Design Philosophy

Design Philosophy

Kure is built on a few core principles that guide its design and API choices.

Type-Safe Builders Over Templating

Traditional Kubernetes tooling relies on string-based templating (Helm, Kustomize overlays, Jsonnet). This creates a class of errors that only surface at deploy time — typos in YAML paths, type mismatches, missing fields.

Kure uses Go’s type system instead:

// Compile-time checked — typos and type errors are caught by the compiler
ks := fluxcd.Kustomization(&fluxcd.KustomizationConfig{
    Name:      "my-app",
    Namespace: "flux-system",
    Path:      "./clusters/production/apps",
    Interval:  "10m",
    Prune:     true,
})

If you misspell a field name, the Go compiler tells you immediately.

GitOps-Native Output

Kure generates plain Kubernetes YAML manifests organized for GitOps tools. The output is not a runtime artifact — it’s files in a directory structure that Flux (or eventually ArgoCD) reconciles.

This means:

• Predictable output — same inputs always produce the same manifests
• Tool independence — the output is standard Kubernetes YAML
• Debugging simplicity — you can read the generated manifests directly
• Git-friendly — changes are visible as diffs

Interface-Driven Design

Kure separates concerns through interfaces:

• ApplicationConfig — how an application generates its resources
• Workflow — how a GitOps tool creates reconciliation resources
• Generator registry — pluggable application types via GVK

This allows new application types and GitOps tools to be added without modifying the core domain model.

“Kurel Just Generates YAML”

The kurel package system follows a simple principle: it takes base manifests, applies patches, resolves variables, and writes YAML files. It’s not a runtime system, not a controller, not an orchestrator.

This constraint keeps the system simple and auditable. You can always inspect exactly what will be deployed by looking at the generated output.

Composition Over Configuration

Rather than a single monolithic configuration format, Kure composes small, focused packages:

Each package can be used independently or composed together for complete workflows.