abctl

Airbyte's command line tool for local Airbyte deployments.

[!NOTE] This README focuses on the abctl tool itself, not the Airbyte platform.

See Airbyte's Quickstart to walk through setting up Airbyte for the first time.

---

• Quickstart
• Overview
• Commands
• Contributing

Quickstart

[!IMPORTANT] Authentication credentials are randomly generated as part of the installation process.

After installation is complete, to find your authentication credentials run abctl local credentials.

1. Install Docker

   • Linux
   • Mac
   • Windows

2. Install abctl

   • Via brew

     brew tap airbytehq/tap
     brew install abctl
     

   • Via go install

     go install github.com/airbytehq/abctl@latest
     

   • Via Github

3. Install Airbyte

   # install Airbyte 
   abctl local install
   # fetch the login credentials
   abctl local credentials
   

[!NOTE] Depending on your internet speed, abctl local install may take up to 30 minutes.

By default abctl local install configures Airbyte to accessible by all inbound requests on port 8000. This typically includes access via the host's ip-address and localhost.

If port 8000 is not available. or another port is preferred, --port [PORT] can be specified.

1. Login to Airbyte

   If abctl local install completed successfully, it should open a browser to http://localhost:8000 (or to the --host and --port overrides if specified). If this is the first time Airbyte has been installed you will be asked to provide an email and organization name. To retrieve your password to login, run abctl local credentials.

Overview

As mentioned in the quickstart, the only prerequisite abctl has is that Docker must be installed, running, and accessible. However, the Airbyte platform requires a Kubernetes cluster, which abctl creates by utilizing kind (kind runs a Kubernetes cluster within a Docker container). With kind's Kubernetes cluster, abctl uses helm to install (or update to) the latest (by default) Airbyte helm chart and the latest NGINX Ingress Controller helm chart.

Commands

All commands and sub-commands support the following optional global flags:

Short	Long	Description
-h	--help	Displays the help information, description the available options.
-v	--verbose	Enables verbose (debug) output. Useful when debugging unexpected behavior.

All commands support the following environment variables:

Name	Description
DO_NOT_TRACK	Set to any value to disable telemetry tracking.

The following commands are supported:

• local
• version

local

abctl local --help

The local sub-commands are focused on managing the local Airbyte installation. The following sub-commands are available:

• credentials
• deployments
• install
• status
• uninstall

credentials

abctl local credentials

Displays the credentials required to login to the local Airbyte installation.

[!NOTE] When abctl local install is first executed, random password, client-id, and client-secret are generated.

Returns ths email, password, client-id, and client-secret credentials. The email and password are required to login to Airbyte. The client-id and client-secret are necessary to create an Access Token for interacting with the Airbyte API.

For example:

$ abctl local credentials
{
  "password": "[RANDOM PASSWORD]",
  "client-id": "[RANDOM CLIENT-ID]",
  "client-secret": "[RANDOM CLIENT-SECRET]"
}

credentials supports the following optional flags

Name	Default	Description
--email	""	Changes the authentication email address.
--password	""	Changes the authentication password.

deployments

abctl local deployments

Display kubernetes deployment information and allows for restarting a kubernetes deployment.

deployments supports the following optional flags

Name	Default	Description
--restart	""	Restarts the provided deployment.

install

abctl local install

Installs a local Airbyte instance or updates an existing installation which was initially installed by abctl.

[!NOTE] Depending on your internet speed, abctl local install may take up to 30 minutes.

install supports the following optional flags:

[!NOTE] An - in the default column indicates no value can be provided.

These flags behave as a switch, enabled if provided, disabled if not.

