Staging Domain — staging.rabbit.jaylabs.xyz

Goal (jay): give the Cloud Run URL (https://rabbit-179807446244.asia-northeast3.run.app/) a memorable staging address, staging.rabbit.jaylabs.xyz, as a pre-domain testing tier ahead of production (www.jaylabs.xyz + apex → rabbit, per the jun-19 plan).

Source: jay's request, added 2026-07-07.

Constraint (verified in GCP docs, 2026-07-07)

Cloud Run's built-in domain mapping does not support asia-northeast3 (Seoul) — the service's region — so the free built-in path is out.

Options considered

1. Firebase Hosting rewrite → Cloud Run (recommended) — works with any region, ~free, Google-managed TLS. Work: create a Firebase Hosting site, firebase.json rewrite { "source": "**", "run": { "serviceId": "rabbit", "region": "asia-northeast3" } }, add the DNS records Firebase issues for staging.rabbit.jaylabs.xyz.
2. Global external HTTPS load balancer + serverless NEG — most control (CDN, Cloud Armor) but ~$18+/mo; overkill for a staging URL.
3. Move the service to asia-northeast1 (Tokyo) to use built-in mapping — free, but gives up Seoul latency; not worth it just for a staging alias.

Recommendation: option 1 (Firebase Hosting). Note AUTH_URL/Google-OAuth redirect must include the new origin when auth is used on staging (cloud mode).

Status

🚫 Not pursuing (2026-08-03) — jay decided not to run a separate staging server. The Firebase Hosting mechanism from option 1 above was built (firebase.json + scripts/setup-domain-firebase.sh), but it ended up wired to production (www.jaylabs.xyz), not this staging subdomain — no staging.rabbit.jaylabs.xyz DNS/site exists. Left here as historical context in case a staging tier is wanted later; the reusable script makes it cheap to revisit.