Twenty CRM on Google Cloud Run

Twenty is an open-source CRM with 25,000+ GitHub stars, built as a modern, developer-friendly alternative to Salesforce and HubSpot. This module deploys Twenty 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 Twenty 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

Twenty 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 — Twenty does not support MySQL
Object storage	Cloud Storage	Optional; a dedicated bucket when enable_gcs_storage = true
Background jobs	Redis (optional)	bull-mq when enabled; pg-boss (PostgreSQL-backed) by default with no extra infra
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated app secret (APP_SECRET / ENCRYPTION_KEY) and 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 15 is mandatory. Selecting MySQL or NONE breaks startup.
• Redis is enabled by default. Twenty v0.4+ hardcodes Redis for session and cache storage — without a valid Redis connection Twenty fails to start. When redis_host is left empty, the platform NFS VM IP is used (requires enable_nfs = true or an explicit redis_host).
• pg-boss is the job queue when Redis is disabled. It requires no additional infrastructure and uses the PostgreSQL database directly.
• File attachments default to ephemeral local storage. Enable enable_gcs_storage for persistent object storage using GCS.
• Two init jobs run before the server starts. db-init creates the database and user; twenty-migrate runs TypeORM schema migrations. Database migrations are disabled in the main container (DISABLE_DB_MIGRATIONS=true) to keep cold starts fast after the first boot.
• SERVER_URL and FRONT_BASE_URL must be set manually. Without them, API links, CORS, and email invitations are broken.
• The APP_SECRET / ENCRYPTION_KEY is generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager; you never set it in plain text.

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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 Twenty service

Twenty 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

Twenty stores all application data (contacts, pipelines, custom objects) 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 two initialization Jobs run: db-init creates the database and user, and twenty-migrate runs schema migrations using Twenty's own entrypoint.

• 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. Cloud Storage (optional file storage)

When enable_gcs_storage = true, a dedicated Cloud Storage bucket is provisioned and Twenty is configured to use the GCS S3-compatible API (STORAGE_TYPE=s3). Without it, file attachments are stored in the container's ephemeral filesystem and are lost on new revision deployments.

• Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets.
• CLI:

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

Note: when enable_gcs_storage = true, you must supply GCS HMAC keys via secret_environment_variables (STORAGE_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID and STORAGE_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY). Generate them in the Console under Cloud Storage → Settings → Interoperability.

D. Redis (background jobs)

Redis backs Twenty's session and cache storage in v0.4+ and, when enabled, switches background processing to bull-mq. Without Redis, Twenty uses pg-boss (a PostgreSQL-backed job queue) with no additional infrastructure. When redis_host is empty and enable_nfs = true, the NFS VM IP is used as the Redis host.

When enable_redis = true, a dedicated worker Cloud Run service must be deployed via additional_services to consume the bull-mq queue.

• Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance).
• CLI:

  redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping
  redis-cli -h <redis-host> info keyspace

E. Secret Manager

The Twenty app secret (APP_SECRET / ENCRYPTION_KEY) and the database password are stored in Secret Manager and injected into the service at runtime; plaintext never appears in configuration.

• 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.

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

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3. Twenty Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. Two initialization Jobs run sequentially before the service starts:
  1. db-init — connects to Cloud SQL via the Auth Proxy Unix socket, creates the PostgreSQL database and user, grants privileges, and installs the uuid-ossp extension. It is idempotent and safe to re-run.
  2. twenty-migrate — runs Twenty's own entrypoint (twenty-entrypoint.sh) with DISABLE_DB_MIGRATIONS=false, executing TypeORM schema migrations and registering background cron jobs. Inspect them after deploy:

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

• Migrations disabled on normal boot. The main container runs with DISABLE_DB_MIGRATIONS=true so migrations only run via the twenty-migrate job. This reduces cold-start time from several minutes to seconds on subsequent boots.
• Background jobs. When Redis is disabled (pg-boss mode), background jobs — email sending, webhook delivery, data sync — are processed by the main service. When Redis is enabled (bull-mq mode), a separate worker service must be deployed via additional_services pointing to the same image with the worker command. Inspect jobs:

