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0022-dev-cmd.md

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22. Introduce dev command

Date: 2023-12-03

Status

Accepted

Context

Feature request: #2169

The current package development lifecycle is:

  1. Create a zarf.yaml file and add components
  2. Create a package with zarf package create <dir>
  3. Debug any create errors and resolve by editing zarf.yaml and repeating step 2
  4. Run zarf init to initialize the cluster
  5. Deploy the package with zarf package deploy <tarball>
  6. Debug any deploy errors and resolve by editing zarf.yaml and repeating step 2 or 5

If there are deployment errors, the common pattern is to reset the cluster (ex: k3d cluster delete && k3d cluster create) and repeat steps 4-6. Re-initializing the cluster, recreating the package, and redeploying the package is tedious and time consuming; especially when the package is large or the change was small.

zarf package create is designed around air-gapped environments where the package is created in one environment and deployed in another. Due to this architecture, a package's dependencies must be retrieved and assembled each and every time.

There already exists the concept of YOLO mode, which can build + deploy a package without the need for zarf init, and builds without fetching certain heavy dependencies (like Docker images). However, YOLO mode is not exposed via CLI flags, and is meant to develop and deploy packages in fully connected environments.

Decision

Introduce a dev deploy command that will combine the lifecycle of package create and package deploy into a single command. This command will:

  • Not result in a re-usable tarball / OCI artifact
  • Not have any interactive prompts
  • Not require zarf init to be run by default (override-able with a CLI flag)
  • Be able to create+deploy a package in either YOLO mode (default) or prod mode (exposed via a CLI flag)
  • Only build + deploy components that will be deployed (contrasting with package create which builds all components regardless of whether they will be deployed)

Consequences

The dev deploy command will make it easier to develop and deploy packages in connected development environments. It will also make it easier to debug deployment errors by allowing the user to iterate on the package without having to re-initialize the cluster, re-build and re-deploy the package each cycle.

There is a purpose to placing this functionality behind a new command, rather than adding it to package create. Commands under dev are meant to be used in development environments, and are not meant to be used in production environments. There is still the possibility that a user will use dev deploy in a production environment, but the command name and documentation will make it clear that this is not the intended use case.