Twenty CRM on GKE Autopilot

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 GKE Autopilot on top of the App_GKE foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud and Kubernetes 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 GKE application — Workload Identity, ingress, autoscaling, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_GKE foundation guide rather than repeating them here.

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1. Overview

Twenty runs as a Node.js workload. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	GKE Autopilot	Node.js pods, 1 vCPU / 1 GiB by default, horizontally autoscaled
Database	Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15	Required — Twenty does not support MySQL
Object storage	Cloud Storage	Optional; a dedicated storage 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 Load Balancing	External LoadBalancer, optional custom domain + managed certificate

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• PostgreSQL 15 is mandatory. The database engine is fixed; 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 you have run gcloud container clusters get-credentials <cluster> --region <region> --project <project> and that PROJECT, REGION, and NAMESPACE are set. The namespace and other identifiers are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. GKE Autopilot — the Twenty workload

Twenty pods are scheduled on Autopilot, which bills for the CPU/memory the pods actually request. Horizontal Pod Autoscaling sizes the deployment between the minimum and maximum replica counts.

• Console: Kubernetes Engine → Workloads → select the Twenty workload to see pods, revisions, and events. Kubernetes Engine → Services & Ingress shows the external IP.
• CLI:

  kubectl get pods,svc,hpa -n "$NAMESPACE"
  kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> --tail=100
  kubectl describe hpa -n "$NAMESPACE"          # current vs target utilisation

See App_GKE for how Autopilot, scaling, and the workload type (Deployment vs StatefulSet) are managed.

B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15

Twenty stores all application data (contacts, pipelines, custom objects) in a managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 instance. Pods reach it privately through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar over a Unix socket, so no public IP is exposed. 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, and metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
  # Open an interactive shell to inspect schema/data:
  gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database name, user, and the Secret Manager secret holding the password are all surfaced in the Outputs. For the connection model, automated backups, and password rotation, see App_GKE.

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 pod's ephemeral local filesystem and are lost on restart or rolling update.

• 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 Deployment must be configured 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 as Secret Manager secrets and injected into pods at runtime via Workload Identity; 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"

The database password secret name is in the Outputs. See App_GKE for the Secret Store CSI integration and rotation.

F. Networking & ingress

By default the workload is exposed through an external Cloud Load Balancing IP. A custom domain with a Google-managed certificate can be enabled, and a static IP can be reserved so the address survives redeploys.

• Console: Network services → Load balancing; VPC network → IP addresses.
• CLI:

  kubectl get ingress,svc -n "$NAMESPACE"
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_GKE for custom domains, Cloud CDN, and static IP details.

G. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Pod stdout/stderr flow to Cloud Logging; GKE and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring. Optional uptime checks and alert policies are available.

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

  gcloud logging read 'resource.type="k8s_container" AND resource.labels.namespace_name="'"$NAMESPACE"'"' \
    --project "$PROJECT" --limit 50

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3. Twenty Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. Two initialization Jobs run sequentially before the application 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:

  kubectl get jobs -n "$NAMESPACE" --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp
  kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" job/db-init
  kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" job/twenty-migrate

• 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 Twenty service. When Redis is enabled (bull-mq mode), a separate worker Deployment must be deployed via additional_services pointing to the same image with the worker command. Verify job processing:

  kubectl get pods -n "$NAMESPACE"
  kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<worker-service-name>

• Health path. The startup probe polls /healthz with a 120-second initial delay and up to 40 failures (10 minutes total) 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_GKE with its standard behaviour and defaults.

Group 1 — Project & Identity

Variable	Default	Description
project_id	(required)	Target Google Cloud project.
region	us-central1	Region for the workload 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 for cost/ownership tracking.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	twenty	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
application_display_name	Twenty CRM	Friendly name shown in the Console.
application_description	(set)	Workload description annotation.
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.
container_image_source	custom	custom (Cloud Build) or prebuilt (existing image URI).
container_image	""	Override image URI. Leave empty for Cloud Build to manage.
container_resources	{ cpu_limit="1000m", memory_limit="1Gi" }	Pod CPU/memory limits and optional requests. Raise to 2Gi for production.
min_instance_count	1	Minimum replicas. Keep ≥ 1 to avoid cold-start on webhook/job workloads.
max_instance_count	3	Maximum replicas (autoscaler ceiling).
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.
enable_image_mirroring	true	Mirror the Twenty image into Artifact Registry.
enable_vertical_pod_autoscaling	false	Let Autopilot tune resource requests automatically.

Group 5 — 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 pods.

Group 6 — GKE Backend & Cluster

Variable	Default	Description
service_type	LoadBalancer	How the Service is exposed.
workload_type	null	Auto-resolves to StatefulSet when stateful_pvc_enabled = true.
session_affinity	None	None (round-robin) or ClientIP (sticky). Twenty uses JWT (stateless) — sticky sessions are not required.
gke_cluster_name	""	Target cluster. Auto-discovered if empty.
prereq_gke_subnet_cidr	10.201.0.0/24	CIDR for inline GKE subnet. Must be unique per deployment sharing the same VPC.
namespace_name	""	Kubernetes namespace. Auto-generated if empty.
network_tags	[]	Node/pod tags for firewall rule targeting.
additional_services	[]	Additional Kubernetes Deployments. Required for a dedicated bull-mq worker when enable_redis = true.

Group 7 — Pod Disruption & Topology

Variable	Default	Description
enable_pod_disruption_budget	false	Protect availability during node upgrades. Enable when max_instance_count > 1.
pdb_min_available	1	Raise min_instance_count above 1 if you need eviction headroom.
enable_topology_spread	false	Spread pods across zones. Recommended for production.

Group 8 — Resource Quota

Variable	Default	Description
enable_resource_quota	false	Cap namespace CPU/memory/object counts.
quota_memory_requests / quota_memory_limits	""	Must use binary units (4Gi, 8192Mi) — bare integers are read as bytes and block scheduling.

Group 11 — Cloud Storage & Artifact Registry

Variable	Default	Description
enable_gcs_storage	false	Provision a GCS bucket for persistent file storage using the S3-compatible API.
create_cloud_storage	true	Provision additional storage_buckets entries.
storage_buckets	[]	Additional GCS buckets beyond the auto-provisioned storage bucket.
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmek	false	CMEK options.

Group 12 — CI/CD & GitHub Integration

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

Group 13 — NFS

Variable	Default	Description
enable_nfs	false	NFS (Filestore) volume. Not required for Twenty; enable only when using NFS IP as the Redis host.
nfs_mount_path	/mnt/nfs	Mount path inside the container.

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 Kubernetes CronJobs.

Group 14 — Observability & Health

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

Group 15 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	POSTGRES_15	Fixed — do not change. Options: POSTGRES_15, POSTGRES_14, POSTGRES_13.
application_database_name	twenty	Database name. Immutable after first deploy.
application_database_user	twenty	Application user. Immutable after first deploy.
database_password_length	32	Generated password length (16–64).
enable_postgres_extensions	false	Install additional PostgreSQL extensions during db-init.
postgres_extensions	[]	List of extensions to install (e.g., ['pgvector', 'pg_trgm']).

Group 16 — Stateful Workload (PVC)

Variable	Default	Description
stateful_pvc_enabled	false	Creates a PVC and auto-selects StatefulSet. Setting workload_type = "Deployment" alongside this fails at plan time.
stateful_pvc_size	10Gi	PVC size.
stateful_pvc_mount_path	/data	Container path where the PVC is mounted.

Group 17 — Backup & Maintenance

Variable	Default	Description
backup_schedule	0 2 * * *	Automated backup cron (UTC).
backup_retention_days	7	Retention; raise to 30–90 for production/compliance.
enable_backup_import / backup_source / backup_uri	restore options	Restore from a backup on deploy.

Group 18 — 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_GKE.

Group 19 — Custom Domain, Static IP & Networking

Variable	Default	Description
enable_custom_domain	false	Provision Ingress for custom hostnames + managed certificate.
application_domains	[]	Hostnames to serve. Must match SERVER_URL.
reserve_static_ip	true	Stable external IP across redeploys.

Group 20 — Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP)

Variable	Default	Description
enable_iap	false	Require Google sign-in in front of Twenty. Useful for internal CRM access.
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups	[]	Who may access.
iap_oauth_client_id / iap_oauth_client_secret	""	Required when IAP is enabled (sensitive).
iap_support_email	""	Shown on the OAuth consent screen.

Group 21 — Redis & Cloud Armor

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).
enable_cloud_armor	false	Attach a Cloud Armor (WAF) policy to the Ingress backend.
admin_ip_ranges	[]	CIDRs allowed privileged access.
cloud_armor_policy_name	(set)	Policy name.

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

These values are returned on a successful deployment and are the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

Output	Description
service_name	Kubernetes Service name.
namespace	Namespace the workload runs in.
service_cluster_ip	In-cluster ClusterIP.
stage_service_cluster_ips	Map of ClusterIPs for stage-specific services (Cloud Deploy).
service_external_ip	External LoadBalancer IP (when a static IP is reserved).
service_url	URL to reach Twenty.
database_instance_name	Cloud SQL instance name.
database_name	Application database name.
database_user	Application database user.
database_password_secret	Secret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_port	DB endpoint (127.0.0.1 via the Auth Proxy) / port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets.
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	Monitoring status and channels.
initialization_jobs / db_import_job	Names of the setup and (optional) import jobs.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix	Naming identifiers.
project_id / project_number	Project identifiers.
cicd_enabled / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details (repo, trigger, registry).
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.
kubernetes_ready	Whether the cluster/workload is ready.
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.
application_database_name / _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.
quota_memory_requests / _limits	binary units	Critical	Bare integers are bytes and block all scheduling.
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 pod local storage and lost on restart.
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.
container_resources.memory_limit	2Gi for production	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.
prereq_gke_subnet_cidr	unique per deployment	High	Overlapping CIDRs with an existing subnet fail GKE node pool provisioning.
min_instance_count	1	Medium	0 allows scale-to-zero; Twenty cold starts take 30–60 seconds and may miss incoming webhooks.
enable_iap / enable_cloud_armor	enable for non-public deployments	Medium	The CRM interface is otherwise publicly reachable.
backup_retention_days	7 (raise for prod)	Medium	Too short for compliance retention.
pdb_min_available vs min_instance_count	leave headroom	Medium	1/1 can stall node upgrades (single pod cannot be evicted).
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 — IAM and Workload Identity, autoscaling, ingress and certificates, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_GKE. Twenty-specific application configuration shared with the Cloud Run variant is described in Twenty_Common.