Google Cloud Platform setup

SmartDeploy can deploy applications to Google Cloud Run and provision Cloud SQL when a database is detected. This guide covers billing, APIs, service accounts, environment variables, and the gcloud CLI.

Related: AWS setup (if you use EC2 instead of or in addition to GCP).

1. Billing and project

1. Open Google Cloud Console.
2. Ensure a billing account is linked to your project (required for Cloud Run, Cloud Build, and Cloud SQL).
3. Create a project (project dropdown → New Project), note the Project ID.

2. Enable required APIs

In APIs & Services → Library, enable at least:

If deployments provision Cloud SQL, also enable:

Or enable everything needed in one gcloud command:

gcloud services enable \
  run.googleapis.com \
  cloudbuild.googleapis.com \
  artifactregistry.googleapis.com \
  logging.googleapis.com \
  sqladmin.googleapis.com

3. Region note

Cloud Run deploy and Cloud SQL creation in this codebase use us-central1. Keep keys, APIs, and any regional resources consistent with that region unless you change the code.

4. Create a service account

1. Go to IAM & Admin → Service Accounts → Create Service Account.

2. Name: e.g. smartdeploy-bot.

3. Grant roles (minimum for deploy + logs):

   • Cloud Run Admin (roles/run.admin)
   • Cloud Build Editor (roles/cloudbuild.builds.editor)
   • Storage Admin (roles/storage.admin) — Cloud Build may need this for build artifacts / staging
   • Service Account User (roles/iam.serviceAccountUser) — deploy Cloud Run as the runtime service account
   • Logs Viewer (roles/logging.viewer)

4. If you use Cloud SQL provisioning from SmartDeploy, add:

   • Cloud SQL Admin (roles/cloudsql.admin) (or a narrower custom role that allows sql.instances.create and related operations your flows need)

5. Click Done.

5. Create a JSON key

1. Open the service account → Keys → Add key → Create new key → JSON.
2. Download the file and store it securely.

6. Add to .env

Paste the entire JSON as a single line (escape quotes if your shell requires it), or use a secrets manager and inject at runtime:

GCP_PROJECT_ID=your-project-id
GCP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY={"type":"service_account","project_id":"...",...}

The application parses GCP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY as JSON. See .env.example.

7. Install the gcloud CLI (recommended)

The worker runs gcloud for Cloud Run auth, builds, deploy, and Cloud SQL. Install the SDK: Install the Google Cloud CLI.

Authenticate for local or VM workers:

gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file=path/to/key.json
gcloud config set project YOUR_PROJECT_ID

Docker: The default WebSocket worker image may not include gcloud. Extend Dockerfile.websocket (or your image) to install the CLI if deploys run fully inside Docker.

Troubleshooting