PocketBase on Google Cloud Run

PocketBase is an open-source backend in a single file — an embedded SQLite database with a realtime REST API, built-in authentication, file storage, and an admin dashboard. This module deploys PocketBase 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 PocketBase 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

PocketBase runs as a single self-contained Go binary on Cloud Run v2. The deployment wires together a deliberately minimal set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	Cloud Run v2	Single Go binary, 1 vCPU / 1 GiB by default, listens on port 8090
Database	Embedded SQLite	No Cloud SQL — the database lives in /pb_data, persisted to Cloud Storage
Persistent storage	Cloud Storage (GCS FUSE)	A dedicated data bucket mounted at /pb_data (gen2 required)
Cache & queue	None	PocketBase uses no Redis; enable_redis = false
Secrets	Secret Manager	None auto-generated — auth lives inside SQLite; secrets optional for your own use
Ingress	Cloud Run URL / Cloud Load Balancing	Default run.app URL (ingress = all); optional external HTTPS LB + custom domain

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• The database is embedded SQLite — there is no Cloud SQL. PocketBase stores every record, auth token, and uploaded file under /pb_data, which is mounted from a Cloud Storage bucket via GCS FUSE. Losing or wiping that bucket loses all data.
• max_instance_count must stay at 1. SQLite is a single-writer database and the /pb_data FUSE mount is not safe for concurrent writers. Running more than one instance corrupts the database. This is why both min and max default to 1.
• min_instance_count = 1 by default (no scale-to-zero). Keeping one instance warm avoids cold-start latency and keeps the single SQLite writer live. Cloud Run cold starts would otherwise add first-request latency after idle.
• The admin account is created interactively on first run at /_/. No admin password is injected. Whoever reaches /_/ first creates the superuser — open the admin URL and create it immediately after deploy.
• No secret is auto-generated. PocketBase issues and stores all auth itself; Secret Manager is used only if you add your own secrets (SMTP, external backup keys, etc.).
• Public ingress by default. ingress_settings = "all" — PocketBase is a user-facing web app (admin UI at /_/ plus a public REST API). Enabling IAP will block public API and app traffic.
• NFS and Redis are disabled. PocketBase needs neither; all state is the single /pb_data volume.
• gen2 execution environment is required for the GCS FUSE /pb_data mount.

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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 PocketBase service

PocketBase runs as a Cloud Run v2 service listening on port 8090. Each deployment creates an immutable revision; traffic can be split across revisions for safe rollouts. Keep it at a single instance (see §3).

• 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. Database — embedded SQLite (no Cloud SQL)

There is no Cloud SQL instance. PocketBase's database is a set of SQLite files inside /pb_data, which is mounted from the Cloud Storage data bucket. To inspect or back up the database you work with the bucket contents, not a SQL endpoint.

• Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets → the PocketBase data bucket → pb_data/.
• CLI:

  # Confirm the service reports NO Cloud SQL attachment:
  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" \
    --format='value(spec.template.metadata.annotations)'
  # Copy the SQLite database out of the bucket for an offline backup / inspection:
  gcloud storage cp gs://<data-bucket>/data.db ./pb_data-backup.db

C. Cloud Storage — the /pb_data volume

A dedicated Cloud Storage bucket (suffix storage) is provisioned automatically and mounted at /pb_data via GCS FUSE. It holds the SQLite database, uploaded files, and settings — everything PocketBase persists.

• Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets.
• CLI:

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

See App_CloudRun for GCS FUSE and CMEK options. The bucket enforces public-access prevention.

D. Secret Manager

No secret is auto-generated for PocketBase — its auth is stored inside SQLite. Secret Manager is used only if you inject your own secrets (for example, SMTP credentials or external backup keys) via secret_environment_variables.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

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

E. Networking & ingress

The service is reachable at its run.app URL by default (ingress = all), which allows the public access PocketBase's app and API need. An external HTTPS load balancer with a custom domain, Cloud CDN, and Cloud Armor can be layered on.

• 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.

F. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Container logs flow to Cloud Logging; Cloud Run 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. PocketBase Application Behaviour

• No first-deploy database job. PocketBase creates its own SQLite database, system collections, and schema on first start under /pb_data. There is no db-init job to run or monitor.
• Migrations apply automatically on start. PocketBase runs any pending schema migrations itself on every startup, so upgrading application_version applies schema changes with no separate migration step. Always back up /pb_data before a version bump.
• The admin superuser is created on first run. Open https://<service-url>/_/ right after deploy and create the administrator account. Until it exists, anyone who reaches /_/ can claim it — treat this as a time-sensitive first-run step.
• The /pb_data volume is the only durable state. The SQLite database, uploaded files, and settings all live there. Protect the data bucket accordingly; back it up on a schedule.
• Single-instance by design. SQLite serialises writes through one database file and the GCS FUSE mount is single-writer. min_instance_count and max_instance_count both default to 1; do not raise max_instance_count.
• Health path. Startup and liveness probes target /api/health, PocketBase's public, unauthenticated endpoint (returns HTTP 200 / {"code":200,"message":"API is healthy."}). First boot is fast because there is no external DB to wait on.
• Verify runtime state:

  curl -s "$(gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" \
    --format='value(status.url)')/api/health"
  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" \
    --format='value(spec.template.spec.containers[0].env)'

