Hokusai is a Docker + Kubernetes CLI for application developers.

Hokusai "dockerizes" applications and manages their lifecycle throughout development, testing, and release cycles.

Hokusai wraps calls to Kubectl, Docker, Docker-Compose and Git with a CLI, and defines a CI workflow.

Hokusai currently only supports Kubernetes deployments on AWS, configured to pull from ECS container repositories (ECR), although other providers may be added in the future.

At Artsy, as we began working with Kubernetes, while impressed with its design, capabilities, and flexibility, we were in need of tooling we could deliver to agile development teams that addressed the day-to-day tasks of application development, delivery, introspection and maintenance, while providing a clean and uncomplicated interface.

Transitioning teams to the Docker / Kubernetes ecosystem can be intimidating, and comes with a steep learning curve. We set out to create a Heroku-like CLI that would shepherd the application developer into the ecosystems of Docker and Kubernetes, and while introducing new tooling and concepts, outlining a clear practice for dependency management, local development, testing and CI, image repository structure, deployment and orchestration.

• @phires

We recommend installing via Homebrew:

$ brew update
$ brew tap artsy/formulas
$ brew trust --formula artsy/formulas/hokusai
$ brew install hokusai

Homebrew 7 refuses formulas from untrusted third-party taps, so brew install and brew upgrade fail with Refusing to load formula artsy/formulas/hokusai from untrusted tap until you run the brew trust step once.

The Homebrew build requires Apple silicon. On an Intel Mac, install with Pip instead.

Older releases shipped an Intel binary that ran under Rosetta, and hokusai configure installed an Intel kubectl. If your global config sets kubectl-dir, run hokusai configure again after upgrading so it replaces that kubectl with a native one. file <kubectl-dir>/kubectl should report arm64.

If you previously installed Hokusai via an alternate installation method, you may need to force the link step.

$ brew link --overwrite hokusai

If you previously installed Hokusai via Pip, you may want to first uninstall it:

$ pip uninstall hokusai

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/artsy/hokusai/main/get-hokusai.sh | sudo bash

Note: This method installs Hokusai to /usr/local/bin/hokusai.

The Linux binary needs glibc 2.38 or newer (for example Ubuntu 24.04). On older distributions, install with Pip.

Hokusai can be installed via Pip on MacOS (Apple silicon or Intel) or Linux. This is the supported method on Intel Macs.

If you previously installed Hokusai via Homebrew on an Intel Mac, uninstall it first. Otherwise brew upgrade fails with hokusai requires Apple silicon and leaves you on the old version:

$ brew uninstall hokusai

Python 3.10 is required, exactly. boto3 needs 3.10 or newer, and the PyInstaller version that builds the release binaries caps it below 3.11. On any other version, pip picks an older hokusai or fails: Python 3.9 installs 3.3.1, 3.11 installs 1.1.0, and 3.12 or newer fails to build PyYAML. Check hokusai version after installing.

The simplest route is uv, which downloads Python 3.10 for you and puts hokusai on your PATH:

brew install uv
uv tool install --python 3.10 hokusai@latest
uv tool update-shell

If you already have Python 3.10, for example from pyenv install 3.10, install into a virtualenv:

python3.10 -m venv ~/.venvs/hokusai
~/.venvs/hokusai/bin/pip install hokusai

Then add ~/.venvs/hokusai/bin to your PATH.

We also maintain Hokusai Docker images for running Hokusai in Docker.

Release artifacts are available on Github.

Release artifacts are also available in AWS S3. You can use this convenience script or Curl to fetch them.

Hokusai currently supports Python 3.10 only. See Pip. The last version that supported Python 2.x was v0.5.18.

We assume that your org admin has already set up a Kubernetes cluster and an AWS infrastructure, and that your local environment has Git, Docker, and Docker-Compose installed. Perform the following steps to get Hokusai working:

1. Ensure your org admin has completed the steps mentioned in Administering Hokusai.

2. Configure your local environment with AWS credentials.

3. Run hokusai configure command.

4. Optionally, enable Bash autocompletion:

   eval "$(_HOKUSAI_COMPLETE=source hokusai)"
   

Once Hokusai is configured, you can start using it on a project. Please see Getting Started.

A full command reference can be found in Command Reference.

Hokusai can be used to simplify the process of spinning up a "review app" instance of your project, based on a feature branch or pull request.

Full details are in the Review App reference.

A descripton of all the files used by Hokusai.

To work on Hokusai itself, please set up:

We use mise to manage Python, Poetry, and the virtualenv. Install mise, then run:

mise install

This installs Python 3.10 and Poetry 1.2.2, and creates a .venv virtualenv that is activated automatically in the project directory.

Then install dependencies and Hokusai in editable mode:

poetry install

To update dependencies:

poetry lock

Minikube is used for integration tests.

brew install minikube
minikube start --kubernetes-version=<version of your Kubernetes clusters, example: v1.2.3>

To run unit tests:

make test

To run integration tests:

make integration-local

Only specific modules, TestClasses, or even methods:

python -m unittest test.unit.test_module.TestClass.test_method

Tip: Set DEBUG=1 environment variable to print boto logging

Merging a branch into main automatically creates a beta version useful for testing. A script that runs in CI automatically generates a Beta version number and writes it into VERSION file. The version number is based on the combination of the latest canonical version found in RELEASE_VERSION file and the latest Git commit in main branch. VERSION file in version control has just a dummy number (e.g. 999.999.999).

To install the beta:

$ brew uninstall hokusai
$ brew uninstall hokusai-beta
$ brew update
$ brew tap artsy/formulas
$ brew install hokusai-beta

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/artsy/hokusai/main/get-hokusai.sh | sudo bash -s beta

To create an official release, such as v1.2.3, perform the following:

• Create a branch named prepare-v1.2.3 and make the following changes:

  • Bump canonical version in RELEASE_VERSION file.
  • Upate CHANGELOG.
  • Open a PR to merge into main. Please see past PRs for example.

• Open a PR to merge main into release. Please see past PRs for example.

A CI script will copy the version in RELEASE_VERSION file to VERSION file.

The project is named for the great Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849).

This project is the work of engineers at Artsy, the world's leading and largest online art marketplace and platform for discovering art. One of our core Engineering Principles is being Open Source by Default which means we strive to share as many details of our work as possible.

You can learn more about this work from our blog and by following @ArtsyOpenSource or explore our public data by checking out our API. If you're interested in a career at Artsy, read through our job postings!