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Option A: Cloud Run

Cloud Run is the simplest option — serverless containers with pay-per-use pricing. Good for intermittent workloads.
Cloud Run has a max request timeout of 60 minutes and containers can be shut down between requests. For long-running orchestration, use the always-on option (min instances = 1) or use Compute Engine instead.
  1. Push the image to Artifact Registry 
    # Create a repository (one-time)
gcloud artifacts repositories create polpo \
  --repository-format=docker \
  --location=us-central1

# Build and push
gcloud builds submit \
  --tag us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/YOUR_PROJECT/polpo/polpo:latest
    Or use the pre-built image directly from GitHub Container Registry.
  2. Deploy to Cloud Run 
    gcloud run deploy polpo \
  --image ghcr.io/lumea-labs/polpo:latest \
  --platform managed \
  --region us-central1 \
  --port 3000 \
  --cpu 2 \
  --memory 2Gi \
  --min-instances 1 \
  --max-instances 1 \
  --timeout 3600 \
  --set-env-vars "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-..." \
  --execution-environment gen2 \
  --allow-unauthenticated
    Key flags:
    • --min-instances 1 keeps the container always running
    • --max-instances 1 prevents multiple instances (Polpo is single-process)
    • --execution-environment gen2 enables full Linux syscalls (needed for child processes)
    • --timeout 3600 allows long-running SSE connections
  3. Add persistent storage Cloud Run supports NFS volumes via Filestore: 
    # Create a Filestore instance
gcloud filestore instances create polpo-data \
  --zone=us-central1-a \
  --file-share=name=workspace,capacity=10GB \
  --network=name=default

# Update the Cloud Run service to mount it
gcloud run services update polpo \
  --add-volume name=workspace,type=nfs,location=FILESTORE_IP:/workspace \
  --add-volume-mount volume=workspace,mount-path=/workspace

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Option B: Compute Engine

For always-on orchestration, a Compute Engine VM is simpler and cheaper.
  1. Create a VM 
    gcloud compute instances create polpo \
  --machine-type e2-small \
  --zone us-central1-a \
  --image-family ubuntu-2404-lts-amd64 \
  --image-project ubuntu-os-cloud \
  --boot-disk-size 20GB \
  --tags http-server,https-server
  2. SSH in 
    gcloud compute ssh polpo
  3. Install Docker and deploy 
    curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh

mkdir -p /opt/polpo/workspace
cd /opt/polpo

cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
services:
  polpo:
    image: ghcr.io/lumea-labs/polpo:latest
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - ./workspace:/workspace
    environment:
      - ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}
    restart: unless-stopped
EOF

echo "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-..." > .env
docker compose up -d
  4. Open the firewall 
    gcloud compute firewall-rules create allow-polpo \
  --allow tcp:3000 \
  --target-tags http-server

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SSL

For Compute Engine, use Caddy as a reverse proxy: 
sudo apt install caddy
echo 'polpo.yourdomain.com { reverse_proxy localhost:3000 }' | sudo tee /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
sudo systemctl reload caddy
For Cloud Run, HTTPS is automatic on the *.run.app domain. Add a custom domain via: 
gcloud run domain-mappings create --service polpo --domain polpo.yourdomain.com

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Cost estimate

SetupSpecsMonthly cost
Cloud Run (always-on)2 vCPU, 2 GB~$30
Compute Engine e2-small0.5 vCPU, 2 GB~$15
Compute Engine e2-medium1 vCPU, 4 GB~$25