Question

Your team uses a single Cloud Build pipeline that builds a container image, runs unit tests, pushes to Artifact Registry, and then deploys to a production GKE cluster. Compliance now requires that a human release manager explicitly approve the build before the production deployment steps run, while all earlier build and test steps continue to run automatically on every commit to main. You want the least complex change that satisfies this requirement natively in Cloud Build. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Split the pipeline so build and test run in one trigger, and use a Cloud Build manual approval on a second trigger that performs only the production deployment steps.

Answer

Configure the trigger to require manual approval, which pauses the entire build until an approver approves or rejects it in the Cloud Build console.

Answer

Add a wait step in the build config that polls a Pub/Sub topic until a release manager publishes an approval message.

Answer

Move the deployment steps to Cloud Deploy and add a promotion approval gate, replacing the Cloud Build deploy steps entirely.