Certification track: Professional Cloud Developer (PCD)
Strapi on Google Cloud Run
Strapi is the leading open-source headless CMS — delivering a fully customisable content API (REST and GraphQL) with a rich admin panel, used by enterprises and developers worldwide for content management and API-first architectures. This module deploys Strapi 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 Strapi 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.
What Strapi costs on RAD, and how that compares
Strapi on RAD's Cloud Run module costs about US$98.82 a month in a Google Cloud project you own, with the module fee charged once in RAD credits. Strapi needs its own database and a small shared file server for uploads, so most of the running cost is infrastructure rather than the CMS process itself. For the lowest cost this stays on Cloud Run; GKE Autopilot is only worth it if it needs to sit beside other Kubernetes workloads — see the GKE guide for that option, at about US$104.74 a month instead. If you only need Strapi occasionally — a content project between launches, a client site under evaluation — a RAD-managed project can be deleted and restored within 30 days for a handful of credits (under US$1) instead of paying for it to sit idle. See Pause it for free, below. Figures are as at 8 October 2026; sources are listed at the end of this section.
What you pay on RAD
| In a Google Cloud project you own | In a project RAD manages for you | |
|---|---|---|
| Module fee, once per deployment | 110 credits (US$11 at the top-up price) | 99 credits (10% lower) |
| Build time | About 3-6 credits per build | The same |
| Google Cloud running cost | Billed by Google to your own billing account, about US$98.82 a month for the default configuration (table below) | Metered hourly in credits; RAD publishes 32 credits a day, about 960 a month |
| Who owns what | You own the project and its billing; RAD deploys and updates it | RAD 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 set of them.
Default running cost in your own project (us-central1, Google list prices):
| Resource (module default) | Per month |
|---|---|
| Cloud Run, 2x vCPU / 2 GiB (scaleToZero) | US$28.37 |
| Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, 1 vCPU / 3.75 GB, zonal, 10 GB SSD | US$51.02 |
| NFS/cache file server (small VM) | US$13.43 |
| Cloud NAT and networking | US$5.00 |
| Cloud Storage (add-ons, backups) | US$1.00 |
| Total | US$98.82 |
How it compares
- Strapi's own hosted plan, Strapi Cloud, starts at $35/month (Starter: 100k API requests, 50 GB storage/bandwidth), rising to $90/month (Pro) and $450/month (Business) for more requests and storage (source: strapi.io/pricing-cloud). RAD's own-project figure sits above the Starter plan's sticker price, but it buys the headless CMS plus a dedicated PostgreSQL instance, NFS share and networking you control directly, rather than a usage-metered Strapi-run environment.
- A self-managed comparison: Hetzner CPX22 (2 vCPU/4GB) runs about $24/month, a DigitalOcean 2 vCPU/4GB Droplet is the same $24/month, and a GCP Compute Engine e2-standard-2 (2 vCPU/8GB) is about $49/month — cheaper in cash terms, but none include a managed database, backups or TLS, which you would run and patch yourself.
- Most of RAD's own-project running cost here is the database and the NFS file server, not Strapi's own container — the same resources any serious CMS deployment needs, managed rather than self-administered.
Pause it for free: delete a RAD-managed project, restore it when you need it
If Strapi runs in a project RAD manages for you, deleting the whole project unlinks its billing first, then asks Google to delete the project outright — Google's own 30-day recoverable soft delete. Unlike deleting one module, this does not tear down Cloud SQL, the NFS VM or the compute resource one by one: the whole project simply stops, and nothing is charged while it waits, because billing is already unlinked.
Restoring, within 30 days and only by the project's owner, 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. This costs only a handful of credits (under US$1) in total for a typical 2-3-deployment chain.
What this needs: you must own the project (not one RAD only manages billing for), you must restore it yourself within 30 days — after that Google deletes it for good — and restoring is admitted like creating a new project, so your purchased credit balance must still clear the tier's floor (100 credits for the sandbox tier most study/demo use fits). Google says most services are fully working again within 36 hours of a restore.
One real gap: nightly backups are written to a bucket inside the project, and that bucket has Cloud Storage's soft-delete explicitly turned off, 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 your content types or uploaded assets you want to keep, copy a backup out (to Google Drive, or a bucket outside the project) before deleting. For a default install with nothing irreplaceable in it, this does not matter.
Pay only while you use it, the other way: delete and redeploy
In your own project, or once the 30-day restore window has passed, the alternative is to delete Strapi outright and redeploy it later. A redeploy costs the module fee again, plus the builds — roughly 115 credits (about US$11.50) in your own project, or 104 credits in a RAD-managed one.
