Container operations for Pyinfra

Container-ops is a Python library that makes deploying containerized applications with Pyinfra easier. If you can access it over SSH, you can deploy pods, containers and overlay networks between them.

When you're not deploying, the created systems do not depend on Container-ops. In other words, this is not a container orchestrator, it is merely a way to deploy them that is hopefully less cursed than the pile of docker-compose hacks I'm trying to migrate my homelab away from.

To be more precise, in its current (very early!) version, Container-ops can:

• Deploy OCI containers into pods with Podman Quadlets (recent Podman and Systemd needed)
• Create overlay networks based on Nebula between your servers and containers
• Serve authorative DNS for your domains with Knot. Not that I'd recommend it, but...

In case it was not abundantly clear yet: Container-ops is alpha quality software This might be fine for your homelab, provided that you don't mind rebuilding it when the API inevitably breaks in future. However, for more serious usage or those who don't particularly enjoy spending time inside journalctl -u, it would be best to wait.

Installation

If the above did not scare your, container-ops is in fact available on PyPi. You can install it with whatever Python dependency manager you prefer, though I highly recommend using a virtual environment. With uv, just add it to your project:

uv add container-ops

Usage

Container-ops is a library that provides additional Pyinfra operations. Before using it, make sure you understand what "operation" means in this context. Pyinfra's own documentation is good and highly recommended reading!

Currently, there are unfortunately no good tutorials for container-ops. However, the integration tests also serve as passable examples. For getting the hang of it, go through them in this order:

1. tests/podman.py - how to deploy pods and containers
2. All the nebula_*.py scripts - how to create overlay networks
3. tests/knot.py - if you want to deploy authorative DNS

Beyond this, almost all operations have thorough docstrings and types available. If you're wondering what a particular parameter is for, those will (hopefully) provide answers.

But then again, alpha quality software! You have been warned.

License

MIT. It is free (as in freedom), but if it breaks, you can keep the pieces.