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Zitadel on Google Cloud Run

Zitadel on Google Cloud Run

Zitadel is an open-source, cloud-native identity and access management (IAM) platform providing OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, SAML, and user/organization management. This module deploys Zitadel 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 Zitadel 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 Zitadel costs on RAD, and how that compares​

Running Zitadel on Cloud Run in your own Google Cloud project costs about $167.44/month in Google Cloud charges, on top of a one-off 300-credit RAD module fee charged once at deploy time. Zitadel needs a PostgreSQL database behind it and runs always-on rather than scaling to zero, which together are most of the $167.44 above. In a RAD-managed project the module fee drops to 270 credits (10% lower) and the running cost is metered hourly in credits instead of billed directly by Google — see Pause it for free below for the one RAD-managed advantage a self-hosted VPS cannot match — or see the GKE guide if you'd rather run it on Kubernetes, which is also the lower-cost option for this app.

What you pay on RAD​

Own projectRAD-managed project
Module fee (one-off)300 credits270 credits (10% lower)
Build time~3-6 credits per build, either way~3-6 credits per build, either way
Google Cloud running cost$167.44/month, billed by Google at list price~77 credits/day, metered at list price plus RAD's margin

Default running cost in your own project

ResourceUS$/month (Google list price, us-central1)
Cloud Run, 2x vCPU / 4 GiB (alwaysOn)$110.42
Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, 1 vCPU / 3.75 GB, zonal, 10 GB SSD$51.02
Cloud NAT and networking$5.00
Cloud Storage (add-ons, backups)$1.00
Total$167.44

How it compares​

  • ZITADEL, the vendor behind this open-source project, also sells a hosted Cloud version: its pricing page (checked 8 October 2026) lists a Free tier at $0/month for up to 100 daily active users and a Pro tier at $100/month for up to 25,000 daily active users, with Enterprise custom-priced above that.
  • For a small deployment (a handful of internal apps, well under 100 DAU) ZITADEL Cloud's free tier beats RAD's $167.44/month running cost in cash terms; RAD's module becomes the better fit once you want your own dedicated Postgres instance, full infrastructure control, or usage past the free tier's DAU ceiling without a recurring SaaS bill.
  • A bare-VPS alternative also works: a GCP Compute Engine e2-standard-2 (2 vCPU/8GB) at about $49/mo, or a similarly sized Hetzner/DigitalOcean box at about $24/mo, can self-host Zitadel and Postgres together — cheaper than RAD in cash terms, with none of the managed backups, patching or monitoring RAD provides.

Pause it for free: delete a RAD-managed project, restore it when you need it​

This is the headline advantage of a RAD-managed project, and it costs nothing while paused. Deleting a RAD-managed 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, any 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've customised Zitadel and want to keep that work, 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 30 days have passed on a RAD-managed one, there is no free pause — deleting removes the resources for good, and bringing Zitadel back means redeploying from scratch. That costs about 303-306 credits (the 300-credit module fee plus a build).

Deleting only saves money once Zitadel would otherwise sit unused long enough to clear that redeploy cost against its own running cost — for Zitadel, that's about 6 days or more. Most of this running cost is usually the database — it stops only once nothing else in the project uses it, so deleting this app while something else shares the project saves only its own compute share.

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; Google's project delete/restore documentation for the pause/restore claims. ZITADEL Cloud prices from zitadel.com/pricing, checked 8 October 2026.

1. Overview​

Zitadel runs as a single Go container on Cloud Run v2. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

CapabilityGoogle Cloud serviceNotes
ComputeCloud Run v2Go service, 2 vCPU / 4 GiB by default; HTTP/2 (gRPC + REST) on port 8080
DatabaseCloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15Required — Zitadel only supports PostgreSQL; MySQL is rejected at plan time
Object storageCloud StorageOne bucket provisioned automatically (operator use; core state lives in Postgres)
Cache & queueNoneZitadel stores all state in PostgreSQL — no Redis, no queue
SecretsSecret ManagerAuto-generated ZITADEL_MASTERKEY and initial admin password; database password
IngressCloud Run URL / Cloud Load BalancingDefault run.app URL (public); optional external HTTPS load balancer + custom domain

