toggle-group

name	toggle-group
description	Activate or deactivate tool groups in devops-starter. Use when asked to "enable a group", "disable a group", "turn off kubernetes", "activate AI tools", "deactivate containers", or any request to toggle which tool categories are installed. Covers config file editing, CLI commands, and the effects on install and status.

Toggle Tool Groups in devops-starter

Tool groups are enabled or disabled via the user's config file. When a group is disabled, its tools are skipped during install and shown as disabled in status.

Config file location

The config lives at one of:

Priority	Path
1 (highest)	Path passed via --config flag
2	$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/devops-starter/config.yaml
3 (default)	~/.config/devops-starter/config.yaml

If the file does not exist, all groups default to enabled (except groups explicitly defaulted to false in DefaultConfig()).

Method 1: Edit the config YAML (recommended for agents)

The simplest and most reliable approach. Edit (or create) the config file directly.

Step 1: Locate or create the config file

# Check if it exists
ls ~/.config/devops-starter/config.yaml

# If not, initialize it
devops-starter config init

Step 2: Edit the groups section

The groups key maps group names (snake_case) to booleans:

groups:
  languages: true
  containers: true
  kubernetes: true
  infra: true
  cloud: true
  ansible: true
  rust_tools: true
  utilities: true

To disable a group, set it to false:

groups:
  kubernetes: false    # tools in this group will be skipped

To re-enable, set it back to true.

Step 3: Verify

# Check effective config
devops-starter config show

# Check which tools are disabled
devops-starter list

Available group names (YAML keys)

YAML key	Group constant	Contains
languages	GroupLanguages	Go, Node, Python, Java, etc.
containers	GroupContainers	Docker, Podman, Buildah, nerdctl
kubernetes	GroupKubernetes	kubectl, helm, k9s, kustomize
infra	GroupInfra	Terraform, Pulumi, Packer
cloud	GroupCloud	aws-cli, gcloud, az, firebase
ansible	GroupAnsible	Ansible, ansible-lint, molecule
rust_tools	GroupRustTools	ripgrep, fd, bat, bottom, etc.
utilities	GroupUtilities	fzf, jq, yq, shellcheck, etc.

Note: Use snake_case in YAML (rust_tools), not kebab-case.

Method 2: Interactive TUI wizard

devops-starter setup

This launches a full-screen wizard with checkbox group selection:

• j/k or arrows to navigate
• space to toggle a group
• a to enable all
• n to disable all
• enter to proceed

On confirm, the wizard calls MergeGroups() which preserves any per-tool overrides (version pins, per-tool disables) while updating group toggles.

Method 3: Disable individual tools (not entire groups)

To disable a specific tool without disabling its whole group, use overrides in the config:

overrides:
  terraform:
    disabled: true
  helm:
    disabled: true

This keeps the rest of the group active.

How disabling affects behavior

devops-starter install

Disabled groups are filtered out in filterToolsForInstall() (internal/cli/install.go). The filter chain is:

1. --only flag (if set, skip tools not in that group)
2. cfg.IsGroupEnabled() -- disabled groups are skipped here
3. Platform support check
4. Per-tool overrides.disabled check

Tools in disabled groups are silently excluded from installation.

devops-starter status / devops-starter list

Disabled tools are still shown but marked with StatusDisabled:

• In the TUI: faint/strikethrough styling
• In list output: - prefix with faint style
• In --no-tui table: desired version shows -

devops-starter setup

The setup wizard reflects current group state in its checkboxes. Previously disabled groups show as unchecked.

Programmatic toggle (Go API)

For code changes that need to toggle groups:

// Load existing config (returns defaults if file missing)
cfg, err := config.Load(config.Path())

// Toggle a single group
cfg.SetGroup("kubernetes", false)

// Or batch toggle
cfg.MergeGroups(map[string]bool{
    "kubernetes": false,
    "cloud":      true,
})

// Persist to disk (creates parent dirs if needed)
err = config.Save(cfg, config.Path())

Key functions in internal/config/config.go:

Function	Purpose
IsGroupEnabled(group)	Check if a group is active
SetGroup(group, bool)	Toggle a single group
MergeGroups(map)	Batch toggle, preserves overrides
AllGroupNames()	Ordered list of all group name strings
Load(path)	Load config (defaults if missing)
Save(cfg, path)	Write config to disk

Note: SetGroup and IsGroupEnabled accept both "rust-tools" (kebab) and "rust_tools" (snake) forms for groups with hyphens.

Troubleshooting

Group disabled but tool still installed? Disabling a group does not uninstall tools. It only prevents future installs and marks them as disabled in status. Previously installed binaries remain in the install directory.

Config file not taking effect? Check that the file path matches what the CLI is reading:

devops-starter config show

The --config flag overrides the default path.

Group name not recognized? Use the YAML key form (snake_case): rust_tools, not rust-tools. Check AllGroupNames() in internal/config/config.go for the canonical list.