Turn Your CLI into a Web App with GoTTY: Quick Start and Kubernetes Deployment

GoTTY is a simple command-line tool that turns your CLI into a web application.

Quick Start

1. Install GoTTY

# Mac version
brew install yudai/gotty/gotty

If you have a Go environment, you can also install via:

go get github.com/yudai/gotty

2. GoTTY Usage

Usage: gotty [options] <command> [<arguments...>]

options

--address value, -a value      IP address to listen (default "0.0.0.0")
--port value, -p value         Port number to listen (default "8080")
--permit-write, -w            Permit clients to write to the TTY (BE CAREFUL)
--credential value, -c value   Credential for Basic Authentication (e.g., user:pass)
--random-url, -r              Add a random string to the URL
--random-url-length value     Random URL length (default 8)
--tls, -t                     Enable TLS/SSL
--tls-crt value               TLS/SSL certificate file path (default "~/.gotty.crt")
--tls-key value               TLS/SSL key file path (default "~/.gotty.key")
--tls-ca-crt value            TLS/SSL CA certificate file (default "~/.gotty.ca.crt")
--index value                 Custom index.html file
--title-format value          Title format of browser window (default "{{ .command }}@{{ .hostname }}")
--reconnect                   Enable reconnection
--reconnect-time value        Time to reconnect (default 10)
--max-connection value        Maximum connections (default 0)
--once                        Accept only one client and exit on disconnect
--timeout value               Timeout seconds for waiting a client (0 to disable)
--permit-arguments            Permit clients to send command line arguments in URL
--width value                 Static width of the screen (0 means dynamic)
--height value                Static height of the screen (0 means dynamic)
--ws-origin value             Regular expression that matches origin URLs for WebSocket
--term value                  Terminal name to use on the browser (default "xterm")
--close-signal value          Signal sent to the command process when GoTTY closes (default SIGHUP)
--close-timeout value         Time in seconds to force kill process after client disconnects (default -1)
--config value                Config file path (default "~/.gotty")
--version, -v                 Print the version

3. Example

# Example
gotty -w python3

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8080 to experience an online Python3 environment.

Advanced: Using GoTTY in Kubernetes

In the container era, troubleshooting inside containers via CLI can be inefficient; exposing containers as web‑accessible applications simplifies the process.

This section shows how to connect GoTTY to any container in a k8s cluster.

1. Build GoTTY Docker Image

Pre‑built image:

registry.cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com/tlab/k8s-gotty:latest

gotty

: executable to run; see the Releases page for the appropriate version. kubernetes.repo: repository file for downloading kubectl.

[kubernetes]
name=Kubernetes
baseurl=https://mirrors.aliyun.com/kubernetes/yum/repos/kubernetes-el7-x86_64/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://mirrors.aliyun.com/kubernetes/yum/doc/yum-key.gpg https://mirrors.aliyun.com/kubernetes/yum/doc/rpm-package-key.gpg

Dockerfile

: used to build the image.

FROM centos:latest
RUN yum install -y epel-release kde-l10n-Chinese glibc-common wget
RUN localedef -c -f UTF-8 -i zh_CN zh_CN.utf8
ENV LC_ALL zh_CN.utf8
ADD gotty /root/
ADD kubernetes.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/
RUN yum -y install kubectl
WORKDIR /root
EXPOSE 8080
CMD ["./gotty", "-w", "--permit-arguments", "kubectl", "exec", "-it", "-n"]

2. Deploy GoTTY in the k8s Cluster

kind: Deployment
apiVersion: apps/v1
metadata:
  name: gotty
  namespace: default
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      k8s-app: gotty
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        k8s-app: gotty
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: <service-account-with-permissions>
      containers:
        - name: gotty
          image: registry.cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com/tlab/k8s-gotty
          ports:
            - containerPort: 8080
              protocol: TCP

3. Expose GoTTY Service

kind: Service
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  labels:
    k8s-app: gotty
  name: gotty-service
  namespace: default
spec:
  ports:
    - port: 80
      targetPort: 8080
      nodePort: 38080
  selector:
    k8s-app: gotty
  type: NodePort

4. Access the Container

To exec into a container via kubectl: kubectl exec -it -n <Namespace> <PodName> Using GoTTY, access it through:

http://<ip>:38080/?arg=<Namespace>&arg=<PodName>