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

  • PostgreSQL is mandatory. database_type = POSTGRES_15 by default; a plan-time validation guard rejects MySQL and any non-Postgres engine. PostgreSQL 13/14 are also accepted.
  • ZITADEL_MASTERKEY is generated automatically and immutable. It is exactly 32 bytes and encrypts all sensitive data at rest. Never rotate it after first boot — doing so makes previously-encrypted data (client secrets, key material) unreadable.
  • Zitadel runs its own setup + migrations. The container starts with zitadel start-from-init, which creates the schema and applies migrations idempotently on first boot — there is no separate migrate job.
  • A first-instance admin is created on first boot. Organization ZITADEL and human admin zitadel-admin are seeded with a generated password from Secret Manager (PASSWORDCHANGEREQUIRED = false), so you can sign in immediately.
  • HTTP/2 with TLS terminated upstream. ZITADEL_EXTERNALSECURE = true, ZITADEL_EXTERNALPORT = 443, ZITADEL_TLS_ENABLED = false. Zitadel serves cleartext HTTP/2 on 8080 and trusts Cloud Run to terminate TLS on :443. Set container_protocol = "h2c" if you need end-to-end HTTP/2 for gRPC API clients.
  • ZITADEL_EXTERNALDOMAIN is derived from the service URL. The entrypoint sets it from the runtime run.app host. Behind a custom domain you must override it (see the Pitfalls table) or the OIDC issuer and Console redirects will point at the wrong host.
  • Public ingress by default. ingress_settings = "all" so the Console and OIDC endpoints are reachable. Enabling IAP puts Google sign-in in front of everything, including OIDC/machine clients.
  • The service is kept warm. cpu_always_allocated = true and min_instance_count = 1 (no scale-to-zero), so token endpoints have no cold-start latency; max_instance_count = 5.
  • NFS is off by default. Zitadel keeps all state in PostgreSQL and never writes to an NFS mount, so enable_nfs = false.

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 Zitadel service​

Zitadel 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" \
    --filter="metadata.name~zitadel"
    gcloud run services describe <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
    gcloud run revisions list --service <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
    # Confirm the entrypoint's derived external domain / DB SSL mode:
    gcloud run services logs read <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" --limit 50 \
    | grep cloud-entrypoint

See App_CloudRun for scaling, concurrency, execution environment, and traffic splitting.

B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15​

Zitadel stores all application data (organizations, users, projects, applications, sessions, keys) 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 is exposed. On first deploy an initialization Job creates the application database and a role with CREATEDB/CREATEROLE; Zitadel then creates its own schema via start-from-init.

  • Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, metrics.
  • CLI:
    gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~zitadel"
    gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
    gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --database=<db-name> --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​

One Cloud Storage bucket is provisioned automatically (public access prevention enforced). Zitadel keeps its core state in PostgreSQL, so the bucket is available for operator use (exports, assets). Additional buckets can be declared via storage_buckets.

  • Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets.
  • CLI:
    gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
    gcloud storage ls gs://<bucket>/ # bucket name is in the Outputs

See App_CloudRun for GCS Fuse and CMEK options.

D. Secret Manager​

Two secrets are generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager: ZITADEL_MASTERKEY (encrypts all data at rest) and the initial admin password (seeds the first-instance human on boot). The database password is managed separately by the foundation.

  • Console: Security → Secret Manager.
  • CLI:
    gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~zitadel"
    # Read the initial admin password to log in the first time:
    gcloud secrets versions access latest \
    --secret="secret-<resource_prefix>-zitadel-admin-password" --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun for injection and rotation details, and Zitadel_Common for the criticality of the masterkey.

E. Networking & ingress​

The service is reachable at its run.app URL by default, which allows the public access the Console and OIDC endpoints need. 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. Because Zitadel serves gRPC + REST over HTTP/2, set container_protocol = "h2c" for end-to-end HTTP/2 when required.

  • 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 and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring, with optional uptime checks and alert policies. The [cloud-entrypoint] log lines show the resolved DB SSL mode and external domain.

  • Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.
  • CLI:
    gcloud run services logs read <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" --limit 50

3. Zitadel Application Behaviour​

  • First-deploy database setup. An initialization Job runs db-init.sh using postgres:15-alpine. It connects through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy and idempotently creates the application database and a role with LOGIN CREATEDB CREATEROLE, then grants privileges on the database and public schema. The job is safe to re-run. It does not create Zitadel's schema — Zitadel does that itself.
  • Setup + migrations on start. The container runs zitadel start-from-init, which creates the schema and applies migrations idempotently on every start. Upgrading the application version applies schema changes without a separate migration step.
  • ZITADEL_MASTERKEY is immutable after first boot. It is generated once (exactly 32 bytes) and written to Secret Manager. Changing it makes all previously-encrypted data unreadable. Only touch it in a planned, understood migration.
  • First-run admin. Log in with username zitadel-admin (default) and the password from Secret Manager:
    gcloud secrets versions access latest \
    --secret="secret-<resource_prefix>-zitadel-admin-password" --project "$PROJECT"
    Then create a real admin, disable or restrict the seeded account, and configure your organizations, projects, and OIDC/SAML applications in the Console.
  • External domain must match the browser host. The OIDC issuer and Console redirect URIs are built from ZITADEL_EXTERNALDOMAIN. The entrypoint derives it from the run.app URL; behind a custom domain, set ZITADEL_EXTERNALDOMAIN (via environment_variables) to that host or logins/token exchange will fail.
  • Health path. Startup, liveness, and readiness probes target /debug/healthz — an unauthenticated 200 endpoint. Allow ~7–8 minutes on first boot (60-second initial delay plus a ~450-second retry window) for setup + migrations.
  • Inspect the running configuration / jobs:
    gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" \
    --format='value(spec.template.spec.containers[0].env)'
    gcloud run jobs list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
    gcloud run jobs executions list --job <job-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"

