🎪 Superset Showtime

Modern ephemeral environment management for Apache Superset using circus tent emoji labels

🎯 What is Showtime?

Superset Showtime is a CLI tool designed primarily for GitHub Actions to manage Apache Superset ephemeral environments. It uses circus tent emoji labels as a visual state management system and depends on Superset's existing build infrastructure.

🚀 Quick Start for Superset Contributors

Create an ephemeral environment:

1. Go to your PR in GitHub
2. Add label: 🎪 ⚡ showtime-trigger-start
3. Watch the magic happen - labels will update automatically
4. When you see 🎪 🚦 {sha} running, your environment is ready!
5. Get URL from 🎪 🌐 {sha} {ip} → http://{ip}:8080
6. Every new commit automatically deploys a fresh environment (zero-downtime)

To test a specific commit without auto-updates:

• Add label: 🎪 🧊 showtime-freeze (prevents auto-sync on new commits)

Clean up when done:

# Add this label:
🎪 🛑 showtime-trigger-stop
# All circus labels disappear, AWS resources cleaned up

🎪 How It Works

🎪 GitHub labels become a visual state machine:

# User adds trigger label in GitHub UI:
🎪 ⚡ showtime-trigger-start

# System responds with state labels:
🎪 abc123f 🚦 building      # Environment abc123f is building
🎪 🎯 abc123f               # abc123f is the active environment
🎪 abc123f 📅 2024-01-15T14-30  # Created timestamp
🎪 abc123f ⌛ 24h           # Time-to-live policy
🎪 abc123f 🤡 maxime        # Requested by maxime (clown emoji!)

# When ready:
🎪 abc123f 🚦 running       # Environment is now running
🎪 abc123f 🌐 52-1-2-3      # Available at http://52.1.2.3:8080

🔄 Showtime Workflow

flowchart TD
    A[User adds 🎪 ⚡ trigger-start] --> B[GitHub Actions: sync]
    B --> C{Current state?}

    C -->|No environment| D[🔒 Claim: Remove trigger + Set building]
    C -->|Running + new SHA| E[🔒 Claim: Remove trigger + Set building]
    C -->|Already building| F[❌ Exit: Another job active]
    C -->|No triggers| G[❌ Exit: Nothing to do]

    D --> H[📋 State: building]
    E --> H
    H --> I[🐳 Docker build]
    I -->|Success| J[📋 State: built]
    I -->|Fail| K[📋 State: failed]

    J --> L[📋 State: deploying]
    L --> M[☁️ AWS Deploy]
    M -->|Success| N[📋 State: running]
    M -->|Fail| O[📋 State: failed]

    N --> P[🎪 Environment ready!]

    Q[User adds 🎪 🛑 trigger-stop] --> R[🧹 Cleanup AWS + Remove labels]

Loading

Install CLI for debugging:

pip install superset-showtime
export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_token

Monitor and debug:

showtime list                    # See all active environments
showtime status 1234            # Debug specific environment
showtime labels                 # Complete label reference

Testing/development:

showtime sync 1234 --dry-run-aws --dry-run-docker  # Test without costs
showtime cleanup --dry-run --older-than 1h         # Test cleanup logic

Architecture: This CLI implements ACID-style atomic transactions with direct Docker integration. It handles complete environment lifecycle from Docker build to AWS deployment with race condition prevention.

🎪 Complete Label Reference

🎯 Trigger Labels (Add These to Your PR)

Label	Action	Result
🎪 ⚡ showtime-trigger-start	Create environment	Builds and deploys ephemeral environment with blue-green deployment
🎪 🛑 showtime-trigger-stop	Destroy environment	Cleans up AWS resources and removes all labels
🎪 🧊 showtime-freeze	Freeze environment	Prevents auto-sync on new commits (for testing specific SHAs)

📊 State Labels (Automatically Managed)

Label Pattern	Meaning	Example
🎪 {sha} 🚦 {status}	Environment status	🎪 abc123f 🚦 running
🎪 🎯 {sha}	Active environment pointer	🎪 🎯 abc123f
🎪 🏗️ {sha}	Building environment pointer	🎪 🏗️ def456a
🎪 {sha} 📅 {timestamp}	Creation time	🎪 abc123f 📅 2024-01-15T14-30
🎪 {sha} 🌐 {ip:port}	Environment URL	🎪 abc123f 🌐 52.1.2.3:8080
🎪 {sha} ⌛ {ttl}	Time-to-live policy	🎪 abc123f ⌛ 24h
🎪 {sha} 🤡 {username}	Who requested	🎪 abc123f 🤡 maxime

🔧 Testing Configuration Changes

Approach: Modify configuration directly in your PR code, then trigger environment.

