rootly-catalog-sync

rootly-catalog-sync

A CLI tool that reconciles external sources of truth into Rootly's Catalog, keeping services, teams, and metadata continuously in sync.

Documentation

• Troubleshooting guide — common errors, diagnostics, and fixes
• Template syntax — Go template functions, missing keys, caching
• Examples:
  • Simple (local YAML files) — start here
  • Backstage — sync from Backstage catalog
  • GitHub — sync from GitHub org repositories

Install

# Homebrew
brew install rootlyhq/tap/rootly-catalog-sync

# Go
go install github.com/rootlyhq/rootly-catalog-sync/cmd/rootly-catalog-sync@latest

# Docker
docker run --rm -e ROOTLY_API_KEY rootlyhq/rootly-catalog-sync sync --config=/config.yaml

Quick Start

export ROOTLY_API_KEY=rootly_...

# Create a config (interactive wizard or sample file)
rootly-catalog-sync init

# Check your setup
rootly-catalog-sync doctor

# Preview what would change
rootly-catalog-sync plan

# Apply the plan
rootly-catalog-sync apply .rootly-catalog-sync-plan-Services.json

# Or plan + apply in one step
rootly-catalog-sync sync

Authentication

Two methods, in priority order:

API key (CI / non-interactive)

export ROOTLY_API_KEY=rootly_...

OAuth 2.0 (interactive)

# Login via browser (Authorization Code + PKCE)
rootly-catalog-sync login

# Tokens saved to ~/.rootly-catalog-sync/config.yaml
# Auto-refreshed transparently

# Logout
rootly-catalog-sync logout

If ROOTLY_API_KEY is set, it takes precedence over OAuth tokens.

Config

version: 1
sync_id: services
pipelines:
  - sources:
      - local:
          files: ["catalog/*.yaml"]
    outputs:
      - catalog: "Services"
        external_id: "{{ .id }}"
        name: "{{ .name }}"
        fields:
          owner: "{{ .owner }}"
          tier: "{{ .tier }}"

Field mappings use Go templates. Built-in helpers: {{ get .metadata "team" }} for nested access, {{ default .tier "unknown" }} for fallbacks.

Config files are detected by extension: .yaml/.yml (default), .jsonnet, or .hcl. All three formats produce the same Config struct.

Jsonnet config

Jsonnet adds variables, functions, and imports for DRY configs:

// rootly-catalog-sync.jsonnet
{
  version: 1,
  sync_id: "services",
  pipelines: [
    {
      sources: [
        {
          github: {
            token: "$(GITHUB_TOKEN)",
            owner: "acme",
            repos: ["payments", "auth", "gateway"],
            files: ["catalog.yaml"],
          },
        },
      ],
      outputs: [
        {
          catalog: "Services",
          external_id: "{{ .id }}",
          name: "{{ .name }}",
          fields: {
            owner: "{{ .owner }}",
            tier: "{{ .tier }}",
          },
        },
      ],
    },
  ],
}

rootly-catalog-sync sync --config=rootly-catalog-sync.jsonnet

HCL config

HCL provides Terraform-style syntax with blocks:

# rootly-catalog-sync.hcl
version = 1
sync_id = "services"

pipeline {
  source {
    local {
      files = ["catalog/*.yaml"]
    }
  }
  output {
    catalog     = "Services"
    external_id = "{{ .id }}"
    name        = "{{ .name }}"
    fields = {
      owner = "{{ .owner }}"
      tier  = "{{ .tier }}"
    }
  }
}

rootly-catalog-sync sync --config=rootly-catalog-sync.hcl

Sources

Source	Description	Config key
inline	Entries defined directly in config	inline.entries
local	YAML/JSON files from disk	local.files (glob)
github	Files from GitHub repositories	github.owner, github.repos, github.files
exec	Run a command, parse stdout	exec.command, exec.args
backstage	Backstage catalog API	backstage.url, backstage.token
graphql	Arbitrary GraphQL endpoint	graphql.url, graphql.query, graphql.result
csv	CSV files with header row	csv.files, csv.delimiter
url	Fetch YAML/JSON from remote URLs	url.urls, url.headers
http	Generic REST API with JSONPath extraction	http.url, http.result, http.headers

GitHub source

sources:
  - github:
      token: "$(GITHUB_TOKEN)"
      owner: acme
      repos: ["payments", "auth", "gateway"]  # or omit for all org repos
      files: ["catalog.yaml"]
      ref: main           # optional, defaults to repo default branch
      archived: false      # skip archived repos (default)

Exec source

sources:
  - exec:
      command: bq
      args: ["query", "--format=json", "SELECT id, name, owner FROM services"]

Backstage source

sources:
  - backstage:
      url: https://backstage.internal
      token: "$(BACKSTAGE_TOKEN)"
      kind: Component

GraphQL source

sources:
  - graphql:
      url: https://api.internal/graphql
      query: "query($cursor: String) { services(after: $cursor) { nodes { id name } pageInfo { endCursor } } }"
      result: data.services.nodes
      headers:
        Authorization: "Bearer $(API_TOKEN)"
      paginate:
        mode: cursor
        cursor_path: data.services.pageInfo.endCursor
        page_size: 100