4. Configuration Variables​

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

Group 1 — Project & Identity​

VariableDefaultDescription
project_id(required)Target Google Cloud project.
regionus-central1Region for the service and regional resources.

Group 2 — Deployment Environment​

VariableDefaultDescription
tenant_iddemoShort 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​

VariableDefaultDescription
application_namezitadelBase name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
display_nameZitadelHuman-readable name shown in the Console.
application_versionlatestZitadel image tag; mapped to a pinned tag (v2.71.0) when latest. Pin explicitly in production.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling​

VariableDefaultDescription
deploy_applicationtrueSet false to provision infrastructure only.
container_image_sourcecustomZitadel is a thin custom build FROM the ghcr image — leave as custom.
cpu_limit2000mCPU per instance; 2 vCPU recommended.
memory_limit4GiMemory per instance.
container_port8080Zitadel serves gRPC + REST over HTTP/2 on 8080.
container_protocolhttp1Set h2c for end-to-end HTTP/2 to gRPC API clients.
min_instance_count1Kept warm (no scale-to-zero) so token endpoints have no cold start.
max_instance_count5Maximum instances; safe to raise — all state is in PostgreSQL.
cpu_always_allocatedtrueInstance-based billing; keeps Zitadel responsive for auth traffic.
enable_cloudsql_volumetrueCloud SQL Auth Proxy socket connection.
enable_image_mirroringtrueMirror the built image into Artifact Registry.
timeout_seconds300Maximum request duration.

Group 5 — Access & Ingress Control​

VariableDefaultDescription
ingress_settingsallPublic ingress for the Console and OIDC/OAuth endpoints.
vpc_egress_settingPRIVATE_RANGES_ONLYRoute only RFC 1918 traffic via VPC.
enable_iapfalseRequire Google sign-in. Blocks OIDC/machine clients — enable only for private consoles.
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups[]Who may access through IAP.

Group 6 — Environment Variables & Secrets​

VariableDefaultDescription
environment_variables{}Extra ZITADEL_* settings (e.g. ZITADEL_EXTERNALDOMAIN, org/admin overrides). Core DB/TLS/masterkey values are set automatically.
secret_environment_variables{}Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name.
secret_propagation_delay30Seconds to wait after secret creation before proceeding.
secret_rotation_period2592000sSecret Manager rotation notification frequency. Do not enable masterkey rotation.

Group 7 — Backup & Restore​

VariableDefaultDescription
backup_schedule0 2 * * *Automated Cloud SQL backup cron (UTC).
backup_retention_days7Retention; raise for production/compliance.
enable_backup_import / backup_source / backup_file / backup_formatrestore optionsRestore 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.

Group 10 — Load Balancer, CDN & Image Retention​

VariableDefaultDescription
enable_cloud_armorfalseProvision Global HTTPS LB + Cloud Armor WAF.
admin_ip_ranges[]CIDR ranges exempted from WAF rules.
application_domains[]Custom domains — remember to set ZITADEL_EXTERNALDOMAIN to match.
enable_cdnfalseEnable Cloud CDN on the HTTPS LB backend.
max_images_to_retain / delete_untagged_images / image_retention_days(set)Artifact Registry cleanup policy.

Group 11 — Storage & Filesystem​

VariableDefaultDescription
create_cloud_storagetrueCreate the declared GCS bucket(s).
storage_buckets[{ name_suffix = "data" }]The auto-provisioned bucket; extend the list for additional buckets.
enable_nfsfalseOff by default: Zitadel is entirely PostgreSQL-backed and never writes to the mount.
gcs_volumes[]GCS Fuse volume mounts (requires gen2).
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmekfalseCMEK options.

Group 12 — Database Backend​

VariableDefaultDescription
database_typePOSTGRES_15PostgreSQL only (13/14/15). MySQL is rejected at plan time.
db_namezitadelPostgreSQL database name. Immutable after first deploy.
db_userzitadelApplication database user (granted CREATEDB/CREATEROLE). Immutable after first deploy.
database_password_length32Generated password length.
enable_auto_password_rotation / rotation_propagation_delay_secoffDB password rotation.

