Prepare and test your skills
Prepare and test your skills
Google Cloud's buildpacks (opens in a new tab) is an open-source system that turns application source code into a runnable container image without requiring a developer-written Dockerfile. A buildpack handles one piece of the build, such as a language runtime, a package manager, or a web server, while builders group buildpacks into collections that inspect source code, create a build plan, and produce a production-ready image. Cloud Build (opens in a new tab) runs this process remotely, packages the image, and pushes the result to Artifact Registry for later deployment. This division of work lets Cloud Run (opens in a new tab) offer source-based deployment where the platform manages container creation.
Language detection and dependency management in buildpacks happen automatically from files in the source directory. The builder examines the source to identify the programming language, then runs the standard tasks for that language, including installing libraries from the language package repository using its common dependency file. The default builder can be extended to add extra system packages when an application needs more than the standard setup. For runtimes without a standard start command, a Procfile names the process to run when the container starts, and the Procfile can override the default start process or is required for some runtimes including Python.
Supported source languages for buildpacks deployment include:
Building images with buildpacks can run remotely on Google Cloud with Cloud Build or locally with the pack command-line tool. Source code flows from the local source folder to the selected builder, then the built image flows to a container registry such as Artifact Registry (opens in a new tab), where Cloud Run can deploy it later. The Artifact Registry Docker repository must already exist before the build, and the image reference uses the format LOCATION-docker.pkg.dev/PROJECT_ID/REPO_NAME/PATH:TAG.
| Build option | Where the build runs | What must be installed locally |
|---|---|---|
Cloud Build with --pack | Remotely on Google Cloud, with no local Docker setup required | Google Cloud CLI |
pack command line with --publish | Locally on the developer machine, then pushed to the registry | Docker and pack |
A remote build with Cloud Build follows an ordered workflow:
gcloud builds submit --pack image=IMAGE_URL with the target Artifact Registry image URL.Exam tip: Use gcloud builds submit --pack image=IMAGE_URL for buildpacks builds and gcloud builds submit --tag IMAGE_URL for Dockerfile builds; --pack triggers automatic runtime detection while --tag expects a Dockerfile.
The built container image is a complete package that lets Cloud Run run the service without extra assembly. Each image contains source code, system and library dependencies, configuration data, and static assets needed for deployment. By default, Cloud Build handles the deployment pipeline and Artifact Registry or Container Registry handles image storage and management. For Cloud Run services, the resulting image must respect the container contract, so the code must listen for HTTP requests on the port defined by the PORT environment variable that Cloud Run automatically injects into the container.
Deploying from source with build is an automated path that turns application source into a runnable container without manual image steps. Source code flows from the developer to a Cloud Storage bucket, then to Cloud Build, then to Artifact Registry as a container image, and finally to Cloud Run (opens in a new tab) as a deployment. The build depends on both Cloud Build and Artifact Registry, so the feature is only available in regions supported by both services. This path does not allow full build customization; for full control, build with gcloud builds submit and then deploy with --image.
Artifact Registry is the required image registry for storing images generated by source deployments. Billing must be enabled for the project, and the Artifact Registry, Cloud Build, and Cloud Run Admin APIs must be enabled before deploying. The destination repository must already exist, and image references follow the format LOCATION-docker.pkg.dev/PROJECT_ID/REPO_NAME/PATH:TAG, for example us-docker.pkg.dev/cloudrun/container/hello:latest. Custom build worker pools (opens in a new tab) for Cloud Build are supported for source deployments using --source and are used for cases such as a VPC Service Controls secured build context, but they are not supported for container image deployments using --image.
