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Contributing

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Local Plugin Development

sitectl has a core binary and optional plugin binaries named sitectl-<plugin>. The current local development plugin chain in this workspace is:
  • sitectl: core binary; owns the operator-facing commands
  • sitectl-isle: ISLE plugin; stack logic, component definitions, ISLE-specific jobs
  • sitectl-drupal: Drupal plugin; drush, sync, ULI; included by the ISLE plugin
Core sitectl owns the operator-facing command shape. Plugins extend that behavior through the private __sitectl-rpc protocol dispatched based on the active context’s plugin field. The SDK registers that private entrypoint automatically. Plugin code should register SDK handlers and runners, not define its own transport commands. Core commands that fan out to plugins:
  • sitectl debug → debug.run
  • sitectl validate → core validators + validate.run (results merged)
  • sitectl healthcheck → core Compose runtime checks + healthcheck.run (results merged)
  • sitectl verify → verify.run (results rendered by core)
  • sitectl converge → converge.run
  • sitectl set → set.run
  • sitectl deploy → deploy.run
  • sitectl job run → job.run
  • sitectl component describe → component.describe
  • sitectl component set → component.set
When a context belongs to isle, core sitectl routes dispatch commands to sitectl-isle. The ISLE plugin can further invoke included plugins such as sitectl-drupal. See Plugin hierarchy for the full protocol.

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Local Install Workflow

For local development, install the binaries into a directory on your $PATH so the core binary can discover and invoke plugin binaries. From the core repo:
That target will:
  1. Build and install sitectl
  2. Change into ../sitectl-isle and run make install
  3. Change into ../sitectl-drupal and run make install
The plugin install targets run make work before building so they use the local core sitectl checkout during development. If you are only working on a single plugin:

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Why make install matters

If you only rebuild sitectl locally but do not install the plugin binaries into a directory on PATH, core command dispatch will not see the current local plugin builds. Installing the full chain keeps the stack aligned while you work on:
  • core command routing in sitectl
  • stack logic in sitectl-isle
  • Drupal-specific extensions in sitectl-drupal

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UI Architecture

sitectl supports two interaction modes:
  • one-off command execution such as sitectl compose ps
  • an embedded dashboard launched by running sitectl with no additional arguments
Because both modes need to share behavior, interactive command UIs must be designed as composable Bubble Tea models instead of bespoke terminal flows.

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Rule

When a command needs interactive UI:
  • keep business logic separate from UI state and rendering
  • make the UI self-contained inside the command or shared UI package
  • ensure the same UI can run standalone or be embedded inside the dashboard
In practice, command implementations should follow this split:
  • service layer: pure command logic and side effects
  • UI layer: Bubble Tea model and Bubbles-based components
  • Cobra layer: chooses between non-interactive execution and launching the UI

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Required Libraries

Interactive sitectl UIs should build on the shared stack already in use:
  • bubbletea for state, events, and screen management
  • bubbles for list, help, input, viewport, progress, and similar primitives
  • lipgloss for styling and layout
  • bubblezone for click targets and mouse hit detection where needed
  • harmonica for motion and transitions where appropriate
  • ntcharts for terminal charts where appropriate

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What Not To Do

Do not implement custom terminal widgets when the library stack already provides them:
  • do not hand-roll a select menu when bubbles/list fits
  • do not hand-roll a text input when bubbles/textinput or textarea fits
  • do not hand-roll help footers when bubbles/help fits
  • do not hand-roll scroll containers when bubbles/viewport fits
lipgloss is for presentation and composition, not a replacement for Bubble Tea or Bubbles interaction primitives.

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Shared Components

Reusable interaction primitives should live in shared UI packages so commands and the dashboard can both consume them:
  • shared prompt, select, and input components belong in pkg/ui
  • command-specific interactive screens can live near the command, but should still be Bubble Tea models
  • older bespoke prompt implementations should be migrated to shared Bubble Tea and Bubbles components over time

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Design Goal

A command that has an interactive flow should be embeddable in the dashboard without rewriting its UI logic. That means a command UI should be structured so it can be:
  • launched directly from Cobra
  • pushed or mounted inside the dashboard
If a proposed command UI cannot be reused that way, it should be redesigned before being added.