Deleting saves money only once Strapi would otherwise sit unused long enough to clear that redeploy cost against its own daily running cost — against the own-project total above (about US$3.29 a day), that works out to about 4 days or more, or about 4 days or more in a RAD-managed one (32 credits a day). Most of the running cost here is the database and the NFS file server; they stop only when nothing else in the project uses them, so deleting Strapi while something else shares the project saves only this app's own compute part.
Keep 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 Billing Catalog API list prices; radmodules.dev/pricing for RAD's own fees and daily-credit estimates; Delete and restore projects for the pause/restore mechanics; strapi.io/pricing-cloud for Strapi Cloud's hosted plans.
1. Overview
Strapi runs as a Node.js container on Cloud Run v2. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:
| Capability | Google Cloud service | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Compute | Cloud Run v2 | Node.js service, 2 vCPU / 2 GiB by default, request-based autoscaling |
| Database | Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 | Required — Strapi requires PostgreSQL |
| Shared files | Filestore (NFS) | Media uploads shared across all instances (gen2 required) |
| Object storage | Cloud Storage | A dedicated uploads bucket (strapi-uploads suffix) |
| Cache (optional) | Redis / Memorystore | Optional; disabled by default |
| Secrets | Secret Manager | Five auto-generated cryptographic secrets plus the 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:
- PostgreSQL is required. Strapi's data layer is wired to PostgreSQL; MySQL and
NONEbreak startup. - A custom container image is built via Cloud Build.
container_image_sourcedefaults to"custom"— the module builds a production-ready two-stage Node.js 20 image on every version increment. - Five cryptographic secrets are auto-generated.
JWT_SECRET,ADMIN_JWT_SECRET,API_TOKEN_SALT,TRANSFER_TOKEN_SALT, andAPP_KEYSare generated and stored in Secret Manager on first deploy and must never change after that. - NFS is enabled by default. Strapi stores uploaded media under
/uploads. Without a shared NFS volume (gen2 required), media is lost between instances. - Redis is disabled by default. Enable it only when using plugins that explicitly
require a shared cache or session store; when enabled,
redis_hostmust be set. - Container port is 8080 on Cloud Run. The Cloud Run module overrides Strapi Common's default port of 1337 to comply with Cloud Run's standard port.
- GCS media bucket variables are auto-injected.
GCS_BUCKET_NAMEandGCS_BASE_URLare set automatically; no manual configuration is required. - Scale-to-zero is the default.
min_instance_count = 0allows the service to scale to zero when idle, though this adds cold-start latency of 15–30 seconds on first request.
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 Strapi service
Strapi 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 "$REGION"
See App_CloudRun for scaling, concurrency, execution environment, and traffic splitting.
B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15
Strapi stores all application data (content types, content, users, API tokens) in a managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 instance. The service connects privately through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy over a Unix socket (no public IP). On first deploy an initialization Cloud Run Job creates the application database and user.
- Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, metrics.
- CLI:
gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --project "$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. Filestore (NFS) and Cloud Storage
Uploaded media is written to a Filestore (NFS) share mounted into the service so
all instances share the same files (gen2 execution environment required). A dedicated
Cloud Storage bucket (suffix strapi-uploads) is also provisioned and configured
as the Strapi GCS upload provider.
- Console: Filestore → Instances; Cloud Storage → Buckets.
- CLI:
gcloud filestore instances list --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud storage ls gs://<uploads-bucket>/ # bucket name is in the Outputs
See App_CloudRun for the NFS mount, GCS Fuse, and CMEK.
D. Secret Manager
Five Strapi cryptographic secrets are generated on first deploy and stored in Secret
Manager: JWT_SECRET, ADMIN_JWT_SECRET, API_TOKEN_SALT, TRANSFER_TOKEN_SALT,
and APP_KEYS (four comma-joined keys). The database password is also stored here.
All secrets are injected into the service at runtime.
- Console: Security → Secret Manager.
- CLI:
gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> --project "$PROJECT"
See App_CloudRun for injection and rotation details.
E. Redis cache (optional)
When enable_redis = true, Redis is used as a session store and REST API response
cache via the strapi-plugin-redis and strapi-plugin-rest-cache plugins. When
redis_host is left null and NFS is enabled, the NFS host IP is used as the Redis
endpoint at runtime.
- Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance).
