drift Docs
Start
What is Drift?
The tour, if you are new here.
Why Drift?
The case for a smaller cloud.
Getting started
Nothing to deployed, in one command.
Architecture
How a slice is put together.
What it costs
The free grant, five unit prices, two rules.
Build
Atomic
Serverless functions.
Write a function
The handler shape, and what you pay for.
The directive
Trigger, route, auth and secrets on one line.
Six languages
Go, Python, Node, Ruby, PHP, Rust.
Runtime versions
Which interpreter version your function runs on.
Authentication
The auth= gate, and per-route API keys.
Request headers
What reaches your handler, and what does not.
Triggers
Queue-triggered and scheduled functions.
Streaming
SSE and WebSocket from one function.
Outbound egress
What a slice may dial.
Limits and alerts
Timeout, memory and rate, and being told.
Elements
One language, one manifest, many functions.
The CLI surface
Every drift atomic command.
Backbone
Secrets, data, blobs, queues.
NoSQL
JSON collections, upserted on _id.
SQL
Per-slice SQLite, with transactions.
Blobs
Files and uploads, organised by bucket.
Secrets
Encrypted config a function declares.
Queues
FIFO messages that trigger functions.
Cache
Key/value strings with a TTL.
Locks
Stop two workers doing one job.
Realtime
In-slice pub/sub over WebSocket.
Canvas
Static sites, same origin as your API.
Deed
Identity, devices and wallets.
KeyAuth
Passwordless login with device keys.
JWT
Sign and verify with the slice's own key.
Vault
Ciphertext the slice cannot read.
Link
Enroll a second device by attestation.
Pocket
E2EE app data that follows an identity.
Tools
CLI
One binary, every noun.
Reference
The binary, and every noun.
account
Sign up, log in, delete.
slice
Create, resize, snapshot, domains.
project
Deploy, diff, run locally.
file
Lint and explain a Driftfile.
atomic
One function at a time.
backbone
Reach into the data plane.
deed
One read-only status command.
canvas
Deploy a static site.
migrate
Move off another cloud.
Dashboard
What bare drift opens.
SDK
Six languages, zero dependencies.
Writing a handler
Arguments, request, return.
API reference
Both namespaces, every call.
NoSQL
Documents, by _id or storage key.
SQL
Queries and transactions.
Cache
Strings with a TTL.
Secrets
Read what the function declared.
Blobs
Bytes, addressed bucket/key.
Queues
Push, and pull if you must.
Locks
A token you hand back.
Realtime
Publish, and count who heard.
Deed
KeyAuth, JWT, Vault, Link, Pocket.
Utilities
Logs, egress, cross-slice calls.
Languages
The same handler, six ways.
Driftfile
One file that describes your app.
Anatomy
Every top-level key, and the name rules.
A worked example
One app with every section written out.
Atomic
Function limits, schedules, alerts, egress.
Backbone
Collections, databases, buckets, secrets.
Canvas
Sites, and the route each mounts on.
Domains
Custom hostnames the slice answers on.
Environments
One project, several slices, one file.
Deploying
Lint it, hook a build on, read its errors.
Operate
Auth
Accounts, tokens and scopes.
Security
Boundaries, sandboxing and hardening.

drift account

Your identity against the platform, a different thing from the auth your own app uses. Authentication keeps the three apart.

Command Description
drift account createSign up. Prompts for username, email, and password, then verifies by email. --invite-code is required while signup is invite-only.
drift account loginLog in and store a session
drift account reset-passwordEmails you a reset code, then walks you through setting a new password
drift account delete [--yes]Delete your account and everything tied to it: every slice, every record, all object storage. Irreversible; asks twice, and the second prompt makes you type your username.

Signing up

Signup is two steps. create posts your details, the platform emails an 8-digit code, and you type it back to finish. Under invite-only mode the invite code takes the place of that email check, so the CLI skips the prompt and says so.

Shell
$ drift account create --invite-code DRIFT-XXXX
Username: alice
Email: alice@example.com
Password: ********

Sending verification code...
Invite-only alpha: skipping email verification (your invite code is the gate).

An invite is minted for one email address, so a code that reached you by another route won't sign you up as someone else. For CI, pass --username, --email, and --password-stdin. Once you're logged in the CLI keeps your session and refreshes it for you; you won't be asked again on this machine.

--password leaks into ps and your shell history.

It exists and warns when you use it: the value lands in ps output and your shell history. --password-stdin is the one to reach for in CI.

The session on disk

Your login and active slice live in ~/.drift/session.json (mode 0600, inside a 0700 directory), bound to a per-machine device_id beside it. The active slice is preserved across logins. Every authenticated request carries:

  • Authorization: Bearer <jwt>, your identity
  • X-Slice: <active-slice>, the target slice

Tokens refresh automatically on a 401; if the refresh fails you're prompted to log in again. Authentication has the token pair's lifetimes and what happens when a spent refresh token is replayed.