[Final Proposal]: Simplifying Deployments on Akash Network from GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket [Phase 2]

[HoomanDgtl]

Proposal: Simplifying Deployments on Akash Network from GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket [Phase 2]

Proposal Overview After gathering extensive feedback from the community on our draft proposal here and sharing updates at the Steering Committee and SIG-Clients meetings, we’re excited to share our updated and final proposal for Phase 2 of our deployment streamlining initiative. Thanks to your valuable suggestions, we’ve refined our strategy and managed to cut the total budget from $70k to $62k without losing any key deliverables. Notable Changes Following Feedback: Lowered documentation expenses by pinpointing elements that the community can contribute to Tweaked testing processes for efficiency without sacrificing quality Reduced frontend development costs Introduced guidelines for community participation

Background

In Phase 1 of our initiative, we rolled out automatic deployments for widely used JavaScript frameworks from GitHub to the Akash Network. This feature has already made deployment easier for countless developers, laying a strong foundation for future growth.

Since we launched it at console.akash.network, many developers have adopted the feature, sharing positive feedback in our Discord community, especially about how much simpler the deployment process has become. This shows not only the effectiveness of our approach but also the strong demand for these features within our ecosystem.

Current Achievements (Phase 1 Recap)

Phase 1 succeeded in offering developers a hassle-free, automated deployment experience akin to Vercel and Netlify. It allows easy deployment of applications from GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket repositories right onto the Akash Network.

Frameworks Currently Supported:

• JavaScript Frameworks: React, Vue.js, Next.js, Angular, Ember.js
• Static Site Generators: Gatsby.js, Nuxt.js, Astro, VitePress, 11ty.js
• Full-stack Frameworks: Remix, Vite, Express.js

Phase 1 Implementation Details:

• PR merged: feature: Enable Deployment from Git Repositories to Akash Network console#417
• Current Status: Live at Akash Console
• Proposal: https://www.mintscan.io/akash/proposals/258

Phase 2 Objective

Our aim for Phase 2 is to broaden support to additional technology stacks, including Go frameworks, Python frameworks, Ruby on Rails, and WordPress. This expansion is intended to attract a wider variety of developers and projects, ultimately boosting the utility and appeal of the Akash Network.

Proposed New Features

Go Web Frameworks

• Gin
• Echo
• Beego
• Buffalo
• Fiber

Python Frameworks

• Django
• Flask
• FastAPI

Ruby Framework

• Ruby on Rails

CMS Platform

• WordPress

Implementation Plan

Our implementation strategy takes a balanced development approach, leveraging containerization, language-specific build optimizations, and automation to ensure seamless deployment across multiple technology stacks:

1. Framework Analysis & Architecture Design

• Analyze build requirements for each framework
• Design container orchestration architecture
• Develop a dependency management strategy
• Standardize environment variable handling
• Design CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions integration

2. Framework-Specific Development

• Create containerized build environments for each language
• Generate automated build scripts
• Template environment-specific configurations
• Optimize production deployments for each framework
• Develop database integration and migration strategies

3. Testing & Quality Assurance

• Implement an automated testing pipeline
• Validate cross-framework compatibility
• Benchmark resource utilization
• Scan for security vulnerabilities
• Optimize performance under various loads

4. Documentation & Developer Support

• Produce technical implementation documentation
• Create framework-specific deployment guides
• Document common troubleshooting tips
• Draft templates and guidelines for community contributions
• Develop an API reference for custom configuration options

5. Console Integration

• Build a UI for language and framework selection
• Integrate build configuration UI components
• Implement deployment monitoring and status visualization
• Establish a feedback mechanism

Detailed Timeline

Month 1: Architecture Design & Go/Python Implementation

Week 1-2

• Finalize project architecture and set up the repository
• Implement Go module management
• Template handler functions for Gin and Echo
• Configure Go binary build optimizations
• Set up Python virtual environments
• Draft WSGI/ASGI server configuration templates
• Establish testing infrastructure

Week 3-4

• Implement support for Fiber and Beego frameworks
• Automate ORM migrations for Flask and Django
• Set up FastAPI dependency injection configurations
• Develop a system for resolving Python package dependencies
• Conduct initial integration testing for Go and Python frameworks
• Wireframe the console UI for framework selection

Month 2: Ruby/WordPress Implementation & Testing

Week 5-6

• Optimize Bundler for Ruby on Rails and parse Gemfile
• Automate asset pipeline configurations
• Implement ActiveRecord migration strategies
• Containerize WordPress core with volume mapping
• Optimize PHP-FPM and Nginx for WordPress
• Write MySQL/MariaDB initialization scripts
• Start performance testing and optimizations

Week 7-8

• Automate plugin/theme installations via WP-CLI
• Create a templating system for wp-config.php
• Optimize the production environment for Rails
• Test cross-framework integrations
• Enhance build pipelines for all frameworks
• Refine resource allocation strategies
• Assess and remediate security vulnerabilities

