Air Helm

Introduction

Welcome to Air Helm, a tool crafted to support the development of Go applications within Kubernetes environments.

Modern API servers often require a complex assembly of infrastructure components, and Air Helm is designed to navigate this complexity from your local setup. Air Helm integrates Air for live reloading and Helm for managing Kubernetes applications, facilitating the development and testing of Go applications in a local Kubernetes environment. This synergy enables developers to work on their Go applications and accurately define and interact with the necessary architecture components.

Key Features

• Live Reloading: Instant code reloads in Kubernetes without restarting pods.
• Local Development Ease: Helm chart simplifies deployment and management.
• Architecture Integration: Develop in a local environment as it was production.

How It Works

Air Helm works by mounting your local Go project directory into a Kubernetes pod. This allows Air to monitor changes to the files and trigger rebuilds and restarts automatically. Here's what happens under the hood:

• Local Directory Mounting: Your local project directory is mounted into the Kubernetes pod, allowing the container to access your Go code in real time.
• Hot reloading: Air watches for file changes in your project and triggers builds and restarts as needed, ensuring that the latest changes are always running.
• Helm for Kubernetes: Helm manages the deployment of these settings into your local Kubernetes, configuring things like service exposure, persistent volumes, and more.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Docker
• Kubernetes cluster (e.g., Minikube or Docker Desktop's Kubernetes)
• Helm 3.x

Installation

Add the Air Helm repository and install the Helm chart:

helm repo add gdurandvadas https://gdurandvadas.github.io/air-helm/
helm repo update
helm install my-local-env gdurandvadas/air-helm

Configuration

Here's how you can configure the Air Helm chart in your helmfile.yaml:

repositories:
  - name: gdurandvadas
    url: https://gdurandvadas.github.io/air-helm/

releases:
- name: api
  namespace: backend
  chart: gdurandvadas/air-helm
  values:
    - airServer:
        code:
          directory: "/Users/{username}/project" # Root directory of your project
          modulePath: "example/api" # Module path relative to the project root
          buildSource: "./cmd/server" # Path to the entry point of the application
    - service:
        type: LoadBalancer # Expose the service on a public IP
        http:
          enabled: true
          port: 8080
    - image:
        tag: commit # Docker image tag to use

You can see a full API example in the example directory

Accessing Your Application

Depending on your service configuration, you can access your application typically via a local URL or an IP exposed by Kubernetes.

Advanced Configuration

Review the values.yaml file for detailed options like autoscaling, ingress settings, and more. Tailor these settings to fit the needs of your development and production environments.

License

Air Helm is open-sourced under the Apache License 2.0. For more details, see the Apache License 2.0