harvester
A Go library for dynamic configuration management with support for seeding from multiple sources and live monitoring via Consul/Redis.
What is harvester?
Harvester is a Go library for dynamic configuration management that allows applications to load and monitor configuration values from multiple sources like environment variables, Consul, Redis, and CLI flags. It solves the problem of static configuration by enabling live updates without application restarts.
Go developers building microservices or distributed systems that require flexible, runtime-configurable settings and integration with external configuration stores like Consul or Redis.
Developers choose Harvester for its seamless multi-source support, thread-safe concurrent access, and real-time monitoring capabilities, which simplify configuration management and enhance application adaptability in dynamic environments.
Overview
Harvest configuration, watch and notify subscriber
Use Cases
Best For
- Microservices needing centralized configuration via Consul
- Applications requiring runtime configuration updates without downtime
- Projects that must securely manage secrets and sensitive environment variables
- Systems integrating multiple configuration sources (env, flags, files, Redis)
- Go services where thread-safe configuration access is critical
- Dynamic environments where configuration changes frequently
Not Ideal For
- Projects relying solely on YAML or JSON configuration files without Consul/Redis integration
- Teams prioritizing minimal dependencies and avoiding external services for configuration
- Applications requiring built-in schema validation or complex configuration transformations
Pros & Cons
Pros
Supports configuration seeding from hard-coded values, environment variables, CLI flags, local files, Consul, and Redis, with a clear priority order as shown in the README's struct example.
Monitors Consul and Redis for changes and applies updates in real-time without application restart, enabling live reconfiguration for microservices.
Provides concurrent-safe types like sync.String and sync.Int64, ensuring safe manipulation in multi-threaded Go environments, as detailed in the supported types section.
Includes a Secret type that automatically masks values (showing '***') in logs, protecting sensitive data like passwords and tokens from exposure.
Cons
Only supports plain text files for configuration, not structured formats like YAML or JSON, which are commonly used in modern applications, limiting flexibility.
Full dynamic monitoring requires Consul or Redis, adding infrastructure complexity and potential vendor lock-in for teams not already using these services.
The builder pattern and need to configure seeders and monitors for each source can lead to verbose and error-prone initialization code, as illustrated in the setup snippet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
viperGo configuration with fangs
godotenvA Go port of Ruby's dotenv library (Loads environment variables from .env files)
sonicA blazingly fast JSON serializing & deserializing library
envA simple, zero-dependencies library to parse environment variables into structs
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