Month 3: SDL Integration, Documentation & Launch

Week 9-10

• Generate Akash SDL templates for all frameworks
• Implement resource allocation optimizations
• Develop framework-specific technical documentation
• Create community contribution guidelines
• Set up an automated build test suite
• Build the console UI for framework selection

Week 11-12

• Conduct final integration testing across all frameworks
• Polish the console UI and improve user experience
• Carry out comprehensive quality assurance testing
• Benchmark performance and execute optimizations
• Finalize all documentation
• Prepare for handover and deployment
• Build a mechanism for integrating community feedback

Revised Budget Breakdown

1. Development & Integration

Go Frameworks: $14,000 (140 hrs)

• Set up containerization & handler functions for Gin/Echo/Fiber: 25 hrs
• Manage Go module dependencies & vendoring strategy: 15 hrs
• Configure build optimization for Go binary compilation: 10 hrs
• Develop build scripts: 15 hrs
• Automate middleware & routing configurations: 15 hrs
• Validate API endpoints through testing: 25 hrs
• Implement hot reload for development workflows: 15 hrs
• Create custom Dockerfile templates for Go environments: 20 hrs

Python Frameworks: $13,500 (135 hrs)

• Set up virtual environment containerization (venv/pipenv/poetry): 20 hrs
• Configure WSGI/ASGI for Django/Flask/FastAPI: 20 hrs
• Implement Python version compatibility matrix: 10 hrs
• Automate static asset collection pipeline: 15 hrs
• Generate requirements.txt for package dependencies: 15 hrs
• Template Gunicorn/uWSGI server configurations: 15 hrs
• Automate ORM migrations for SQLAlchemy/Django ORM: 20 hrs
• Manage environment variables for Python settings: 20 hrs

Ruby on Rails: $10,000 (100 hrs)

• Optimize Bundler gem dependencies & optimize Gemfile: 15 hrs
• Configure asset pipelines (Webpacker/Sprockets): 20 hrs
• Automate ActiveRecord migration strategies: 15 hrs
• Create a containerized Rails environment with proper Ruby management: 10 hrs
• Configure Redis/Sidekiq for background jobs: 10 hrs
• Optimize the production environment (SECRET_KEY, RAILS_ENV settings): 15 hrs
• Configure database adapters (PostgreSQL/MySQL): 15 hrs

WordPress: $9,500 (95 hrs)

• Containerize WordPress core with volume persistence: 15 hrs
• Optimize PHP-FPM & Nginx configurations: 15 hrs
• Develop handler and orchestration scripts: 10 hrs
• Automate plugin/theme installations via WP-CLI: 20 hrs
• Set up MySQL/MariaDB database initialization & persistence: 25 hrs
• Create wp-config.php environment configuration templates: 10 hrs

2. Infrastructure & Orchestration

Build Pipeline: $6,500 (65 hrs)

• Optimize cross-platform build scripts: 15 hrs
• Develop CI workflow templates: 20 hrs
• Implement artifact caching strategies: 10 hrs
• Analyze build logs and report errors: 20 hrs

Deployment Orchestration: $4,000 (40 hrs)

• Template Akash SDL: 5 hrs
• Optimize resource allocation logic: 20 hrs
• Develop automated tests and build pipelines: 15 hrs

3. UI & Documentation

Console Interface: $3,500 (35 hrs)

• Implement UI for language selection: 20 hrs
• Update build configuration options interface: 15 hrs

Technical Documentation: $4,000 (40 hrs)

• Create framework-specific integration guides: 25 hrs
• Document troubleshooting steps with common error solutions: 15 hrs

Total: $62,000 (620 hrs)

Documentation & Approach

We'll provide a high-level overview of our strategy, paired with technical documentation that gives the community a clear yet thorough understanding of the framework. This will include the languages we support, any current limitations, and possible future avenues for integrating new languages if needed.

Benefits

Expanded User Base

• Support for Go, Python, Ruby, and WordPress
• Attraction of a wider range of developers
• Increased diversity in projects

Enhanced Versatility

• Support for a variety of use cases
• Comprehensive coverage of the framework
• Broader deployment options available

Competitive Advantage

• Parity with features found in centralized platforms
• Unique benefits from decentralized approaches
• Improved experience for developers

Community Empowerment

• Clear paths for community contributions
• Documentation templates to ensure consistent expansion
• A democratic approach to framework support development

Governance Timelines

• The draft proposal was shared in January here and followed by discussions in the Steering Committee and SIG-Clients meetings.
• After gathering feedback from the community through comments and meetings, we’re now ready to present the final proposal.
• We plan to submit the proposal on-chain early next week for official governance proceedings.

