fct-kiwi 1.6.0rc1

Balena fleet management

FCT-Kiwi

A command-line tool for Balena device configuration management, allowing you to easily change, clone, purge, retrieve, and manage variables across devices and fleets.

Table of Contents

• FCT-Kiwi
  • Table of Contents
  • Installation
  • Authentication
    • Environment variables (Optional)
  • Commands
    • Usage in other scripts
    • Change
    • Clone
    • Purge
    • Get
    • Delete
    • Move
    • Schedule
    • Initialize
    • Rename
  • File Format
    • Changing variables
    • Variable scheduling
    • Tags by version
  • Error Handling
  • Dependencies
  • Author

Installation

pip install fct-kiwi

Authentication

To use this tool, you need to set up your Balena API key as an environment variable if you haven't already:

export BALENA_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

An environment variables file can be defined as shown in the next section.

Environment variables (Optional)

By default this is the order in which variables are read:

1. .env file
2. default
3. os.environ

Other variables might be needed for certain commands and are set by default, but can be overridden if necessary.

1. Create a .env file in the same directory as the script or set the path into your environment as export FCT_ENV_PATH="/path/to/my/.env"
2. Add your Balena API key: BALENA_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
3. Add other variables in new lines, this is a list of all variables used:
   • PROJECT_ID
   • SPREADSHEET_NAME
   • LOCATION_ID
   • QUEUE_ID
   • AUTHOR
   • ORGANIZATION_HANDLE
   • GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS
   • TAGS_BY_VERSION_FILE

Commands

Usage in other scripts

To use this packages functionality in other scripts simply import the functions you need from the following list.

from fleet_control import clone, change, etc...

Otherwise you can use all commands from your terminal.

Change

Change or create specified variable(s) to target device(s).

# Basic usage
fct change 'NODE_WEATHER_DEBUG=0=*' 4D163 4D164

# Change multiple variables
fct change 'NODE_WEATHER_DEBUG=0=* ANOTHER_VAR=value=service' 4D163 4D164

# Target a fleet
fct change 'NODE_WEATHER_DEBUG=0=*' Staging4_x

# Use a file containing variables
fct change --file variables.txt '' 4D163 4D164

Clone

Clone configuration from a source device or fleet to target device(s).

# Clone from one device to others
fct clone 4E288 4D163 4D164

# Clone from a fleet to a device
fct clone Staging4_x 4D163

# Clone from a fleet to another fleet
fct clone Staging4_x fleet_name

# Clone with exclusions
fct clone --exclude "VAR1 VAR2" 4E288 4D163 4D164

Purge

Purge all custom variables in target device(s).

# Purge all custom variables from devices
fct purge 4E288 4D163 4D164

# Purge with exclusions
fct purge --exclude "VAR1 VAR2" 4E288 4D163 4D164

Get

Fetch variable value(s) for a device.

# Get a specific variable
fct get 4E288 UAVCAN_CHASSIS_CURRENT_T2

# Get all custom variables
fct get 4E288 --custom

# Get all variables (device + fleet)
fct get 4E288 --all-vars

# Save variables to a file
fct get 4E288 --output result.json

Delete

Delete the overwritten value for specified variable(s) on the target device(s).

# Delete a variable
fct delete 'NODE_WEATHER_DEBUG=0=*' 4D163 4D164

# Delete multiple variables
fct delete 'VAR1=value=service VAR2=value=*' 4D163 4D164

# Delete variables from a file
fct delete --file variables.txt '' 4D163 4D164

Move

Move target(s) from its current fleet to a specified fleet.

# Move devices to a new fleet
fct move Staging4_x 4E288 4D163 4D164

# Move keeping custom device variables
fct move --keep-vars Staging4_x 4E288 4D163 4D164

# Move keeping custom device and service variables
fct move --keep-service-vars Staging4_x 4E288 4D163 4D164

# Move with cloning (keep custom and previous fleet variables)
fct move --clone Staging4_x 4E288 4D163 4D164

# Move and pin to specific release
fct move --semver "1.3.11+rev87" Staging4_x 4E288 4D163 4D164

Schedule

Schedule variable changes to be applied at a specific time. Service account file path required for creating the task. Set with the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS variable set in the .env file or in your environment.

# Schedule a change for tomorrow at 3 AM (default)
fct schedule 'WEATHER_NODE_DEBUG=0=main' 4B058 4D163

# Schedule with a specific date and time
fct schedule --date '2025-02-25 12:06:00' 'WEATHER_NODE_DEBUG=0=main' 4B058 4D163

# Schedule with a file containing variables
fct schedule --file vars.json --date '2025-02-25 12:06:00' '' 4B058

# Schedule with different timezone
fct schedule --tz 'America/New_York' 'WEATHER_NODE_DEBUG=0=main' 4B058 4D163

Initialize

Initialize a target device with previous device tags, remove old device, delete default config variables, and move to specified fleet.

# Initialize a device and move it to a fleet
fct initialize Staging4_x 4E288

Rename

Rename a target device with new ID. Optional new tags for corresponding version read from configuration file. Configuration file path set with the TAGS_BY_VERSION_FILE variable set in the .env file or in your environment.

# Rename a device
fct rename 4F407 4F265

# Rename a device and specify new version
fct rename --version "4.3F" 4F407 4F265

File Format

Changing variables

When using the --file option, the file should contain JSON formatted variables:

{
  "env_vars": {
      "VAR1_NAME": "VAR1_VALUE",
      "VAR2_NAME": 2
  },
  "service_vars": {
      "main": {
        "SERVICE_VAR1_NAME": "SERVICE_VAR1_VALUE",
        "SERVICE_VAR2_NAME": "SERVICE_VAR2_VALUE"
      }
  }
}

Variable scheduling

{
  "targets": [
    "TARGET1_NAME",
    "TARGET2_NAME"
  ],
  "variables": {
    "env_vars": {
        "VAR1_NAME": "VAR1_VALUE",
        "VAR2_NAME": 2
    },
    "service_vars": {
        "main": {
          "SERVICE_VAR1_NAME": "SERVICE_VAR1_VALUE",
          "SERVICE_VAR2_NAME": "SERVICE_VAR2_VALUE"
        }
    }
  }
}

Tags by version

{
    "4.3B":{
        "Tag1": "value1",
        "Tag2": "value2",
    }
}

Error Handling

The tool will return appropriate error messages if:

• The Balena API key is not set
• No variables are provided when required
• Target devices or fleets cannot be found
• API requests fail

Dependencies

• balena-sdk
• click
• python-dotenv

Author

Juan Pablo Castillo - [e-mail]