- CLI:
redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping
redis-cli -h <redis-host> info keyspace
F. 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.
G. 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
3. Strapi Application Behaviour
- First-deploy database setup. A
db-initCloud Run Job runs on every apply usingpostgres:15-alpine. It idempotently creates the Strapi database and user, grants the necessary privileges (includingCREATEDB), and signals the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy to shut down cleanly. It is safe to re-run. - GCS media provider.
GCS_BUCKET_NAMEandGCS_BASE_URLare automatically injected into the container. Strapi'sconfig/plugins.jsdetects these variables and switches to the GCS upload provider for all media library assets. - Email delivery (optional). If
SMTP_HOSTis set inenvironment_variables,config/plugins.jsautomatically enables thenodemaileremail provider for Strapi notifications. SetSMTP_PASSWORDviasecret_environment_variables. - Health probe. Both startup and liveness probes target
/_healthvia HTTP — Strapi's dedicated health endpoint that returns 200 only when the application and database connection are ready. The startup probe (startup_probe— the value actually applied;startup_probe_configis a separate, inert variable) allows up to ~90 seconds (60s initial delay + 3 × 10-second period) for first-boot initialisation. - Cryptographic secrets are immutable after first deploy. All five auto-generated secrets sign active sessions and API tokens. Regenerating any of them immediately invalidates all active sessions and tokens.
- Admin login. There is no default admin user; Strapi's first-run wizard creates the initial administrator on first browser visit to the admin panel.
4. Configuration Variables
Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for Strapi 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_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 | strapi | Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy. |
application_display_name | Strapi CMS | Friendly name shown in the Console. |
application_description | Strapi CMS on Cloud Run | Service description. |
application_version | 5.0.0 | Image tag; increment to trigger a new Cloud Build run and revision. Does not select the Strapi package version — @strapi/strapi is pinned in Strapi_Common/scripts/package.json (currently 4.24.2) and this variable has no effect on it. |
Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
deploy_application | true | Set false to provision infrastructure only. |
container_image_source | custom | "custom" triggers Cloud Build; "prebuilt" deploys an existing image URI. |
container_image | "" | Override image URI; leave empty for the module-built image. |
container_build_config | { enabled = true } | Dockerfile path, build context, and build args for Cloud Build. |
enable_image_mirroring | true | Mirror image into Artifact Registry before deployment. |
cpu_limit | 2000m | CPU per instance. |
memory_limit | 2Gi | Memory per instance; Strapi needs headroom for Node.js and admin panel. |
min_instance_count | 0 | Minimum instances (0 = scale-to-zero). Set to 1 to eliminate cold starts. |
max_instance_count | 1 | Maximum instances; increase after validating NFS shared state. |
container_port | 1337 | Port the Cloud Run service routes traffic to (Cloud Run default). |
execution_environment | gen2 | gen2 is required for NFS mounts. |
timeout_seconds | 300 | Max request duration; increase for long media processing. |
enable_cloudsql_volume | true | Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar for socket connections. |
traffic_split | [] | Split traffic across revisions for canary/blue-green rollouts. |
max_revisions_to_retain | 7 | How many old Cloud Run revisions to keep. |
Group 5 — Access & Ingress Control
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_iap | false | Require Google sign-in via Identity-Aware Proxy. |
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups | [] | Who may access through IAP. |
ingress_settings | all | Which networks may reach the service (all / internal / LB-only). |
vpc_egress_setting | PRIVATE_RANGES_ONLY | How outbound traffic is routed through the VPC connector. |
Group 6 — Environment Variables & Secrets
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
environment_variables | {} | Extra non-secret settings. GCS_BUCKET_NAME and GCS_BASE_URL are injected automatically. |
secret_environment_variables | {} | Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name for additional secrets. |
secret_propagation_delay | 30 | Seconds to wait after secret creation before proceeding. |
secret_rotation_period | 2592000s | Pub/Sub rotation notification frequency. |
Group 7 — Backup & Restore
| 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_file / backup_format | restore options | Restore from a backup on deploy. Note: this module uses backup_file (not backup_uri). |
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, binauthz_evaluation_mode.
