My Minimal Cloud Run Setup

Why Cloud Run?

For my smaller projects, I don't want to manage a VM, Kubernetes cluster, or a bunch of infrastructure just to run an API.

I mostly want to build a Docker image, deploy it, give it a domain, and let it scale when needed.

That's where Cloud Run fits really well for me.

The Docker Image

For the blog, I use Docker to build and run the Nuxt application.

I use a multi-stage build so the final image only contains the production output generated by Nuxt.

FROM node:22-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
RUN corepack enable
RUN apk add --no-cache \
    python3 \
    make \
    g++
COPY package.json pnpm-lock.yaml pnpm-workspace.yaml ./
RUN pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
COPY . .
RUN pnpm exec nuxt prepare
RUN pnpm build

FROM node:22-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=builder /app/.output ./.output
ENV NODE_ENV=production
ENV HOST=0.0.0.0
CMD ["node", ".output/server/index.mjs"]

Building with Cloud Build

I use Google Cloud Build to build my Docker image and push it to Artifact Registry.

My cloudbuild.yaml is intentionally small:

options:
  logging: CLOUD_LOGGING_ONLY

steps:
  - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/docker'
    waitFor: ['-']
    entrypoint: 'bash'
    args:
      - '-c'
      - |
        set -e

        IMAGE="asia-docker.pkg.dev/${PROJECT_ID}/nuxt/nuxt-app"
        docker build \
          -t $${IMAGE}:${SHORT_SHA} \
          -t $${IMAGE}:latest \
          .

images:
  - asia-docker.pkg.dev/${PROJECT_ID}/nuxt/nuxt-app:${SHORT_SHA}
  - asia-docker.pkg.dev/${PROJECT_ID}/nuxt/nuxt-app:latest

Going Serverless

I use Cloud Build triggers together with Cloud Run to keep the blog serverless.

Instead of running the deployment process on my own machine, I manually trigger a Cloud Build whenever I want to deploy a new version.

The trigger runs my cloudbuild.yaml, which builds the Docker image and pushes it to Artifact Registry. Cloud Run then runs the container.

Manual Trigger
      ↓
Cloud Build
      ↓
Docker Build
      ↓
Artifact Registry
      ↓
Cloud Run

The important part is that I don't have to manage a server or virtual machine myself.

Cloud Run handles running the container and can scale it down when there is no traffic.

For a small personal blog, this gives me a simple serverless setup without having to manage traditional server infrastructure.