AutoCode Sage — Self-Hosted n8n on Google Cloud Run with Cloud SQL

AutoCode Sage is a fully serverless, production-ready setup for running n8n on Google Cloud Run using Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL) for persistent storage.
Because Cloud Run containers are stateless and can shut down anytime, Cloud SQL acts as n8n’s long-term memory — ensuring your workflows, credentials, and executions persist.

Architecture Overview

• Compute: Cloud Run (stateless, serverless)
• Persistent Storage: Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL)
• Container Customization: Custom Docker image with Python (for ML workflows)
• Port Bridging: A custom start.sh maps Cloud Run’s dynamic $PORT to n8n’s fixed port

Prerequisites

• Google Cloud SDK (gcloud) installed and authenticated
• A Google Cloud Project with billing enabled
• Basic Docker knowledge

Deployment Guide

1. Initial Setup & Environment Variables

export PROJECT_ID="your-project-id"
export REGION="us-central1"
export DB_INSTANCE_NAME="n8n-postgres-db"
export DB_NAME="n8n"
export DB_USER="n8nuser"
export DB_PASSWORD="StrongPassword123!"
export REPO_NAME="autocode-sage-repo"
export IMAGE_NAME="n8n-custom"

gcloud auth login
gcloud config set project $PROJECT_ID

gcloud services enable run.googleapis.com \
    sqladmin.googleapis.com \
    artifactregistry.googleapis.com \
    cloudbuild.googleapis.com

2. Create Cloud SQL Instance

gcloud sql instances create $DB_INSTANCE_NAME \
    --database-version=POSTGRES_14 \
    --tier=db-f1-micro \
    --region=$REGION \
    --root-password=$DB_PASSWORD

gcloud sql databases create $DB_NAME --instance=$DB_INSTANCE_NAME

gcloud sql users create $DB_USER \
    --instance=$DB_INSTANCE_NAME \
    --password=$DB_PASSWORD

3. Create Local Config Files

start.sh

#!/bin/sh
export N8N_PORT=$PORT
n8n start

Dockerfile

FROM n8nio/n8n:latest

USER root
RUN apk add --no-cache python3 py3-pip
COPY start.sh /start.sh
RUN chmod +x /start.sh
USER node

ENTRYPOINT ["/start.sh"]

4. Build & Push the Docker Image

gcloud artifacts repositories create $REPO_NAME \
    --repository-format=docker \
    --location=$REGION \
    --description="Repository for AutoCode Sage n8n"

gcloud builds submit --tag \
    $REGION-docker.pkg.dev/$PROJECT_ID/$REPO_NAME/$IMAGE_NAME:latest .

5. Deploy to Cloud Run

export ENCRYPTION_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 16)

gcloud run deploy n8n-sage \
    --image $REGION-docker.pkg.dev/$PROJECT_ID/$REPO_NAME/$IMAGE_NAME:latest \
    --region $REGION \
    --platform managed \
    --allow-unauthenticated \
    --min-instances 1 \
    --memory 2Gi \
    --cpu 1 \
    --add-cloudsql-instances $PROJECT_ID:$REGION:$DB_INSTANCE_NAME \
    --set-env-vars "DB_TYPE=postgresdb" \
    --set-env-vars "DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=/cloudsql/$PROJECT_ID:$REGION:$DB_INSTANCE_NAME" \
    --set-env-vars "DB_POSTGRESDB_USER=$DB_USER" \
    --set-env-vars "DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=$DB_PASSWORD" \
    --set-env-vars "DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE=$DB_NAME" \
    --set-env-vars "N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY=$ENCRYPTION_KEY"

6. Set Webhook URLs

export SERVICE_URL=$(gcloud run services describe n8n-sage \
    --region $REGION \
    --format 'value(status.url)')

gcloud run services update n8n-sage \
    --region $REGION \
    --set-env-vars "WEBHOOK_URL=$SERVICE_URL/" \
    --set-env-vars "WEBHOOK_TUNNEL_URL=$SERVICE_URL/"

Cleanup

gcloud run services delete n8n-sage --region $REGION
gcloud sql instances delete $DB_INSTANCE_NAME --region $REGION