Astro IDE overview

The Astro IDE provides a browser-based workspace for Apache Airflow. In the IDE, you can write dag code, validate and test changes, and deploy or push your work directly, without a local development environment.

What is the Astro IDE?

The Astro IDE is an integrated development environment designed specifically for Airflow dag development. The AI features help write and edit dag code with awareness of your Airflow version, existing repository patterns, and Deployment environment. The Astro IDE has additional features that help you build, test, and ship dags directly in the browser.

Why use the Astro IDE?

General-purpose AI tools generate dag code without understanding the specifics of your project, often resulting in output that requires significant modification. Traditional dag development also demands manual local configuration and container management, which slows iteration. Astro IDE removes these barriers, enabling you to:

• Write and update Airflow dags more efficiently, with context-aware code generation.
• Test and deploy code directly from the browser with no extra steps or tools required.
• Apply project rules to help maintain code quality.

Core features

• Domain-trained AI: Generate dag code that follows Airflow best practices, tailored to your project history, connections, and Astro Workspace. Learn more about authoring dags.
• No local setup required: Everything runs in the browser.
• Project checks and guardrails: Maintain project standards and code quality through linting and project rules. Add custom project rules.
• Integrated deployment and version control: Deploy to Astro and push changes to branches. See Deployment workflows.

What can you do with Astro IDE?

• Create new dags: Generate Airflow-compliant code, including common operators and projects, with AI assistance. How to author dags.
• Update and refactor: Edit existing dags, including performing Airflow version upgrades.
• Import projects: Bring code into the IDE from any supported Git provider:
  • Import from GitHub using the Astro GitHub integration.
  • Import from any Git provider manually.
  • Import a local project with the Astro CLI.
• Customize and extend: Build custom operators or orchestrate dbt projects using Cosmos.
• Test and deploy: Start ephemeral test Deployments for quick feedback and deploy changes to Astro or GitHub. See test and run code, deploy code to Astro, and deploy code to git.

To get started, see the IDE quickstart.