Google Agents CLI Deploy

Deployment Guide

Requires: agents-cli (uv tool install google-agents-cli) — install uv first if needed.

Prefer using the agents-cli commands throughout this guide — they wrap Terraform, Docker, and deployment into a tested pipeline. If your project isn't scaffolded yet, see /google-agents-cli-scaffold to add deployment support first.

Reference Files

For deeper details, consult these reference files in references/:

• cloud-run.md — Scaling defaults, Dockerfile, session types, networking
• agent-runtime.md — container-based deploy, unified FastAPI app, the /api passthrough, Terraform resource, deployment metadata, CI/CD differences
• gke.md — GKE Autopilot cluster, Kubernetes manifests, Workload Identity, session types, networking
• terraform-patterns.md — Custom infrastructure, IAM, state management, importing resources
• batch-inference.md — BigQuery Remote Function trigger; for Pub/Sub / Eventarc on ADK see /google-agents-cli-adk-code
• cicd-pipeline.md — Full CI/CD pipeline setup, infra cicd flags, runner comparison, WIF auth, pipeline stages
• testing-deployed-agents.md — Testing instructions per deployment target, curl examples, load tests
• cmek.md — Customer-managed encryption keys on Agent Runtime in Gemini platform: key grants, deploy --key for dev, Terraform edits for staging/prod

Observability: See the /google-agents-cli-observability skill for Cloud Trace, prompt-response logging, BigQuery Analytics, and third-party integrations.

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Deployment Target Decision Matrix

Choose the right deployment target based on your requirements:

Criteria	Agent Runtime	Cloud Run	GKE
Scaling	Managed auto-scaling (configurable min/max, concurrency)	Fully configurable (min/max instances, concurrency, CPU allocation)	Full Kubernetes scaling (HPA, VPA, node auto-provisioning)
Networking	VPC-SC and PSC-I supported (private VPC connectivity via network attachments)	Full VPC support, direct VPC egress, IAP, ingress rules	Full Kubernetes networking
Session state	Sessions in Gemini platform (ADK wires VertexAiSessionService automatically)	In-memory (dev), Cloud SQL, or a managed sessions backend	In-memory (dev), Cloud SQL, or a managed sessions backend
Batch/event processing	Trigger endpoints reachable via the Agent Runtime /api passthrough	Native trigger endpoints (Pub/Sub, Eventarc); ADK: see /google-agents-cli-adk-code	Custom (Kubernetes Jobs, Pub/Sub)
Cost model	vCPU-hours + memory-hours (not billed when idle)	Per-instance-second + min instance costs	Node pool costs (always-on or auto-provisioned)
Setup complexity	Lower (managed, purpose-built for agents)	Medium (Dockerfile, Terraform, networking)	Higher (Kubernetes expertise required)
Best for	Managed infrastructure, minimal ops	Custom infra, full networking control	Full Kubernetes control

Ask the user which deployment target fits their needs. Each is a valid production choice with different trade-offs.

All three targets are container-based, so any language works.

Product name mapping: users may say "Agent Engine", "Vertex AI Agent Engine", or "Agent Runtime"; all mean Agent Runtime. Use --deployment-target agent_runtime.

Ambient / scheduled / event-driven agents (ADK projects): ADK's trigger_sources registers /apps/{app}/trigger/* endpoints on the same FastAPI app for all targets. On Cloud Run / GKE these are public HTTP routes you point a Pub/Sub push subscription or Eventarc trigger at; on Agent Runtime the same routes are reachable through its /api passthrough (e.g. .../reasoningEngines/v1/{resource}/api/apps/{app}/trigger/pubsub). Cloud Run remains the simplest target for unauthenticated trigger sources. See /google-agents-cli-adk-code (references/adk-python.md, section "12. Event-Driven / Ambient Agents") for the trigger_sources pattern.

