Artwork courtesy of Open Clip Art Library

Elite is an automation framework designed specifically for automating macOS based systems. Elite implements actions to perform different tasks which may be invoked via Python code with config data provided in YAML.

Actions are implemented in pure Python classes and also leverage PyObjC to reach into lower level territory when configuring various aspects of the Mac operating system.

Although Ansible and Elite share some similarities, Elite was designed and developed to specifically address the following points:

• Python API Although YAML is wonderful for config files, it falls short as a DSL for writing automation. Python is fully-featured, simple and very mature. It also has significantly more robust typing than Ansible's Jinja2 interpretations in YAML.
• Mac-specific Functionality Elite implements many Mac specific features such as aliases, login items, default apps and app scripting to provide customisation previously not possible in Ansible and other tools.
• More Informative Output: While running Elite-based automation code, you'll see what is currently running and a detailed summary of what changed and failed after a run is complete.

Elite only works on Python 3.7 or later, and has been specifically tested with the Python release provided by Homebrew.

If you haven't setup Homebrew and Python, please follow the steps below:

# Install Homebrew
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" < /dev/null

# Install Python 3.7+
brew install python3

You are now ready to install Elite:

pip3 install git+https://github.com/fgimian/elite.git

A suggested directory structure of an Elite project is as follows:

├── macbuild.py
├── config
└── files

You may structure your config directory any way you like. Personally, I like to create sub-directories for different applications. Elite offers a useful !include YAML tag function which allow you to include one config file in another.

e.g.

config/
├── software
│   ├── desktop_software
│   │   ├── 1password.yaml
│   │   ├── daisydisk.yaml
│   │   ├── dock.yaml
│   │   ├── dropbox.yaml
│   │   ├── finder.yaml
│   │   ├── flux.yaml
│   │   ├── forklift.yaml
│   │   ├── iwork.yaml
│   │   ├── microsoft_office.yaml
│   │   ├── openemu.yaml
│   │   ├── safari.yaml
│   │   ├── spotify.yaml
│   │   ├── sublime_text.yaml
│   │   ├── terminal.yaml
│   │   ├── things.yaml
│   │   └── vmware_fusion.yaml
│   │── unix_tooling
│   │   ├── bash.yaml
│   │   ├── crystal.yaml
│   │   ├── git.yaml
│   │   ├── hugo.yaml
│   │   ├── python.yaml
│   │   ├── ruby.yaml
│   │   └── unix.yaml
│   ├── dock_layout.yaml
│   ├── fonts.yaml
│   ├── launchpad_layout.yaml
│   ├── macos_general.yaml
│   ├── macos_system.yaml
│   └── taps.yaml
├── globals.yaml
└── software.yaml

Similarly, you can structure your files in any way you like as you have the ability to reference any file in any location.

And your primary Python build script (in this case named macbuild.py) should be laid out as follows:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
from elite import Config, automate


@automate()
def main(elite, printer):
    # Load a configuration file
    config = Config('config/software.yaml')

    # You may use the printer to print headings and sub-headings
    printer.heading('Desktop Software')
    printer.info('Sublime Text')

    # You may access top level keys in your config using dot notation and
    # deeper keys as dicts
    sublime_cask_name = config.sublime_text['cask']
    elite.cask(name=sublime_cask_name, state='latest')

    # You may use the options context manager to alter the behaviour of actions
    with elite.options(sudo=True):
        # Actions return responses that you can use to take further action
        response = elite.run(command='ls -l')
        if 'scary' in response.data['stdout']:
            elite.fail(message='oh no, we better go!')


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

You may thn run this script as follows:

sudo ./macbuild.py

Note: Elite requires sudo privileges so that it may appropriately elevate priveleges when requested to do so (using elite.options(sude=True)), but will otherwise demote running of all actions to your current user account.

For a complete pattern for how Elite may be used, please see my macbuild project on GitHub.

Detailed documentation for Elite will be written in the near future. In the meantime, please refer to the Quick Start guide above and the codebase itself for usage information.

Elite is released under the MIT license. Please see the LICENSE file for more details.