go-furnace
A lightweight Go-based deployment tool for AWS, Google Cloud, and DigitalOcean using native cloud services.
What is go-furnace?
Furnace is a Go-based deployment tool that automates hosting applications on AWS, Google Cloud, and DigitalOcean. It uses native cloud services like AWS CloudFormation and GCP DeploymentManager to set up redundant, self-healing environments with minimal configuration. The tool solves the complexity of manual cloud deployment by providing a streamlined, provider-agnostic workflow.
Developers and DevOps engineers who deploy applications to multiple cloud platforms and prefer lightweight, non-intrusive tools that avoid vendor lock-in.
Developers choose Furnace for its small binary size, extensible plugin system, and focus on using cloud-native services directly, ensuring configurations remain portable and independent of the tool itself.
Overview
Go Hosting Solution for AWS, Google Cloud and Digital Ocean
Use Cases
Best For
- Deploying Go applications to AWS with CloudFormation
- Setting up multi-cloud environments with minimal tool overhead
- Adding custom deployment hooks (e.g., Slack notifications, health checks) via plugins
- Avoiding vendor lock-in by relying on cloud provider-native IaC
- Teams needing separate binaries for different cloud providers to reduce dependencies
- Lightweight infrastructure provisioning compared to comprehensive IaC tools
Not Ideal For
- Teams needing a single, unified configuration syntax across all cloud providers
- Projects requiring built-in state management or drift detection features
- Organizations dependent on a large ecosystem of pre-built modules and community support
- Use cases where infrastructure must be defined in a domain-specific language like HCL instead of CloudFormation or Jinja
Pros & Cons
Pros
Individual binaries per cloud provider (e.g., 15MB for AWS) reduce dependencies and disk space compared to bulkier tools like Terraform, as highlighted in the README's comparison section.
Supports custom logic via HashiCorp's Go-Plugins with gRPC, allowing plugins in Go, Python, or Ruby for events like pre/post stack creation and deletion, enabling Slack notifications or health checks.
Uses AWS CloudFormation, GCP DeploymentManager, and DigitalOcean APIs directly, so deployment configurations remain usable without Furnace, avoiding tool lock-in as emphasized in the philosophy.
Requires minimal Furnace-specific YAML configuration; most setup is in cloud provider templates, simplifying maintenance and reducing boilerplate.
Cons
Managing multiple binaries for AWS, GCP, and DigitalOcean complicates workflows in multi-cloud environments, unlike unified tools with a single interface.
Implementing plugins involves gRPC, specific file naming conventions, and language-specific SDKs, adding overhead for custom functionality compared to simpler script-based hooks.
Lacks advanced IaC capabilities like state management or drift detection, relying solely on cloud providers' native services which may have gaps or require manual handling.
As a smaller project, it has fewer pre-built plugins, examples, and community support compared to established alternatives, potentially slowing issue resolution and adoption.
Open Source Alternative To
go-furnace is an open-source alternative to the following products:
Frequently Asked Questions
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