---

Caution

This repository is in beta and not stable enough since the design space of this tool is still explored. Documentation is incomplete.

The quitsh framework (/kwɪʧ/) is a build-tooling CLI framework designed to replace loosely-typed scripting languages (e.g., bash, python, and similar alternatives) with the statically-typed language Go. Its goal is to simplify tooling tasks while providing robust, extendable solutions for component repositories (mono-repositories).

quitsh is an opinionated framework born out of frustration with the lack of simple and extendable tooling for mono-repos. It is language-agnostic and toolchain-independent, allowing users to focus on their workflows without being constrained by specific technologies.

Quitsh can be used in two non-coupled ways (enhancing each other):

• Build/use & extend the CLI quitsh for your tooling/CI/CD scripts in your repository. You write quitsh mycommand --do-it and decide what it does, using the library modules for running subprocesses, logging etc.

• Use its component feature which gives you the ability to register your tooling scripts (build/lint/test etc.) as runners which can be reused across components. Since runners depend heavily on available executables in your PATH, runners run over a toolchain (currently Nix development shell etc.).

Key Features

Code-First Approach

• All tooling logic is implemented in Go.
• Tooling logic is defined primarily in code, avoiding declarative configurations or templated non-typed languages, which often add unnecessary complexity despite their flexibility. Note: Supporting configuration languages like jsonnet or "turing-complete" YAML etc. is particularly avoided. Everything stays strongly-typed and fast compiled.

Extendability

• quitsh serves as a library to build your customized CLI tool for your specific tasks.
• Users can add custom commands and specialized tooling features using libraries like cobra, quitsh mycommand --do-it.

Component System

• Components (i.e., buildable units) are identified by placing a configuration file (default: .component.yaml) in the corresponding subdirectory.

Targets and Steps

• Each component defines targets, which consist of multiple steps.
• Targets can depend on other targets across the repository.
• Input change sets can be specified for each target to track modifications and determine if the target is outdated.

Runner System

• Steps within targets are executed by runners, which are written by you in Go and act as reusable replacements for traditional build/tooling scripts.
• Runners can have custom YAML configuration options specified per component in .component.yaml.

Toolchain Dispatch

• Runners are associated with specific toolchains.

• By default, quitsh includes a Nix development shell dispatch, providing stable and reproducible environments.

• While container-based dispatching is not a primary goal, it can be implemented by extending the dispatch interface.

• The tool was built to replicate the same procedure one executes during local development and also in CI. Having CI align with what you execute locally is not a nice thing to have, its a necessity. Nix development shells (or containers) help with this. A Nix shell provides a simple and robust abstraction to pin a toolchain. The following visualization gives an overview about how quitsh is used:

  

Built-in Libraries

The pkg folder offers utilities for common development needs, such as:

• Command Execution: pkg/exec provides utilities for process execution and command chaining.
• Structured Logging: pkg/log enables consistent and readable logging.
• Error Handling: pkg/error facilitates contextual error management.
• Dependency Graphs: Tools for managing and resolving dependency graphs across targets.
• Some Go test runners (here as an example) for running Go tests (its used internally to test quitsh it-self).

Performance

• Since all tooling is written in Go, quitsh provides type safety and fast performance by default.
• Combined with a Nix-based toolchain dispatch and the ability to write tests easily, the framework significantly accelerates the "change, test, improve" workflow.

Nix Integration

• A CLI tool built with quitsh can be seamlessly packaged into a Nix development shells, ensuring accessibility for all users of a given repository.

---

How To Use It?

Using this library follows instantiating the CLI (also demonstrated in this repository in main.go, e.g.:

args := cliconfig.New()

cli, err := cli.New(
  &args.Commands.Root,
  &args,
  cli.WithName("cli"),
  cli.WithDescription("This is the 🐔-🥚 CLI tool for 'quitsh', yes its built with 'quitsh'."),
  cli.WithCompFindOptions(
    query.WithFindOptions(
      fs.WithWalkDirFilterPatterns(nil,
        []string{"**/test/repo/**"}, true))),
  cli.WithStages("lint", "build", "test"),
  cli.WithTargetToStageMapperDefault(),
  cli.WithToolchainDispatcherNix(
    "tools/nix",
    func(c config.IConfig) *toolchain.DispatchArgs {
      cc := common.Cast[*cliconfig.Config](c)

      return &cc.Commands.DispatchArgs
    },
  ),
)

You can now add runners and your own commands depending on the needs of your repository. For example in main.go:

listcmd.AddCmd(cli, cli.RootCmd())
configcmd.AddCmd(cli.RootCmd(), &conf)
exectarget.AddCmd(cli, cli.RootCmd())
execrunner.AddCmd(cli, cli.RootCmd(), &conf.Commands.DispatchArgs)

adds essential quitsh commands

• listcmd to list all components etc: quitsh list.
• configcmd to inspect/write the config file: quitsh config ....
• exectarget to execute specific targets quitsh exec-target.
• execrunner to let quitsh dispatch over toolchains (see cli.WithToolchainDispatcherNix above): quitsh exec-runner ...