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. |
Group 10 — Load Balancer, CDN & Cloud Armor
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_cloud_armor | false | Provision Global HTTPS Load Balancer + Cloud Armor WAF. |
admin_ip_ranges | [] | CIDRs exempted from WAF rules. |
application_domains | [] | Custom domain names for the HTTPS LB. |
enable_cdn | false | Enable Cloud CDN on the LB backend. |
max_images_to_retain / delete_untagged_images / image_retention_days | (set) | Artifact Registry cleanup policy. |
Group 11 — Storage & Filesystem
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_nfs | true | Shared Filestore volume for Strapi media (gen2 required). |
nfs_mount_path | /mnt/nfs | Mount path inside the container. |
create_cloud_storage / storage_buckets / gcs_volumes | (set) | Additional buckets / GCS Fuse mounts. |
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmek | false | CMEK options. |
Group 12 — Database Backend
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
database_type | POSTGRES_15 | PostgreSQL is required — do not change to MySQL or NONE. |
application_database_name | strapidb | Database name. Immutable after first deploy. |
application_database_user | strapiuser | Application user. Immutable after first deploy. |
database_password_length | 32 | Generated password length (16–64). |
enable_auto_password_rotation | false | Zero-downtime DB password rotation. |
db_host_env_var_name / db_name_env_var_name / db_user_env_var_name / db_port_env_var_name / service_url_env_var_name | "" | Additional alias env var names for connection details. |
Group 13 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
initialization_jobs | [{ name="db-init", execute_on_apply=true }] | The built-in db-init job runs on every apply. Override with a non-empty list to replace it. |
cron_jobs | [] | Recurring Cloud Run jobs triggered by Cloud Scheduler. |
additional_services | [] | Co-deployed Cloud Run services (e.g. background workers). |
Group 14 — Observability & Health
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
startup_probe | HTTP /_health, 60s initial delay, 3 retries | The probe actually applied. startup_probe_config is also declared but is superseded by this value and has no effect. |
liveness_probe | HTTP /_health, 30s initial delay, 3 retries | The probe actually applied. health_check_config is also declared but is superseded by this value and has no effect. |
uptime_check_config | disabled, path / | Cloud Monitoring uptime check. |
alert_policies | [] | Metric alert policies. |
Group 21 — Redis Cache
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_redis | false | Use Redis for caching/sessions (disabled by default). |
redis_host | null | Redis endpoint. Leave null to fall back to the NFS server IP (requires enable_nfs = true); if NFS is also disabled the fallback is unresolved and the connection fails. |
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. |
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 (sensitive). |
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. |
6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults
Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).
| Setting | Sensible value | Risk | Consequence if wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
APP_KEYS / JWT_SECRET / ADMIN_JWT_SECRET / API_TOKEN_SALT (auto-generated) | generated once, never changed | Critical | Rotating any of these after first deploy immediately invalidates all active sessions and API tokens; every user is logged out and all client integrations break. |
database_type | POSTGRES_15 | Critical | Strapi requires PostgreSQL; MySQL or NONE breaks startup. |
enable_nfs | true | Critical | Without shared storage, uploads are lost between instances/restarts. |
application_name | set once | Critical | Immutable after first deploy; changing it renames all GCP resources, causing full recreation and data loss. |
application_database_name / application_database_user | set once | Critical | Immutable after first deploy; renaming causes Strapi to connect to an empty database. |
enable_backup_import | false unless restoring | Critical | Enabling without a valid backup_file fails the import job. |
execution_environment | gen2 | High | gen1 does not support NFS mounts; NFS will fail silently. |
enable_redis | false | High | Enable only when plugins require it. An unset redis_host falls back to the NFS server IP (only works when enable_nfs = true); with NFS also disabled, the fallback is unresolved and causes a startup connection error. |
memory_limit | 2Gi | High | Strapi's Node.js runtime and admin panel require sufficient memory; values below 512Mi cause OOM kills. |
min_instance_count | 0 or 1 | Medium | 0 allows scale-to-zero; first request after idle will incur a 15–30 second cold start. |
enable_iap | enable for admin-facing | Medium | The Strapi admin panel is otherwise publicly reachable. |
enable_cloud_armor / enable_cdn | consider for production | Medium | CDN caches content closer to users; Cloud Armor provides WAF and DDoS protection. |
backup_retention_days | 7 (raise for prod) | Medium | Too short for compliance retention. |
secret_propagation_delay | 30 | Low | Too short a delay may cause startup failures on first deploy if secrets have not yet propagated. |
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. Strapi-specific application configuration shared with the GKE variant is described in Strapi_Common.
Related guides
- Hands-on lab: Strapi on Cloud Run — deploy it step by step, with the console screens and commands at each stage.
- Strapi on GKE Autopilot — the same application on Kubernetes, for when you need the other deployment target.
- Strapi Common — Shared Application Configuration — the configuration shared by both deployment targets.
Need RAD to do something it does not do yet? Request it on the roadmap, or vote on what is already there.