⛵ Rudder

A fast, lightweight, and native GUI for managing Helm charts and Kubernetes.

Rudder is a simple, offline-first tool that solves the worst parts of Kubernetes management. No more "YAML hell" parsing 500-line values.yaml files. No more expensive, memory-hungry, cloud-first platforms.

It's the "GUI for values.yaml" you've always wanted.

---

The Problem

Managing Helm releases is a choice between two bad options:

1. "YAML Hell": Manually editing complex values.yaml files, hoping you get the indentation right, and not really knowing what all the options are.
2. "Platform Rent-Seeking": Using heavy, slow, Electron-based apps that demand a per-seat, per-month subscription to do things that should be simple.

Rudder is the third option. It's a "builder's tool"—fast, local, and free. It does 90% of what you need without the 90% of bloat.

The Killer Feature: Schema-to-Form

Rudder's core magic is its ability to automatically generate a clean, validated, easy-to-use form from your Helm chart's values.schema.json file.

• No More Guessing: The app reads the schema and builds a UI with proper inputs, dropdowns for enum values, checkboxes for booleans, and tooltips for descriptions.
• Guaranteed-Valid Config: You can't enter a string where a number is required. You can't "hope" it's configured right. The form is the schema.
• Discoverable: You can finally understand what a chart can do by seeing its options laid out in a clean UI.

---

Core Features

• Native & Fast: Built with a Rust backend and a lightweight Svelte + Tailwind frontend via Tauri. It's tiny, uses minimal RAM, and starts instantly.
• Local-First: Rudder is just a smart frontend for the helm and kubectl CLIs you already have. It reads your local Kube context. Your configs and keys never leave your machine.
• Release Dashboard: On launch, see all releases deployed in your current cluster (helm ls -A).
• One-Click Actions:
  • Upgrade: Visually edit your values on the auto-generated form and click "Upgrade."
  • Rollback: See a release's history (helm history) and roll back to a previous version with one click.
  • Scale: Quickly scale Deployment and StatefulSet replicas up or down without a full Helm upgrade.

---

Tech Stack

This project is an example of the "augmented expert" development model: using high-leverage tools to build a powerful app in record time.

• Backend: Rust
  • Uses tauri for the app shell and native OS bridge.
  • Uses std::process::Command to run local helm and kubectl commands.
  • Handles reading values.schema.json files from disk.
• Frontend: TypeScript + Svelte
  • The perfect, high-performance, "builder-friendly" framework.
• Styling: Tailwind CSS
  • Utility-first styling for a lean, custom UI without "enterprisey" component kits.
• Key Libraries:
  • Headless UI: For unstyled, accessible components (dropdowns, modals).
  • svelte-jsonschema-form: The engine for the "killer feature," allowing for a fully custom, Tailwind-styled theme for the generated form.

---

Getting Started

1. Clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/rileyseaburg/rudder.git
   cd rudder
   

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Run the app in development mode:

   cargo tauri dev