Group 13 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks​

VariableDefaultDescription
initialization_jobs[]Leave empty to use the built-in db-init job.
cron_jobs[]Not used — Zitadel has no platform-scheduled recurring tasks.

Group 14 — Observability & Health​

VariableDefaultDescription
startup_probeHTTP /debug/healthz, 60s delayStartup probe. Allow ~7–8 minutes on first boot.
liveness_probeHTTP /debug/healthz, 60s delayLiveness probe.
uptime_check_config(set)Cloud Monitoring uptime check (public endpoints only).
alert_policies[]Metric alert policies.

Group 21 — Redis​

Zitadel does not use Redis (all state is in PostgreSQL). enable_redis defaults to false and should be left off; the redis_* inputs are inert for this module.

Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging​

VariableDefaultDescription
enable_vpc_scfalseEnforce a VPC-SC perimeter (requires organization_id).
vpc_cidr_ranges / vpc_sc_dry_run(set)Access level CIDRs / dry-run mode.
enable_audit_loggingfalseDetailed Cloud Audit Logs.

All other inputs follow standard App_CloudRun behaviour.


5. Outputs​

Returned on a successful deployment — the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

OutputDescription
service_nameCloud Run service name.
service_urlDefault run.app URL of the service (the Zitadel Console).
service_locationRegion the service runs in.
stage_servicesStage-specific service URLs (Cloud Deploy).
load_balancer_ip / load_balancer_urlExternal HTTPS load balancer IP / URL (when enabled).
database_instance_nameCloud SQL instance name.
database_name / database_userApplication database name / user.
database_password_secretSecret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_portDB endpoint / port.
storage_bucketsCreated Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regionsVPC network, presence, regions.
container_image / container_registryDeployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels / uptime_check_namesMonitoring status, channels, uptime checks.
initialization_jobsNames of the setup jobs (db-init).
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefixNaming identifiers.
project_id / project_numberProject identifiers.
cicd_enabled / github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name / cicd_configurationCI/CD status and details.
artifact_registry_repository / cloudbuild_trigger_name / cloudbuild_trigger_idRegistry and build trigger.
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_modeVPC-SC status.
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabledAudit 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).

Inherited plan-time validation. This module passes its configuration through the App_CloudRun foundation engine, which validates values and combinations at plan time — a non-Postgres database_type, enable_cloudsql_volume with database_type = NONE, min_instance_count > max_instance_count, Redis enabled with no resolvable host, an out-of-range redis_port/backup_retention_days. 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.

SettingSensible valueRiskConsequence if wrong
ZITADEL_MASTERKEY (auto-generated)Never rotate after first bootCriticalRotating it makes all previously-encrypted data (client secrets, key material) permanently unreadable.
database_typePOSTGRES_15CriticalZitadel only supports PostgreSQL; MySQL/other is rejected at plan time, and a wrong engine breaks startup.
db_name / db_userSet onceCriticalImmutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/role and destroys all identity data.
enable_backup_importfalse unless restoringCriticalEnabling without a valid backup source fails the import job.
ZITADEL_EXTERNALDOMAINMatch the browser/hostCriticalIf it doesn't match the host users reach, the OIDC issuer and Console redirects are wrong and every login/token exchange fails. Set it explicitly behind a custom domain.
enable_cloudsql_volumetrueHighThe Auth Proxy socket is required for PostgreSQL connectivity; disabling it with a database configured is blocked by a plan-time guard.
ingress_settingsallHighinternal blocks the Console and all external OIDC/OAuth clients.
enable_iaponly for private consolesHighIAP requires Google sign-in for all requests, blocking OIDC/machine clients and token endpoints.
application_versionPin a releaseHighlatest maps to a pinned tag today, but pinning explicitly avoids surprise migrations on redeploy.
memory_limit4GiMediumSetting too low risks OOM under load; gen2 also enforces a 512 MiB floor.
min_instance_count1Medium0 (scale-to-zero) adds cold-start latency to token/login requests after idle.
enable_nfsfalse (default)LowZitadel stores no state on disk; turning it on only adds an unused NFS mount.
backup_retention_days7 (raise for prod)MediumToo short for compliance retention of identity data.
enable_cloud_armorenable for productionMediumThe Console and OIDC endpoints are publicly reachable without WAF protection.

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. Zitadel-specific application configuration shared with the GKE variant is described in Zitadel_Common.

Need RAD to do something it does not do yet? Request it on the roadmap, or vote on what is already there.