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Contributing Guide

This document covers common tasks and workflows for contributing to the homelab.

Repository Structure

This is a GitOps monorepo where related code and deployment configuration live together.

Directory Purpose
projects/ All services, operators, websites — colocated with deploy configs
projects/platform/ Cluster-critical infrastructure (ArgoCD, Linkerd, SigNoz, etc.)
projects/agent_platform/ Agent services (Context Forge, MCP servers, orchestrator, etc.)
projects/home-cluster/ Auto-generated root kustomization that discovers all deploy/ directories
bazel/ Build infrastructure (Helm rules, tools, images, semgrep, wrangler)
docs/ Design docs, ADRs, and plans

Colocation principle: Each service's deployment configuration (ArgoCD Application, Helm values) lives next to its source code, not in a separate overlays directory. This makes it easy to understand what belongs together.

Adding a New Service

ArgoCD Discovery Flow

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 1: Create Helm Chart (if needed)                              │
│  projects/<service>/chart/  (custom chart)                          │
│  — or use an upstream chart via Chart.yaml dependencies             │
└────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┘
                                 │
                                 ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 2: Create deploy/ Directory                                   │
│  projects/<service>/deploy/                                         │
│    ├── application.yaml    (ArgoCD Application manifest)            │
│    ├── kustomization.yaml  (makes app discoverable)                 │
│    └── values.yaml         (Helm value overrides)                   │
└────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┘
                                 │
                                 ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 3: Auto-Discovery                                             │
│  Run: format                                                        │
│  This runs bazel/images/generate-home-cluster.sh which scans        │
│  projects/ for deploy/ dirs containing application.yaml and         │
│  regenerates projects/home-cluster/kustomization.yaml               │
└────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┘
                                 │
                                 ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 4: ArgoCD Auto-Discovery                                      │
│  projects/home-cluster/kustomization.yaml lists all deploy/ dirs.   │
│                                                                     │
│  The "canada" Application is the root app-of-apps.                  │
│  ArgoCD runs "kustomize build" and discovers all                    │
│  Application manifests automatically.                               │
└────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┘
                                 │
                                 ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Step 5: ArgoCD Syncs Application                                   │
│  - Renders Helm chart with value files                              │
│  - Applies manifests to cluster                                     │
│  - Monitors health and sync status                                  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Service Directory Structure

projects/
├── platform/              # Core infrastructure (flat layout: chart + deploy in same dir)
│   ├── argocd/
│   │   ├── Chart.yaml
│   │   ├── application.yaml
│   │   ├── kustomization.yaml
│   │   └── values.yaml
│   ├── linkerd/
│   ├── kyverno/
│   └── kustomization.yaml  ← references all platform services
│
├── agent_platform/        # Agent services
│   ├── orchestrator/deploy/
│   ├── context_forge/deploy/
│   └── kustomization.yaml  ← references all agent services
│
├── grimoire/              # Individual project with colocated deploy/
│   ├── chart/             # Custom Helm chart
│   ├── deploy/            # ArgoCD Application + values
│   │   ├── application.yaml
│   │   ├── kustomization.yaml
│   │   └── values.yaml
│   └── api/               # Source code lives alongside
│
└── home-cluster/          # Auto-generated root (DO NOT EDIT)
    └── kustomization.yaml  ← lists all deploy/ dirs

Steps

  1. Create Helm chart in projects/<service>/chart/ with default values (or use an upstream chart via Chart.yaml dependencies)
  2. Create a deploy/ directory colocated with your service source:
    • projects/<service>/deploy/application.yaml - ArgoCD Application pointing to your chart
    • projects/<service>/deploy/kustomization.yaml - Reference to application.yaml
    • projects/<service>/deploy/values.yaml - Helm value overrides
  3. Run format to regenerate the root kustomization and format code
  4. Add health checks and observability to the chart
  5. Test the complete deployment path:
    • helm template <service> projects/<service>/chart/ --namespace <namespace> to verify rendering
    • Commit and push to Git
    • ArgoCD automatically discovers and syncs the new application to the cluster

Format Command

Run before committing changes:

format

This command:

  • Formats code (Go, Python, JavaScript, Shell, Starlark)
  • Updates apko lock files (container image definitions)
  • Updates Python lock files (from pyproject.toml)
  • Validates apko configurations
  • Regenerates projects/home-cluster/kustomization.yaml
  • Runs in parallel using Bazel for fast builds

Note: Helm manifests are rendered by ArgoCD at deploy time, not committed to the repo.

Adding Python Dependencies

When adding a new Python dependency to pyproject.toml:

# 1. Add dependency to pyproject.toml
# 2. Regenerate lock files (included in format command)
format

Development Workflow

  1. Make changes in feature branch (via worktree)
  2. Run format to format code and update lock files
  3. Verify deployment works end-to-end
  4. Check observability - metrics, logs, traces
  5. Create PR - BuildBuddy CI runs format check + bazel test //...
  6. Merge - ArgoCD automatically syncs changes to production cluster

Testing Philosophy

We test actual behavior, not implementation details:

Good Tests:

  • Deploy the actual service to a test cluster
  • Verify the service responds correctly via HTTP
  • Confirm metrics are exported and observable
  • Test the complete user journey

Bad Tests:

  • Unit tests that mock everything
  • Tests that verify internal implementation
  • Tests that don't exercise real deployment paths
⚡