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flowlayer

Introduction

// Getting Startedguide

FlowLayer is a local development orchestrator. It launches host processes from a single config, computes deterministic startup waves, and manages lifecycle from boot to shutdown.

What FlowLayer is not

Section titled “What FlowLayer is not”
  • Not Kubernetes.
  • Not a production process supervisor.
  • Not Docker-aware.

FlowLayer can run commands that call Docker or other tools, but it does not manage containers as a first-class runtime.

Architecture at a glance

Section titled “Architecture at a glance”

FlowLayer uses two separate binaries:

  • FlowLayer server (flowlayer-server): runtime source of truth for service state, orchestration, and logs.
  • Official TUI client (flowlayer-client-tui): external client that observes runtime state and sends commands.

The server owns runtime truth. The TUI owns presentation and user interaction.

Session API model

Section titled “Session API model”
  • The HTTP API is available only when a session bind is enabled.
  • Runtime interactions are command/event messages over WebSocket, not REST actions.
  • Current HTTP surface is intentionally small: GET /health and GET /ws (WebSocket upgrade), both protected by Bearer token auth.

See Protocol for WebSocket message contracts.

How to use these docs

Section titled “How to use these docs”