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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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Skaffold Has a Free API: Continuous Development for Kubernetes Applications

#kubernetes #devops #cicd #google

Why Skaffold Exists

Skaffold by Google handles the build-push-deploy cycle for Kubernetes development. Define your pipeline once, and skaffold dev watches your code, rebuilds, and redeploys automatically.

Install 

brew install skaffold
# or
curl -Lo skaffold https://storage.googleapis.com/skaffold/releases/latest/skaffold-linux-amd64
chmod +x skaffold && mv skaffold /usr/local/bin/
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Initialize a Project 

skaffold init
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This generates skaffold.yaml by detecting your Dockerfiles and Kubernetes manifests.

Basic skaffold.yaml 

apiVersion: skaffold/v4beta11
kind: Config
build:
  artifacts:
    - image: myapp
      docker:
        dockerfile: Dockerfile
deploy:
  kubectl:
    manifests:
      - k8s/*.yaml
portForward:
  - resourceType: service
    resourceName: myapp
    port: 8080
    localPort: 8080
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Development Loop 

# Watch mode — rebuilds on file changes
skaffold dev

# One-time build and deploy
skaffold run

# Deploy with specific profile
skaffold run -p production
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File Sync (No Rebuild) 

build:
  artifacts:
    - image: myapp
      sync:
        manual:
          - src: "src/**/*.py"
            dest: /app/src
        infer:
          - "**/*.html"
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Multiple Profiles 

profiles:
  - name: dev
    build:
      local:
        push: false
    deploy:
      kubectl:
        manifests: ["k8s/dev/*.yaml"]
  - name: production
    build:
      googleCloudBuild: {}
    deploy:
      kubectl:
        manifests: ["k8s/prod/*.yaml"]
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Helm Deployment 

deploy:
  helm:
    releases:
      - name: myapp
        chartPath: charts/myapp
        valuesFiles:
          - charts/myapp/values-dev.yaml
        setValues:
          image.tag: "{{.IMAGE_TAG}}"
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CI/CD Pipeline 

# GitHub Actions
jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Setup Skaffold
        run: curl -Lo skaffold https://storage.googleapis.com/skaffold/releases/latest/skaffold-linux-amd64 && chmod +x skaffold
      - name: Deploy
        run: ./skaffold run -p production
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Key Features

  • Dev loop — watch, build, push, deploy in one command
  • File sync — update without rebuilding images
  • Multi-builder — Docker, Jib, Buildpacks, Bazel, ko, Kaniko
  • Multi-deployer — kubectl, Helm, kustomize
  • Profiles — different configs per environment
  • Port forwarding — automatic

Resources

Need to extract CI/CD pipeline data, deployment metrics, or Kubernetes config? Check out my Apify tools or email spinov001@gmail.com for custom data extraction.

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