Kubernetes module for Architect

This is an extension to the Architect framework which allows you to define, validate, and deploy Kubernetes resources in TypeScript. It can scale to hundreds of thousand of resources and allows you to manage entire fleets of clusters in a DRY fashion.

architect-k8s is currently in Alpha and the API surface may change without warning so usage in production is strongly advised against (unless you're crazy, like me).

Current features

• GitOps support (FluxCD implemented, ArgoCD planned)
• Typed CRDs for in-editor and compile-time validation - never watch your CI fail again! (Thanks to Tommy Chen (@tommy351) for their Kubernetes models library)
• Helm, Kustomize, and Jsonnet support, including caching - a feature not found on other frameworks - which intelligently caches builds based on their input values, significantly reducing compile time
• Component system - define your cluster resources in logical units
  • Declare relationships between resources as dependencies which are respected when applying via FluxCD
  • Highly flexible lazy parameter system, reminiscent of Nix's structured configuration tree, allows components to be highly customisable, and reusable

Planned features

• GitOps bootstrapping - Bootstrap the cluster with a GitOps provider automatically
• Direct apply - apply your changes directly to the cluster
• Hybrid apply - apply your changes via GitOps and watch them happen live with a connection to the target cluster

FAQ

• Why TypeScript? JavaScript/TypeScript is the home of JSON, the language that YAML extends from. It provided the best working experience as WYSIWYG.
• Aren't there other frameworks that do the same thing? Architect was built specifically to address significant shortfalls in other JavaScript/TypeScript-based frameworks.
• What was wrong with Fractal?
  • Fractal was a decent attempt at a framework, but it unfortunately ran into pitfalls surrounding the interactions between Nix and Kubernetes types/Jsonnet. Nix was never really built to handle or validate Kubernetes' complex models.
  • Neither Nix nor Jsonnet were typed, so validation could only occur (slowly) either at compile time or when the manifests were applied to the cluster.
  • The framework was also overengineered and overcomplicated, making use of Go, Nix, and Jsonnet, for different components. Here, we unify everything into TypeScript.

Comparison with other frameworks

| Framework | Model | Apply Methodology | Language | Overhead | Caching | Typing | Integrations | | :-- | :-- | :-- | :-- | :-- | :-- | :-- | :-- | | Pulumi | Stateful | Direct | Multiple | Heavy | Helm-only | Static | Helm, Kustomize | | CDK8s | Stateful | Direct | Multiple | Heavy | No | Static | Helm, Kustomize | | Tanka | Stateless | Direct | Jsonnet | Light | No | Dynamic | Helm, Kustomize, Jsonnet | | Kosko | Stateless | Direct | JS/TS | Light | No | Static | Helm, Kustomize | | Fractal | Stateless | GitOps | Jsonnet | Light | Yes | Dynamic | Helm, Kustomize, Jsonnet | | Architect | Stateless | GitOps, Direct (planned), Hybrid (planned) | JS/TS | Light | Yes | Static | Helm, Kustomize, Jsonnet |

Example

Please see the architect-k8s-template repository for a starting point and a component example. You can use this repository as a template for your own clusters.