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Starform — Architecture & Design Hub

Starform is a developer PaaS — connect a Git repo, push, and it runs on managed Kubernetes with databases, object storage, env vars, observability, and usage-based billing attached. Launches on DigitalOcean (DOKS), kept cloud-portable by a ports/adapters design. The one principle: "Starbase decides, Shuttle applies" — everything flows through desired state.

Starbase decides · Shuttle applies — everything flows through desired state Source & edge Developer · Git repogit push CloudflareCDN · DNS · WAF · TLS edge DO Load Balancerper region Control-plane region · one region at MVP Starbase APIdecides what runs · query broker Starbase Workerbuilds · billing cron Stardeckdashboard DO PostgresStarbase DB DO Registryapp images Customer cluster · one or more per region Shuttleapplies desired state Customer workloadsyour pods Envoy GatewayHTTPRoute · L7 metrics vmagentscrapes metrics Fluent Bitlogs · DaemonSet Grafana Alloyplatform agent metrics-server+ kube-state-metrics Regional telemetry · DO VM droplets · private VPC VictoriaMetricscustomer metrics Vector aggregatorregional log fan-in ClickHouselogs + billing audit External SaaS Depotbuild · remote BuildKit Tigrisobject storage Stripepayments Grafana Cloudplatform self-monitoring push pull desired state · 30s traffic metrics logs platform

The system at a glance. Three planes — a control-plane region that decides what runs, regions with customer clusters + off-cluster telemetry, and external SaaS. The spine: "Starbase decides, Shuttle applies" — Shuttle reconciles every 30s.

Blue = desired-state / metrics · amber = logs · gray = traffic · dashed = external.

Full topology

  • Overview

    What Starform is, the anatomy of a deploy, system topology, the tech stack, and scaling.

  • Starbase

    The control plane — decides what runs: ports, RBAC, Starforge, billing, desired state, Var Groups.

  • Shuttle

    The per-cluster agent — makes each cluster match desired state, reconciling every 30s.

  • Stardeck

    The Next.js customer dashboard and Mission Control — the bird's-eye observability view.

  • Networking

    The per-region VPC, traffic path (Cloudflare → LB → Envoy → pod), Gateway API, and LB lifecycle.

  • Observability

    The self-contained build-and-operate guide for the telemetry pipeline — logs, metrics, runbooks.

  • Reference

    The canonical-sources index, glossary, open work, and the FR / SC catalog.

New here? Start with What Starform Is · Anatomy of a Deploy · Canonical Sources.