OAuth / user consent agents: Use Agent Runtime, registered with Gemini, for agents that need OAuth 2.0 user consent (e.g., accessing Google Drive, Calendar, or other user-scoped APIs). Cloud Run does not currently support managed OAuth flows. For a worked ADK example, look up OAuth user consent in the topic index in /google-agents-cli-adk-code → references/recipes.md.

Live and voice agents: pass --timeout 3600 on Cloud Run so a session outlives the 300s default, and --min-instances 1 on Cloud Run or Agent Runtime so the first caller after idle does not hear a cold start. GKE sizes pods in Terraform. URL shapes and session caps: /google-agents-cli-adk-code (references/adk-python-live.md).

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Deploying to Dev

Deploy Workflow

Task tracking: Deployment involves multiple sequential steps (infra setup, CI/CD configuration, deploy, verification). Use a task list to track progress through these steps — skipping one often causes failures in later steps that are hard to trace back.

1. If prototype (no deployment target), first enhance: agents-cli scaffold enhance . --deployment-target <target>
2. Notify the human: paste the eval scores and test results, then ask "Ready to deploy to dev?"
3. Wait for explicit approval
4. Once approved: agents-cli deploy

Agent Runtime timeout recovery: Agent Runtime deploys can take 5-10 minutes and may exceed command timeouts. If the deploy command is cancelled or times out, the deployment continues server-side. Run agents-cli deploy --status to check progress — poll every 60 seconds until it reports completion or failure.

IMPORTANT: Never run agents-cli deploy without explicit human approval.

Not a prerequisite. agents-cli deploy works on its own. One exception: if the user wants Terraform-managed observability (prompt-response logging, BigQuery analytics), run agents-cli infra single-project --apply first, see /google-agents-cli-observability.

Single-Project Infrastructure Setup (Optional — Advanced)

agents-cli infra single-project --apply runs terraform apply in deployment/terraform/single-project/. Use this to provision single-project GCP infrastructure without CI/CD (service accounts, IAM bindings, telemetry resources, Artifact Registry). It is required before deployment only when Terraform will manage observability; basic Agent Runtime and Cloud Run deployments do not need it, while GKE deploy handles its own targeted Terraform.

# Optional — provision infrastructure in a single GCP project
agents-cli infra single-project --apply

Note: agents-cli deploy doesn't automatically use the Terraform-created app_sa. Pass the service account explicitly: agents-cli deploy --service-account SA_EMAIL.

