DEV Community: Prasanth Bupd

How to Run Github Actions Locally??

Prasanth Bupd — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 10:06:34 +0000

This blog is written to serve people who are looking to run github actions locally for faster developer workflows and not get into the “push and pray” hell. No more 50 commits to make the actions work—simply run GitHub Actions locally!! with act.

If you want to test GitHub Actions without constantly pushing commits, act is the tool you need. It runs your workflows locally, using the same environment GitHub provides, so you get instant feedback and can debug faster.

Steps to Use Act

Install Act
Follow instructions on act’s official repo to install it on your system.
Run Your Workflows
Inside your project, run:

act

This executes the workflows defined in .github/workflows/ locally.

That’s it. No pushing, no waiting—just run your GitHub Actions locally and get faster feedback.

Geek's Guide to Kubernetes Image Credential Provider Plugins: No Bloat

Prasanth Bupd — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 19:02:50 +0000

I spent more than 8 hours wrestling with Kubernetes image credential provider plugins before finally stumbling upon the real solution. If you think this is as simple as dropping a config into Kind or Minikube think again. It doesn’t work that way, and I’d rather save you the wasted time I went through.

This guide comes from someone who considers a debugger “bloat.” If you share that mindset, you’ll feel right at home.

In this blog, I will walk you step by step through setting up a Kubernetes image credential provider plugin in a Kind cluster. We’ll manually configure the Kubelet to use your custom credential provider plugin. no shortcuts, no bloat, just the essentials.

Step 1

🔹Create your Cluster.

I am going for a basic three-node cluster to work with. Use the following configuration to spin it up. This setup includes one control-plane node and two worker nodes. feel free to add more configs if you want.

# this config file contains all config fields with comments
kind: Cluster
apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
nodes:
# the control plane node config
- role: control-plane
# the workers
- role: worker
- role: worker

Step 2

🔹Copy the Credential Provider Plugin Binary and Config to all the nodes.

You can also use a daemonset to do this in production. but I have gone with simple docker cp. Because we are still in the development stage of the credential-provider-plugin. I have my credentilal-plugin and config in a directory

❯ ls -la credential-provider-plugin
total 22524
drwxr-xr-x  2 bupd bupd     4096 Aug 30 06:21 .
drwxr-xr-x 22 bupd bupd     4096 Aug 30 06:23 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 bupd bupd      495 Aug 30 06:21 config.yml                     # config
-rwxr-xr-x  1 bupd bupd 12034738 Aug 30 06:18 credential-provider-echo-token # binary
-rwxr-xr-x  1 bupd bupd 10988078 Aug 28 17:25 credential-provider-echo-token-old
-rw-r--r--  1 bupd bupd      993 Aug 28 17:24 go.mod
-rw-r--r--  1 bupd bupd     8341 Aug 28 17:24 go.sum
-rw-r--r--  1 bupd bupd     3088 Aug 30 06:18 main.go
-rw-r--r--  1 bupd bupd     1734 Aug 28 17:25 README.md

# copy the entire folder into k8s nodes
docker cp ./credential-provider-plugin kind-control-plane:/etc/kubernetes/credential-providers

Step 3

🔹Modify the Kubelet Configuration

The real fun begins now. The Kubelet's configuration on a kind cluster is managed by a file called kubeadm-flags.env. We need to pull this file from the control-plane node, modify it, and push it back.

It will be located in /var/lib/kubelet/kubeadm-flags.env *link

Now copy the file from k8s node to host

docker cp kind-control-plane:/var/lib/kubelet/kubeadm-flags.env ./kubeadm-flags-kind.env

Edit the file to include the credential provider flags

--image-credential-provider-bin-dir: The directory where our plugin binary resides.
--image-credential-provider-config: The path to the configuration file for the plugin. Note: Don't forget to separately quote the values. Seriously, I've seen two hours vanish because of this.

