local-dev-setup

name	local-dev-setup
description	Set up a local development environment to run and test the notification-service controller against a real Kubernetes cluster. Use when the user wants to deploy the controller locally, manually test PipelineRun reconciliation, or iterate on changes.

Local Development Setup

Prerequisites

A Kubernetes cluster (Kind, OpenShift, etc.) with:

• Tekton Pipelines installed (kubectl get crd pipelineruns.tekton.dev to verify)
• kubectl context configured (~/.kube/config or $KUBECONFIG)

Option A: Run Controller on Host

The fastest way to iterate. The controller runs on your machine, talking to whatever cluster your kubeconfig points to.

make run

make run chains manifests generate fmt vet before go run ./cmd/main.go. The controller starts and watches PipelineRuns immediately without env vars.

Important: Without valid SNS config (NOTIFICATION_TOPIC_ARN, NOTIFICATION_REGION, AWS credentials), the controller adds finalizers to matching PipelineRuns but when a run succeeds, Notify() fails and the reconciler returns early -- the finalizer is never removed. This leaves successful PipelineRuns stuck (requeuing indefinitely). Failed PipelineRuns are unaffected (finalizer is removed without attempting notification).

For local development:

NOTIFICATION_TOPIC_ARN=arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:000000000000:test \
NOTIFICATION_REGION=us-east-1 \
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=FAKE \
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=FAKE \
  make run

Even with fake credentials, Notify() will still fail and successful PipelineRuns will have stuck finalizers. To manually unstick: kubectl patch pipelinerun <name> -p '{"metadata":{"finalizers":null}}' --type=merge

Option B: Deploy as Container

For testing the full deployment (image build, RBAC, volume mounts):

make docker-build IMG=example.com/notification-service:v0.0.1
make deploy IMG=example.com/notification-service:v0.0.1

If deploying to Kind, load the image first:

kind load docker-image example.com/notification-service:v0.0.1 --name <cluster-name>

The deployment requires an aws-sns-secret secret or the pod stays in ContainerCreating:

kubectl create secret generic aws-sns-secret \
  --from-literal=credentials='[default]
aws_access_key_id=FAKE
aws_secret_access_key=FAKE' \
  -n notification-controller

make deploy will fail (non-zero exit) if prometheus-operator CRDs are missing, because the kustomize output includes a ServiceMonitor resource. The controller Deployment is still created (it's applied before the ServiceMonitor), but the command reports failure.

Workarounds:

• Install prometheus-operator CRDs first: kubectl apply --filename https://github.com/prometheus-operator/prometheus-operator/releases/download/v0.72.0/bundle.yaml
• Or remove ../prometheus from config/default/kustomization.yaml for local testing.

Undeploy

make undeploy

Testing a PipelineRun Notification

Once the controller is running (Option A or B), create a test PipelineRun:

cat <<'EOF' | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1
kind: PipelineRun
metadata:
  name: test-notification
  labels:
    pipelinesascode.tekton.dev/event-type: push
spec:
  pipelineSpec:
    tasks:
      - name: hello
        taskSpec:
          steps:
            - name: say-hello
              image: alpine
              script: echo hello
EOF

Watch the controller logs for:

• "Trying to add finalizer" -- on creation
• "Pipelinerun ended" -- on completion
• "SNS Notified" or "Failed to Notify" -- notification attempt

Key Notes

• The controller deploys to namespace notification-controller.
• Default filter: only PipelineRuns with label pipelinesascode.tekton.dev/event-type=push. Override with NOTIFICATION_FILTER_LABELS env var.
• Container builds default to podman (override: CONTAINER_TOOL=docker).
• Image tag override: TAG=my-tag make docker-build or IMG=quay.io/user/ns:my-tag make docker-build.