There are lots of more useful commands in pkg/cli/cmd which you might use.

Useful References

A reference repository with commands and runner can be looked at here:

• Custodian
• DAC-Portal
• Quitsh (this repo)

Config

Quitsh runs with global config YAML file which it loads (or defaults) at startup for any invocation. The above CLI instantiation constructs a new config with cliconfig.New() (this is custom for each usecase and can be adjusted and modified). The config defines global settings (output directories, logging etc.) and also various custom, use-case specific settings. These might include settings which runners (or custom commands) might use during execution. For example build runners might use a build.BuildType property which could be debug or release etc. The CLI does not care about your custom settings, they only need to be fully serializable to YAML (for toolchain dispatching) and you can override defaults from custom added commands for example.

Modifying Config Values

You have the ability to set the config file quitsh uses with --config or read it from stdin with --config - or set options (YAML) on the command line with --config-value. For example --config-value "build.buildType: release" would set the build.BuildType setting to release on startup.

Components

Quitsh builds around components. A component should be treated as an own compartment/Git repository or directory with its own independent source code and output.

A component in quitsh is defined by a .component.yaml (name is configurable):

# The name of the component: Must be a unique.
name: my-component

# A semantic version.
# This is useful for Nix packaging etc.
version: 0.2.1

# A simple annotation (not used internally) what main language this component uses.
language: go

targets:
  # A target called `test` with two steps.
  my-test:
    # The stage to which this target belongs. Does not need to be provided
    # if the CLI is setup to map target names to stages.
    stage: test

    steps:
      # Step 1: Using runner with ID (how it was registered).
      - runner-id: banana-project::my-test-runner
        config: # Your custom runner YAML config, (optional).

      # Step 2: Using a runner with registered key (stage: `test`, name `my-test`)
      - runner: my-test

  # A target called `build-all` with one step.
  build-all:
    stage: build

    # Defining when this target is considered changed:
    # i.e. whenever `self::sources` input change set is changed.
    # `self` maps to this component.
    inputs: ["self::sources"]

    # Defining dependencies on other targets such that this
    # target is executed after target `my-test` above.
    # You can also link to other components (e.g `other-comp::build`).
    depends: ["self::my-test"]

    steps:
      # Step 1: Using a runner with registered key (stage: `build`, name `my-test`)
      - runner: my-build
        config:
          tags: ["doit"]

  lint:
    steps:
      - ... other steps ...

inputs:
  # An input change set with name `sources` which defines
  # patterns to match all source files.
  sources:
    # A regex which matches `*.go` files in `./src` in the components folder.
    patterns:
      - '^./src/.*\.go$'

Execution of Targets

The execution of steps by quitsh is done by reading a .component.yaml for each component. The .component.yaml file contains inputs and targets.

Quitsh's own .component.yaml looks like:

name: quitsh
language: go

inputs:
  srcs:
    patterns:
      - "^.*$"

targets:
  test:
    stage: test
    steps:
      - runner: go
      - runner: go-bin
        config:
          # Build everything instrumented.
          # Execute the binaries via a `go test` provided in the following
          # pkg and with tags.
          buildPkg: test/cmd
          testPkg: test
          buildTags: ["integration"]
          testTags: ["integration"]

  build:
    steps:
      - runner: go
  lint:
    steps:
      - runner: go

Each target defines is a set of steps which itself are further specified by the field runner. A runner is Go code applicable for a certain step which should work for all components.

A runner is registered in factory, for example here. Runners can be written by implementing the interface Runner inside ./pkg/runner/runners and registering them in [./pkg/runner/factory/init-runners.go], for example here.

Note

You can execute targets in parallel with --parallel.

Runner Configuration

Runners can load independent YAML config under config to make them configurable, e.g. the go build runner loads the following config:

steps:
  build:
    - runner: go
      config:
        version-module: "pkg/myversion-module" # defaults to `pkg/build`

Target Stages

Each target also maps to a stage which quitsh uses to group targets together if you want to find them and make gathering commands such as the example build here. It collects and runs all targets in the stage build.

How to Extend Functionality

For users using the quitsh CLI framework, it is suggested to follow the following points when thinking about new functionality in a repository which uses this library. If you need new functionality for CI and local development which you normally would write in bash/python follow the following steps:

• If the functionality is a feature needed in an existing runner and step: Extend the runner and make it work with your new test/build/lint feature.

• If the functionality is not related to a runner or the same for each component with that language: Extend quitsh by providing another subcommand which does what you need, see this example fix-hash.

• If the functionality is for a certain language, e.g. go or python and applies to each component which is written in that language: consider adding a new runner for an already pre-defined stage, e.g. lint, build etc.

Example Applications

Understand what this framework does, is best accomplished by understanding how we use this framework in our components repo (mono-repo). Our major components are located in ./components.