Earthly

Earthly — build framework combining Makefile and Dockerfile syntax.

DevOpsModerate

Stack Components

BuildEarthly 0.x

Why

Reproducible builds, automatic caching, runs locally and in CI identically. Docker is used by 59% of professional developers per the Stack Overflow 2024 survey, and Terraform is used by 65% of organizations for IaC (HashiCorp 2024).

GitOps (ArgoCD, Flux) reduces deployment drift to near-zero by making git the single source of truth.

When

Use for polyglot monorepo builds. Avoid for simple single-language projects.

How

1. Install earthly 2. Write Earthfile 3. earthly +build 4. Integrate with CI 5. Add environment configuration — cp .env.example .env && edit values 6. Run tests — npm test or pnpm test to verify setup 7. Deploy — git push to trigger CI/CD or manual deploy

Example

build: FROM node:20 COPY package.json ./ RUN npm install COPY . . RUN npm run build SAVE ARTIFACT dist AS LOCAL dist

Common Problems

⚠Satellite connection issues — use BUILDKIT_TCP_ADDRESS
⚠Cache not shared — use --save-cache and --load-cache
⚠Configuration drift between environments — use infrastructure-as-code (Terraform/Pulumi) to keep dev/staging/prod identical

Best Practices

✓Use SAVE IMAGE for container outputs
✓Leverage remote cache for CI speedup
✓Set up health checks and graceful shutdown — handle SIGTERM to drain in-flight requests before exit

FAQ

What is Earthly and what projects is it for?

Earthly — build framework combining Makefile and Dockerfile syntax. It pairs layered technologies for end-to-end type safety and out-of-the-box deploys, fitting everything from MVPs to production SaaS.

How do I spin up a working demo with Earthly in 10 minutes?

Two steps: (1) Install earthly; (2) Write Earthfile. Get the local dev server running, then wire one real data source to verify the end-to-end loop.

What is the most common pitfall with Earthly and how do I avoid it?

The most common pitfall is: Satellite connection issues — use BUILDKIT_TCP_ADDRESS. Avoid it by adding the matching checklist to your PR template and running type-check + lint + unit tests in CI — three gates before merge.

What are the best practices for Earthly?

Best practices for Earthly include: Use SAVE IMAGE for container outputs; Leverage remote cache for CI speedup; Set up health checks and graceful shutdown — handle SIGTERM to drain in-flight requests before exit. The first one — "Use SAVE IMAGE for container outputs" — should be set up at project init to avoid costly rework later.

When should I NOT choose Earthly?

Pick something else in three cases: (1) the team has zero experience with the core framework and the deadline is tight (learning-curve risk); (2) it's a pure content/marketing site (Astro is lighter); (3) you need very high throughput (>10k RPS) or strict-consistency microservices (Go/Rust). Earthly shines for mid-to-high complexity full-stack and API work — don't over-engineer simple static pages with it.