drift Docs
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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.

backbone

Direct access to the slice's data primitives, for inspection and one-off fixes. Your functions reach the same data through the SDK.

Secrets

Command Description
drift backbone secret set KEY=VALUEStore a secret (encrypted at rest, AES-256-GCM)
drift backbone secret get KEYRetrieve a secret's value
drift backbone secret listList secret names
drift backbone secret delete KEYDelete a secret

NoSQL

Command Description
drift backbone nosql write --collection C --data '{...}'Write a JSON document to a collection
drift backbone nosql read --key K [--collection C]Read a document by key
drift backbone nosql list [--collection C] [--field F --value V] [--limit N]List documents, optionally filtered by a field
drift backbone nosql drop <collection>Delete a collection and all its documents

--limit defaults to 100 and is clamped to 1–1000. read takes the _key the platform assigned, which you get from list, not your own _id.

SQL

Per-slice SQLite databases are declared in the Driftfile and used from the SDK; from the CLI you can inspect and drop them.

Command Description
drift backbone sql listList the slice's SQL databases
drift backbone sql drop <name>Delete a database (and reset its seed on next deploy)

Cache

Command Description
drift backbone cache set <key> <value> [--ttl 3600]Set a cache entry (TTL in seconds, 0 = no expiry)
drift backbone cache get <key>Read a cache entry
drift backbone cache exists <key>Check whether a key exists
drift backbone cache del <key>Delete a cache entry

Queues

Command Description
drift backbone queue push <name> '<json>'Push a JSON message onto a queue
drift backbone queue peek <name>Read the next message without removing it
drift backbone queue pop <name>Take the next message (destructive)
drift backbone queue len <name>Print the queue depth
drift backbone queue drop <name>Delete a queue and all its messages

A dead-letter queue is an ordinary queue named <queue>-dlq, so the same commands drain it.

Blobs

Command Description
drift backbone blob put <bucket> <key> <file>Upload a file to a bucket
drift backbone blob get <bucket> <key>Download a blob (streams to stdout)
drift backbone blob list <bucket>List keys in a bucket
drift backbone blob delete <bucket> <key>Delete a blob

A key containing a slash never appears in a listing.

list reads only the top level of a bucket, so a key containing a slash never appears, and a snapshot walks the same listing, so it is absent from the archive too. Keep keys flat.

Locks

Command Description
drift backbone lock acquire <name> <owner> [--ttl 30]Acquire a named lock (conflicts if it is held)
drift backbone lock renew <name> <owner> [--ttl 30]Extend a lock's TTL
drift backbone lock release <name> <owner>Release a named lock

The CLI names the owner itself, which is what lets renew exist here and not in the SDK because every SDK Acquire mints a fresh token, so a function cannot extend a lock it holds.

Status

Command Description
drift backbone statusPer-subsystem health: cache entries, NoSQL disk, queue depths, blob counts, active locks