CI/CD workflows in Github Actions to use Dagger + Moon?

[shy lake]

In this time we use moon https://moonrepo.dev/docs to handle our tasks. On local and on Github Actions.
I thinking to migrate our Pipelines to use Dagger + Moon, question is it good idea?
I mean like keep moon do a job for tasks and tasks orchestration and use Dagger to handle Pipeline like build, test, publish Docker images, artifacts and so on.
For example i can have in Dagger build() function and than task in moon

build:
  command: dagger call build
  deps: ['check']

and in ci.yml i will than just run something like moon ci :build
What do you think will this two tools works together in tandem? Is it good idea to use it like this?

[sullen basalt]

@shy lake I think it could work, yes. It's pretty common for teams to combine a build tool like moon, with dagger.

BUT, if you're starting from scratch, I would think carefully whether you really need both. They can work together, but they definitely overlap.

I think you should first try a design with only one. Then, if you find a specific reason where you need both, you'll know for sure that the overhead of 2 tools is worth it

Obviously if you're only going to use one, I recommend to start with Dagger 🙂 But that's a biased, subjective opinion

If you do combine both (again, it's possible and sometimes the right approach), I strongly recommend wrapping moon inside dagger, rather than the other way around

[shy lake]

In this time we already using moon. But i think its good idea to have reproducible build in containers and pipelines handled by code e.g. Typescript or Java which can anybody write. Why i thinking about Dagger.

moon is great for monorepo and different langs. in repo, task orchestration.

What you mean by wrap moon inside dagger?

[sullen basalt]

OK, in that case yes it makes sense to use them together 🙂

Just know that Dagger can do everything moon does.

Something to watch out for is overlapping caching systems. Dagger and Moon both have their own cache. So the "outer" tool will have to make sure to hand off correctly to the "inner" tool

[shy lake]

Really? This where i stuck, is all functionality overlaps?

[sullen basalt]

No, Dagger can do more 🙂 But it's also totally fine to use Dagger only for individual builds, like you're suggesting, and wrap it inside Moon. As long as you're careful to let Dagger use its own cache

(Dagger's big blind spot is native builds eg. Mac, Windows)

[shy lake]

Cache is important for me, as now our CI pipeline takes like 50 minutes and we cant use Github Cache at all from our i think wrong workflow architecture. How Dagger cache can help us in github action?

[sullen basalt]

Does Moon cache help in your case? I think they have a remote cache feature?

[shy lake]

We cant use remote cache security reason, and its not implemented.

I tried to use moon cache for persistance but its change to ofen on every run so its useless in Github Actions

I really hope Dagger can help us with faster build 🙂 and cache

Its pretty fast on local will see tomorrow on GHA 😉