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Seerr on Google Cloud Run

Seerr on Google Cloud Run

Seerr is the 2026 merger of Jellyseerr and Overseerr — an open-source, MIT-licensed request UI that sits in front of a Jellyfin, Plex, or Emby media server. Users browse and request titles; an admin approves the request, and Seerr calls Sonarr's and Radarr's APIs to trigger acquisition. This module deploys Seerr 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 Seerr 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.

1. Overview​

Seerr runs as a single Node.js/Next.js container on Cloud Run v2. The deployment wires together a small set of Google Cloud services:

CapabilityGoogle Cloud serviceNotes
ComputeCloud Run v2Single Node.js process, 2 vCPU / 4 GiB by default
DatabaseCloud SQL PostgreSQL 15Holds request/user data; migrations run automatically on every boot
Object storageCloud StorageA storage bucket mounted at /app/config via GCS FUSE — holds settings.json, Seerr's own app settings
Cache & queuenoneSeerr has no Redis or queue dependency
SecretsSecret ManagerOnly the generated database password — Seerr seeds no credentials of its own (its first admin comes from the app's own web setup wizard)
IngressCloud Run URLDefault run.app URL; optional external HTTPS load balancer + custom domain

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

  • Genuinely prebuilt — no custom image. Seerr_Common's scripts/ directory is empty. container_image_source = "prebuilt" deploys ghcr.io/seerr-team/seerr directly; there is no Cloud Build step for the main image.
  • DB_TYPE=postgres is set unconditionally. Seerr's own datasource logic (process.env.DB_TYPE === 'postgres', confirmed via /app/dist/datasource.js in the actual image) falls back to an in-container SQLite file — wiped on every restart, with no error — if this variable is ever missing. Seerr_Common sets it as a static environment variable so a stock deployment is always correct.
  • Port 5055, health path /api/v1/status. Confirmed via local docker run testing and a live deployment: GET /api/v1/status returns an unauthenticated 200 with JSON ({"version":...,"commitTag":...}) once the app is ready.
  • Two distinct pieces of state. PostgreSQL holds request/user data. Seerr's own app settings (connected media servers, discovery sliders, notification agents) are written to a plain settings.json file under /app/config regardless of the database backend — confirmed by direct container filesystem inspection. This module mounts a persistent GCS volume at that path in addition to the Postgres connection.
  • DB_PASS, not DB_PASSWORD. Seerr's TypeORM datasource reads a specifically-named DB_PASS environment variable for the database password. This module sets db_password_env_var_name = "DB_PASS" to match.

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 Seerr service​

  • 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"

See App_CloudRun for scaling, concurrency, and traffic splitting.

B. Cloud SQL — request/user data​

  • CLI: 
    gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
    gcloud sql databases list --instance=<instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"

C. Cloud Storage — the settings volume​

The storage bucket is mounted at /app/config via GCS FUSE. It holds settings.json (and settings.old.json, a db/ directory, and logs/) — Seerr's own application-level configuration, separate from anything stored in PostgreSQL.

  • CLI: 
    gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~seerr"
    gcloud storage ls "gs://<bucket-name>/"

D. Secret Manager​

Only the auto-generated database password lives here — Seerr has no admin-credential secret of its own.

  • CLI: 
    gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~seerr"

E. Networking & ingress​

  • CLI: 
    gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" --format='value(status.url)'

F. Cloud Logging & Monitoring​

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

3. Seerr Application Behaviour​

  • No first-deploy database-schema job. Seerr's dist/index.js calls dbConnection.runMigrations() explicitly on every boot, so there is no db-init/migrate job in this module and none is needed. initialization_jobs is empty by default.
  • First-run setup is entirely in the app's own web UI. There is no seeded admin credential of any kind — visit the service URL after first deploy and complete Seerr's setup wizard: connect Jellyfin/Plex/Emby, then Sonarr/Radarr.
  • Health path. Startup and liveness probes both target GET /api/v1/status — an unauthenticated 200 with JSON payload once the app has finished booting and connecting to Postgres.
  • Inspect job execution (should show nothing, by design): 
    gcloud run jobs executions list --job <job-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"

⚠ The DB_TYPE trap — the most important thing to know about this module​

Seerr's datasource selection is a single, easy-to-miss environment variable check, confirmed by reading /app/dist/datasource.js inside the actual running image:

exports.isPgsql = process.env.DB_TYPE === 'postgres';

If DB_TYPE is not set to exactly postgres, Seerr silently falls back to an in-container SQLite database file — no error, no warning in the logs, and a deployment that otherwise looks completely healthy (the container boots, the health check passes, the UI loads). Every write — including the entire first-run setup — goes to a file wiped clean on the next restart or cold start.

