ADK 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 — deploy.py CLI, AdkApp pattern, 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 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

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

Deployment Target Decision Matrix

Choose the right deployment target based on your requirements:

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

Product name mapping: "Agent Engine" / "Vertex AI Agent Engine" is now Agent Runtime. Use --deployment-target agent_runtime.

Ambient / scheduled / event-driven agents: Agent Runtime does not support Pub/Sub, Eventarc, or Cloud Scheduler triggers. Use Cloud Run (recommended) or GKE for these workloads. See /google-agents-cli-adk-code Section 12 for the trigger_sources pattern.

OAuth / user consent agents: Use Agent Runtime with Gemini Enterprise 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. See the adk-ae-oauth sample in /google-agents-cli-workflow Phase 2.

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: "Eval scores meet thresholds and tests pass. 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.

Do NOT run agents-cli infra single-project before deploying. It is not a prerequisite — agents-cli deploy works on its own. Run it separately if the user needs observability features (prompt-response logging, BigQuery analytics) — see /google-agents-cli-observability.

Single-Project Infrastructure Setup (Optional — Advanced)

agents-cli infra single-project 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). Also useful to test things in a single project before going to production. It is NOT required for deploying.

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

Note: agents-cli deploy doesn't automatically use the Terraform-created app_sa. Pass the service account via agents-cli deploy --service-account SA_EMAIL or uv run -m app.app_utils.deploy --service-account SA_EMAIL for Agent Runtime targets.

Deploy Flag Reference

Run agents-cli deploy --help for the full flag reference. Cloud Run also accepts extra gcloud flags after -- (e.g., -- --timeout=600).

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.

Production Deployment — CI/CD Pipeline

For the full CI/CD pipeline setup guide — prerequisites, infra cicd flags, runner comparison, WIF authentication, pipeline stages, and production approval — see references/cicd-pipeline.md.

Cloud Run Specifics

For detailed infrastructure configuration (scaling defaults, Dockerfile, FastAPI endpoints, session types, networking), see references/cloud-run.md. For ADK docs on Cloud Run deployment, fetch https://adk.dev/deploy/cloud-run/index.md.

For event-driven / ambient agent deployment on Cloud Run, see the ambient-expense-agent sample and /google-agents-cli-adk-code for the trigger_sources pattern.

Agent Runtime Specifics

Agent Runtime is a managed Vertex AI service for deploying Python ADK agents. Uses source-based deployment (no Dockerfile) via deploy.py and the AdkApp class.

No gcloud CLI exists for Agent Runtime. Deploy via agents-cli deploy or deploy.py. Query via the Python vertexai.Client SDK.

Deployments can take 5-10 minutes. Use --no-wait to start a deployment and return immediately, then check on it later with --status:

# Start deployment without blocking
agents-cli deploy --no-wait

# Check on progress later
agents-cli deploy --status

When --status detects the operation has completed, it writes deployment_metadata.json and prints the same success output as a normal deploy.

For detailed infrastructure configuration (deploy.py flags, AdkApp pattern, Terraform resource, deployment metadata, session/artifact services, CI/CD differences), see references/agent-runtime.md. For ADK docs on Agent Runtime deployment, fetch https://adk.dev/deploy/agent-runtime/index.md.

GKE Specifics

For detailed infrastructure configuration (Kubernetes manifests, Terraform resources, Workload Identity, session types, networking), see references/gke.md. For ADK docs on GKE deployment, fetch https://adk.dev/deploy/gke/index.md.

Service Account Architecture

Scaffolded projects use two service accounts:

• app_sa (per environment) — Runtime identity for the deployed agent. Roles defined in deployment/terraform/iam.tf.
• cicd_runner_sa (CI/CD project) — CI/CD pipeline identity (GitHub Actions / Cloud Build). Lives in the CI/CD project (defaults to prod project), needs permissions in both staging and prod projects.

Check deployment/terraform/iam.tf for exact role bindings. Cross-project permissions (Cloud Run service agents, artifact registry access) are also configured there.

Common 403 errors:

• "Permission denied on Cloud Run" → cicd_runner_sa missing deployment role in the target project
• "Cannot act as service account" → Missing iam.serviceAccountUser binding on app_sa
• "Secret access denied" → app_sa missing secretmanager.secretAccessor
• "Artifact Registry read denied" → Cloud Run service agent missing read access in CI/CD project

Required Permissions for CI/CD Setup

• roles/secretmanager.admin granted to the Cloud Build service account (service-<PROJECT_NUMBER>@gcp-sa-cloudbuild.iam.gserviceaccount.com) in the CI/CD project. This allows Cloud Build to access the GitHub token stored in Secret Manager.

