tiny

Prerequisites

Before building custom TinySystems modules, ensure you have the following tools installed and configured.

Required Software

Go 1.25+

TinySystems modules are written in Go. The SDK requires Go 1.25 or newer:

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install go

# Linux (apt)
sudo apt update && sudo apt install golang-go

# Verify installation
go version
# go version go1.25.x linux/amd64

Kubernetes Cluster

You need a Kubernetes cluster for testing. Options:

Local Development (Recommended for getting started):

# kind (Kubernetes in Docker)
brew install kind
kind create cluster --name tinysystems-dev

# or minikube
brew install minikube
minikube start

Cloud Providers:

  • Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
  • Amazon EKS
  • Azure AKS
  • DigitalOcean Kubernetes

kubectl

The Kubernetes command-line tool:

# macOS
brew install kubectl

# Linux
curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"
chmod +x kubectl
sudo mv kubectl /usr/local/bin/

# Verify
kubectl version --client

Docker

Required for building and pushing module images:

# macOS
brew install --cask docker

# Linux
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh

# Verify
docker --version

Optional Tools

Helm

For deploying modules to Kubernetes:

brew install helm
# or
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/main/scripts/get-helm-3 | bash

IDE

Recommended editors with Go support:

  • VS Code with Go extension
  • GoLand (JetBrains)
  • Neovim with gopls

Verify Your Setup

Run this script to verify all prerequisites:

#!/bin/bash

echo "Checking prerequisites..."

# Go
if command -v go &> /dev/null; then
    echo "✓ Go: $(go version)"
else
    echo "✗ Go not installed"
fi

# kubectl
if command -v kubectl &> /dev/null; then
    echo "✓ kubectl: $(kubectl version --client --short 2>/dev/null)"
else
    echo "✗ kubectl not installed"
fi

# Docker
if command -v docker &> /dev/null; then
    echo "✓ Docker: $(docker --version)"
else
    echo "✗ Docker not installed"
fi

# Kubernetes cluster
if kubectl cluster-info &> /dev/null; then
    echo "✓ Kubernetes cluster accessible"
else
    echo "✗ No Kubernetes cluster accessible"
fi

# Helm (optional)
if command -v helm &> /dev/null; then
    echo "✓ Helm: $(helm version --short)"
else
    echo "○ Helm not installed (optional)"
fi

Cluster Setup for Development

If using a local cluster, install the TinySystems CRDs. The tinysystems-crd Helm chart ships all of them, or apply them individually:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tiny-systems/module/main/config/crd/bases/operator.tinysystems.io_tinymodules.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tiny-systems/module/main/config/crd/bases/operator.tinysystems.io_tinynodes.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tiny-systems/module/main/config/crd/bases/operator.tinysystems.io_tinyflows.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tiny-systems/module/main/config/crd/bases/operator.tinysystems.io_tinyprojects.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tiny-systems/module/main/config/crd/bases/operator.tinysystems.io_tinyscenarios.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tiny-systems/module/main/config/crd/bases/operator.tinysystems.io_tinywidgetpages.yaml

Verify:

kubectl get crds | grep tinysystems
# tinyflows.operator.tinysystems.io
# tinymodules.operator.tinysystems.io
# tinynodes.operator.tinysystems.io
# tinyprojects.operator.tinysystems.io
# tinyscenarios.operator.tinysystems.io
# tinywidgetpages.operator.tinysystems.io

Project Structure Overview

A typical module project looks like:

my-module/
+-- cmd/
|   +-- main.go           # Entry point (cobra root command)
+-- components/
|   +-- mycomponent/
|       +-- mycomponent.go  # Component implementation
+-- go.mod
+-- go.sum
+-- Dockerfile
+-- README.md

The fastest way to get this layout is the official template: open github.com/tiny-systems/example-module and click Use this template.

Next Steps