Secret sauce code now open source ( * it beats AI generated code)

A developer has open-sourced TDK CLI, a tool that turns a small declarative service.json file into a full local development stack, generating Dockerfiles, live-reload rules, Traefik routes, shared Postgres wiring, health probes, and Tilt configuration. The project splits responsibilities across a TypeScript CLI for commands, validation, port allocation and template generation, plus Starlark-based discovery and engine layers that build a dependency DAG and run inside Tilt. The author argues the approach beats AI-generated code for local infrastructure because a committed source-of-truth file keeps agents and humans from silently breaking the setup.

service.json Becomes a Full Local Stack Most multi-service setups still force you to maintain Docker Compose files, Tiltfiles, nginx configs, port maps, and health checks by hand. AI coding agents make the application code easy, but they are still bad at keeping the local infrastructure consistent. TDK CLI solves this by treating a tiny declarative file as the source of truth and generating everything else. This is essentially all you write for a service: { "$schema": "https://tdk-landscape.github.io/schema.service.json", "schemaVersion": 1, "appName": "orders-api", "appType": "backend", "stack": "shop", "port": 4000, "healthCheckPath": "/health", "dependsOn": } From this single file, TDK generates Dockerfiles, live-reload rules, Traefik routes, shared Postgres wiring, health probes, and the Tilt configuration that actually runs it. The project is organized as Project → Stack → Resource . php flowchart LR P Project<br/ .tdk/project.json -- S1 Stack: shop P -- S2 Stack: billing S1 -- R1 orders-api<br/ backend S1 -- R2 orders-app<br/ frontend S2 -- R3 checkout-api<br/ backend The codebase is deliberately split so each part has a clear job: flowchart TB subgraph CLI "cli/ TypeScript " Commands Commands & validation Templates Handlebars templates Ports Port allocation end subgraph Discovery "discovery/ Starlark " Scan Scan service.json DAG Build dependency DAG end subgraph Engine "engine/ Starlark " LiveUpdate live update rules Traefik Traefik routing Infra Postgres + platform end CLI -- |generates Tiltfile + configs| Discovery Discovery -- |registry + DAG| Engine Engine -- |docker build + containers| Docker Docker | Subsystem | Language | Responsibility | |---|---|---| | cli/ | TypeScript | Commands, validation, port allocation, template generation, launching Tilt | | discovery/ | Starlark | Scan for service.json files, normalize them, build the dependency DAG | | engine/ | Starlark | Runs inside Tilt — turns the DAG into real docker build , live update , Traefik, Postgres, etc. | The CLI never starts containers itself. The engine never parses CLI flags. Discovery never builds images. The real glue is the template engine cli/src/generator/template-engine.ts . It reads .tdk/project.json and emits files into the gitignored .tdk/.tdk-out/ directory: Tiltfile TILT TECH STACK.star and TILT RESOURCE DEFAULTS.star spec.master .tiltignore These come from Handlebars templates. The CLI also vendors a copy of the engine and discovery code so tdk up works offline. tdk up sequenceDiagram actor Dev participant CLI as TDK CLI participant Gen as Template Engine participant Tilt participant Engine as Starlark Engine participant Docker Dev- CLI: tdk up shop CLI- CLI: Preflight Docker, schema, drift, ports CLI- Gen: Ensure master configs Gen-- CLI: .tdk/.tdk-out/Tiltfile CLI- Tilt: tilt up -f Tiltfile -- --focus=shop Tilt- Engine: Load discovery + engine Engine- Engine: Scan service.json → DAG Engine- Docker: docker build + live update Engine- Docker: Start Traefik + Postgres Docker-- Tilt: Containers healthy Tilt-- CLI: Ready CLI-- Dev: Print URLs + Tilt UI High-level steps: pre alpha phase. tilt up against the generated Tiltfile. .autogenerated/ files, registers builds with live-update, and starts shared infrastructure. TDK is strict about this boundary so AI agents and humans cannot silently break the infrastructure: flowchart LR subgraph Committed "Committed source of truth " PJ .tdk/project.json SJ services/ / /service.json Code Your app source end subgraph Generated "Generated gitignored " Out .tdk/.tdk-out/<br/ Tiltfile, specs Auto services/ / /.autogenerated/ Env .env end Committed -- |tdk project / tdk resource / tdk up| Generated Generated -- |tdk config regenerate| Committed | Path | Status | Why | |---|---|---| | .tdk/project.json | Committed | Project identity and phases | | services/ / /service.json | Committed | Service contract | | Application source | Committed | Your code | | .tdk/.tdk-out/ | Generated | Derived from templates | | services/ / /.autogenerated/ | Generated | Engine output during Tilt | | .env | Generated | Local secrets | TDK is a local development runtime . It does not deploy to staging or production. The project explicitly leaves production to Helm, Argo CD, or whatever you already use. The local environment is optimized for speed and developer experience, not for being a perfect replica of production. npm install -g @tdk-landscape/tdk-cli-core tdk doctor tdk project --yes tdk resource orders-api --type backend --stack shop --yes tdk up shop Or clone the official starter and open it in any cloud IDE.