Deploy Flag Reference

Flag	Description	Targets
--project	GCP project ID	All
--region	GCP region	All
--service-account	Service account email for the deployed agent	All
--service-name	Override the deployed service name (Cloud Run service or Agent Runtime display name); defaults to the project name. If you override it, consider updating your Terraform and CI (if present) — they name resources from the project name. Not supported for GKE, whose names are fully owned by Terraform.	Agent Runtime, Cloud Run
--secrets / --update-secrets	Comma-separated ENV=SECRET or ENV=SECRET:VERSION pairs. Cloud Run adds them to the service's existing secrets; Agent Runtime replaces the agent's existing secrets with the ones you pass.	Agent Runtime, Cloud Run
--env-vars / --update-env-vars	Comma-separated KEY=VALUE environment variables	All
--agent-identity	Enable Agent Identity	Agent Runtime
--no-agent-identity	Disable Agent Identity. Passing neither --agent-identity nor --no-agent-identity follows the project's identity default in agents-cli-manifest.yaml when the agent is created, or keeps the current identity type on later deploys.	Agent Runtime
--network-attachment	Network attachment resource name for PSC interface (enables private VPC connectivity)	Agent Runtime
--dns-peering-domain	DNS peering domain suffix, e.g. my-internal.corp. (requires --network-attachment)	Agent Runtime
--dns-peering-project	Project ID hosting the Cloud DNS managed zone for DNS peering (requires --network-attachment)	Agent Runtime
--dns-peering-network	VPC network name in the target project for DNS peering (requires --network-attachment)	Agent Runtime
--agent-gateway-egress	Bind the agent to an Agent Gateway governing outbound traffic. Full resource name of a gateway with governedAccessPath=AGENT_TO_ANYWHERE. Empty value unbinds; omit to leave unchanged. See Agent Gateway	Agent Runtime
--agent-gateway-ingress	Bind the agent to an Agent Gateway governing inbound traffic. Full resource name of a gateway with governedAccessPath=CLIENT_TO_AGENT. Empty value unbinds; omit to leave unchanged	Agent Runtime
--key	Cloud KMS key for customer-managed encryption (CMEK), as a full projects/PROJECT/locations/REGION/keyRings/RING/cryptoKeys/KEY name. Set on create only; for dev deployments (staging/prod set the key in Terraform). See Customer-managed encryption	Agent Runtime
--memory	Memory limit (default: 4Gi)	Agent Runtime, Cloud Run
--cpu	CPU limit (default: 1)	Agent Runtime, Cloud Run
--min-instances	Minimum number of instances (default: 0, i.e. scale to zero; the generated Terraform uses 1)	Agent Runtime, Cloud Run
--max-instances	Maximum number of instances (default: 10)	Agent Runtime, Cloud Run
--concurrency	Concurrent requests per container (default: 8; see Sizing a deployment)	Agent Runtime, Cloud Run
--timeout	Request timeout in seconds, up to 3600 (Cloud Run default: 300). Applied on create and update; unset leaves the service's current value	Cloud Run
--port	Container port	Cloud Run, Agent Runtime
--build-args	Comma-separated KEY=VALUE Docker build args	Agent Runtime
--labels / --update-labels	Comma-separated KEY=VALUE resource labels to add or update. Additive: adds/updates the labels you name; labels you don't name are preserved.	Agent Runtime, Cloud Run
--remove-labels	Comma-separated label KEYs to remove. Keys that don't exist are ignored. Can be combined with --labels, but a key can't appear in both. Cannot be combined with --clear-labels.	Agent Runtime, Cloud Run
--clear-labels	Remove all resource labels (Cloud Run keeps its reserved created-by label). Combine with --labels to replace the label set; the clear is applied first. Cannot be combined with --remove-labels.	Agent Runtime, Cloud Run
--framework	Framework the deployed container implements (defaults to framework: in agents-cli-manifest.yaml, which the template sets; google-adk when absent). Sets agent_framework on the deployment, which picks the Google Cloud console playground and the runtime contract the deployment declares. The API owns the accepted values (reference)	Agent Runtime
--iap	Enable Identity-Aware Proxy	Cloud Run
--image	Container image URI (skips source build; not supported for Agent Runtime)	Cloud Run, GKE
--no-wait	Start deployment and return immediately	Agent Runtime, Cloud Run
--status	Check the status of a pending --no-wait deployment	Agent Runtime, Cloud Run
--list	List existing deployments and exit	All
--dry-run / -n	Print what would be executed without running it. For Agent Runtime and Cloud Run, it first runs read-only checks on Google Cloud.	All
--no-confirm-project	Skip project confirmation prompt	All

Run agents-cli deploy --help for the full flag reference.

Advanced Cloud Run Deploys: If you need features not exposed via agents-cli flags, use --dry-run (or -n) to print the full gcloud command, copy it, and add additional arguments as needed.

Project Confirmation: If the project is resolved automatically (not passed via --project), the command will prompt for confirmation in interactive mode. Since agents typically run in non-interactive mode, you MUST pass --no-confirm-project to proceed if you are relying on automatic project resolution.

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Sizing a deployment

Defaults (same on Agent Runtime and Cloud Run): --cpu 1, --memory 4Gi, --concurrency 8, --min-instances 0, --max-instances 10. The generated service.tf matches, except it pins min_instances = 1 so production deployments don't experience cold starts. The recommended values were tuned against Python agents, so treat them as a starting point and tune them with load tests (see below).

agents-cli deploy scales to zero by default so idle dev and demo agents don't hold capacity. Pass --min-instances 1 (or deploy via Terraform) when you need a warm instance.

The params are coupled — scale them together: