Constructor — Lift and Change

2 min read

You have a working controller-runtime operator. The reconcile logic is solid. What you want to remove is the machinery around it — the manager, the workqueue, the scheme registration, the leader election setup, the metrics. Not rewrite the operator from scratch.

Option 04 is the lift-and-change path. The reconcile logic moves across unchanged. Only the signature changes.

ork init --pack from-controller-runtime
cd from-controller-runtime/04-constructor-migration

What you will learn

  • The exact signature change from controller-runtime to Orkestra constructor
  • What default: false means in the Katalog — the GenericReconciler is disabled, the constructor owns the loop
  • What the runtime provides that ctrl.NewManager previously handled
  • Why ctrl.Result{RequeueAfter: X} becomes a plain error return

The signature change

Before:

Reconcile(ctx context.Context, req ctrl.Request) (ctrl.Result, error)

After:

Reconcile(ctx context.Context, key string) error`

key is namespace/name — the same as req.String(). Everything inside the method body stays unchanged.

The struct changes from an embedded client.Client to Orkestra’s informer, kube, and ev fields. The constructor function (NewWebAppReconciler) is what the Katalog references. SetupWithManager is removed.

What you removed

ctrl.NewControllerManagedBy, SetupWithManager, scheme registration, main.go, leader election setup. Orkestra provides all of it — informer, workqueue, worker pool, panic recovery, Prometheus metrics, health endpoints, leader election.

ork migrate automates this

ork migrate ./controller/webapp_controller.go -o ./output

See 06 — ork migrate or run option 06 in the pack.

Try it

ork init --pack from-controller-runtime
cd from-controller-runtime/04-constructor-migration
# Follow steps in README

→ 05 — Constructor: Orkestra resources