Introduction

Jackadi is currently in an alpha.

You’re welcome to try it out and give feedback.

What is Jackadi?

Jackadi is a developer-first distributed task execution platform designed for developers with a plugin system. Jackadi is client/server based.

The main motivation is to create a framework where developers write tasks as pure code without abstractions or hidden behaviors. Task writing is meant to be natural and direct.

Key principles:

Pure Go Approach: Tasks are written as Go code with no hidden behaviors - what you write is what you get.
No Runtime Dependencies: Tasks have no runtime dependencies on other tasks; all dependencies are resolved at compile-time.
No Abstractions: Task writing is natural for Go developers with minimal framework-specific knowledge needed.
Flexible Use Cases: From simple package installation to complex workflows like server management and upgrades.
No locking: Plugins are libraries which can be imported from any other program. They are standalone binaries, meaning they can be executed directly from the shell.

Features

	Description
Distributed Task Execution	Execute tasks across multiple nodes from a central manager.
Plugin System	Extend functionality through custom Go plugins. Bonus: a plugin can be executed as a standalone binary.
Advanced Targeting	Target nodes via list, glob, regex, advanced query.
Specs Collectors	Gather and store system information from nodes.
Security	mTLS, node acceptance workflow, protection against rogue nodes.
Developer-Friendly	Tasks/specs are Go function registered with a simple SDK.
Web API Integrate	Jackadi with your infrastructure stack.

Architecture

Nodes are Jackadi clients installed on the nodes. They are connected to a manager via persistent bidirectional gRPC connections.

Jackadi features a simple plugin architecture where all tasks and specs collectors are implemented as pure Go functions. The plugin system is built on top of hashicorp/go-plugin, and is made intuitive using a simple and easy to use SDK.

By default, all executed task are recorded in BadgerDB.

Quick demo tour

Quickstart

# Start the manager
manager --mtls=false

# Start an node
node --id="node1" --mtls=false

# Accept the node connection (if not using auto-accept)
jack nodes list
jack nodes accept node1

# The node should be now in "accepted" list
jack nodes list

# Check nodes health
jack nodes health

# Run a task
jack run node1 cmd.run "echo hello"

Write my first plugin

Create a Go project

tour.go

package main

import "github.com/kpetremann/jackadi/sdk"

func Hello(name string) (string, error) {
	return fmt.Sprintf("Hello %s!", name), nil
}

func main() {
	tour := sdk.New("tour")
	tour.MustRegisterTask("hello", Hello).WithDescription("Greetings.")
	sdk.MustServe(tour)
}

Compile the plugin

CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o tour .

Put the plugin in the manager

Copy the file in the manager /opt/jackadi/plugins directory.

Then configure /etc/jackadi/plugins.yaml file:

"*":
  - tour

Synchronize the plugin to the node

jack run node1 plugins.sync

Run the plugin

jack run node1 tour.hello

Next step

Basic guides

Installation