Drift · Documentation

drift Docs

Start

The tour, if you are new here.

The case for a smaller cloud.

Getting started

Nothing to deployed, in one command.

How a slice is put together.

The free grant, five unit prices, two rules.

Build

Serverless functions.

Write a function

The handler shape, and what you pay for.

Trigger, route, auth and secrets on one line.

Go, Python, Node, Ruby, PHP, Rust.

Runtime versions

Which interpreter version your function runs on.

The auth= gate, and per-route API keys.

Request headers

What reaches your handler, and what does not.

Queue-triggered and scheduled functions.

SSE and WebSocket from one function.

Outbound egress

What a slice may dial.

Limits and alerts

Timeout, memory and rate, and being told.

One language, one manifest, many functions.

The CLI surface

Every drift atomic command.

Secrets, data, blobs, queues.

JSON collections, upserted on _id.

Per-slice SQLite, with transactions.

Files and uploads, organised by bucket.

Encrypted config a function declares.

FIFO messages that trigger functions.

Key/value strings with a TTL.

Stop two workers doing one job.

In-slice pub/sub over WebSocket.

Static sites, same origin as your API.

Identity, devices and wallets.

Passwordless login with device keys.

Sign and verify with the slice's own key.

Ciphertext the slice cannot read.

Enroll a second device by attestation.

E2EE app data that follows an identity.

Tools

One binary, every noun.

The binary, and every noun.

Sign up, log in, delete.

Create, resize, snapshot, domains.

Deploy, diff, run locally.

Lint and explain a Driftfile.

One function at a time.

Reach into the data plane.

One read-only status command.

Deploy a static site.

Move off another cloud.

What bare drift opens.

Six languages, zero dependencies.

Writing a handler

Arguments, request, return.

Both namespaces, every call.

Documents, by _id or storage key.

Queries and transactions.

Strings with a TTL.

Read what the function declared.

Bytes, addressed bucket/key.

Push, and pull if you must.

A token you hand back.

Publish, and count who heard.

KeyAuth, JWT, Vault, Link, Pocket.

Logs, egress, cross-slice calls.

The same handler, six ways.

One file that describes your app.

Every top-level key, and the name rules.

A worked example

One app with every section written out.

Function limits, schedules, alerts, egress.

Collections, databases, buckets, secrets.

Sites, and the route each mounts on.

Custom hostnames the slice answers on.

One project, several slices, one file.

Lint it, hook a build on, read its errors.

Operate

Accounts, tokens and scopes.

Boundaries, sandboxing and hardening.

What is Drift?

Drift is a hyposcaler, a deliberately small cloud. Instead of a sprawling catalog of products and a console you need a certification to navigate, Drift gives you four composable building blocks that cover what most applications need: Atomic for compute, Backbone for data, Canvas for hosting, and Deed for identity. You declare what you want in one file and ship it with one command: no dashboards, no boilerplate, no infrastructure to babysit.

What you get out of the box

Custom domains. Your own hostnames, managed from the CLI.
Automatic TLS. Issued and renewed for you, on every domain.
No cold starts. Always running. It never scales to zero.
Same-origin API. Your site calls your functions. No CORS.
Encrypted secrets. Read fresh each call. Change one, no redeploy.
CLI-first. Deploy, inspect and roll back from the terminal.
Made in Europe. Privacy and transparent pricing by default.

Where to go next

Getting started takes you from nothing to a deployed app. Architecture explains what a slice is and how the four pillars fit together. What it costs has the free grant, the five unit prices, and the two rules that decide your number. Everything else is in the sidebar.