build-tools

A Docker image pre-loaded with the tools commonly needed in CI/CD pipelines that deploy to AWS and Kubernetes.

What's included

Tool	Description
AWS CLI v2	Interact with AWS services
kubectl	Deploy and manage Kubernetes workloads
Docker CLI + Buildx	Build and push container images
curl, git, jq, gettext, unzip	General-purpose shell utilities

Image

ghcr.io/nitmedia/build-tools:latest

Available tags:

Tag	Description
latest	Latest build from main
main	Tracks the main branch
v1.2.3 / v1.2 / v1	Pinned to a specific release
sha-<short>	Pinned to a specific commit

---

Using the image in a GitHub Actions workflow

Set the image as the container for any job. GitHub Actions will pull it and run all steps inside the container, giving your job access to all pre-installed tools without any additional install steps.

Basic usage

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container:
      image: ghcr.io/nitmedia/build-tools:latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Deploy to EKS
        env:
          AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
          AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: us-east-1
        run: |
          aws eks update-kubeconfig --name my-cluster --region us-east-1
          kubectl apply -f k8s/

Pin to a specific version (recommended for production)

Use a semver tag so your workflow is not affected by updates to latest:

    container:
      image: ghcr.io/nitmedia/build-tools:v1.2.3

Or pin to an immutable commit SHA for the strictest reproducibility:

    container:
      image: ghcr.io/nitmedia/build-tools:sha-a1b2c3d

Full workflow example

name: Deploy to Production

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container:
      image: ghcr.io/nitmedia/build-tools:latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Configure AWS credentials
        env:
          AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
          AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: ${{ vars.AWS_REGION }}
        run: aws sts get-caller-identity

      - name: Update kubeconfig
        run: |
          aws eks update-kubeconfig \
            --name ${{ vars.CLUSTER_NAME }} \
            --region ${{ vars.AWS_REGION }}

      - name: Apply Kubernetes manifests
        run: kubectl apply -f k8s/

      - name: Wait for rollout
        run: kubectl rollout status deployment/my-app --timeout=120s

---

Building locally

docker build -t build-tools .
docker run --rm -it build-tools bash

Contributing

The image is rebuilt and published automatically on every push to main and on every v*.*.* tag via the included GitHub Actions workflow.

To release a new version:

git tag v1.2.3
git push origin v1.2.3