Cluster build
Google Cloud runbook · model rank #9

Stand up Kimi K3
on Google Cloud.

Requires the provider's multi-node path and the model author's distributed recipe. Teams standardizing model serving in Vertex AI with custom containers and raw prediction.

Cluster build: Requires the provider's multi-node path and the model author's distributed recipe.

Google Cloud setup, in the order that matters

A custom vLLM container in Vertex AI, backed by Artifact Registry. Use the provider console for infrastructure and the pinned runtime block for the model server.

  1. 01

    Prepare the project

    Enable Vertex AI, Artifact Registry, Cloud Build, and the required GPU quota in one region. Create a dedicated service account for deployment.

  2. 02

    Build the custom runtime

    Start from the official Google vLLM custom-container sample, pin the sglang image/version shown below, and push it to Artifact Registry.

  3. 03

    Upload and deploy the model

    Register moonshotai/Kimi-K3, select At least 3072GB across multiple Google Cloud GPU nodes, provide HF_TOKEN through a secret, and start with a 32,768-token limit.

  4. 04

    Use raw prediction

    vLLM's OpenAI protocol does not match Vertex's normal prediction envelope; call the documented raw prediction method and verify a short chat request first.

Runtime seedSGLang · latest
export MODEL_ID="moonshotai/Kimi-K3"
export INITIAL_CONTEXT="32768"
export MIN_TOTAL_VRAM_GB="3072"

# This model exceeds a single 8-GPU node.
# Use the linked official model recipe with the provider's cluster path.
# Keep the initial context conservative until a short smoke test passes.

This is a reproducible starting block. Cluster paths still need the model author's distributed recipe and the provider's orchestration layer.

Smoke testOpenAI-compatible request
curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "kimi-k3",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Reply with: deployment healthy"}],
    "max_tokens": 32
  }'

Run this only after logs show the model loaded. A successful HTTP response is not a latency or quality benchmark.

Quota, license, and storage

  • Confirm At least 3072GB across multiple Google Cloud GPU nodes is actually available in the selected region.
  • Read the Kimi K3 license terms and accept any gated-model conditions.
  • Budget at least 3800GB for weights, cache, and container layers.
  • Keep HF_TOKEN in the provider secret store—not in scripts or templates.

Memory, format, and shutdown

  • Record idle/free VRAM after the model loads and after a representative prompt.
  • Validate the official chat template, reasoning parser, and tool-call parser.
  • Add authentication and TLS in front of port 8000.
  • Verify the provider's stop/delete action actually ends compute billing.

Hand this runbook to Claude Code or Codex

Open a terminal in the repository where you want the deployment files, start claude or codex, then paste this prompt. It asks the agent to verify sources and stop before it creates billable infrastructure.

Deployment prompt
Deploy Kimi K3 (moonshotai/Kimi-K3) on Google Cloud. Use this guide as the starting context: https://www.getflops.ai/models/kimi-k3/gcp. Use a planning floor of 16x 192GB GPUs, 3800GB storage, sglang latest, and an initial context limit of 32768 tokens. Open every linked primary source and flag any mismatch instead of guessing. Create a deployment folder containing README.md, .env.example with no secrets, a pinned start script or infrastructure manifest, and smoke-test.sh. Make the endpoint OpenAI-compatible where the runtime supports it. Run local/static validation, estimate the billable resources, and stop before provisioning paid infrastructure until I approve.
Guardrails included No secrets in files · verify primary docs · approval before spend

The two sources to check first

Checked 2026-07-27. This page separates sourced facts from the planning baseline; verify current runtime support and capacity before spending.

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