I am trying to deploy a sample app using circleci to gke using google cloudrun. I created a cluster in google cloud and wanted to build and deploy an image to the container. It works perfectly if I do it manually. But I wanted an automated CI/CD pipeline to be built and hence using CircleCI to do it.

Skipping the testing and code coverage parts for now, I want to build a pipeline for gke deploymment

Here is the config.yaml file for circleci. I am trying to use the certified orbs already available, since creating one from scratch takes a longer time

version: 2.1
orbs:
  gcp-gcr: circleci/gcp-gcr@0.6.1

  cloudrun: circleci/gcp-cloud-run@1.0.2
executors:
  node-executor:
    docker:
      - image: node:12.8.1-stretch
  gcloud-executor:
    docker:
      - image: google/cloud-sdk
  machine-executor:
    machine: true
jobs:
  build:
    description: initial build
    executor: machine-executor
    steps:
      - checkout


  build_push_image_cloud_run_mangaged:
    executor: node-executor
    steps:
      - checkout
      - setup_remote_docker:
          docker_layer_caching: false

      - run:
          name: Prepare env vars
          command: |
            echo 'export PATH=~$PATH:~/.local/bin' >> $BASH_ENV
            echo 'export GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID=$GCLOUD_PROJECT' >> $BASH_ENV
            echo 'export GOOGLE_COMPUTE_ZONE=us-east1-b' >> BASH_ENV
            echo ${GCP_PROJECT_KEY} > ${HOME}/gcloud-service-key.json
            echo 'export GOOGLE_CLOUD_KEYS=$(cat $HOME/gcloud-service-key.json)' >> $BASH_ENV
            echo 'export TAG=${CIRCLE_SHA1}' >> $BASH_ENV
            echo 'export IMAGE_NAME=$CIRCLE_PROJECT_REPONAME' >> $BASH_ENV && source $BASH_ENV


      - gcp-gcr/gcr-auth:
          gcloud-service-key: GOOGLE_CLOUD_KEYS # this is throwing error
          google-project-id: GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID
          google-compute-zone: GOOGLE_COMPUTE_ZONE
      - gcp-gcr/build-image:
          dockerfile: Dockerfile
          google-project-id: GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID
          image: $IMAGE_NAME
          registry-url: "gcr.io"
          tag: $CIRCLE_SHA1
      - gcp-gcr/push-image:
          google-project-id: GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID
          image: $IMAGE_NAME
          registry-url: "gcr.io"
          tag: $CIRCLE_SHA1
      - cloudrun/init:
          gcloud-service-key: GCLOUD_SERVICE_KEY
          google-project-id: GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID
          google-compute-zone: GOOGLE_COMPUTE_ZONE
      - cloudrun/deploy:
          cluster: "new-cluster"
          cluster-location: "us-east1-b"
          platform: "gke"
          image: "gcr.io/$GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID/$IMAGE_NAME"
          service-name: "orb-gcp-cloud-run"

workflows:
  build_gcloud_deploy:
    jobs:
      - build

      - build_push_image_cloud_run_mangaged:
          requires:
            - build

I have the environment vars set in project settings with the GCLOUD_SERVICE_KEY, & GCP_PROJECT_KEY both having the encoded versions of my service account json file. I also have the GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID & GOOGLE_COMPUTE_ZONE env values set respectively. Now when I trigger the build for a checking (configured the webhook to execute for a sucessful checkin - will modify later for successful merges) , it always errors in the step: initialize gcloud

#!/bin/bash -eo pipefail
# Store service account
echo $GOOGLE_CLOUD_KEYS > ${HOME}/gcloud-service-key.json
# Initialize gcloud CLI
gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file=${HOME}/gcloud-service-key.json
gcloud --quiet config set project $GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID
gcloud --quiet config set compute/zone $GOOGLE_COMPUTE_ZONE
ERROR: (gcloud.auth.activate-service-account) Could not read json file /root/gcloud-service-key.json: No JSON object could be decoded
Exited with code exit status 1
CircleCI received exit code 1

I tried using the GOOGLE_CLOUD_KEYS env var that I set in the gcloud-service-key.json variable in the circleci steps , but that too results in the same error. I also tried to specify an env variable that has the actual value of the json file (not decoded) but that too results in the same error. As you can see I use the orb: gcp-gcr: circleci/gcp-gcr@0.6.1 . Could you let me know what is causing the error and how to rectify it?

EDIT:

As Ahmet correctly pointed out , it was an issue with the file containing no data. I made changes such that I created an env variable for the project as GCLOUD_SERVICE_KEY and access it directly without encoding ( this is not recommned approach as it is best to encode it and then store the key).