secret creation before proceeding.
secret_rotation_period	2592000s	Secret Manager rotation notification frequency.

Group 7 — 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.

Group 8 — CI/CD & Binary Authorization

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

Group 9 — NFS Instance & Custom SQL

Variable	Default	Description
nfs_instance_name / nfs_instance_base_name	(set)	Existing NFS instance / base name for an inline one.
enable_custom_sql_scripts / custom_sql_scripts_bucket / custom_sql_scripts_path / custom_sql_scripts_use_root	off	Run SQL from a GCS bucket after provisioning. See App_CloudRun.

Group 10 — Cloud Armor, CDN & Image Retention

Variable	Default	Description
enable_cloud_armor	false	Provision Global HTTPS LB + Cloud Armor WAF.
admin_ip_ranges	[]	CIDR ranges exempted from WAF rules.
application_domains	[]	Custom domain names for the HTTPS LB.
enable_cdn	false	Enable Cloud CDN on the HTTPS LB backend.
max_images_to_retain / delete_untagged_images / image_retention_days	(set)	Artifact Registry cleanup policy.

Group 11 — Storage & Filesystem

Variable	Default	Description
create_cloud_storage	true	Create GCS buckets defined in storage_buckets.
storage_buckets	[{ name_suffix = "storage" }]	The auto-provisioned bucket plus any additional buckets.
enable_nfs	true	On by default for shared media/uploads, and doubles as the default Redis host source.
nfs_mount_path	/mnt/nfs	Mount path inside the container.
gcs_volumes	[]	GCS Fuse volume mounts (requires gen2).
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmek	false	CMEK options.

Group 12 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	MYSQL_8_0	Fixed by Mixpost_Common; not overridable to another engine.
application_database_name	mixpost	Database name. Immutable after first deploy.
application_database_user	mixpost	Application database user; password auto-generated in Secret Manager.
database_password_length	32	Generated password length (16–64).
enable_auto_password_rotation / rotation_propagation_delay_sec	off	DB password rotation.

Group 13 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks

Variable	Default	Description
initialization_jobs	[]	Leave empty to use the built-in db-init job.
cron_jobs	[]	Not wired to Mixpost's own scheduler — use this or an external Cloud Scheduler job if externalising schedule:run under the cold-start default.

Group 14 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe	TCP / port 80, 90s delay, failure_threshold=36	Startup probe overridden in main.tf to TCP.
liveness_probe	HTTP /, 120s delay, failure_threshold=3	Liveness probe; Mixpost/nginx answers / with 200.
startup_probe_config	HTTP /, 90s delay	Alternative structured probe (config-object default; superseded by the startup_probe override above for the actual Cloud Run revision).
health_check_config	HTTP /, 120s delay	Alternative structured liveness probe.
uptime_check_config	{ enabled=false, path="/" }	Cloud Monitoring uptime check; disabled by default.
alert_policies	[]	Metric alert policies.

Group 21 — Redis Cache & Queue

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	true	Wires QUEUE_CONNECTION/CACHE_DRIVER/SESSION_DRIVER to redis; falls back to sync/file when disabled.
redis_host	""	Leave empty to use the NFS server IP (requires enable_nfs = true).
redis_port	6379	Redis port.
redis_auth	""	Optional Redis auth password (sensitive).

Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging

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

Group 23 — Mixpost Application Settings

Variable	Default	Description
mixpost_admin_email	admin@example.com	Declared for wiring; not currently injected into the running config — the image seeds its own default admin account regardless.
mail_from_name	Mixpost	Sender display name on outgoing emails (MAIL_FROM_NAME).
mail_from_address	mixpost@example.com	Sender address on outgoing emails (MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS); MAIL_MAILER = "smtp" is set automatically.

All other inputs follow standard App_CloudRun behaviour.

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5. Outputs

Returned on a successful deployment — the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

Output	Description
service_name	Cloud Run service name.
service_url	Default run.app URL of the service.
service_location	Region the service runs in.
stage_services	Stage-specific service URLs (Cloud Deploy).
load_balancer_ip / load_balancer_url	External HTTPS load balancer IP / URL (when enabled).
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 / port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regions	VPC network, presence, regions.
container_image / container_registry	Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels / uptime_check_names	Monitoring status, channels, 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 / github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and 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).

Inherited plan-time validation. This module passes its configuration through the App_CloudRun foundation engine, which validates values and combinations at plan time — a read replica without its primary, IAP with no authorized identities, a gen1 runtime with NFS/GCS mounts, an out-of-range redis_port/backup_retention_days. Invalid configuration fails the plan with a clear, named error before any resource is created, so most mistakes below are caught up front rather than at apply or runtime.

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
database_type	MYSQL_8_0 (fixed)	Critical	Not overridable to another engine; Mixpost_Common hardcodes MySQL regardless of this variable's face value.
application_database_name / application_database_user	Set once	Critical	Immutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and orphans all data.
APP_KEY (auto-generated)	Never rotate after first boot	Critical	Rotating the Laravel key invalidates encrypted session/cookie data and any encrypted database fields.
enable_backup_import	false unless restoring	Critical	Enabling without a valid backup_uri fails the import job.
cpu_always_allocated / min_instance_count	true + >=1 if using scheduled posting	High	Leaving the cold-start default (false / 0) means the Laravel scheduler and queue worker only run while an instance happens to be warm — scheduled social posts silently stop publishing on a schedule unless externalised via Cloud Scheduler.
enable_redis + redis_host / enable_nfs	true + NFS on, or an explicit redis_host	High	Enabling Redis with no host source (no redis_host, no NFS) leaves the Redis connection blank and the app fails to queue/cache/session correctly.
enable_cloudsql_volume	Match the app's DB connection expectations	High	This module defaults it false (TCP/private-IP); if db-init or the app cannot reach the DB, verify whether a socket (true) or TCP path is actually being used at the deployed revision.
memory_limit	2Gi	High	Mixpost requires at least 2Gi for media processing and queue workers; lower values risk OOM kills under concurrent load.
mixpost_admin_email	Retrieve real credentials post-deploy	Medium	The variable is not injected into the running config; the image seeds its own default admin account regardless — change the password immediately after first login.
min_instance_count	0 for cost, 1+ for latency/scheduling	Medium	Scale-to-zero (0) adds cold-start delay on the first request after idle, in addition to the scheduling trade-off above.
backup_retention_days	7 (raise for prod)	Medium	Too short for compliance retention.
enable_cloud_armor	enable for production	Medium	The admin UI and login are publicly reachable without WAF protection.

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For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — service identity, scaling and concurrency, ingress and load balancing, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_CloudRun. Mixpost-specific application configuration (the APP_KEY secret, the db-init script, and the environment variables merged into the container) is shared with the GKE variant via the internal Mixpost_Common module, which is not deployed directly and does not yet have its own configuration guide.