URL source

sources:
  - url:
      urls:
        - https://internal.company.com/catalog/services.yaml
        - https://internal.company.com/catalog/teams.json
      headers:
        Authorization: "Bearer $(API_TOKEN)"

HTTP source

sources:
  - http:
      url: https://api.internal.com/v1/services
      method: GET
      headers:
        Authorization: "Bearer $(API_TOKEN)"
      result: data.services

# POST with body
sources:
  - http:
      url: https://api.internal.com/graphql
      method: POST
      body: '{"query": "{ services { id name owner } }"}'
      result: data.services

Environment variables

Credentials can be injected via $(ENV_VAR) syntax in config files.

Commands

Core lifecycle

Command	Description
plan	Compute a diff and save a plan file
apply <plan-file>	Apply a saved plan
sync	Plan + apply in one step
status [--fail-on-drift]	Read-only drift check (exit 3 on drift)

Setup

Command	Description
init	Create a sample config file
validate	Check config syntax and schema
doctor	Verify env, auth, and API connectivity
fmt	Canonicalize config file formatting
sources inspect	Dump raw entries from sources before mapping
explain <external_id>	Trace one entry through source → mapping → diff

Operations

Command	Description
import	One-shot seed/migration (no external_id, no prune, no lock)
adopt [--match=name]	Claim existing UI entries under sync management
watch [--interval=5m]	Continuous reconcile loop (daemon mode)
tui	Interactive terminal UI for selective plan/apply
login	Authenticate via browser OAuth 2.0 (PKCE)
logout	Clear stored OAuth tokens

Flags

--config string          path to config file (default "rootly-catalog-sync.yaml")
--dry-run                compute and show changes without applying
--allow-prune            allow deletion of entries absent from source
--prune-threshold float  max prune ratio before safety abort (default 0.2)

Interactive TUI

rootly-catalog-sync tui

An interactive terminal UI for reviewing and selectively applying changes:

• Browse changes color-coded by operation (create/update/delete)
• space to toggle individual changes, a/n to select all/none
• enter to expand field-level diffs
• A to apply only selected changes
• Confirmation prompt before any writes

Safety

• Deletes are opt-in — --allow-prune required
• Empty source aborts — never wipes a catalog on a source failure
• Prune ratio threshold (default 20%) — aborts if too many deletes
• Only synced entries are prunable — entries without external_id (manual/UI) are never touched
• Order: create/update first, delete last — no window where entries are missing
• Transactional batches — bulk upsert is all-or-nothing per batch (max 100)

CI Usage

GitHub Actions

name: Catalog Sync
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths: ["catalog/**"]

jobs:
  sync:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: go install github.com/rootlyhq/rootly-catalog-sync/cmd/rootly-catalog-sync@latest
      - run: rootly-catalog-sync sync
        env:
          ROOTLY_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ROOTLY_API_KEY }}

Dry-run on PRs

- run: rootly-catalog-sync plan --dry-run
  env:
    ROOTLY_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ROOTLY_API_KEY }}

Drift detection (nightly)

- run: rootly-catalog-sync status --fail-on-drift
  env:
    ROOTLY_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ROOTLY_API_KEY }}

Docker

docker run --rm \
  -e ROOTLY_API_KEY \
  -v $(pwd):/work \
  rootlyhq/rootly-catalog-sync \
  sync --config=/work/rootly-catalog-sync.yaml

Or in a CI pipeline:

steps:
  - run: |
      docker run --rm \
        -e ROOTLY_API_KEY \
        -v ${{ github.workspace }}:/work \
        rootlyhq/rootly-catalog-sync \
        sync --config=/work/rootly-catalog-sync.yaml

CircleCI

version: 2.1

jobs:
  catalog-sync:
    docker:
      - image: cimg/go:1.23
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run:
          name: Install rootly-catalog-sync
          command: go install github.com/rootlyhq/rootly-catalog-sync/cmd/rootly-catalog-sync@latest
      - run:
          name: Sync catalog
          command: rootly-catalog-sync sync

workflows:
  catalog:
    jobs:
      - catalog-sync:
          filters:
            branches:
              only: main

For dry-run on PRs:

jobs:
  catalog-preview:
    docker:
      - image: cimg/go:1.23
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run:
          name: Install rootly-catalog-sync
          command: go install github.com/rootlyhq/rootly-catalog-sync/cmd/rootly-catalog-sync@latest
      - run:
          name: Preview changes
          command: rootly-catalog-sync plan --dry-run

Scenarios

Scenario	Commands
First sync from files	init → doctor → plan → apply
CI on merge	sync
PR preview	plan --dry-run
Migrate UI-built catalog	adopt --match=name → plan → apply
Debug a change	explain payments-api
Nightly drift gate	status --fail-on-drift
Daemon mode	watch --interval=5m
Data warehouse source	exec source with bq query
Selective apply	tui → toggle changes → A

License

MIT