Cloud Source Repositories

Google Cloud Source Repositories (CSR) is a fully managed, private Git hosting service on Google Cloud. It provides Git repositories hosted on Google's infrastructure with integration into Cloud Build, IAM-based access control, and the ability to mirror repositories from GitHub and Bitbucket.

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What Is Cloud Source Repositories?

Cloud Source Repositories is Google Cloud's native Git hosting service. It provides private Git repositories with the same reliability and security as other Google Cloud services.

Key Characteristics

Characteristic	Description
Fully managed	No servers to maintain — Google handles availability and scaling
Private	All repositories are private by default
Integrated	Native integration with Cloud Build, Debugger, and Logging
Mirroring	Mirror repositories from GitHub and Bitbucket
IAM	Access control through Google Cloud IAM
Unlimited repos	No limit on the number of repositories per project
Free tier	Up to 5 users and 50 GB of storage free

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Creating and Managing Repositories

Creating a Repository

# Create a new repository
gcloud source repos create my-repo

# List all repositories in the project
gcloud source repos list

# Describe a repository
gcloud source repos describe my-repo

Cloning a Repository

# Clone using gcloud (sets up authentication automatically)
gcloud source repos clone my-repo

# Clone using the manual URL
git clone https://source.developers.google.com/p/my-project/r/my-repo

Authentication

Cloud Source Repositories supports multiple authentication methods:

Method	Use Case
gcloud credential helper	Local development (recommended)
SSH keys	Developers who prefer SSH
Service account keys	CI/CD pipelines
Cookie-based	Google Cloud Console

# Set up the gcloud credential helper
git config --global credential.https://source.developers.google.com.helper gcloud.sh

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Repository Mirroring

Cloud Source Repositories can mirror external repositories from GitHub or Bitbucket. Changes pushed to the external repository are automatically synced to CSR.

Why Mirror?

• Cloud Build integration — trigger Cloud Build directly from CSR
• Backup — maintain a copy of your repository on Google Cloud
• Compliance — keep source code within Google Cloud for regulatory requirements
• Performance — faster access for GCP services

Setting Up Mirroring

1. Navigate to Cloud Source Repositories in the Cloud Console
2. Click "Add repository" and select "Connect external repository"
3. Choose the provider (GitHub or Bitbucket)
4. Authorise the connection and select the repository to mirror

Mirrored repositories are read-only in CSR — all changes must be pushed to the external repository.

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IAM Access Control

Role	Description
roles/source.reader	Clone and fetch from repositories
roles/source.writer	Push to repositories
roles/source.admin	Create, delete, and manage repositories

# Grant read access to a developer
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding my-project \
  --member="user:developer@example.com" \
  --role="roles/source.writer"