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

• Health path. The startup probe polls /healthz with a 120-second initial delay and up to 40 failures (~10 minutes) to accommodate first-boot migrations. The liveness probe polls /healthz with a 30-second initial delay.
• SERVER_URL is required. Without it, Twenty generates broken API links, CORS errors occur on all API calls, and email invitations fail. Set it via environment_variables:

  environment_variables = {
    SERVER_URL     = "https://crm.example.com"
    FRONT_BASE_URL = "https://crm.example.com"
  }

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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 Twenty 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	twenty	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
display_name	Twenty CRM	Friendly name shown in the Console.
description	(set)	Service description.
application_version	latest	Twenty image version tag. Pin to a specific version for production (e.g., 0.50.0).

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
cpu_limit	1000m	CPU per instance. 2 vCPU recommended for production.
memory_limit	2Gi	Memory per instance. Raise to 4Gi for large datasets.
min_instance_count	0	Minimum instances. Keep ≥ 1 to avoid cold-start on webhook/job workloads.
max_instance_count	3	Maximum instances.
container_port	3000	Twenty listens on port 3000. Do not change unless using a custom image.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar for Unix socket connections.
execution_environment	gen2	Gen2 required for VPC networking.
container_image_source	custom	custom (Cloud Build) or prebuilt (existing image URI).
enable_image_mirroring	true	Mirror the Twenty image into Artifact Registry.
traffic_split	[]	Canary/blue-green traffic allocation across revisions.
max_revisions_to_retain	7	How many old revisions to keep.

Group 5 — Access & Ingress Control

Variable	Default	Description
enable_iap	false	Require Google sign-in via Identity-Aware Proxy. Useful for internal CRM access.
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	{}	Plain-text settings. Set SERVER_URL and FRONT_BASE_URL here.
secret_environment_variables	{}	Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name. Use for STORAGE_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID and STORAGE_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY when GCS storage is enabled.
enable_auto_password_rotation	false	Zero-downtime DB password rotation.
rotation_propagation_delay_sec	90	Seconds to wait after rotation before restarting the service.

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_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, binauthz_evaluation_mode.

Group 9 — Custom SQL Scripts

enable_custom_sql_scripts, custom_sql_scripts_bucket, custom_sql_scripts_path, custom_sql_scripts_use_root — run SQL from a GCS bucket after provisioning. See App_CloudRun.

Group 10 — Domain, CDN, Cloud Armor & Image Retention

Variable	Default	Description
application_domains	[]	Custom hostnames for the external load balancer. Must match SERVER_URL.
enable_cdn	false	Enable Cloud CDN on the LB backend. Requires enable_cloud_armor = true.
enable_cloud_armor / admin_ip_ranges	off	Attach a WAF policy / restrict privileged access.
max_images_to_retain / delete_untagged_images / image_retention_days	(set)	Artifact Registry cleanup policy.

Group 11 — Storage & Filesystem

Variable	Default	Description
enable_gcs_storage	false	Provision a GCS bucket for persistent file storage using the S3-compatible API.
create_cloud_storage / storage_buckets / gcs_volumes	(set)	Additional buckets / GCS Fuse mounts.
enable_nfs	false	NFS (Filestore) volume. Not required for Twenty; enable only when using NFS IP as the Redis host.
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmek	false	CMEK options.

Group 12 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	POSTGRES_15	Fixed — do not change. Options: POSTGRES_15, POSTGRES_14, POSTGRES_13.
db_name	twenty	Database name. Immutable after first deploy.
db_user	twenty	Application user. Immutable after first deploy.
database_password_length	32	Generated password length (16–64).
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	""	Optional additional env var names under which connection details are injected.

