GOVARD: Go-based Versatile Runtime & Development

Govard is a professional-grade local development orchestrator engineered in Go. It replaces legacy bash-based tooling with a fast native binary that manages complex containerized environments with a focus on stability, speed, and developer experience.

🆚 Why Govard Stands Out

🚀 Key Features

• First-Class Deployment: govard deploy publishes a revision over SSH + rsync with a framework recipe, atomic symlink swap or in-place publish, maintenance windows, database backup, verification, rollback and resume — plus govard sandbox to rehearse the pipeline against a container on your machine.
• Remote Management (Flagship): named remotes with scope-based capabilities (files,media,db,deploy), flexible auth (keychain, ssh-agent, keyfile), safe sync with dry-run planning, and connectivity diagnostics (govard remote test).
• Shared SSH Gateway: govard-proxy-sshd gives every sandbox a stable address (ssh -p 2222 <project>@127.0.0.1, sftp included) instead of an ephemeral port.
• Infra Host Access: Elasticsearch/OpenSearch at http://<project>.test:9200 and the RabbitMQ management UI at http://<project>.test:15672 — per-project Caddy routes, no extra config.
• Framework Discovery: Magento 1/OpenMage, Magento 2, Mage-OS, Laravel, Next.js, Emdash, Drupal, Symfony, Shopware, CakePHP, PrestaShop, WordPress, and Django, plus an interactive custom-framework wizard.
• Zero-Config Debugging: Xdebug 2 & 3 with one-click toggling and project-specific isolation.
• Database Observability: live query monitoring (govard db top), progress bars for imports/syncs, Redis/Valkey management.
• Static Analysis & Profiling: govard audit (lint, integrity, profiler) with persisted sessions, diffs, and reruns.
• VSCode Integration: govard vscode setup [--global] runs Intelephense, PHPStan, PHPCS, PHPUnit, and Xdebug inside the container.
• Global Services: Caddy proxy, Mailpit, PHPMyAdmin, Portainer out of the box.
• Team Safety Nets: snapshots, drift detection, 1Password (op://) secret references, resumable transfers.
• CLI + Desktop: the same engine in a terminal binary and a Wails desktop app; govard self-update with checksum validation.

🛠️ Installation

Pick one channel and stick to it:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ddtcorex/govard/master/install.sh | bash

The installer handles system dependencies, starts global services, and configures SSL trust. By default it also installs govard-desktop where WebKitGTK 4.1 is available (Ubuntu 22.04+); pass --cli-only to skip Desktop explicitly, or let the installer fall back to CLI-only automatically where WebKitGTK 4.1 is missing. Tagged releases also ship .deb/.pkg installers, including a separate govard-desktop_<version>_linux_<arch>.deb — see the releases page and the installation guide for the full options. Do not mix channels on one machine (conflicting binaries across /usr/bin and /usr/local/bin).

Govard runs without Docker for host-side commands (govard capabilities lists every command's requirement); container-backed commands exit 3 with CAPABILITY_MISSING instead of failing midway. Details: Runs Without Docker.

Contributors build from source (./install.sh --source -y, needs Go 1.25+, Node 20+) — see CONTRIBUTING.md.

💻 Usage

1. Initialize and start

govard init          # scan the project, generate .govard.yml
govard env up        # render compose, start the stack (govard up works too)
govard shell         # enter the application container

2. Remotes and sync

govard remote add staging --host staging.example.com --user deploy --path /var/www/app
govard remote copy-id staging
govard remote test staging
govard sync --source staging --destination local --full --plan   # dry-run first
govard sync --source staging --destination local --full

prod remotes are write-protected by default; file/media sync is resumable rsync. Full docs: Remotes and Sync.

3. Deployment

govard deploy plan staging     # the whole task list, connecting nowhere
govard deploy check staging    # preflight: connectivity, layout, permissions, php, disk, lock
govard deploy staging --yes    # deploy the local HEAD (or --revision <sha>)
govard deploy releases staging # what is on the target
govard deploy rollback staging # put the previous release back

Rehearse against a container first, or split the build off to CI:

govard sandbox up --profile full --php 8.3
govard deploy --remote sandbox --yes
govard sandbox down --purge

• Full guide: Deployment
• Worked configurations (Luma, Hyvä, themes, modes, webroots): Deployment case studies

4. Everyday operations

govard db dump -e staging      # dump / import / query / top
govard debug on                # toggle Xdebug for the current project
govard snapshot create         # checkpoint before risky upgrades
govard audit run               # static analysis with persisted sessions
govard tunnel start            # expose locally via cloudflare (needs the binary)

Command reference (shortcuts, aliases, every command): CLI Commands.

SSL & HTTPS

Govard serves every .test domain over HTTPS via Caddy + a local Root CA, with dnsmasq resolving *.test to loopback. Point your resolver at it once:

Then govard svc up auto-trusts the Root CA (system store + best-effort browser import). Details and troubleshooting: SSL and Domains.

🌍 Global Services

Shared across all projects (via govard svc):

CLI shortcuts: govard open mail|db|portainer.

📚 Documentation

Full documentation (auto-synced to the GitHub Wiki):

• Getting Started - Installation and first project workflow
• CLI Commands - Shortcuts, tools, diagnostics, utilities
• Configuration - .govard.yml, profiles, remotes, blueprint registry
• Deployment + Case studies
• Remotes and Sync - Setup, flows, audit logs, remote DB work
• SSL and Domains - HTTPS, CA trust, routing
• Frameworks - Support matrix and framework notes
• Desktop App - Desktop surface and dev-mode workflow

🤝 Contributing

Builds, tests, and the mandatory brainstorming → writing-plans → executing-plans workflow live in CONTRIBUTING.md and AGENTS.md. Quick gate before pushing: make test && make build.

📜 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Developed with ❤️ by ddtcorex