Tilt
Tilt is a local development tool for teams running services on Kubernetes. A Tiltfile (Starlark) declares how to build images, apply manifests, and watch files for fast rebuild and redeploy loops. We trial it for microservice dev clusters where kubectl apply and manual image builds are too slow.
Blurb
Kubernetes for Prod, Tilt for Dev
Summary
What it is: CLI plus local UI that orchestrates Docker builds, live sync, port forwards, and resource status for a dev namespace.
When to use: many interdependent services on kind, minikube, or remote dev clusters; need one command (tilt up) for the whole stack; pair with Dev Container or local Docker.
When to skip: single-service apps with plain docker compose; team standardized on Skaffold or cloud dev environments only; no Kubernetes in the inner loop.
Key features: live update (sync files into running containers), resource grouping, log aggregation in the Tilt UI, extensions ecosystem.
Details
| Topic | Notes |
|---|---|
| Config | Tiltfile at repo root; docker_build, k8s_yaml, local_resource |
| Run | tilt up starts UI at localhost; tilt down cleans up |
| CI | Tilt Cloud (optional) for shared dev env telemetry |
Practices: keep Tiltfiles in git next to manifests; limit live-update to interpreted languages; document memory/CPU for local clusters.
References