Deployment

Deploy Cerbos on Google Cloud Run

Run the Cerbos PDP as a serverless container on Google Cloud Run with automatic scaling and per-request billing.

Serverless containers

Deploy the Cerbos container image to Cloud Run with no cluster management or infrastructure provisioning

Automatic scaling

Cloud Run scales Cerbos instances based on request volume, including scaling to zero when idle

Per-request billing

Pay only for the compute time consumed while processing authorization checks

What is Cerbos?

Cerbos is an open-source authorization layer that decouples access control from your application code. It runs as a stateless Policy Decision Point (PDP) that evaluates fine-grained policies at request time.

Authorization policies are written in human-readable YAML supporting RBAC, ABAC, and conditional rules. They can be updated, tested, and deployed independently of your application.

Deploying Cerbos via Google Cloud Run gives you a production-ready authorization service that scales horizontally and fits naturally into your existing infrastructure and observability stack.

Policy-as-codeHuman-readable YAML policies managed like source code Scalable PDPStateless policy decision point with sub-millisecond latency Centralized managementManage, test, and deploy policies from a single control plane

How to deploy Cerbos on Google Cloud Run

Deploy the container, Run gcloud run deploy cerbos --image ghcr.io/cerbos/cerbos:latest --port 3592 to deploy the Cerbos PDP to Cloud Run.
Configure policy loading, Set environment variables or use a mounted config to point Cerbos at a Git repository or Cerbos Hub for policies.
Set scaling parameters, Configure minimum and maximum instance counts based on your latency and cost requirements.
Connect your application, Use a Cerbos SDK to send authorization checks to the Cloud Run service URL.

FAQ

How do I deploy Cerbos on Cloud Run?

Deploy the official Cerbos container image to Cloud Run using `gcloud run deploy`. Configure environment variables or mount a config file to set the policy source, and expose the HTTP port.

Does Cerbos require any external dependencies?

No. Cerbos is self-contained with no database or message queue required. Policies load from a Git repository or Cerbos Hub, both compatible with Cloud Run deployments.

Can Cloud Run scale Cerbos to zero?

Yes. Cerbos starts quickly and Cloud Run can scale instances to zero when idle. Set a minimum instance count to avoid cold starts if low latency is required.