squadron/docs/guide/introduction.md

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Introduction

Introduction

Squadron is Docker Compose for Kubernetes: a single CLI that orchestrates multiple Helm charts and Docker image builds as one cohesive deployment, driven by one declarative file — squadron.yaml.

Why Squadron?

docker-compose made multi-service local development easy: one file lists every service, and one command brings the whole stack up. Kubernetes and Helm are the production standard, but the developer experience is different — every service becomes its own Helm chart and release, each with its own values, lifecycle, and helm invocation. Coordinating a dozen of those by hand is tedious and error-prone.

Squadron closes that gap. You describe your services once, grouped into squadrons of units, and Squadron handles the rest:

• One file, many charts — group related releases and manage them together.
• Build and deploy in one workflow — define Docker builds (or buildx bake targets) alongside the chart that consumes them.
• Templated configuration — share and compute values across units with Go templates and helpers like env, file, and git.
• The full Helm lifecycle — up, down, diff, status, rollback, and template, scoped to the whole squadron, individual units, or by tag.

In production a squadron is just another set of Helm releases, so you keep all the tooling and guarantees you already rely on.

Coming from docker-compose

docker-compose	Squadron
docker-compose.yml	squadron.yaml
a service	a unit (a Helm release + optional image build)
the whole compose project	a squadron (a named group of units)
build:	builds: / bakes: (Docker build / buildx bake)
docker compose up	squadron up
docker compose down	squadron down
environment interpolation	Go templates with env, file, git, and more

The big difference: each unit is backed by a Helm chart, so you get real Kubernetes deployments instead of local containers — without writing a helm command per service.

Production-ready

Squadron is battle-tested and used in production at BestBytes.

Next steps

• Installation — install the CLI.
• Quick Start — deploy the helloworld example.
• Core Concepts — squadrons, units, builds, bakes, templating.
• Configuration — the squadron.yaml reference.