Cloud Run Quickstart

Help users deploy to Cloud Run with the optimal path for their needs.

Decision Tree

1. What’s your priority?

• Speed → No-Build Deploy (Fastest deploys ~10s)
• Simplicity → Buildpacks + ABIU (zero config, auto-updates)
• Control → Dockerfile or Container Image

2. What language?

No-Build (fastest): Best for languages like Go, Rust, Dart that support cross-platform compilation.Python/Node if no native bindings.

Buildpacks: Go, Node.js, Python, Java, .NET, Ruby, PHP

Quick Commands

No-Build (Go example)

GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go build -o server .
gcloud beta run deploy SERVICE --source . --no-build --base-image go122 --command=./server --automatic-updates --region REGION

--source triggers Cloud Build (~2-3 min). No-build and container image skip this.

Buildpacks + ABIU (Python example)

gcloud run deploy SERVICE --source . --base-image python313 --automatic-updates --region REGION

Dockerfile

gcloud run deploy SERVICE --source . --region REGION

Container Image

gcloud run deploy SERVICE --image REGION-docker.pkg.dev/PROJECT/REPO/IMAGE --region REGION

Required User Inputs

• SERVICE: Must contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. Reasonable default would be to use the name of the project/directory.

• REGION: Reasonable default would be to use common region like us-west1 or europe-west4.

When to Use Each Path

• Quick demo or prototype app → No-Build
• Go/Rust or languages with strong cross-compilation → No-Build
• Standard prod app → Buildpacks + ABIU
• Custom OS packages → Dockerfile
• Docker-based CI/CD → Container Image

For detailed guides: See deployment-paths.md

Prerequisites

gcloud auth login
gcloud services enable \
  run.googleapis.com \
  cloudbuild.googleapis.com \
  artifactregistry.googleapis.com \
  storage.googleapis.com \
  --project PROJECT_ID

Common Gotcha

App must listen on $PORT (8080 is a reasonable fallback):

port = int(os.environ.get('PORT', 8080))

Caveats

Native bindings: Python/Node apps with native extensions (ImageMagick, sharp, bcrypt) can’t use no-build. Use Buildpacks or Dockerfile.

Cross-compile: No-build requires linux/amd64 target. Make sure you use the right flags to target the right OS and architecture when compiling your app.