exec.md

title	order
Exec (local scripts)	2

Exec

The exec plugin and corresponding exec actions allow you to run commands locally on the host (e.g. your laptop or your CI runner).

This plugin is built-in which means you don't need to specify it in your project configuration. You can simply add exec actions right away.

It's great for running auth scripts as well as executing various scaffolding scripts that need to run "locally".

It can also be used to start applications locally (e.g. by executing commands like npm run dev).

This can be very useful for hybrid environments where you have, say, your backend running in a remote production-like environment but your frontend running locally.

Plugin Configuration

Usually you don't need to configure the exec plugin because it's built-in and you can use exec actions directly.

However, it can be used to run init scripts ahead of other Garden execution. This is useful if you need to authenticate against a remote environment before Garden initializes other plugins.

Another set of popular use-cases are local build flows for shared libraries ahead of Docker builds, along with any sort of glue script you may need between steps.

Here's an example where we run a script to authenticate against a Kubernetes cluster before initializing the Kubernetes plugin:

# In your project level Garden config file
apiVersion: garden.io/v1
kind: Project
name: my-project

providers:
  - name: exec
    initScript: "sh -c ./scripts/auth.sh"
  - name: kubernetes
    dependencies: [ exec ] # <--- This ensures the init script runs before the K8s plugin is initialized.
    # ...

The log output of the initScript can be accessed via "${providers.exec.outputs.initScript.log}" template string.

Action Configuration

Exec Runs

Following are some example exec Run actions for executing various scripts:

kind: Run
name: auth
type: exec
include: [ ] # <--- No source files are needed
spec:
  command: [ "sh", "-c", "./scripts/auth.sh" ]

---
kind: Run
name: prepare-data
type: exec
include: [ ]
spec:
  command: [ "sh", "-c", "./scripts/prepare-data-locally.sh" ]

Other actions can depend on these Runs:

kind: Run
name: db-init
type: exec
dependencies: [ run.auth, run.prepare-data ]
spec:
  command: [ npm, run, db-init ]

It's also possible to reference the output from exec actions:

kind: Deploy
name: postgres
type: container
spec:
  image: postgres:15.3-alpine
  ports:
    - name: db
      containerPort: 5432
  env:
    POSTGRES_DATABASE: postgres
    POSTGRES_USERNAME: postgres
    POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${actions.run.auth.outputs.log}

Local services

The exec Deploy action type can also be used to start long-running processes:

kind: Deploy
name: web-local
type: exec
spec:
  persistent: true
  deployCommand: [ "npm", "run", "dev" ] # <--- This is the command Garden runs to start the process in persistent mode.

Set spec.persistent: true if the spec.deployCommand is not expected to return, and should run until the Garden command is manually terminated. The spec.persistent flag replaces the previously supported devMode from exec modules.

See the reference guide for more details on the exec Deploy action configuration.

Also check out the local-service example project.

Next Steps

For some advanced exec module use cases, check out this recording of our community office hours on the topic.