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Release Publishing

GoReleaser builds the release artifacts, including Linux packages via nfpms. Release publishing uses two independent credentials:
  • The GoReleaser job uses only the caller’s source-repository-scoped GITHUB_TOKEN to create the GitHub release and upload its artifacts.
  • A separate, isolated tap-reconciliation job may use HOMEBREW_REPO to update the libops/homebrew repository. That cross-repository token is not exposed to GoReleaser or substituted for GITHUB_TOKEN.
The application plugin template leaves package-repository publication disabled with publish-package-repo: false. A derived plugin should enable it only after its repository has a trusted package publisher and the required cloud identity and variables. Leaving it disabled still publishes GitHub release artifacts and the native package files attached to the release. Homebrew publication is independent and runs only when the derived repository points its isolated tap-reconciliation job at a tap it controls and provides HOMEBREW_REPO to that job.

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Linux package publishing

This repo publishes Debian and RPM repositories through the shared libops packaging infrastructure. GitHub Actions workflows: The core and application-plugin paths are intentionally listed separately. The published plugin set spans immutable revisions of the shared workflow. ISLE’s recovery used the 8e27d95 revision to restore release assets and reconcile Homebrew, then the 77724fe revision and its b14fd2f package publisher to complete Debian and RPM repository publication. The successful final recovery run records the completed package publication. Advance a full SHA only with the caller and publisher contract tests in the same change; never replace it with main. Required GitHub secrets:
  • HOMEBREW_REPO: cross-repository token available only to the isolated Homebrew tap-reconciliation job
Required GitHub variables:
  • LIBOPS_PACKAGES_GCLOUD_OIDC_POOL: Workload Identity provider resource name
  • LIBOPS_PACKAGES_GCLOUD_PROJECT: Google Cloud project ID that holds the package infrastructure
  • LIBOPS_PACKAGES_GSA: Google service account email used by GitHub Actions
  • LIBOPS_PACKAGES_GCS_BUCKET: bucket name that hosts the published package repository
  • LIBOPS_PACKAGES_APTLY_GPG_KEY_ID: GPG key ID or fingerprint to use for signing
  • LIBOPS_PACKAGES_APTLY_GPG_PRIVATE_KEY_SECRET: Secret Manager secret ID that stores the armored private key
  • LIBOPS_PACKAGES_APTLY_GPG_PASSPHRASE_SECRET: Secret Manager secret ID that stores the signing key passphrase
Optional GitHub variables:
  • GCS_BUCKET_PREFIX default: empty
  • APTLY_DISTRIBUTIONS default: bookworm
  • APTLY_COMPONENT default: main
  • APTLY_ARCHITECTURES default: amd64,arm64
  • APTLY_PUBLISH_PREFIX default: .
  • APTLY_ORIGIN default: libops
  • APTLY_LABEL default: sitectl
  • APTLY_PUBLIC_KEY_NAME default: sitectl-archive-keyring
  • RPM_REPOSITORY_PATH default: rpm
The publisher signs the APT Release metadata. For RPM, it signs repodata/repomd.xml; the repository metadata authenticates package checksums, but the individual RPM payloads are not separately signed. Client configuration therefore uses repo_gpgcheck=1 and gpgcheck=0. Do not advertise per-RPM signatures or enable gpgcheck=1 until package signing is implemented. The workflow rebuilds Debian and RPM repository metadata from the current release artifacts only. That is sufficient for fresh installs and upgrades, but does not preserve older package versions for pinning or rollback. A version in cloud-compose or another package manifest is durable only while the artifact remains available. Production operators that need rollback must retain a repository snapshot or archive the matching GitHub release package assets and checksums.txt in controlled storage.