Required APIs

The following Google Cloud APIs must be enabled in your project for the skills and deployment to work:

• cloudbuild.googleapis.com — Required for building container images and running CI/CD pipelines.
• secretmanager.googleapis.com — Required for managing secrets and API keys.
• run.googleapis.com — Required for deploying to Cloud Run.

Ensure these are enabled before running deployment or CI/CD setup commands:

gcloud services enable cloudbuild.googleapis.com secretmanager.googleapis.com run.googleapis.com --project=YOUR_PROJECT_ID

Secret Manager (for API Credentials)

Instead of passing sensitive keys as environment variables, use GCP Secret Manager.

# Create a secret
echo -n "YOUR_API_KEY" | gcloud secrets create MY_SECRET_NAME --data-file=-

# Update an existing secret
echo -n "NEW_API_KEY" | gcloud secrets versions add MY_SECRET_NAME --data-file=-

Grant access: For Cloud Run, grant secretmanager.secretAccessor to app_sa. For Agent Runtime, grant it to the platform-managed SA (service-PROJECT_NUMBER@gcp-sa-aiplatform-re.iam.gserviceaccount.com). For GKE, grant secretmanager.secretAccessor to app_sa. Access secrets via Kubernetes Secrets or directly via the Secret Manager API with Workload Identity.

Pass secrets at deploy time (Agent Runtime):

agents-cli deploy --secrets "API_KEY=my-api-key,DB_PASS=db-password:2"

Format: ENV_VAR=SECRET_ID or ENV_VAR=SECRET_ID:VERSION (defaults to latest). Access in code via os.environ.get("API_KEY").

Observability

See the agents-cli-observability skill for observability configuration (Cloud Trace, prompt-response logging, BigQuery Analytics, third-party integrations).

Testing Your Deployed Agent

The quickest way to test a deployed agent is agents-cli run --url <service-url> --mode <a2a|adk> "your prompt" — it handles auth, sessions, and streaming automatically (supports Agent Runtime and Cloud Run).

For advanced testing (custom headers, session reuse, scripting, load tests), see references/testing-deployed-agents.md.

Deploying with a UI (IAP)

IAP (Identity-Aware Proxy) secures a Cloud Run service so only authorized Google accounts can access it. Support for IAP deployment via agents-cli deploy is planned for a future release.

For Agent Runtime with a custom frontend, use a decoupled deployment — deploy the frontend separately to Cloud Run or Cloud Storage, connecting to the Agent Runtime backend API.

For more information on IAP with Cloud Run, see the Cloud Console IAP settings.

Rollback & Recovery

The primary rollback mechanism is git-based: fix the issue, commit, and push to main. The CI/CD pipeline will automatically build and deploy the new version through staging → production.

For immediate Cloud Run rollback without a new commit, use revision traffic shifting:

gcloud run revisions list --service=SERVICE_NAME --region=REGION
gcloud run services update-traffic SERVICE_NAME \
  --to-revisions=REVISION_NAME=100 --region=REGION

Agent Runtime doesn't support revision-based rollback — fix and redeploy via agents-cli deploy.

For GKE rollback, use kubectl rollout undo:

kubectl rollout undo deployment/DEPLOYMENT_NAME -n NAMESPACE
kubectl rollout status deployment/DEPLOYMENT_NAME -n NAMESPACE

Custom Infrastructure (Terraform)

CRITICAL: When your agent requires custom infrastructure (Cloud SQL, Pub/Sub, Eventarc, BigQuery, etc.), you MUST define it in Terraform — never create resources manually via gcloud commands. Exception: quick experimentation is fine with gcloud or console, but production infrastructure must be in Terraform.

For custom infrastructure patterns, consult references/terraform-patterns.md for:

• Where to put custom Terraform files (single-project vs CI/CD)
• Resource examples (Pub/Sub, BigQuery, Eventarc triggers)
• IAM bindings for custom resources
• Terraform state management (remote vs local, importing resources)
• Common infrastructure patterns

Troubleshooting

Platform Registration

For registering deployed agents with Gemini Enterprise, see /google-agents-cli-publish.

Related Skills

• /google-agents-cli-workflow — Development workflow, coding guidelines, and operational rules
• /google-agents-cli-adk-code — ADK Python API quick reference for writing agent code
• /google-agents-cli-eval — Evaluation methodology, evalset schema, and the eval-fix loop
• /google-agents-cli-scaffold — Project creation and enhancement with agents-cli scaffold create / scaffold enhance
• /google-agents-cli-observability — Cloud Trace, logging, BigQuery Analytics, and third-party integrations
• /google-agents-cli-publish — Gemini Enterprise registration