> It is a configuration management tool, like Ansible?
Yes
> Is it meant for running one-off commands across the infrastructure, like Salt?
Also yes.
> It says it integrates with Terraform, so it's not a provisioning tool...
The TF integration is specifically to use TF as an inventory source - ie TF to create resources and pyinfra to then configure them.
> What does it do different (and presumably better) than other tools?
The homepage covers the highlights, I originally created pyinfra because debugging Ansible was complicated (no plain stderr as not "just" commands on the remote side) and slow, but things have evolved significantly since then.
> The Getting Started guide doesn't cover this. The FAQ doesn't cover this, and the Docs doesn't have an Introductory section to cover this.
Hugely appreciate this feedback, this is super helpful and something I will attempt to make clearer.
---
Quick attempt at a better explanation: You write Python code that defines operations (either state "this apt package should be installed" or stateless "run this command"), provide an inventory of targets (SSH, local machine) and pyinfra executes it.
Roughly sits where Ansible does for configuring servers, but also solves the case of "how do I run this command across my server fleet" (which I believe Ansible can also do).
Yes
> Is it meant for running one-off commands across the infrastructure, like Salt?
Also yes.
> It says it integrates with Terraform, so it's not a provisioning tool...
The TF integration is specifically to use TF as an inventory source - ie TF to create resources and pyinfra to then configure them.
> What does it do different (and presumably better) than other tools?
The homepage covers the highlights, I originally created pyinfra because debugging Ansible was complicated (no plain stderr as not "just" commands on the remote side) and slow, but things have evolved significantly since then.
> The Getting Started guide doesn't cover this. The FAQ doesn't cover this, and the Docs doesn't have an Introductory section to cover this.
Hugely appreciate this feedback, this is super helpful and something I will attempt to make clearer.
---
Quick attempt at a better explanation: You write Python code that defines operations (either state "this apt package should be installed" or stateless "run this command"), provide an inventory of targets (SSH, local machine) and pyinfra executes it.
Roughly sits where Ansible does for configuring servers, but also solves the case of "how do I run this command across my server fleet" (which I believe Ansible can also do).