The deployer account is the human or automation identity that starts the source deployment and needs permissions to use services and act as the runtime identity. To deploy Cloud Run services from source, the deployer must be granted IAM roles on the project and on the Cloud Run service identity. Enabling the required APIs separately requires the serviceusage.services.enable permission, which is included in the Owner role (roles/owner) or the Service Usage Admin role (roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageAdmin).
roles/run.sourceDeveloper) on the project to build and deploy from source.roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageConsumer) on the project to consume enabled APIs during deployment.roles/iam.serviceAccountUser) on the Cloud Run service identity to act as that service account.roles/bigquery.jobUser) on the service identity as listed for source deployments.These deployer roles do not give Cloud Build itself permission to build; the build service account needs its own separate role.
The Compute Engine default service account is the identity Cloud Build automatically uses to build source code into a Cloud Run resource unless a different build service account is configured. The account name follows the form PROJECT_NUMBER-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com, where PROJECT_NUMBER is the project number. For Cloud Build to build sources and push results, an administrator must grant this account the Cloud Run Builder role (roles/run.builder) on the project using gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding.
Granting the Cloud Run Builder role takes a couple of minutes to propagate before builds will succeed. The iam.automaticIamGrantsForDefaultServiceAccounts organization policy constraint prevents the Editor role from being automatically granted to default service accounts, and it is enforced by default for organizations created after May 3, 2024. When automatic grants are disabled, replace the broad Editor role with less permissive roles granted explicitly, and use Policy Simulator to check the impact before changing service account roles.
Exam tip: The deployer needs Cloud Run Source Developer (roles/run.sourceDeveloper), while the Compute Engine default service account used by Cloud Build needs Cloud Run Builder (roles/run.builder).
The source-to-service workflow moves code from a developer directory through build services into a Cloud Run revision. The core command is gcloud run deploy SERVICE --source ., which uploads a local directory, builds a container image, stores the image, and creates a new revision that serves traffic. When a Dockerfile is present in the source directory, the uploaded source is built with that Dockerfile, and when no Dockerfile is present, Google Cloud's buildpacks detects the language, fetches dependencies, and creates a production-ready image from a Google-managed secure base image. The build is performed by Cloud Build (opens in a new tab) and the resulting container is stored in Artifact Registry, which automatically creates a repository named cloud-run-source-deploy in the deployment region if it does not already exist.
A standard with-build deployment follows an ordered sequence:
gcloud run deploy SERVICE --source . where SERVICE is the service name.y to install or enable required APIs once per project, then supply platform and region if defaults are not set.The workflow depends on Cloud Build and Artifact Registry, so source deployment is only available in regions supported by both services. Because the revision bundles image and configuration together, changing a flag for identity, environment variables, or resources creates a new revision rather than patching the running instance. If neither --image nor --source is supplied, the deploy command defaults to source deployment.
With-build and no-build deployments are the two source deployment paths, divided by whether Cloud Build creates the container image. With-build deployment is the default and uses Google Cloud's buildpacks and Cloud Build to convert source into an image without local Docker setup. No-build deployment is a Preview path that bypasses Cloud Build by uploading a pre-packaged application archive directly to a Cloud Storage bucket, after which Cloud Run (opens in a new tab) runs the archive directly on a selected base image for dramatically faster deployment.
| Deployment path | Build step | Choose when |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy with build | Source flows from the local directory to Cloud Build to Artifact Registry to Cloud Run | Dockerfile or buildpack language support is needed and full dependency installation can happen in the cloud |
| Deploy without build | Archive flows from the local filesystem to Cloud Storage to Cloud Run on a base image, with no Cloud Build step | Speed matters and the archive is already self-contained, x86-compatible, 250 MiB or smaller, and uses a supported runtime with no Dockerfile |
Use gcloud beta run deploy SERVICE_NAME --source APPLICATION_PATH --no-build --base-image=BASE_IMAGE --command=COMMAND --args=ARG for the no-build path, where BASE_IMAGE selects the runtime such as nodejs24 or the operating-system-only image osonly24, and COMMAND and ARG define container startup. Dependencies must be installed locally before a no-build deployment because no build step will install them.
