appbuilder

Overview

App Builder creates CLI applications from YAML definitions. Operations teams can wrap shell scripts, multi-line kubectl invocations, jq pipelines, and other operational tools into a single discoverable command.

Two binaries are produced from the same codebase:

• appbuilder - validates and inspects application definitions
• abt - project-specific task runner that searches for ABTaskFile definitions in the current directory tree

Features

• Declarative YAML-based CLI definitions with nested sub-commands, flags, and arguments
• Command types: exec (shell commands and scripts), parent (command grouping), form (interactive wizards), scaffold (multi-file template generation), and ccm_manifest (Choria Config Manager)
• Output transformation pipeline with built-in JQ, ASCII graphs, Go templates, reports, and file writing
• Input validation using expr expressions
• Go template interpolation with Sprig functions
• Per-application configuration files
• Shell completion for bash and zsh

Installation

Binary releases, RPMs, DEBs, and zip archives are available on the Releases page.

Homebrew packages are available for macOS and Linux:

brew tap choria-io/tap
brew install choria-io/tap/appbuilder

A JSON Schema is available for editor integration.

Quick Example

The following definition creates a demo say command that wraps cowsay:

name: demo
description: Demo application
author: Operations <ops@example.net>
version: 1.0.0

commands:
  - name: say
    description: Say something using cowsay
    type: exec
    command: |
      {{ default .Config.Cowsay "cowsay" }} {{ .Arguments.message | escape }}
    arguments:
      - name: message
        description: The message to display
        required: true

$ demo say "hello world"
 _____________
< hello world >
 -------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

Links

• Documentation
• Video Introduction
• Community
• Code of Conduct
• Contribution Guide