Driftless

Warning: This is an experimental, AI-assisted project. Bugs and other shortcomings are expected and should be reported as GitHub Issues. PRs are welcome!

A lightweight Rust agent for declarative system configuration, metrics gathering, and log forwarding via GitOps.

Features

• Idempotent Configuration: Define desired system state with YAML/JSON/TOML configurations
• Multi-Platform: Supports Linux systems with various package managers
• Advanced Template System: Ansible-like Jinja2 templating with variables, filters, and built-in functions
• Three Distinct Operation Types:
  • Configuration Operations: Define and enforce desired system state (like Ansible tasks)
  • Facts Collectors: Gather system metrics, inventory, and monitoring data
  • Log Sources/Outputs: Collect, process, and forward log data
• Agent Mode: Continuous monitoring and configuration drift detection
• Rich Documentation: Comprehensive operation references with examples in YAML, JSON, and TOML

Installation

cargo install driftless

Quick Start

User Installation (Per-User Configuration)

1. Create a configuration directory:

mkdir -p ~/.config/driftless/config

2. Create an apply configuration:

# ~/.config/driftless/config/apply.yml
tasks:
  - type: package
    name: nginx
    state: present

  - type: service
    name: nginx
    state: started
    enabled: true

  - type: file
    path: /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
    state: present
    content: |
      server {
          listen 80;
          server_name _;
          root /var/www/html;
          index index.html;
      }
    mode: "0644"

3. Apply the configuration:

driftless apply

Documentation

Driftless provides comprehensive documentation:

• User Guide - Getting started, configuration examples, and agent mode
• Reference - Complete operation references, facts, logs, and templates
• Developer Guide - Development, plugins, and contributing

CLI Commands

Driftless provides several CLI commands for different purposes:

# Configuration Operations
driftless apply                    # Apply configuration operations
driftless apply --dry-run         # Preview changes without applying

# Facts Collection
driftless facts                   # Run facts collectors

# Log Management
driftless logs                    # Run log sources and outputs

# Agent Mode
driftless agent                   # Run in continuous monitoring mode

Configuration

Driftless supports multiple configuration formats and automatically detects configuration directories:

Directory Structure

Driftless checks for configuration in this order:

1. System-wide: /etc/driftless/ (highest priority)
2. User-specific: ~/.config/driftless/ (fallback)

System-wide Configuration (/etc/driftless/)

sudo mkdir -p /etc/driftless
sudo chown -R driftless:driftless /etc/driftless

User Configuration (~/.config/driftless/)

mkdir -p ~/.config/driftless

Directory Layout

driftless/
├── config/
│   ├── apply.yml       # Configuration operation definitions
│   ├── facts.yml       # Facts collector settings
│   ├── logs.yml        # Log source/output settings
│   └── agent.yml       # Agent mode configuration
├── plugins/            # Custom plugins directory
└── secrets.yml         # Secrets file (YAML format)
   secrets.env          # Secrets file (environment format)

Configuration Formats

All configuration files support YAML, JSON, or TOML formats. Files can be named with any extension (.yml, .yaml, .json, .toml) and Driftless will auto-detect the format.

Development

Building

cargo build --release

Testing

cargo test

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Add tests for new functionality
4. Update documentation
5. Submit a pull request

For detailed development information, see the Developer Guide.

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.