Taming your Tekton Triggers, a Guide to Kubeflow Pipelines
Published: 2023-09-25 07:20:28

## Whirling Through the Realm of Tekton Triggers

*"Progress is forged in the crucible of difficulty"* — Ada Lovelace

While navigating the world of continuous integration & continuous deployment (CI/CD), it's **imperative** to get a thorough understanding of your operative context — that's where Tekton comes into the picture. Tekton, a robust project by the prestigious Continuous Delivery Foundation, provides Kubernetes-native support for defining and running CI/CD pipelines.

Granted, Tekton's pipelines themselves are wildly powerful, but in order to truly embrace the automation side of DevOps, the addition of *Triggers* to the mix is an absolute requisite.

For the initiated, Tekton Triggers automatically instantiate pipelines based on events emanating from sources like GitHub or Jenkins, thus driving the automation agenda. It's the classic push vs pull scenario - and with Triggers, you're joyfully and effectively pushing the boundaries.

Drawing an analogy from the world of action-packed '90s cinema, Tekton Triggers are the Terminator of the Kubernetes landscape - always ready to terminate inefficient manual practises & armed with the potential to drive automation to the next level.

## The Dance with Kubeflow Pipelines

Akin to the intricate ballet of DevOps, Kubeflow Pipelines are the venue where data scientists & DevOps engineers collaborate. They're part of the Kubeflow project, an ensemble of tools built to perform end-to-end machine learning (ML) workflows directly on Kubernetes.

_"It's sort of like dancing with a bear, you just can't stop because you're afraid it might step on you."* — Leslie Lamport

Perhaps the most enticing aspect of Kubeflow Pipelines is its observability. It's designed to specifically log all the ML metadata, keeping an impeccable record of the model lineage tracing back from metadata to the originating experiments. This allows you to keep an eye on your models _and_ your pipelines, offering an unprecedented level of transparency.

Moreover, the event-driven orchestration in Kubeflow renders a tad of elegance to the entire pipeline execution. This is a nod to the moments that got our pulses racing in the high-octane world of '90s American action cinema, where every momentum packed a punch.

```csharp
// Simulating event-driven orchestration in Kubeflow Pipelines
my_ops = []
for i in range(5):
    my_ops.append(kfp.Client().create_run_from_pipeline_func(my_pipeline, arguments={'arg1': i})
if all([op.is_successful() for op in my_ops]):
    print('Execution was successful!')
else:
    raise Exception('Some operations failed to execute')
```
## Revving Up Efficient Practice with Tekton & Kubeflow

Now, fuelling the engines of development with Tekton Triggers and Kubeflow Pipelines, here are a few **powerful** practices worth implementing:

- Ensure Tekton EventListeners are in place to listen for spider-sense tingling events
- Employ Interceptors with EventListeners for specific customisable ways to build events
- Exploit Kubeflow Pipeline's Metadata SDK to record custom metadata for tracing
- Embrace Kubeflow's Advanced Data Management Features to deal with large data inputs/output efficiently.

Here's an example of a Tekton Trigger in action:

```yaml
apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1alpha1
kind: Trigger
metadata:
  name: my-trigger
spec:
  serviceAccountName: tekton-triggers-example-sa
  interceptors:
    - ref:
        name: "cel"
      params:
        - name: "filter"
          value: "header.match('X-GitHub-Event', 'push')"
  bindings:
    - ref: my-triggerbinding
  template:
    ref: my-triggertemplate
```
The above block demonstrates the implementation of a Trigger listening for a GitHub push event. Notice the mighty CEL interceptor that follows, customising the event handling as per our whim.

Fuelled by the twin engines of Tekton Triggers & Kubeflow Pipelines, we're going beyond cadence of mere development and soaring into the realm of elegant, automated, and observant CI/CD workflows.

So, keep questioning the audacity of the mundane and venture into the next level of burnishing your pipelines. It's a delightful challenge and a race worth running. Buckle up, engage your '90s action-mode, & take the plunge into this thrilling frontier of DevOps.