ct dev

Run live development workflows directly on cluster workloads from dev.ct (DevSpace-inspired flow).

ct dev executes dev.ct, applies rendered resources, then starts development features such as port forwarding, logs, file sync, and terminal according to your dev targets.

ct dev

Usage

ct dev [flags]

Flags

Flag	Type	Default	Description
`--env-file`	`string`	`".env"`	Path to `.env` file (empty string to skip)
`--context`	`string`	(current)	Kubeconfig context to use
`--name`	`string`	`"dev"`	Release name used for labels and inventory
`--delete`	`bool`	`false`	Delete resources from the last dev inventory and exit

Examples

Start dev mode (looks for dev.ct in current directory):

ct dev

Use a custom env file:

ct dev --env-file .env.dev

Skip env file loading entirely:

ct dev --env-file ""

Use a specific kubeconfig context:

ct dev --context staging

Start named dev session (multiple sessions in one namespace):

ct dev --name dev-alice

Cleanup previously deployed dev resources:

ct dev --delete --name dev-alice --context staging

How it works

ct dev
  │
  ├─ Load .env + system environment
  ├─ Bundle + execute dev.ct → extract config + dev targets
  ├─ Deep merge config.values with values.json
  ├─ Render main.ct with merged values
  ├─ Inject release labels (managed-by + instance)
  ├─ Resolve dev target selectors from rendered resources
  ├─ Patch workloads (remove probes, override command/env/replicas)
  ├─ Apply manifests to cluster (Server-Side Apply)
  ├─ Save release inventory
  │
  └─ Start in parallel:
       ├─ Port forwarding (per target, with reconnect)
       ├─ File sync — local → container (tar + exec, fsnotify)
       ├─ Log streaming (colored per target)
       └─ Terminal auto-attach (first target with .terminal)

Cleanup dev environment

When --delete is used, ct dev runs cleanup flow only:

ct dev --delete
  │
  ├─ Execute dev.ct to resolve namespace
  ├─ Load inventory for release (--name, default: dev)
  ├─ Delete resources from inventory
  └─ Delete inventory ConfigMap

Dev API reference

The dev.ct file uses four global functions to configure development mode. See the full API documentation:

dev() — declare dev targets
config() — set namespace and overlay values
env() & prompt() — environment variables and interactive prompts
CT Dev Overview — full dev mode documentation