frames/docs/deploy/gcp-cloud-run.mdx

---
title: Google Cloud Run
description: "Deploy distributed Frames rendering to Google Cloud Run + Cloud Workflows, and drive renders from a laptop or CI."
---

Frames ships a Google Cloud deployment that mirrors the [AWS Lambda](/deploy/aws-lambda) one: a single Cloud Run service fronts a Cloud Workflows definition that fans renders out across many parallel chunk workers, with intermediate artifacts in Google Cloud Storage. The render primitives are identical — only the storage, compute, and orchestration adapters differ.

It's the right choice for teams already running their backend and storage on Google Cloud who want distributed Frames rendering without adding AWS infrastructure.

## Architecture

```
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Cloud Workflows definition                                       │
│   Plan → parallel(for chunk) RenderChunk → Assemble              │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │ OIDC-authenticated http.post per step
                              ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ One Cloud Run service (packages/gcp-cloud-run/Dockerfile)        │
│   dist/server.js                                                 │
│     ├─ Action="plan"        → @frames/producer/distributed  │
│     ├─ Action="renderChunk" → @frames/producer/distributed  │
│     └─ Action="assemble"    → @frames/producer/distributed  │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │ GCS download / upload
                              ▼
                    Google Cloud Storage bucket
```

Each workflow step `POST`s to the same Cloud Run URL with a different `Action`. The handler downloads its inputs from GCS into the container's filesystem, runs the matching OSS primitive, uploads the output back to GCS, and returns a small JSON result. The workflow accumulates every step's result and returns `{ Plan, Chunks, Assemble }`.

## Why Cloud Run is simpler than Lambda here

Cloud Run runs a container image, so the Chrome story collapses to a `Dockerfile` line. There's no 250 MB ZIP ceiling, no `@sparticuz/chromium` runtime decompression, and no packaging probe — the image installs the same pinned `chrome-headless-shell` build the production renderer uses. Cloud Run gen2 also gives more headroom than Lambda: up to a 60-minute request timeout and 32 GiB of memory.

## Deploy

The Terraform module at `packages/gcp-cloud-run/terraform` provisions the GCS bucket, the Cloud Run service, the Cloud Workflows definition, two least-privilege service accounts, and a runaway-request alert.

```bash
# 1. Build + push the render image.
gcloud builds submit . \
  --tag us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/PROJECT/frames/frames-render:v1

# 2. Apply the module.
cd packages/gcp-cloud-run/terraform
terraform init
terraform apply \
  -var project_id=PROJECT \
  -var region=us-central1 \
  -var image=us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/PROJECT/frames/frames-render:v1
```

Terraform outputs `render_bucket_name`, `service_url`, `workflow_name`, and `region`. Pass those into the SDK.

<Note>
The target GCP project must have **billing enabled** — Cloud Run, Cloud Workflows, Artifact Registry, and Cloud Build are all billed services.
</Note>

## Render

```ts
import {
  renderToCloudRun,
  getRenderProgress,
} from "@frames/gcp-cloud-run/sdk";

const handle = await renderToCloudRun({
  projectDir: "./my-composition",
  config: { fps: 30, width: 1920, height: 1080, format: "mp4" },
  bucketName: "frames-render-my-project",
  projectId: "my-project",
  location: "us-central1",
  workflowId: "frames-render",
  serviceUrl: "https://frames-render-abc.us-central1.run.app",
});

let progress = await getRenderProgress({ executionName: handle.executionName });
while (progress.status === "running") {
  await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 5000));
  progress = await getRenderProgress({ executionName: handle.executionName });
}
console.log(progress.status, progress.outputFile, progress.costs.displayCost);
```

Templates with [variables](/concepts/variables) work the same way — declare `data-composition-variables` on the composition and pass `config.variables`. The Cloud Workflows execution argument is capped at 512 KiB, so pass media as URL references the composition resolves at render time rather than inlining base64.

## End-to-end smoke

`examples/gcp-cloud-run/scripts/smoke.sh` builds the image, applies the Terraform module, renders a fixture composition through the workflow at one or more chunk sizes, PSNR-compares each output against the in-process baseline, and tears the stack down.

```bash
examples/gcp-cloud-run/scripts/smoke.sh --project my-project --region us-central1
```

## Supported formats

Same as the distributed pipeline everywhere: `mp4` (H.264 / H.265), `webm` (VP9), `mov` (ProRes), and `png-sequence`. HDR mp4 is not supported in distributed mode.