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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 PocketBase 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	pocketbase	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
application_version	latest	Image tag; latest resolves to the pinned 0.22.21 build ARG. Pin an explicit release in production.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
cpu_limit	1000m	CPU per instance; 1 vCPU is comfortable for the single Go binary.
memory_limit	1Gi	Memory per instance; PocketBase is lightweight (512Mi is often enough).
min_instance_count	1	Keep at 1 — avoids cold starts and keeps the single SQLite writer live.
max_instance_count	1	Do not raise. SQLite + GCS FUSE are single-writer; >1 corrupts data.
container_port	8090	PocketBase listens on 8090 (HTTP API + admin UI).
execution_environment	gen2	Required for the GCS FUSE /pb_data mount.
enable_cloudsql_volume	false	Forced off — PocketBase uses no Cloud SQL.
enable_image_mirroring	true	Mirror/build the PocketBase image into Artifact Registry.

Group 5 — Access & Ingress Control

Variable	Default	Description
ingress_settings	all	Public access for the app UI and REST API. internal restricts to the VPC.
enable_iap	false	Require Google sign-in. Blocks the public API and admin UI.

Group 6 — Environment Variables & Secrets

Variable	Default	Description
environment_variables	{}	Extra non-secret settings for the container (PocketBase needs none for first boot).
secret_environment_variables	{}	Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name (only for your own secrets).

Group 11 — Storage & Filesystem

Variable	Default	Description
create_cloud_storage	true	Provision the /pb_data data bucket and any extra storage_buckets.
storage_buckets	[]	Additional GCS buckets beyond the auto-provisioned data bucket.
enable_nfs	false	NFS is off — PocketBase persists everything to the /pb_data bucket.
gcs_volumes	[]	Extra GCS FUSE volumes (the /pb_data volume is added automatically).

Group 12 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	NONE	Fixed — PocketBase uses an embedded SQLite database; no Cloud SQL is created.

Group 14 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe	HTTP /api/health, 15s delay	Startup probe; fast because there is no external DB to wait on.
liveness_probe	HTTP /api/health, 30s delay	Liveness probe against the public health endpoint.
uptime_check_config	disabled, path /api/health	Cloud Monitoring uptime check.

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.
pocketbase_url	Service URL for the PocketBase HTTP API + admin UI (port 8090).
service_location	Region the service runs in.
stage_services	Stage-specific service details (Cloud Deploy).
load_balancer_ip / load_balancer_url	External HTTPS load balancer IP / URL (when enabled).
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets (includes the /pb_data 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 / uptime_check_names	Monitoring status, channels, uptime checks.
initialization_jobs	Names of any custom setup jobs (none by default).
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 — an invalid container_port, a gen1 runtime with GCS FUSE mounts, IAP with no authorized identities, out-of-range probe or retention values. 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
max_instance_count	1 (never raise)	Critical	SQLite + GCS FUSE are single-writer; more than one instance corrupts the database.
The /pb_data data bucket	Never delete; back up	Critical	The bucket is the database and file store — deleting or wiping it destroys all data.
database_type	NONE (fixed)	Critical	PocketBase has no external DB; selecting an engine provisions unused Cloud SQL and does not change where data lives.
Admin account at /_/	Create immediately after deploy	Critical	Until the superuser exists, anyone reaching /_/ can claim it and own the instance.
application_version bump	Back up /pb_data first	High	PocketBase auto-migrates the schema on start; an interrupted upgrade can leave the SQLite DB mid-migration.
execution_environment	gen2	High	gen1 cannot mount the GCS FUSE /pb_data volume; the service starts with no persistent data.
ingress_settings	all	High	internal blocks the public app UI and REST API from the internet.
enable_iap	Only for private deployments	High	IAP blocks all unauthenticated requests, including public API clients and the admin UI.
min_instance_count	1	Medium	Scale-to-zero (0) adds cold-start latency and briefly drops the single SQLite writer between requests.
memory_limit	1Gi (512Mi min)	Low	PocketBase is lightweight; over-provisioning only adds cost.

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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. PocketBase-specific application configuration shared with the GKE variant is described in PocketBase_Common.