Warning!!! Kapow! is under heavy development and specification </spec>_; the provided code is a Proof of Concept and the final version will not even share programming language. Ye be warned.

What is it?

Kapow! is an adapter between the world of Pure UNIX® Shell and an HTTP service.

Some tasks are more convenient in the shell, like cloud interactions, or some administrative tools. On the other hand, some tasks are more convenient as a service, like DevSecOps tooling.

Kapow! lies between these two worlds, making your life easier. Maybe you wonder about how this kind of magic can happen; if you want to know the nitty-gritty details, just read our specification </spec>_;. Or, if you want to know how Kapow! can help you first, let's start with a common situation.

Think about that awesome command that you use every day, something very familiar, like cloudx storage ls /backups. Then someone asks you for an specific backup, so you ssh into the host, execute your command, possibly grepping through its output, copy the result and send it back to him. And that's fine... for the 100 first times.

Then you decide, let's use an API for this and generate an awesome web server with it. So, you create a project, manage its dependencies, code the server, parse the request, learn how to use the API, call the API and deploy it somewhere. And that's fine... until you find yourself again in the same situation with another awesome command.

The awesomeness of UNIX® commands is infinite, so you'll be in this situation an infinite number of times! Instead, let's put Kapow! into action.

With Kapow! you just need to create a .pow file named backups.pow that contains:

.. code-block:: sh

kapow route add /backups \
    -c 'cloudx storage ls /backups | grep "$(kapow get /request/params/query)" | kapow set /response/body'

and execute it in the remote host with the command:

.. code-block:: sh

kapow server backups.pow

and that's it. Done. You have a web server that people can use to request their backups every time they need only by invoking the URL http://remotehost/backups?query=project

Do you like it? yes? Then let's start learning a little more, you can access the documentation </doc>_; section to find installation instructions and some examples.

How it was born

Some awesome history is coming.

Kapow! for the impatient

When you need to share a command but not a complete remote ssh access, Kapow! will help you with the power of HTTP:

.. image:: https://trello-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/5c824318411d973812cbef67/5ca1af818bc9b53e31696de3/784a183fba3f24872dd97ee28e765922/Kapow!.png :alt: Where Kapow! lives

Kapow! allows you to write a litte script that will serve an executable as REST service. This script will let you define how to connect HTTP and the Shell using Kapow!'s shell abstractions to the HTTP world. See it to believe:

.. image:: resources/kapow.gif?raw=true :alt: Kapow! in action

Superpowers

Kapow! gives you:

A very simple way to turn any shell executable into an API
A remote administration API
A way to define the integration in you own terms, obligations-free!

Curses

Kapow! can't help when:

You need high throughput: Kapow! spawns a new executable for every HTTP call
You must perform complex logic to attend the request: never use Kapow! if your executables don't perform al least 90% of the hard work
You are building a huge application

When it is your best friend:

Easy command + Hard API = Kapow! to the rescue
SSH for one command? Kapow! allows you to share only that command
Remote instrumentation of several machines? Make it easy with Kapow!

The more you know

If you want to know more, please follow our documentation </doc>_.

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