Week 1: Building ZipZen - Zero-config APT/YUM/Helm Repos

The original idea of ZipZen is to make developers' lives easier when they have to release binaries.

GitHub/GitLab Releases exist, but none of them are more than a “container” for release artifacts. Artifactory and Nexus are bloated and require more setup/money than most of us want to deal with, if not mandatory.

As I truly wanted to give developers something that lifts off weight from them, this week my focus was on repository support. But a bit differently than what you may expect: no configuration required to set up an APT, YUM, or Helm repository.

So, the results of this week:

• Some CLI improvements

• Reworked, clearer documentation

• Zero-configuration APT, YUM, and Helm repository support

Obviously, I'm proud of the repository support. Developers only have to upload a .dev, .rpm, or .tgz/tar.gz package, and everything is sorted out automatically. If a GPG key is set, the apt repository and .rpm packages will be signed as well.

Next up, I'll mostly work on public release pages and getting more feedback on the platform. Also, I'll probably add CI/CD integration examples as well, so it is going to be a no-brainer to use with GitHub/GitLab.

The challenge for this month is growing and spreading that ZipZen exists, but I hope the IndieHackers community can help out with that.