Confy: The Smart Config Manager

A Rust-based CLI to merge environment-specific configurations with a base config and compare final configs across environments. Ideal for teams wanting a single source of truth for app settings, quick environment diffs, and a self-contained binary with minimal dependencies.

Features

• Dynamic Merging: Combine base.yaml with an environment-specific YAML (dev.yaml, staging.yaml, etc.)—no typed structs required.
• Line-by-Line Diffs: Compare two merged environments (dev vs staging, etc.) in a human-readable format.
• Flexible Config Paths: Store your YAML configs anywhere and specify the directory via --config-path.
• Environment Variables and Files: Read from environment variables using {{env:...}} or from yaml file using {{file:...}}
• Validate against schema: Validate against a predefined JSON schema using -v or --validate that auto-converts yaml to json. The schema file is to be placed under the same config-path and named schema.json.
• Single Binary: Compiles to a single executable (no extra runtime needed).

Table of Contents

• Requirements
• Installation
  • Build from Source
  • Via Cargo
• Configuration Structure
• Usage
  • Subcommands
  • Examples
• Roadmap / Future Features
• Contributing
• License

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Requirements

• Rust 1.60+ (if building from source)
• Cargo (if installing via cargo install)
• Linux, macOS, or Windows (64-bit recommended)

(If you distribute prebuilt binaries, end users won’t need Rust/Cargo.)

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Installation

Build from Source

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/alighaddar10/confy.git
   cd confy

2. Build the release binary:

   cargo build --release

3. Run the tool (on Unix-like systems):

   ./target/release/confy --help

Via Cargo (Not Available Yet)

If you publish this tool to crates.io:

cargo install confy

Then run:

smart-config --help

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Configuration Structure

By default, the CLI looks in a directory called config/ for your YAML files:

confy/
├─ config/
│  ├─ base.yaml
│  ├─ dev.yaml
│  ├─ staging.yaml
│  └─ prod.yaml
├─ ...

• base.yaml: Common settings shared across all environments.
• .yaml: Override or extend base.yaml for each environment (dev, staging, prod, etc.).
• You can specify a custom path using --config-path /some/other/path.

Example base.yaml:

logging:
  level: info
  format: text

service:
  port: 8080
  name: MyApp

Example dev.yaml:

logging:
  level: debug

database:
  host: localhost
  user: dev_user
  password: dev_secret

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Usage

Run confy --help (or ./confy if you built locally) to see all commands and options:

confy 0.2.2
A CLI to manage environment configs

USAGE:
    confy <COMMAND>

COMMANDS:
    build    Merge base + environment override
    diff     Compare final config of two environments
    help     Prints this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Subcommands

1. build

   • Merges base.yaml + <env>.yaml into a single merged YAML.
   • Can output to stdout or write to a file.
   • Supports a custom config directory path.

2. diff

   • Generates a line-by-line diff of two fully merged configs.
   • Great for seeing what changed between dev and staging, etc.

Examples

1. Build for dev environment, print to stdout:

   confy build --env dev

   This will look for config/base.yaml + config/dev.yaml and print the merged YAML to stdout.

2. Build for staging and output to file:

   confy build --env staging --output staging.final.yaml

3. Diff dev vs staging:

   confy diff --env1 dev --env2 staging

   Displays color-coded differences between the final dev and staging configs.

4. Specify a custom config path:

   confy build --env prod --config-path ./my_configs

   Looks for ./my_configs/base.yaml and ./my_configs/prod.yaml.

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Roadmap / Future Features

• Structured Diffs: Compare YAML trees to highlight changed keys/values rather than raw text lines.
• Plugin Architecture: Allow custom merge strategies or transformations.

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Contributing

1. Fork the repo and clone your fork locally.
2. Create a branch for your feature or fix: git checkout -b feature/my-improvement.
3. Commit and push:

   git commit -m "Add new feature"
   git push origin feature/my-improvement

4. Open a Pull Request in the original repo, describing your changes.

Please also check out the issues for open tasks or bugs. We welcome contributions of all kinds, from code to documentation improvements!

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. You’re free to use, modify, and distribute it as allowed under the license terms.

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Happy Configuring!
If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to file an issue or open a PR. We’d love to hear your feedback and contributions!