Name	Default	Description
--chart	""	Path to chart.
--chart-version	latest	Which Airbyte helm-chart version to install.
--docker-email	""	Docker email address to authenticate against --docker-server. Can also be specified by the environment-variable ABCTL_LOCAL_INSTALL_DOCKER_EMAIL.
--docker-password	""	Docker password to authenticate against --docker-server. Can also be specified by the environment-variable ABCTL_LOCAL_INSTALL_DOCKER_PASSWORD.
--docker-server	""	Docker server to authenticate against. Can also be specified by the environment-variable ABCTL_LOCAL_INSTALL_DOCKER_SERVER.
--docker-username	""	Docker username to authenticate against --docker-server. Can also be specified by the environment-variable ABCTL_LOCAL_INSTALL_DOCKER_USERNAME.
--insecure-cookies	-	Disables secure cookie requirements. Only set if using --host with an insecure (non https) connection.
--low-resource-mode	false	Run Airbyte in low resource mode.
--host	""	FQDN where the Airbyte installation will be accessed. Default is to allow for all incoming traffic on port --port. Set this if the Airbyte installation needs a more restricted host configuration.
--no-browser	-	Disables launching the browser when installation completes. Useful to set in situations where no browser is available.
--port	8000	Port where the Airbyte installation will be accessed. Set this if port 8000 is already in use or if a different port is preferred.
--secret	""	Can be set multiple times. Creates a kubernetes secret based on the contents of the file provided. Useful when used in conjunction with --values for customizing installation.
--values	""	Helm values file to further customize the Airbyte installation.
--volume	""	Can be set multiple times. Mounts additional volumes in the kubernetes cluster. Must be in the format of <HOST_PATH>:<GUEST_PATH>.

Low Resource Mode

The --low-resource-mode flag optimizes Airbyte for environments with limited CPU and memory resources. When enabled, this mode makes the following changes:

Resource Requests:

• Sets all job resource requests (CPU and memory) to 0, allowing Kubernetes to schedule jobs without minimum resource guarantees
• Applies to all job types: check, discover, spec, and sidecar containers

Feature Adjustments:

• Disables the Connector Builder Server to reduce overall resource consumption

This mode is ideal for:

• Development and testing environments with limited resources
• Machines with constrained CPU or memory
• Situations where multiple services need to share limited system resources

[!NOTE] While low resource mode reduces resource requirements, it may impact performance for data-intensive operations. It is not recommended for production workloads with large data volumes.

Example usage:

abctl local install --low-resource-mode

status

abctl local status

If an Airbyte installation exists, returns information regarding that installation.

For example:

$ abctl local status
Existing cluster 'airbyte-abctl' found
Found helm chart 'airbyte-abctl'
  Status: deployed
  Chart Version: 0.422.2
  App Version: 0.63.15
Found helm chart 'ingress-nginx'
  Status: deployed
  Chart Version: 4.11.1
  App Version: 1.11.1
Airbyte should be accessible via http://localhost:8000

uninstall

abctl local uninstall

Uninstalls a local Airbyte instance.

[!NOTE] The data associated with the installed Airbyte instance will not be removed.

This is done to allow Airbyte to be reinstalled at a later date with all the data preserved.

uninstall supports the following optional flags:

[!NOTE] An - in the default column indicates no value can be provided.

These flags behave as a switch, enabled if provided, disabled if not.

Name	Default	Description
--persisted	-	Will remove all data for the Airbyte installation. This cannot be undone.

images

abctl images

Manage images used by Airbyte and abctl.

The following sub-commands are available:

• manifest

manifest

abctl images manifest

Display a manifest of images used by Airbyte and abctl.

Name	Default	Description
--chart	""	Path to chart.
--chart-version	latest	Which Airbyte helm-chart version to install.
--values	""	Helm values file to further customize the Airbyte installation.

version

abctl version

Displays version information about the abctl tool.

For example:

$ abctl version
version: v0.19.0

Contributing

Report an Issue

If you have found a problem with abctl, please open a Github Issue and use the 🐛 [abctl] Report an issue with the abctl tool template.

Build

Install go

• Via brew

  brew install go
  

• Via go.dev

This repository utilises a Makefile, wrapping the traditional go commands used for formatting, vetting, building, and testing go code.

The following make commands are supported:

name	description
make build	Builds the abctl binary, placing it in the build directory.
make clean	Removes the build directory.
make fmt	Formats the code.
make test	Runs all the tests.
make vet	Runs the vet command.