GlassFlow CLI

The GlassFlow CLI provides a quick way to set up a local development environment for exploring and testing GlassFlow - an open-source ETL tool for real-time data processing from Kafka to ClickHouse.

The GlassFlow CLI is designed for local testing, demos, and exploration only.
For production deployments, use the official GlassFlow Helm charts.
The CLI creates a local Kubernetes cluster using Kind and deploys all necessary components.

Prerequisites

Before installing the GlassFlow CLI, ensure you have:

Docker (or compatible runtime like Docker Desktop, OrbStack, Colima, or Podman)
Helm — install via Helm docs or run: brew install helm
kubectl (installed automatically via Homebrew, or install manually)

Install CLI

Verify installation


glassflow version

You should see the version number of the installed GlassFlow CLI.

Quick Start

Step 1: Start GlassFlow


glassflow up

This will:

Create a Kind cluster (if needed)
Download pre-built container images (first run only, cached for future runs)
Install GlassFlow ETL (API, UI, operator, NATS, PostgreSQL) via Helm
Wait for services to be ready
Configure port forwarding for UI and API access

Once ready, you can access:

GlassFlow UI: http://localhost:30080
GlassFlow API: http://localhost:30180

From the UI, you can connect GlassFlow to your own Kafka and ClickHouse instances.

Step 2: Set up the demo (optional)

To see data flowing end-to-end with a local Kafka and ClickHouse:


glassflow setup-demo

This will:

Install Kafka (kafka namespace) and ClickHouse (clickhouse namespace)
Create a demo pipeline, ClickHouse table, and Kafka topic
Start a data producer that sends sample events
Set up port forwarding for ClickHouse HTTP (http://localhost:30090 )

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You can also run both steps in one command: glassflow up --demo

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After running glassflow setup-demo, a pipeline ingests events from the demo_events Kafka topic into the demo_events table in ClickHouse. You can view this pipeline in the GlassFlow UI.

Stop the environment

When you’re done testing, stop and clean up the local environment:


glassflow down

This will stop all running services, remove the Kind cluster, and clean up all resources.

What gets installed

After glassflow up:

Kind: Local Kubernetes cluster
GlassFlow ETL: Real-time streaming ETL service (API, UI, operator, NATS, PostgreSQL)

After glassflow setup-demo (optional):

Kafka: Message broker (kafka namespace, Bitnami Helm chart)
ClickHouse: Columnar database (clickhouse namespace, Bitnami Helm chart)
A demo pipeline, Kafka topic, ClickHouse table, and a data producer