Exploring the new native env file support in Node.js

Section III on Config in The Twelve-Factor App from 2011 provided architectural principles guiding the benefits of separating configuration from the code. It set a gold standard that led the way for environment variable practices and in particular how environment variables can be bound to a running process. For example, this approach plays in an important part in ENV support in Dockerfiles.

Local Argo CD in k3d with Trusted HTTPS Routes

The non-trusted certificate warnings when I spun up Argo CD locally in a k3d cluster were bugging me. Let's fix them and get Argo CD spun up locally without these warnings, with trusted certificates and end-to-end encrypted flows.

Routing k3d Deployments with a Traefik Reverse Proxy

I started writing a blog that needed a clean way to expose two services from the cluster, and it got me wondering the best way to do this. I'm often aiming to write blogs on this site in a zero-to-goal manner, so they can be read in isolation. k3d by default uses traefik, which is pretty neat when it comes to low configuration, however it did lead me to experimenting with ways to expose services with a lightweight approach that I could use in future blogs. Let's have a look at some of the options.

Running local AI code assist to power your IDEs with Ollama

I'm intrigued in how effective it is to run code assist models locally. I'm keen to explore the available IDE extensions and AI models. Let's start with VSCode, the Code GPT extension and models run locally with Ollama.

Getting Started with GitOps with a Local Argo CD Stack

Argo CD creates and updates resources in a Kubernetes cluster to achieve the desired state that is defined in a Git repository. This allows us to declare the desired state of our resources and leave Argo CD to do the work of deploying and updating the cluster to achieve this state.

Spinning up a local Gitea service for GitOps practice

I wanted a quick throwaway git service for some GitOps practice. Gitea is an open source Git hosting service. It is powerful for self-hosting a GitHub-like service, but also lightweight and straightforward to spin up as needed for little experiments.

Comparing Local k8s stacks ; k3d, minikube and microK8s

I explored spinning up a local cluster with k3d recently, however I realised I should have compared k3d with other approaches. Let's compare kind, minikube and microk8s and see how these different k8s stacks help for local development.

Locally Running GenAI and Large Language Models with Ollama

If you are interested in exploring Generative AI without relying on cloud services, Ollama can run open models entirely locally, giving you a chance to explore GenAI APIs and capabilities.

Installing k8s Resources with Helm Charts

Helm charts encapsulate and simplify deployments to Kubernetes. They allow us to deploy applications quickly in a consistent way. Let's deploy an application into our local cluster to help us get started with using Helm since I'll use them in following blogs.

Local Kubernetes Stack with k3d in Seconds

Kubernetes helps with the running of containerized applications at scale, however you don't need a complex infrastructure to test many of the aspects of a Kubernetes cluster. You can spin up a cluster with k3d on your local machine in seconds and start experimenting with Kubernetes.