Encore

What is Encore?

Encore is a comprehensive backend development platform that combines an open source framework with optional cloud automation capabilities. It eliminates the complexity of traditional DevOps workflows by enabling developers to declare infrastructure directly within their application code using Go or TypeScript. Rather than maintaining separate Terraform configurations or Kubernetes YAML files, developers write type-safe backend code that Encore parses and automatically translates into provisioned cloud infrastructure. The platform provides a unified local development environment that mirrors production setups, complete with integrated observability, service catalogs, and architecture diagrams. Developers deploy to their own AWS or GCP accounts without vendor lock-in, while the optional Encore Cloud platform automates infrastructure provisioning, security policies, and DevOps workflows.

Key Features

• Declarative Infrastructure in Code

  Define microservices, databases, Pub/Sub topics, cron jobs, and other cloud resources directly in your application code as type-safe objects, eliminating the need for separate Terraform or YAML configurations.

• Local Development Environment

  Run your entire distributed system locally with a single command, complete with databases, services, and infrastructure primitives that perfectly mirror your cloud environment.

• Automatic Infrastructure Provisioning

  Connect your AWS or GCP account and Encore automatically provisions all necessary cloud resources including VPCs, subnets, security groups, databases, and compute infrastructure.

• Built-in Observability & Debugging

  Integrated distributed tracing, service catalog, API documentation, and architecture diagrams provide complete visibility into your system without additional tools.

• Zero-Config Deployment

  Deploy to preview or production environments directly from your repository with automatic infrastructure orchestration and no manual DevOps configuration required.

• Least-Privilege Security

  Automatically generates minimal IAM permissions based on your code, ensuring applications follow security best practices without manual policy configuration.

Use Cases

• Microservices Development : Build event-driven, scalable distributed systems using type-safe service definitions that automatically handle inter-service communication and resource management.
• Rapid Backend Prototyping : Quickly prototype and deploy backend services with minimal infrastructure boilerplate, allowing developers to focus on business logic rather than cloud configuration.
• Cost-Efficient Cloud Operations : Reduce DevOps workload by 90% and cloud spending through automated resource optimization and efficient infrastructure generation without unnecessary configuration overhead.
• Cross-Cloud Backend Development : Develop backend applications with portability across AWS and GCP, with most code remaining standard Go or TypeScript without cloud-specific bindings.
• Type-Safe API Development : Create production-ready APIs with end-to-end type safety, automatic schema validation, and generated client libraries for frontend integration.

FAQs