Workflow:

1. Modify superset_config.py with your changes
2. Push commit → Creates new SHA (e.g., def456a)
3. Add 🎪 ⚡ showtime-trigger-start → Deploys with your config
4. Test environment reflects your exact code changes

This approach creates traceable, reviewable changes that are part of your git history.

🔄 Complete Workflows

Creating Your First Environment

1. Add trigger label in GitHub UI: 🎪 ⚡ showtime-trigger-start
2. Watch state labels appear:

   🎪 abc123f 🚦 building      ← Environment is building
   🎪 🎯 abc123f               ← This is the active environment
   🎪 abc123f 📅 2024-01-15T14-30  ← Started building at this time
   

3. Wait for completion:

   🎪 abc123f 🚦 running       ← Now ready!
   🎪 abc123f 🌐 52.1.2.3:8080  ← Visit http://52.1.2.3:8080
   

Testing Specific Commits

1. Add freeze label: 🎪 🧊 showtime-freeze
2. Result: Environment won't auto-update on new commits
3. Use case: Test specific SHA while continuing development
4. Override: Add 🎪 ⚡ showtime-trigger-start to force update despite freeze

Rolling Updates (Automatic!)

When you push new commits, Showtime automatically:

1. Detects new commit via GitHub webhook
2. Builds new environment alongside old one
3. Switches traffic when new environment is ready
4. Cleans up old environment

You'll see:

# During update:
🎪 abc123f 🚦 running       # Old environment still serving
🎪 def456a 🚦 building      # New environment building
🎪 🎯 abc123f               # Traffic still on old
🎪 🏗️ def456a               # New one being prepared

# After update:
🎪 def456a 🚦 running       # New environment live
🎪 🎯 def456a               # Traffic switched
🎪 def456a 🌐 52-4-5-6      # New IP address
# All abc123f labels removed automatically

🔒 Security & Permissions

Who Can Use This?

• ✅ Superset maintainers (with write access) can add trigger labels
• ❌ External contributors cannot trigger environments (no write access to add labels)
• 🔒 Secure by design - only trusted users can create expensive AWS resources

GitHub Actions Integration

🎯 Live Workflow: showtime-trigger.yml

How it works:

• Triggers on PR label changes, commits, and closures
• Installs superset-showtime from PyPI (trusted code, not PR code)
• Runs showtime sync to handle trigger processing and deployments
• Supports manual testing via workflow_dispatch with specific SHA override

Commands used:

showtime sync PR_NUMBER --check-only    # Determine build_needed + target_sha
showtime sync PR_NUMBER --sha SHA       # Execute atomic claim + build + deploy

🛠️ CLI Usage

The CLI is primarily used by GitHub Actions, but available for debugging and advanced users:

pip install superset-showtime
export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_token

# Core commands:
showtime sync PR_NUMBER              # Sync to desired state (main command)
showtime start PR_NUMBER             # Create new environment
showtime stop PR_NUMBER              # Delete environment
showtime status PR_NUMBER            # Show current state
showtime list                        # List all environments
showtime cleanup --older-than 48h    # Clean up expired environments

🤝 Contributing

Testing Your Changes

Test with real PRs safely:

# Test full workflow without costs:
showtime sync YOUR_PR_NUMBER --dry-run-aws --dry-run-docker

# Test cleanup logic:
showtime cleanup --dry-run --older-than 24h

Development Setup

git clone https://github.com/mistercrunch/superset-showtime
cd superset-showtime

# Using uv (recommended):
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"
make pre-commit
make test

# Traditional pip:
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pre-commit install
pytest

📄 License

Apache License 2.0 - same as Apache Superset.

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🎪 "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Superset Showtime - where ephemeral environments are always under the big top!" 🎪🤡✨