@Marvin: i'm developing in a git branch and i've made changes affecting various flows. I would like to test that these flows run correctly when deployed and run on cloud infrastructure before actually merging my branch into main. Right now, this process is very manual: for each flow I have to create a new deployment in my deployment.yml that points to my current branch. Worse still, I have to account for that everywhere I call

run_deployment

in my code. Can you provide guidance on how to make this type of testing more automatic?

To streamline the process of testing your flows with changes from a specific git branch on cloud infrastructure, Prefect offers git-based storage for deployment. You can create a deployment using

prefect deploy

which will prompt you for details including the URL of your git repository and the branch name. This way, you don't manually need to edit the deployment YAML or change calls to

run_deployment

. Here is the recommended approach from the Prefect documentation: 1. Use Git-based Storage: Prefect supports git-based storage options like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket which provide redundancy, version control, and easier collaboration. 2. Create a Deployment with Git-based Storage: - Run

prefect deploy

from the root directory of your git repository. - During the prompts, select to create a new deployment, choose the flow code entrypoint, and name your deployment. - Confirm that you want to store your flow code in a git repository by selecting "y" when prompted, and then provide the URL of your git repository and the branch name. 3. Test Deployments Linked to Your Branch: With the deployment set up to reference your branch, you can trigger runs in the Prefect cloud that will utilize the code in your specific branch. More details can be found in the Prefect Deployment Storage Guide. For automations without creating deployments, refer to Prefect Automations, although it may not directly address your need to test deployments linked to git branches. Please note that setting up this git-based deployment will require your Prefect workers to have access to your git repository. Make sure to configure access appropriately so that workers can retrieve the flow's code to run it. If further customization or help is needed, it might be worth searching for relevant discussions or issues on Prefect's GitHub repository.

@Marvin: I am currently using Docker-based storage. Are you saying that I need to switch to git based storage?

No, it's not necessary to switch from Docker-based storage to git-based storage to achieve your objectives. Prefect allows for both Docker-based and git-based storage solutions, and each has its use cases. You can test your flows with changes in a specific git branch while still using Docker storage. However, the search on testing flows with Docker storage in association with git branches did not yield results explicitly describing how to achieve this. Generally, if you're using Docker storage, you would create a Docker image containing your flow code and Prefect environment, then tag it with a reference to your specific branch for testing purposes. While the documentation does not directly speak to your question about seamlessly testing branches with Docker storage, you could consider these steps for an automated solution: 1. Adjust Your CI/CD Pipeline: Introduce steps in your CI/CD system to automatically create a Docker image for your flow whenever you push to a specific branch. 2. Tag Images with the Branch Name: When building the Docker images, include the branch name in the tag. This way, you can reference these images in your testing environments. 3. Automate Deployment Updates: Use scripting or CI/CD tools to automatically update deployments or create temporary ones pointing to the newly built Docker images, reflecting changes on that branch. 4. Cleanup After Testing: Include steps in your CI/CD pipeline to remove temporary images and deployments after testing. To help build the Docker images automatically, Prefect provides commands and configurations that you can incorporate into your development pipeline. For example:

python
# Setting a default Docker namespace to omit it from the deployment image name
prefect config set PREFECT_DEFAULT_DOCKER_BUILD_NAMESPACE=<docker-registry-url>/<organization-or-username>

# Deploying and omitting the namespace from your image name
buy.deploy(
    name="my-code-baked-into-an-image-deployment",
    work_pool_name="my-docker-pool",
    image="my_image:my_image_tag" # your branch name could be part of the tag
)

For detailed information on using Docker storage with Prefect, refer to Prefect Deploy. Please let me know if you'd like to delve deeper into any of these steps, or if further assistance is required.