Service identity configuration controls which Google Cloud identity the Cloud Run service uses when it calls Google Cloud APIs or other Cloud Run services. By default, Cloud Run uses the Compute Engine default service account to make those calls, and the Compute Engine default service account is automatically created after the Cloud Run Admin API is enabled. For least privilege, create a custom service account and grant that identity only the minimal permissions needed for the specific resources the code accesses, because the policy applies to all outbound calls from the service across the trust boundary between Cloud Run and Google Cloud APIs.
The deployer and builder identities require separate grants before the source-to-service workflow can succeed:
roles/run.sourceDeveloper) on the project lets the deployer account build and deploy from source.roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageConsumer) on the project lets the deployer account use enabled APIs.roles/iam.serviceAccountUser) on the Cloud Run service identity lets the deployer account act as the runtime identity.roles/run.builder) on the project lets the Cloud Build service account, normally the Compute Engine default service account, build source into Cloud Run resources.The build depends on the Cloud Run Builder grant, which can take a couple of minutes to propagate after it is added with gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding. If the service later returns permission denied when reading Cloud Storage objects, grant roles/storage.objectViewer to the Cloud Run service account so the runtime identity can read from the source or data bucket.
Environment variables and runtime specifications define the execution environment that each revision provides to application code. Runtime environment variables and secrets supply configuration to the running container, while build environment variables supply configuration only during the Cloud Build step, such as build-time certificates or parameters. Additional runtime specifications include the base image and function entry point for functions (opens in a new tab), the startup command and arguments for no-build services, and integrations such as volumes, Cloud SQL connections, execution environment selection, ephemeral disk, and GPUs.
A compose.yaml file can declare several of these settings together for deployment with gcloud run compose up compose.yaml:
build: . points at the local source directory and ports maps the container port such as 8080:8080.Exam tip: Build environment variables apply during the Cloud Build image construction, while runtime environment variables apply to the Cloud Run revision after deployment.
CPU and memory limits are resource constraints stored in the revision that bound how much compute each container instance can use. A Cloud Run service scales instances up and down based on incoming requests, and each instance runs one copy of the revision with its configured memory limits, CPU limits, concurrency, and environment variables. Updating any of those settings creates a new revision, so resource tuning follows the same source-to-service workflow as code changes and can be managed from the Containers tab, YAML, Terraform with google_cloud_run_v2_service, or gcloud run services update flags.
By default, Cloud Run verifies each deployment by starting an instance and waiting for its startup probe to pass, and only healthy revisions receive traffic. If the probe fails, the revision is marked as unhealthy and traffic is not routed to it, which protects the existing revision at the cost of slower deploys. To increase deployment speed when the check is not needed, disable it with --no-deploy-health-check on the command line, the run.googleapis.com/health-check-disabled: 'true' annotation in YAML, or health_check_disabled = true in Terraform, then re-enable it with --deploy-health-check when safety matters again.
gcloud run deploy SERVICE --source . builds source with Cloud Build, stores the image in Artifact Registry, and creates a new Cloud Run revision that serves 100% of traffic by default.Google Cloud's buildpacks turn source code into a runnable container image without requiring a developer-written Dockerfile by having builders inspect the source, identify the programming language, install dependencies, and produce a production-ready image. Cloud Build runs this process remotely and pushes the result to Artifact Registry for later deployment to Cloud Run.
Use with-build deployment when Dockerfile or buildpack language support is needed and full dependency installation can happen in the cloud, because source flows from the local directory to Cloud Build to Artifact Registry to Cloud Run. Use no-build deployment when speed matters and the archive is already self-contained, x86-compatible, 250 MiB or smaller, and uses a supported runtime with no Dockerfile, because the archive flows to Cloud Storage and runs directly on a selected base image with no Cloud Build step.
The deployer account that starts the deployment needs Cloud Run Source Developer on the project to build and deploy from source, Service Usage Consumer on the project, Service Account User on the Cloud Run service identity, and BigQuery Job User on the service identity. The Compute Engine default service account used by Cloud Build needs the Cloud Run Builder role on the project to build sources and push results.
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