Before:

KUBELET_KUBEADM_ARGS="--node-ip=172.18.0.3 --node-labels= --pod-infra-container-image=registry.k8s.io/pause:3.10.1 --provider-id=kind://docker/kind/kind-control-plane"

After:

do remember to add the ’ to the values.

KUBELET_KUBEADM_ARGS="--node-ip=172.18.0.3 --node-labels= --pod-infra-container-image=registry.k8s.io/pause:3.10.1 --provider-id=kind://docker/kind/kind-control-plane --image-credential-provider-bin-dir='/etc/kubernetes/credential-providers' --image-credential-provider-config='/etc/kubernetes/credential-providers/config.yml'"

Copy the modified file back to the control plane

docker cp ./kubeadm-flags-kind.env kind-control-plane:/var/lib/kubelet/kubeadm-flags.env

Step 4

🔹Restart the kubelet

Get into the control-plane node

docker exec -it kind-control-plane sh

once you are inside the node execute the below command

Run the reload and restart commands

systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl restart kubelet

Step 5

The most reliable way to verify if your plugin is working is to embed a webhook into it. This allows all inputs and outputs to be sent to a webhook endpoint, giving you a straightforward way to monitor the plugin’s execution. While it may feel a bit hacky, i love it. implementation here

Another way to test the plugin is by pulling an image that requires the default static credentials configured in your plugin. If the plugin is working correctly, the pod should start successfully with the image, confirming that the pull operation uses the expected credentials.

You can try this by applying the example pod.yaml file:

kubectl apply -f pod.yaml

Once the pod starts, you’ll be able to confirm that the hardcoded credentials from the credential-provider-plugin is being used as intended.

If you have other ideas or approaches for monitoring plugin execution, feel free to share them in the comments!

Bonus

Here is a simple script with which you can automate all this.

https://github.com/bupd/k8stemps/blob/c0ffeeba2e0b53e63f69b244e5cc2f7e0e6698c9/test-kind-credential-provider-plugin.sh

📚 References

This is a finicky process, and things can go wrong. Here are some resources that I found invaluable while navigating this.

Official Docs
Example Implementations
Config Tips
- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/69343508/whats-the-purpose-of-a-pods-service-account-if-automountserviceaccounttoken-i
- https://faun.pub/feature-gates-how-to-enable-kubernetes-alpha-features-fdb38dc3a9aa
For people trying to use this in proxy environments
- https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/issues/2009 if you are using proxy - which is another problem on its own.
- https://medium.com/@schottz/how-to-skip-tls-verify-fot-internal-registry-on-containerd-e039887bcb83 atleast this doesnt work for me if you are using proxy this might help but it doesn't work for me.

Programmers are not workhorses

Prasanth Bupd — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 16:14:55 +0000

What...??

Programmers are a unique breed. We're not just following orders and churning out code. We're creative problem-solvers who build the digital world around us.

Ever wondered why that app works so flawlessly or that website is so intuitive? That's the handiwork of programmers.

As programmers/coders we tend to take complex challenges and break them down into elegant solutions.

Sure, code is our language, but our minds are constantly buzzing with ideas. We might even catch ourselves thinking about code in the shower! Or even catch thinking about code even when watching a movie. The desire to learn and improve is ingrained in us. New technologies are like shiny objects to us, and we can't wait to tinker and see what they can do.

But here's the thing: being a programmer isn't about burying yourself in code 24/7. It's about finding a great place to bury yourself within the code It's about burying yourself with what you love.

While some might assume we only talk about code, it's because we're passionate! We want to share our knowledge and the excitement of building something cool.

Think of us... as artists. We craft functional masterpieces with lines of code. We take pride in making things not just work, but create bugs beautifully.

You may think I am romanticizing the term programmer. well actually, Programming is not like any other job. It is different I mean It is different.

I mostly hang around with people who does not have a programming background.

I note some strange things with them and our work life as a programmer.

There is a huge issue in the programming field.
the programming field is inflated to the curve than any other fields.

Does that mean programmers are earning more than their worth. NO, not actually there are programmers which do not see programming as a job. They see programming as fun. But they do take coding their career. So WHAT.

