GlassFlow CLI Installation

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)
kubectl (installed automatically via Homebrew, or install manually)

Installation

Install via Homebrew (Recommended)


brew tap glassflow/tap
brew install glassflow

This will automatically install kubectl if it’s not already installed on your system.

Install from GitHub Releases

If you prefer not to use Homebrew, you can download the latest release for your platform from the GlassFlow CLI GitHub Releases .

Download the appropriate binary for your operating system and architecture
Extract the binary and add it to your PATH
Make the binary executable (on Unix-like systems):
```
chmod +x glassflow
```

Verify Installation

After installation, verify that the CLI is working correctly:


glassflow version

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

Quick Start

Start the Local Environment

To start the local development environment with a demo setup:


glassflow up --demo

This command will:

Create a local Kubernetes cluster using Kind
Install Kafka, ClickHouse, and GlassFlow using Helm charts
Set up a demo pipeline with sample data
Configure port forwarding for UI and API access

Access GlassFlow Services

Once the environment is running, you can access:

GlassFlow UI: http://localhost:30080
GlassFlow API: http://localhost:30180
ClickHouse HTTP: http://localhost:30090

💡

The demo environment comes pre-configured with a pipeline that 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
Clean up all resources

What Gets Installed

When you run glassflow up --demo, the CLI installs the following components:

Kind: Local Kubernetes cluster for running all services
Kafka: Message broker (Bitnami Helm chart) for streaming data
ClickHouse: Columnar database (Bitnami Helm chart) for data storage
GlassFlow ETL: Real-time streaming ETL service (GlassFlow Helm chart)
Demo Pipeline: Pre-configured pipeline with sample data for testing