Better Late Than Never: Announcing Ramble, A Nomad Job & Pack Registry

General Programming Nomad Go OpenSource Personal Thoughts

Back in 2021, I had an idea. What if there was a better way to share and discover Nomad job files and Nomad Packs? What if we could make it as easy to find a production-ready Nomad configuration as it is to find a Docker image? We needed a helm like repository for Nomad

That idea became Ramble -- Github Repo.

Today, after multiple restarts, countless refactorings, and a journey that taught me Go from the ground up, I'm finally ready to share it.

The Journey That Almost Wasn't

I'll be honest: Ramble has been restarted more times than I care to count. Each restart came as I learned something new about Go, about web development, about what I was trying to build. There were moments when I questioned whether it would ever see the light of day.

Then last year, something changed. While out running, I had a health scare that put me on the sidelines for a year. No exercising, just time to think. By the end of the year, I'd come to a simple conclusion: I needed to either finish the things I'd started, or stop pretending I would.

So over the break, I made it happen. Ramble is now open source and ready for the community.

What Is Ramble?

Ramble is a registry for HashiCorp Nomad job files and Nomad Packs. Think of it as a discovery platform where you can:

  • Easily discover and share Nomad job specifications and Packs
  • Search interactively with live search-as-you-type powered by HTMX
  • Navigate quickly with a responsive, SPA-like experience built on server-side rendering
  • Manage your contributions with user accounts and session-based authentication

It's built with Go, Fiber, and HTMX.

The Tech Behind It

For those curious about the stack:

  • Backend: Go 1.25 with Fiber v2
  • Database: PostgreSQL with GORM
  • Frontend: HTMX, Hyperscript, and Tailwind CSS
  • Templating: Go's html/template

The combination gives fast, server-rendered pages with interactive elements.

A Journey Made Possible by Others

No project like this happens in isolation, and I owe thanks to several people who made this possible:

Mike Nomitch, for those early conversations when Ramble was just an idea bouncing around in my head.

The entire Nomad Engineering team at HashiCorp, who put up with me for years and taught me so much about building distributed systems.

Jonathan Vermeulen, for helping me develop the idea and for sharing my passion for making Nomad more accessible.

Peter Wilson, for coaching me through learning Go and being incredibly patient when my code was, let's be kind and say, "a work in progress."

What's Next?

Ramble is out there now at https://ramble.openwander.org and github.com/open-wander/ramble. It's ready for you to try out, use, to contribute to, to make better. I am sure i have made mistakes and I hope that you will help me make it better. And it needs to start being populated

Getting Started

Want to try it out? You have a few options:

Local Development:

1git clone https://github.com/open-wander/ramble.git
2cd ramble
3export DATABASE_URL="host=localhost user=postgres password=postgres dbname=rmbl port=5432 sslmode=disable"
4make run

Using Docker:

1docker build -t ramble .
2docker run -p 3000:3000 -e DATABASE_URL="your-db-url" ramble

The server will start on http://localhost:3000, and you'll need Go 1.25+ and PostgreSQL to run it locally.

I've also included:

  • A self-hosting guide
  • Docker support for easy containerized deployment
  • Example Nomad job files to get you started creating packs and job specs.
  • Full documentation in the repository

Whether you're a Nomad user looking for an easier way to share configurations, or someone who is a more experienced programmer than I am, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Better Late Than Never

Looking back, I'm glad I didn't give up on this. The restarts weren't wasted time; they were part of learning. The health scare that forced me to slow down? It gave me the perspective I needed to finish what I started.

Sometimes the best way forward is to stop pretending and start doing.

If you're working with Nomad, give Ramble a try. And if you're sitting on an idea that you keep restarting, maybe this is your sign to push through and finish it.

Because better late than never really is good enough.

Check out Ramble: https://ramble.openwander.org github.com/open-wander/ramble

Get Started: See the Self-Hosting Guide for deployment instructions.