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Architecture

Architecture Overview

The formae architecture differentiates itself from traditional tooling through:

  1. Active components that automate processes typically requiring manual intervention, reducing operational burden on users.

  2. Built-in IaC that tracks all system changes while maintaining an always up-to-date Infrastructure as Code representation internally.

These few design principles enable improved system maintainability, change tracking, and operational efficiency throughout the infrastructure lifecycle while directly addressing the limitations and inefficiencies of legacy tooling approaches.

CLI and API

The CLI and API components form the frontend of the system, providing a consistent interface for users and applications to interact with the platform. This design:

  • Supports multiple configuration languages (Pkl, JSON, YAML)
  • Maintains a uniform backend platform architecture
  • Enables high extensibility through standardized interfaces
  • Abstracts complexity away from users while preserving full functionality

Metastructure

The formae platform uses a concept called Metastructure - an internal representation that combines your infrastructure configuration with operational logic. This enables:

  • Active monitoring of infrastructure changes in real-time
  • Asynchronous application of changes that converge to your desired state
  • Complete versioning history, allowing you to take any infrastructure state (past or present), modify it, and apply it to any environment
  • Automatic tracking of changes made both inside and outside of formae

Unlike traditional IaC tools that only store static configuration, Metastructure maintains both the what (your infrastructure) and the how (the operations needed to manage it), enabling formae to continuously sync your actual infrastructure with your code.

Agent

The Agent is the actively running backend component of the formae platform, responsible for executing core system operations. Currently, the platform supports single-agent operation, with multi-agent distribution planned for future releases.

Key characteristics of the Agent include:

  • Central execution engine for platform operations
  • Maintains state and handles resource management
  • Processes requests from the CLI and API interfaces
  • Manages the metastructure implementation

The formae Agent can be deployed in two ways:

  1. Cloud Deployment - Deploying a formae Agent into a cloud account as a service is the standard approach for production environments

  2. Local Operation - The service can also be fully operated on a local computer, whether on a developer's machine or a CI/CD node

Datastore

The Agent utilizes a datastore for persistence. The datastore implementation can vary depending on deployment requirements:

  • SQLite - the default datastore option, suitable for both local and production deployments
  • Postgres - alternative datastore rather suited for production deployments
  • Additional datastore implementations planned for future releases