Seerr_Common closes this gap with a static environment variable set unconditionally ahead of any caller-supplied environment_variables:

environment_variables = merge(
  { DB_TYPE = "postgres" },
  var.environment_variables
)

A stock deployment of this module is correct out of the box. The risk surfaces only if you fork the Common module or replace environment_variables wholesale instead of layering additions on top — verify DB_TYPE=postgres survives any such change with:

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

4. Configuration Variables​

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

Group 3 — Application Identity​

VariableDefaultDescription
application_nameseerrBase name for resources.
display_nameSeerrHuman-readable name shown in the platform UI.
application_versionlatestPulled directly as the ghcr.io/seerr-team/seerr image tag — no build step involved.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling​

VariableDefaultDescription
container_port5055Confirmed via local docker run and live deployment.
container_image_sourceprebuiltSeerr only supports the official image; Seerr_Common also hardcodes this internally.
min_instance_count / max_instance_count1 / 5See §6 below — max_instance_count = 5 is a looser default than Seerr's single-writer settings model would suggest.
enable_image_mirroringtrueMirrors the image into Artifact Registry (avoids GHCR rate limits).

Group 11 — Storage & Filesystem​

VariableDefaultDescription
storage_bucketsone data bucketAdditional bucket, separate from the automatic storage bucket.
gcs_volumes[]The storage bucket mount at /app/config is added automatically; use this for additional volumes only.

Group 12 — Database Backend​

VariableDefaultDescription
database_typePOSTGRES_15Required — Seerr has no non-Postgres path.
db_name / db_userseerr / seerrForwarded to Seerr_Common, injected as DB_NAME/DB_USER.
db_password_env_var_nameDB_PASSCritical — Seerr's datasource reads DB_PASS specifically, not the Foundation's default DB_PASSWORD.

Group 13 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks​

VariableDefaultDescription
initialization_jobs[]Empty and typically stays that way — dbConnection.runMigrations() runs on every boot inside the app itself.

Group 14 — Observability & Health​

VariableDefaultDescription
startup_probe / liveness_probeHTTP /api/v1/status (via Seerr_Common)Unauthenticated 200 JSON status endpoint; the variant's own variables.tf default (HTTP /) is superseded by Seerr_Common's more accurate default.

5. Outputs​

OutputDescription
service_name / service_urlCloud Run service name and URL.
database_instance_name / database_name / database_user / database_password_secretCloud SQL instance and Seerr database identifiers.
storage_bucketsThe storage bucket backing /app/config.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefixNaming identifiers.
project_id / project_numberProject identifiers.
initialization_jobsCreated initialization job names (empty for Seerr).

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
DB_TYPE environment variableLeave Seerr_Common's default (postgres) untouchedCriticalMissing/overridden DB_TYPE silently drops Seerr onto a per-container SQLite file wiped on every restart — the app looks healthy, but nothing persists.
db_password_env_var_nameLeave at DB_PASSCriticalSeerr's TypeORM datasource only reads DB_PASS; the Foundation's default DB_PASSWORD alone is never read, and the app cannot authenticate to Postgres.
max_instance_countSet 1 if settings changes (media-server config, discovery sliders, notification agents) must never raceMediumsettings.json is a single mutable file, not a transactional database — concurrent writers from multiple instances risk a lost write. The module default is 5, looser than the single-writer-safe value.
gcs_volumes / storage at /app/configLeave the automatic storage mount in placeCriticalRemoving or misconfiguring this volume loses every app-level setting (media servers, sliders, notification agents) on the next cold start, even though Postgres data is untouched.
Probe pathLeave at /api/v1/statusHighAn authenticated or nonexistent probe path would leave the revision permanently unhealthy even though the app booted fine.

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. Seerr-specific application configuration shared with the GKE variant is described in Seerr_Common.

By · Google Cloud certified: ACE · PCA · PCD · PDE · PSE · CDL

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