Group 13 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks

Variable	Default	Description
initialization_jobs	[]	Leave empty to use the built-in db-init and twenty-migrate jobs.
cron_jobs	[]	Additional recurring Cloud Run jobs triggered by Cloud Scheduler.
additional_services	[]	Additional Cloud Run services. Required for a dedicated bull-mq worker when enable_redis = true.

Group 14 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe / startup_probe_config	HTTP /healthz, 120s delay, 40 failures	Probes /healthz; allows up to ~10 minutes for first-boot migrations.
liveness_probe / health_check_config	HTTP /healthz, 30s delay	Liveness probe.
uptime_check_config	disabled, path /healthz	Cloud Monitoring uptime check.
alert_policies	[]	Metric alert policies.

Group 21 — Redis Cache

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	true	Enable Redis. Required for Twenty v0.4+; disabling forces pg-boss.
redis_host	""	Redis endpoint. When empty, the NFS VM IP is used (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 explicit organization_id).
vpc_cidr_ranges / vpc_sc_dry_run	(set)	Access level CIDRs / dry-run mode.
enable_audit_logging	false	Detailed Cloud Audit Logs.

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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 / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details.
github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name	CI/CD repo 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).

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
SERVER_URL / FRONT_BASE_URL (in environment_variables)	public URL of deployment	Critical	API links are broken, CORS errors block all requests, email invitations fail. Set before first use.
database_type	POSTGRES_15	Critical	Twenty requires PostgreSQL; MySQL or NONE breaks schema migrations and startup.
db_name / db_user	set once	Critical	Immutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and destroys data.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Critical	Twenty connects via the Auth Proxy Unix socket; disabling removes the socket and breaks all DB connections.
enable_backup_import	false unless restoring	Critical	Enabling without a valid backup_uri fails the import job; re-enabling on a live deployment overwrites data.
APP_SECRET / ENCRYPTION_KEY (auto-generated)	do not rotate manually	Critical	Rotating the secret invalidates all active JWT sessions, immediately logging out every user.
enable_redis	true (required in v0.4+)	High	Without Redis, Twenty v0.4+ fails to start; session and cache storage are hardcoded to Redis.
redis_host	explicit host or enable_nfs = true	High	When enable_redis = true and redis_host is empty with no NFS VM, the Redis URL is empty and Twenty fails to connect.
additional_services (worker)	configured when using Redis	High	When enable_redis = true, bull-mq is active but no worker processes the queue; background jobs (email, webhooks) never run.
enable_gcs_storage	true for production	High	Without GCS storage, file attachments are stored in ephemeral container storage and lost on new revision deployment.
STORAGE_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID / SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	via secret_environment_variables	High	When GCS storage is enabled, HMAC keys are not auto-generated; all file operations fail without them.
memory_limit	2Gi	High	Below 1 GiB the Node.js process is OOM-killed under load.
application_version	pinned version (e.g., 0.50.0)	High	latest resolves to a different image on each Cloud Build run, making rollbacks unpredictable.
container_port	3000	High	Twenty's server listens on port 3000; any other value causes health checks to fail permanently.
startup_probe	HTTP /healthz, generous timeout	High	Too short a window causes the service to be killed during first-boot migrations (which take 8–10 minutes on a fresh schema).
min_instance_count	1	Medium	0 adds cold-start latency and risks missing incoming webhooks while the instance scales up.
enable_iap / enable_cloud_armor	enable for non-public deployments	Medium	The CRM interface is otherwise publicly reachable.
vpc_egress_setting	PRIVATE_RANGES_ONLY	Medium	When Memorystore Redis is used, its private IP may require ALL_TRAFFIC for routing.
organization_id	set explicitly for VPC-SC	Medium	VPC-SC perimeter is not activated without this — enable_vpc_sc = true has no effect.

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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. Twenty- specific application configuration shared with the GKE variant is described in Twenty_Common.