Moving Retool's CI from Azure Pipelines to Buildkite with Kubernetes

Retool has transitioned its continuous integration (CI) environment from Azure Pipelines to Buildkite, leveraging Kubernetes for both production and test environments to ensure consistency and efficiency in managing deployments. Infrastructure engineer Anna Yan spearheaded the project, opting for the Garden toolkit over other options like Tilt, due to its dual focus on supporting both developer environments and CI processes. This transition allowed Retool to gain granular insights into test metrics, enabling precise resource allocation. While acknowledging the challenges smaller companies might face in implementing similar setups, Anna emphasized the importance of choosing the right tools, like Buildkite for its flexibility and scalability. By aligning development and production environments through Kubernetes, Retool has streamlined its operations, allowing for effective knowledge transfer within its engineering team, and is now focusing on resolving test flakiness to further improve their infrastructure.