Quickstart

Follow this tutorial if you're using the Skaffold [standalone binary]({{< relref "../install/#standalone-binary" >}}). It walks through running Skaffold on a small Kubernetes app built with Docker inside minikube and deployed with kubectl!

This tutorial uses minikube as Skaffold knows how to build the app using the Docker daemon hosted inside minikube and thus avoiding any need for a registry to host the app's container images.

{{< alert title="Note">}} Aside from Docker and kubectl, Skaffold also supports a variety of other tools and workflows; see [Tutorials]({{<relref "/docs/tutorials">}}) for more information. {{</alert>}}

In this quickstart, you will:

Install Skaffold, and download a sample go app,
Use skaffold dev to build and deploy your app every time your code changes,
Use skaffold run to build and deploy your app once, similar to a CI/CD pipeline

Set up

This tutorial requires Skaffold, Minikube, and Kubectl.

[Install Skaffold]({{< relref "/docs/install" >}})
Install kubectl
Install minikube

Start Minikube

minikube start --profile custom
skaffold config set --global local-cluster true
eval $(minikube -p custom docker-env)

{{< alert title="Note">}} If you want to deploy against a different Kubernetes cluster then you will have to install Docker to build this app. Furthermore if you want to deploy to a remote cluster, such as GKE, then you need to set up a container registry such as GCR to host the resulting images. {{</alert>}}

Downloading the sample app

Clone the Skaffold repository:

bash

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/GoogleContainerTools/skaffold

Change to the examples/getting-started in skaffold directory.
bash
```
cd skaffold/examples/getting-started
```

`skaffold dev`: continuous build & deploy on code changes

Run skaffold dev to build and deploy your app continuously. You should see some outputs similar to the following entries:

Listing files to watch...
 - skaffold-example
Generating tags...
 - skaffold-example -> skaffold-example:v1.1.0-113-g4649f2c16
Checking cache...
 - skaffold-example: Not found. Building
Found [docker-desktop] context, using local docker daemon.
Building [skaffold-example]...
Sending build context to Docker daemon  3.072kB
Step 1/6 : FROM golang:1.12.9-alpine3.10 as builder
 ---> e0d646523991
Step 2/6 : COPY main.go .
 ---> Using cache
 ---> e4788ffa88e7
Step 3/6 : RUN go build -o /app main.go
 ---> Using cache
 ---> 686396d9e9cc
Step 4/6 : FROM alpine:3.10
 ---> 965ea09ff2eb
Step 5/6 : CMD ["./app"]
 ---> Using cache
 ---> be0603b9d79e
Step 6/6 : COPY --from=builder /app .
 ---> Using cache
 ---> c827aa5a4b12
Successfully built c827aa5a4b12
Successfully tagged skaffold-example:v1.1.0-113-g4649f2c16
Tags used in deployment:
 - skaffold-example -> skaffold-example:c827aa5a4b12e707163842b803d666eda11b8ec20c7a480198960cfdcb251042
   local images can't be referenced by digest. They are tagged and referenced by a unique ID instead
Starting deploy...
 - pod/getting-started created
Watching for changes...
[getting-started] Hello world!
[getting-started] Hello world!
[getting-started] Hello world!

{{< alert title="Error: Unknown API Version" >}} Skaffold may complain:

parsing skaffold config: unknown api version: "skaffold/v2beta13"

This error indicates that you are not using the latest release of Skaffold. Cloud Shell may lag for several days after a new Skaffold release. Simply [install the latest version of Skaffold]({{< relref "/docs/install" >}}). {{< /alert >}}

{{< alert title="Error: No push access to specified image repository">}} If you are deploying to a remote cluster, you must run skaffold dev --default-repo=<my_registry> where <my_registry> is an image registry that you have write-access to. Skaffold then builds and pushes the container images to that location, and non-destructively updates the Kubernetes manifest files to reference those pushed images. {{< /alert >}}

skaffold dev watches your local source code and executes your Skaffold pipeline every time a change is detected. skaffold.yaml provides specifications of the workflow - in this example, the pipeline is

Building a Docker image from the source using the Dockerfile
Tagging the Docker image with the sha256 hash of its contents
Updating the Kubernetes manifest, k8s-pod.yaml, to use the image built previously
Deploying the Kubernetes manifest using kubectl apply -f
Streaming the logs back from the deployed app

Let's re-trigger the workflow just by a single code change! Update main.go as follows:

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"time"
)

func main() {
	for {
		fmt.Println("Hello Skaffold!")
		time.Sleep(time.Second * 1)
	}
}

When you save the file, Skaffold will see this change and repeat the workflow described in skaffold.yaml, rebuilding and redeploying your application. Once the pipeline is completed, you should see the changes reflected in the output in the terminal:

[getting-started] Hello Skaffold!

`skaffold run`: build & deploy once

If you prefer building and deploying once at a time, run skaffold run. Skaffold will perform the workflow described in skaffold.yaml exactly once.

Follow these quickstart guides if you're using Skaffold with the [Cloud Code]({{< relref "../install/#managed-ide" >}}) IDE extensions:

Cloud Code for VSCode

Create, locally develop, debug, and run a Kubernetes application with Cloud Code for VSCode.

Cloud Code for IntelliJ

Create, locally develop, debug, and run a Kubernetes application with Cloud Code for IntelliJ.

Skip any setup by using Google Cloud Platform's Cloud Shell, which provides a browser-based terminal/CLI and editor. Cloud Shell comes with Skaffold, Minikube, and Docker pre-installed, and is free (requires a Google Account).

What's next

For getting started with your project, see the [Getting Started With Your Project]({{<relref "/docs/workflows/getting-started-with-your-project" >}}) workflow.

For more in-depth topics of Skaffold, explore [Configuration]({{< relref "/docs/design/config.md" >}}), [Skaffold Pipeline]({{<relref "/docs/pipeline-stages" >}}), and [Architecture and Design]({{< relref "/docs/design" >}}).

To learn more about how Skaffold builds, tags, and deploys your app, see the How-to Guides on using [Builders]({{<relref "/docs/pipeline-stages/builders" >}}), [Taggers]({{< relref "/docs/pipeline-stages/taggers">}}), and [Deployers]({{< relref "/docs/pipeline-stages/deployers" >}}).

[Skaffold Tutorials]({{< relref "/docs/tutorials" >}}) details some of the common use cases of Skaffold.

Questions? See our [Community section]({{< relref "/docs/resources#Community" >}}) for ways to get in touch.

:mega: Please fill out our quick 5-question survey to tell us how satisfied you are with Skaffold, and what improvements we should make. Thank you! :dancers: