Kubernetes Dev Loop

The inner loop for working on k8s apps. Without these, you're rebuilding images and kubectl applying manually. Slow.

The candidates

• ★ Tilt — Tiltfile (Starlark) describes services + watches; live-update for fast iteration; great UI. Default for serious dev workflows.
• ★ Skaffold (Google) — same niche; YAML-driven; works well with Helm / Kustomize.
• Devspace — competitor; nice DX; sync + port-forward + run-in-pod.
• Garden — focused on monorepos / microservices; commercial extras.
• Okteto — cloud dev environments; pricier but very polished.
• Telepresence / mirrord — proxy a single local service into a remote cluster; useful as a complement, not replacement.

What they actually do

1. Watch source files.
2. Rebuild image (or do kubectl cp for live-update).
3. Push to a local registry / load into kind / k3d.
4. Apply manifests / Helm / Kustomize.
5. Port-forward / log-tail.
6. Show a UI of what's running and where.

A typical workflow:

• Save a file.
• Tilt rebuilds image (or syncs file directly into pod for fast paths).
• Pod restarts.
• Logs stream.
• Hot loop: 5–15 seconds for most apps, sub-second for live-update paths.

Live update vs. image rebuild

• Image rebuild — full Docker build; clean but slow.
• Live update — kubectl cp + restart process inside the pod; very fast for interpreted languages (Node / Python).
• Use live-update for dev loops; switch to image rebuild for staging / CI.

Local cluster + this combo

• kind / k3d / minikube — see Local Kubernetes.
• Tilt + kind + a local registry is the canonical combo.

Patterns to adopt

• ★ Local cluster + dev loop tool, not "deploy to dev k8s in the cloud." Faster, cheaper, no waiting for builds.
• Local registry — localhost:5000 or k3d's built-in registry.
• Tilt extensions for common needs (port-forward, restart on crash, etc.).
• Profiles — different configs for "just frontend" vs. "full stack."
• Don't run prod manifests locally as-is. Use overlays / dev values.

Telepresence / mirrord patterns

• Sometimes you want to debug against real cluster state. Run your one service locally, route its calls into the remote cluster, get real DB / dependencies.
• mirrord is the modern, simpler choice; Telepresence is more capable.

Pick this if…

• Default new dev loop: Tilt.
• Already on Skaffold: stay; it works.
• Want cloud dev environments managed: Okteto.
• Local + remote-dependency debugging: mirrord.
• Monorepo with many services: Garden or Tilt with multi-repo support.