Consolidates the architectural conversations that followed the v1.1.0
release but haven't yet landed in the blueprint or in code. Six topic
areas, each with status + open calls:
1. Messaging primitives — invoke vs pub/sub vs queue, recipient
model and delivery semantics
2. Universal trigger outbox — async dispatch substrate for every
event source (sync HTTP excepted, see #3)
3. NATS-style sync HTTP — per-request inbox + oneshot channel lets
sync HTTP ride the outbox without losing the response path
4. Dead-letter handling — separate table, dead_letter trigger kind,
recursion stop rule, retention defaults
5. Realtime updates — SSE-based external subscription to per-app
pub/sub topics with opt-in exposure
6. Frontend client library — hybrid model (TS lib that talks to
dev-defined script endpoints, not to services)
Plus a revised v1.1.x roadmap: realtime adds at v1.1.6 (was Config &
Email), shifting later items by one to v1.1.9 (was v1.1.8).
20 open calls consolidated at the bottom, numbered for reference.
Document is meant to be pruned as decisions ship; deleted entirely
when v1.1.9 lands.
No blueprint changes yet — those wait for the open calls to be
answered and the corresponding PRs to ship.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
PiCloud
A lightweight, self-hosted, event-driven serverless compute platform. Upload a Rhai script, get an HTTP endpoint. Designed to run on a single modest server with no idle CPU cost, and to scale out to a small cluster when you need it.
Status: Phase 1 — MVP scaffolding in progress.
The authoritative design lives in
serverless_cloud_blueprint.md.
Why
Existing serverless platforms are either cloud-locked, heavyweight, or both. PiCloud aims for the opposite end of the spectrum: one binary, one database, one reverse proxy — running on hardware you already own.
Architecture (one paragraph)
PiCloud splits into three logical services — manager (control plane: scripts, schedules, dashboard), orchestrator (per-node event ingress and dispatch), and executor (per-node Rhai sandbox) — each backed by a *-core Rust library. In MVP they run in a single process; in cluster mode they run as three binaries with one manager and one orchestrator + executor per node. Caddy fronts everything; PostgreSQL is the single source of truth.
See CLAUDE.md for working notes and serverless_cloud_blueprint.md for the full design.
Quick Start
Coming as scaffolding lands. For now:
# Rust toolchain (pinned via rust-toolchain.toml)
cargo check --workspace
# Run the all-in-one MVP binary (once main.rs is wired up)
cargo run -p picloud
Repository Layout
crates/
shared/ cross-cutting types
executor-core/ Rhai engine + sandbox
orchestrator-core/ event ingress, dispatch
manager-core/ control plane
picloud/ MVP all-in-one binary
picloud-{manager,orchestrator,executor}/ cluster-mode binaries (skeleton)
dashboard/ SvelteKit
caddy/ Caddyfile
docker/ Dockerfiles
docs/
git-workflow.md Trunk-based workflow
Contributing
See docs/git-workflow.md for the branching and commit conventions. TL;DR: trunk-based, short-lived branches, Conventional Commits, no force-pushing main.
License
TBD.