Conclusion

Phase 2 aims to solidify Akash Network as a comprehensive platform for decentralized deployments, providing developers from various ecosystems with a robust and flexible solution for their deployment needs. By trimming our budget while ensuring quality and by creating paths for community contributions, we’re not just enhancing technical capabilities but also fostering a sustainable ecosystem for continual innovation.

Our involvement in both the Steering Committee and SIG-Clients meetings has yielded valuable insights that have influenced this proposal, ensuring it aligns with the broader vision of Akash Network and addresses community needs. We’re looking forward to continuing this collaborative approach throughout the implementation phase.

[brewsterdrinkwater]

@HoomanDgtl , Thank you so much for putting this final proposal together. I know that you have taken a lot of feedback from the draft proposal you have been circulating since January.

Some of the questions that we have talked about previously are still unanswered for me.

1. is there any data or feedback that you have received that leads you to believe that this features are wanted by the Akash Community, and will be used after release?
2. Do you know how much traction the Automatic Deployment and CICD template has gotten in terms of usage?
3. Are there any way to bring down costs, leveraging AI coding tools, or existing tooling?
4. If there are some case studies that exist for phase 1, can you share them here?
5. Can you better descirbe who would use these new features, and what kind of compute resources could they use on the Akash Network.

[HoomanDgtl]

First of all, thank you Tyler for the feedback and your questions. Below are the answers to your questions.

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• is there any data or feedback that you have received that leads you to believe that this features are wanted by the Akash Community, and will be used after release?

Before answering this question, we would like to highlight the motivation behind our proposal: to reduce the friction of deploying on Akash and make it easier for anyone to get started. By enabling deployment directly from GitHub, our feature allows users to experience the Akash Network without any setup. This simple onboarding can eventually convert them into full-fledged users. Our tool also complements the $10 trial offered by Akash providers — with our feature and the $10 trial, users can even deploy to Akash directly from a mobile browser.

To find an answer to your question, we dug deeper into the Akash Discord and found some great testimonials, chats, and feature requests from community members, which we are highlighting below:

- User is sharing a link to github deployment to someone who was looking for ways to deploy directly from github: here

- User is asking a way to port their site from vercel to akash and our feature provides the same: here

- User is demanding a new feature to deploy python based app onto akash directly from github, which we are pitching here in this proposal: here

- Another User is demanding a way to transition his python based application from vercel to akash: here

- Piber is highlighting a github deploy tool to the beginners who wants to try out akash in an easiest manner possible: here

- An user is asking a way to deploy his static website from github to akash, julius shared a github deploy feature which was already there and it changed everything for the user who was seeking the solution here

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2. Do you know how much traction the Automatic Deployment and CICD template has gotten in terms of usage?

It’s hard to get exact numbers on this, as we currently don’t have a precise way to measure it. In terms of analytics, the GitHub deploy page is averaging around 4–6k event triggers monthly. Ultimately, this feature is creating the most frictionless way to deploy on Akash and experience its power. Not to mention, these capabilities have become standard offerings across major decentralized and centralized cloud providers, who are direct competitors to Akash.

The importance of this feature and its impact on Akash have also been highlighted in a blog post published on the Akash website: here

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• Are there any way to bring down costs, leveraging AI coding tools, or existing tooling?

Although we have tried our best to reduce the cost based on our experience with Phase 1, we are fully aware that this will require more effort and time than what we have outlined in this proposal — similar to Phase 1, where we ended up spending more time than initially estimated.
However, if Akash prefers, we can reduce the cost to $50k USD by removing the WordPress feature from this phase and focusing solely on three offerings: Python, Go, and Ruby on Rails.

Regarding the use of automated AI tools to reduce costs, we would like to highlight that while AI coding tools are promising, they currently lack reliability when dealing with novel problems and patterns, which are common in cross-framework integration work like this. These tools often require significant human oversight and correction, potentially adding time rather than reducing it.

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• If there are some case studies that exist for phase 1, can you share them here?

The importance of this feature and its impact on Akash have been highlighted in a blog post published on the Akash website: here

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5. Can you better descirbe who would use these new features, and what kind of compute resources could they use on the Akash Network.
These new features will primarily serve web and backend developers working with Go, Python, Ruby, and WordPress environments, expanding beyond the JavaScript/TypeScript developers already addressed in Phase 1.

The key advantage lies in lowering barriers for less technical users who want to leverage Akash's performance and cost benefits without navigating complex deployment processes. By addressing the needs of both technical developers and less technical users, this expansion will significantly broaden Akash's potential user base across the decentralized cloud ecosystem.

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We hope that our above response answers all your questions. We look forward to your further feedback and discussion, and to taking this proposal on-chain soon.

Thank you.

[jamescypo]

I support this proposal. Insiders are the heart of the Akash community. From the very first call I joined, I knew it was a purpose-driven community. Every role and responsibility outlined here is crucial to Akash's global success!