How to add Flynn to your GitLab CI/CD workflow

Goal: Make GitLab deploy to Flynn

I will assume you already have your .yml setup to build your project. As I will only cover the deploy section.

You also need to have an app created on your Flynn server and any resources already created. If you need help doing this there is great documentation on the official website https://flynn.io/docs/basics to get you initially setup

Requirements

Either your Flynn cluster add string that you got on first install

flynn cluster add -p <tls pin> <cluster name> <controller domain> <controller key>

or the backup located in ~/.flynnrc

[[cluster]]
  Name = "default"
  Key = "347skdfh2389hskdfds"
  ControllerURL = "https://controller.my.flynn.site.com"
  TLSPin = "SLDFKSDF3E0Y3924Y23HJKLHDSFOE="
  DockerPushURL = ""

Step 1. Configure Environment Variables

It is highly recommended that you create environment variables in GitLab for the above variables (Settings > CI/CD > Variables). While you could hard-code them… please don’t.

In this tutorial I will be using the following env mapping.

FLYNN_TLS_PIN=SLDFKSDF3E0Y3924Y23HJKLHDSFOE=
FLYNN_CLUSTER_NAME=default
FLYNN_CONTROLLER_DOMAIN=my.flynn.site.com
FLYNN_CONTROLLER_KEY=347skdfh2389hskdfds

Note that the FLYNN_CONTROLLER_DOMAIN has thehttps://controller.part removed compared to the~/.flynnrc` file.

Step 2. Update gitlab-ci

In your gitlab-ci.yml file, create a deploy with the following

...
staging:
  type: deploy
  script:
  - L=/usr/local/bin/flynn && curl -sSL -A "`uname -sp`" https://dl.flynn.io/cli | zcat >$L && chmod +x $L
  - flynn cluster add -p $FLYNN_TLS_PIN $FLYNN_CLUSTER_NAME $FLYNN_CONTROLLER_DOMAIN $FLYNN_CONTROLLER_KEY
  - flynn -a `app-name-staging` remote add
  - git push flynn master
  only:
  - master
...

Replace app-name-staging with the name of your app. You can find it with flynn apps.

Step 3. Commit and Push

At this point we are essentially done. All commits henceforth will be pushed to Flynn.

Issues? Let me know in the comments below.