PCTL¶

Declarative pod orchestrator for multi-cloud container deployments.

One YAML. Multiple providers. Zero vendor lock-in.

What is PCTL?¶

PCTL takes a single configuration file and deploys your containerized services to AWS EKS, Google Cloud GKE, or Docker (local and remote via SSH). It handles building images, pushing to registries, creating Kubernetes manifests, managing state, and cleaning up resources.

name: my-app

services:
  api:
    image: ./Dockerfile
    registry: ghcr.io/myorg/api
    scale:
      replica: [2, 10]
      cpu: 256m
      memory: 512Mi
    ports:
      - 3000
    health:
      interval: 30
      command: "curl -f http://localhost:3000/health"
    provider:
      name: aws
      options:
        cluster: my-cluster
        namespace: production

pctl deploy     # Build, push, deploy
pctl destroy    # Clean everything

Features¶

Declarative Configuration

Define services, scaling, storage, health checks, and providers in a single YAML file. No imperative scripts.
Multi-Provider

Deploy the same config to AWS EKS, Google Cloud GKE, or Docker (local + SSH). Mix providers in one stack.
Dynamic Resolvers

${env:KEY} ${ssm:/path} ${cfn:export} ${self:custom.value} - Resolve values from environment, AWS SSM, CloudFormation, or the config itself.
Plugin Pipeline

Extensible plugin system. Resolve, validate, transform, deploy - each step is a plugin you can replace or extend.
Diff-Based Deploys

Fingerprints each service. Only rebuilds and redeploys what actually changed. Unchanged services are skipped.
Clean Destroy

State file tracks every resource created. Destroy removes deployments, services, volumes, images, namespaces, and secrets. Waits for confirmation.
Registry Agnostic

Push to ECR, Artifact Registry, GHCR, Docker Hub, or any OCI registry. Private registries with imagePullSecrets.
Auto-Scaling

replica: [0, 100] creates a HorizontalPodAutoscaler. Fixed replicas for workers. Scale-to-zero for idle services.

Quick Start¶

npm install -g @arcaelas/pctl

pctl deploy -c pctl.yaml              # Deploy all services
pctl deploy -c pctl.yaml --name staging  # Override stack name
pctl destroy -c pctl.yaml             # Destroy all resources

Architecture¶

graph LR
    A[pctl.yaml] --> B[Resolvers]
    B --> C[Validate]
    C --> D[Plugins]
    D --> E{Provider}
    E --> F[AWS EKS]
    E --> G[GCP GKE]
    E --> H[Docker]
    F --> I[pctl.stack.json]
    G --> I
    H --> I

Providers at a Glance¶

Feature	AWS (EKS)	GCP (GKE)	Docker
Kubernetes
Auto-scaling (HPA)
RBAC
Persistent Storage	EBS / EFS	PD / Filestore	Volumes
Registry Auth	ECR auto	AR auto	Manual
Remote Deploy	-	-	SSH
Health Checks	Liveness Probe	Liveness Probe	Docker Health