The build and deploy pipeline - webhooks trigger Cloud Build, static sites go to the CDN, servers run as containers that scale to zero.
How it works
This page is the mental model for the whole platform: what happens between a git push and a running app, and what the moving parts are called.
The pipeline#
When you push to a connected branch:
- Webhook. GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket sends a signed webhook; Light Cloud matches it to the application and the environment for that branch. Apps with a root directory only rebuild when the push touches that folder.
- Build. The commit is built with Cloud Build. If the repo needs a Dockerfile and has none, one is generated for your framework. The details are on Builds.
- Store. A static build is uploaded to object storage. A container build is pushed to Artifact Registry as an image.
- Release. Static assets go live on the global CDN. A container image is deployed to Cloud Run, which routes traffic to the new revision.
- Record. The deploy is recorded with its commit, author, duration, status, and logs. See Observability.
Every step streams into the deploy's build log, so a failing deploy tells you which step broke and why.
Applications and environments#
An application is linked to one repository. It has one or more environments, one per connected branch. Each environment has its own URL, build settings, and environment variables.
- One environment is production - protected from cleanup, deployed from the production branch. See Deployments.
- The rest are previews you can create and remove freely. See Preview environments.
One commit built and released for one environment is a deployment. Each environment keeps its last 20 deployments in its history.
URLs#
Every deployed environment gets a URL built from the branch, the app, and your organization:
{branch}-{app}-{org}.light-cloud.io
Attach a domain you own on top of it - see Custom domains.
Where it runs#
Light Cloud runs on Google Cloud and a Cloudflare CDN:
| Workload | Runs on |
|---|---|
| Container apps | Cloud Run |
| Image builds | Cloud Build, stored in Artifact Registry |
| Static sites | Object storage behind a global CDN |
| Databases | Cloud SQL |
You never touch these services directly - Light Cloud provisions and operates them, and bills them at cost.
What this model buys you#
- Scale to zero. Container apps with no traffic stop billing. See Scaling.
- A preview per branch. Isolated environments with their own URLs and variables, cleaned up when the branch is deleted.
- Reproducible releases. Every deploy is one commit, built the same way every time. Rolling back is a
git revertaway - see Rollbacks.