We as programmers have an innate problem within ourselves.

Working and thinking about code all the time.

Have you ever had shower thoughts about your code. or the error you need to fix by the end of day. The coding side got into your social life so well, that you cannot say it's not.

I have a friend who is studying commerce and I speak about how I solved all this coding problems in leetcode or how I manage to fix a bug in production and I do talked about my cloud bills too. He also knows the new shiny thing that came around in js ecosystem. All because of me.

I also had convos with my friends, where I say about my neovim config and tmux. and why ARCH LINUX is tippy-top of all distros.

How well I manage my productivity with my configs and how each of those scripts integrates with my workflow. And how well arch linux is constructed and the philosophy of unix. All of these things. I know for sure, that he doesn't understand a single word am talking about linux. In fact, he doesn't even have a computer, when I come to think of it.

But, you get the point right..!

All I talk about is programming:

I have less friends because whatever comes to my mind is about programming why is that should be like that. Does that mean I do not have a life.

You should be heard that experienced people and seniors saying code code code, code-more and think about code all the time.

code
code
code more and more code
do side projects,
more side projects, and a good side project
problem-solving
solve problems, think like a compiler, leetcode
grind leetcode etc etc., All the time.

grind leetcode. Do mock interviews do side projects in your free time. build stuffs with programming. Build the stuffs you wish you had.

Why is it always should be about programming.

For a person working as a doctor, he doesn't go around giving injections/medications to people for hobby or he doesn't do operations as a side project. This may not be an apt example. But bear with me.

Most of programmers have programming as their hobby, as their work, as their life and maybe who knows as their wife too, no sorry as their enjoyment too. they do only one thing and that is code. either they are in a party or they are in their basement all they think is about programming. Invest more time put more time in your craft why does it need to be like that.

Why does it always need to be about Code..?

Since Mechanical or Electrical Engineers or any sort of engineering rather than software. They work for 8-10 hours per day and they don't even think of their work after that period of time. They have their anxiety too low compared to programmers.

Take hard workers such as cleaners, gardeners, carpenters etc., these jobs don't require too much skills and they don't grind like a leetcoder. Comparing to these people we as programmers tend to work more, think more, and do less but why is that should be like that. We too humans right.

Why we need to think of programming all the time and learn new technologies and go deepen our knowledge. why is that.

I repeat.

Programmers are not workhorses.

Think of a man who works in the KFC or McDonald he tend to earn less than a average programmer. But he tend to do more physical work than a programmer.

We programmers are artists. We create art. we live with the computer. Which have delicate parts and mechanical keyboards which has delicacy sounding keys. which is in no comparison with the carpenter or a mechanic using their tools. they tend to do a lot of physical work compared to us.

The more delicate the work, the greater the requirement for creativity and artistry. As a programmer, I consider myself an artist, meticulously crafting solutions with the precision and finesse akin to that of a painter with their brush.

that's why I tend to go around with arch linux and neovim spending my life configuring it.

Where each of my keystrokes are intended to do great things and each of them have such a delicacy improving my productivity in programming.

These thoughts came into my mind, When I was sitting in my class bored and heard someone say put your life into programming... I asked why. but he didn't have an answer neither do I. But now I had found the answer that putting your life into the programming is worth more than you think. because you are not spending your life doing dumb chores. You are not replaceable. you are an artist creating an art. An art that makes people life easier. and productive.

Human life span is limited we didn't have endless amount of years to live we live only for a short time. The amount of things we accomplish is fully dependent on the scale of how productive we are.

So, bupd at the eod what are you trying to say are you trying to say that programmers need to devote their lives for programming no it's not what i mean. Its absolutely against my point.

So What I mean:

If you are enthusiastic enough and if the programming is the right thing for you. You tend to go over the large problems and you may try to create all of it by yourself. "YOU will enjoy more than you think by reinventing the wheel rather than creating a crud app".

Thanks have a great day.

-bupd.

Programmers are not workhorses

Prasanth Bupd — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 16:59:23 +0000