Django Infra Utils for Cloud Run

Last Updated: 2026-07-08

1. Introduction

dj-infra-utils-cloud-run is a small copy-in Django cassette for deployment helpers I tend to need when running Django on Google Cloud Run.

The first helper is setup_admin, an idempotent management command that creates the initial Django superuser from environment variables. It is meant for a Cloud Run Job or another one-off management task, not the normal web service startup path.

---

2. Cassette Shape

This is intentionally not a Python package yet. The intended use is to copy the infra_utils/ directory into a Django project and add it to INSTALLED_APPS.

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ...
    "infra_utils",
]

---

3. Deployment Note

For Cloud Run deployments, run migrations and admin bootstrap as a one-off job using the same image and environment as the web service.

python manage.py migrate
python manage.py setup_admin

DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD should come from Google Secret Manager or an equivalent secret source, not from source code or image layers.

---

4. Maintenance Notes

• Scope: keep the cassette small and copyable.
• Packaging: consider PyPI only if reuse across projects becomes frequent.
• Runtime: keep operational commands outside the web service startup path.