Garden Cheat Sheet

Overview

Garden is a development platform for cloud-native applications that automates the build-test-deploy cycle for Kubernetes workloads. It provides a graph-based execution engine that understands dependencies between services, enabling incremental builds, remote development, and end-to-end testing across microservice architectures.

Garden uses declarative configuration (garden.yml) to define how services are built, deployed, and tested. It supports Docker, Helm, Kubernetes manifests, and Terraform, and can run workflows locally or in remote Kubernetes clusters. Garden’s smart caching ensures only changed components are rebuilt and redeployed.

Installation

# macOS
brew install garden-io/garden/garden-cli

# Linux
curl -sL https://get.garden.io/install.sh | bash

# Windows
choco install garden-io

# npm
npm install -g garden-cli

# Verify
garden version

Core Commands

Command	Description
garden deploy	Build and deploy all services
garden dev	Start interactive dev mode
garden test	Run all tests
garden build	Build all modules
garden logs <service>	Stream service logs
garden exec <service> <cmd>	Execute command in service
garden get status	Show deployment status
garden delete	Delete deployed services
garden validate	Validate configuration
garden create project	Create new project

Project Configuration

Basic garden.yml (Project Root)

apiVersion: garden.io/v1
kind: Project
name: my-app
defaultEnvironment: local

environments:
  - name: local
    defaultNamespace: my-app-dev
  - name: staging
    defaultNamespace: my-app-staging
  - name: production
    defaultNamespace: my-app-prod

providers:
  - name: local-kubernetes
    environments: [local]
    context: docker-desktop
  - name: kubernetes
    environments: [staging, production]
    context: my-cluster
    defaultHostname: ${environment.name}.myapp.example.com

Service Module

# services/api/garden.yml
apiVersion: garden.io/v1
kind: Module
type: container
name: api

build:
  dependencies:
    - shared-lib

services:
  - name: api
    ports:
      - name: http
        containerPort: 8080
    ingresses:
      - path: /api
        port: http
    env:
      DATABASE_URL: postgres://postgres:password@postgres:5432/myapp
      REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379
    dependencies:
      - postgres
      - redis
    healthCheck:
      httpGet:
        path: /health
        port: http

tests:
  - name: unit
    command: [npm, test]
  - name: integration
    command: [npm, run, test:integration]
    dependencies:
      - postgres
      - api

Helm Module

# services/postgres/garden.yml
apiVersion: garden.io/v1
kind: Module
type: helm
name: postgres

chart:
  name: postgresql
  repo: https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
  version: "14.0.0"

values:
  auth:
    postgresPassword: password
    database: myapp
  primary:
    persistence:
      size: 1Gi

Development Workflow

Dev Mode

# Start interactive development
garden dev

# Dev mode features:
# - File watching with auto-rebuild/redeploy
# - Log streaming
# - Port forwarding
# - Interactive command execution

# Deploy specific services
garden deploy api frontend

# Deploy with sync (hot-reload)
garden deploy --sync api

Code Sync (Hot Reload)

# garden.yml with sync configuration
apiVersion: garden.io/v1
kind: Module
type: container
name: api

services:
  - name: api
    ports:
      - name: http
        containerPort: 8080
    sync:
      paths:
        - source: ./src
          target: /app/src
          mode: two-way
      command: [npm, run, dev]
      overrides:
        - command: [npm, run, dev]

Testing

# Run all tests
garden test

# Run specific test
garden test api-unit
garden test api-integration

# Run tests with dependencies
garden test --force

# Watch mode
garden test --watch

Configuration

Variables and Templates

# garden.yml
apiVersion: garden.io/v1
kind: Project
name: my-app

variables:
  registry: myregistry.example.com
  domain: myapp.example.com

---
apiVersion: garden.io/v1
kind: Module
type: container
name: api

image: ${var.registry}/api:${modules.api.version}

services:
  - name: api
    ingresses:
      - hostname: api.${var.domain}
        path: /
        port: http

Environment-Specific Config

environments:
  - name: local
    variables:
      replicas: 1
      logLevel: debug
  - name: staging
    variables:
      replicas: 2
      logLevel: info
  - name: production
    variables:
      replicas: 5
      logLevel: warn

Workflows

apiVersion: garden.io/v1
kind: Workflow
name: ci
steps:
  - name: build
    command: [build]
  - name: deploy
    command: [deploy]
  - name: test-unit
    command: [test, "--name", "unit-*"]
  - name: test-integration
    command: [test, "--name", "integration-*"]
  - name: cleanup
    command: [delete]
    skip: ${environment.name != 'ci'}

garden run workflow ci

Advanced Usage

Terraform Integration

apiVersion: garden.io/v1
kind: Module
type: terraform
name: infrastructure

autoApply: true
root: ./terraform

variables:
  region: us-east-1
  environment: ${environment.name}

Remote Sources

apiVersion: garden.io/v1
kind: Project
name: my-app

sources:
  - name: shared-modules
    repositoryUrl: https://github.com/org/shared-garden-modules.git#v1.0.0

Custom Commands

apiVersion: garden.io/v1
kind: Module
type: exec
name: scripts

tasks:
  - name: db-migrate
    command: [bash, -c, "cd api && npm run migrate"]
    dependencies:
      - deploy.postgres
      - deploy.api

  - name: db-seed
    command: [bash, -c, "cd api && npm run seed"]
    dependencies:
      - db-migrate

garden run task db-migrate
garden run task db-seed

CI/CD Integration

# .github/workflows/ci.yml
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: garden-io/garden-action@v1
        with:
          command: test
          kubeconfig: ${{ secrets.KUBECONFIG }}

  deploy:
    needs: test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: garden-io/garden-action@v1
        with:
          command: deploy --env production
          kubeconfig: ${{ secrets.KUBECONFIG }}

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Build cache miss	Check module dependencies; run garden build --force
Deploy timeout	Increase timeout in service config; check pod health
Sync not working	Verify sync paths; check container has correct mounts
Tests failing in CI	Ensure dependencies are deployed; check env vars
Config validation error	Run garden validate for detailed errors
Cluster access denied	Check kubeconfig context and RBAC

# Validate configuration
garden validate

# Debug output
garden deploy --log-level verbose

# Show dependency graph
garden get graph

# Show status of all resources
garden get status

# Clean up
garden delete
garden delete --env staging

# Show module details
garden get modules