Earthly is a containerized build system and Docker build framework designed for creating reproducible build pipelines. It ensures environment consistency by executing every build step inside an isolated container, combining the isolation of container images with dependency tracking and parallel execution.
The system differentiates itself through a focus on hermeticity and multiplatform support, allowing for the generation of container images targeting multiple CPU architectures within a single execution flow. It maintains a hermetic build environment by isolating network access and utilizing a secret-mounting mechanism that injects sensitive data without persisting it in image layers.
The project covers a broad range of automation capabilities, including directed acyclic graph orchestration for parallel target execution and content-addressable distributed caching to avoid redundant computations. It further supports monorepo coordination, remote build execution on cloud infrastructure, and the orchestration of containerized integration tests.
Earthly provides the ability to inherit specifications from existing Dockerfiles to incorporate them into its own build pipelines.