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Quickstart: Deploy to Google Cloud Run

This tutorial will get you up and running with Helmless by deploying a simple "Hello World" container to Google Cloud Run.

Time to complete

This tutorial will take approximately 5 minutes to complete.

Prerequisites

You'll need:

Step 1: Set Up Your Environment

  1. Login to Google Cloud: 

    gcloud auth login

  2. Set your project and region: 

    gcloud config set project YOUR_PROJECT_ID
gcloud config set run/region europe-west1  # or your preferred region

Step 2: Create Your Service Configuration

  1. Create a new directory for your service: 

    mkdir -p my-first-service/helmless && cd my-first-service

  2. Create a helmless/values.yaml file: 

    cat <<EOF > helmless/values.yaml
# yaml-language-server: \$schema=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helmless/helmless/main/charts/cloudrun/service/values.schema.json
name: hello-helmless
region: $(gcloud config get run/region)
project: $(gcloud config get project)
image: 'us-docker.pkg.dev/cloudrun/container/hello'
env:
   COLOR: 'blue'
EOF

This is your service configuration. It defines everything about your service that would normally be defined via the GCP Console or Terraform.

Helmless Chart Schema

You can find the full schema for the Google Cloud Run Service Helmless chart here.

Step 3: Generate the Cloud Run Configuration

Run this command to template your service:

helm template oci://ghcr.io/helmless/google-cloudrun-service \
  -f helmless/values.yaml \
  > helmless/service.yaml

This will generate a service.yaml manifest in the GCP native format and will be used to deploy your service using the CLI.

Step 4: Deploy Your Service

Deploy to Cloud Run:

gcloud run services replace helmless/service.yaml

That's it! Your service is now deployed to Google Cloud Run.

Step 5: Test Your Service

  1. Start the Cloud Run proxy: 
    gcloud run services proxy hello-helmless
  1. Open http://localhost:8080 in your browser

You should see a blue-themed "Hello World" page! 🎉

Try Something New

Change the color of your service:

  1. Update COLOR in helmless/values.yaml: 

    env:
  COLOR: 'green'  # change from 'blue' to 'green'

  2. Re-run the template and deploy commands: 

    helm template oci://ghcr.io/helmless/google-cloudrun-service \
  -f helmless/values.yaml \
  > helmless/service.yaml

gcloud run services replace helmless/service.yaml

  3. Refresh your browser to see the new color!

Clean Up

When you're done, delete the service:

gcloud run services delete hello-helmless

What's Next?