README.md
<b>Encore: Infrastructure orchestration from local to your cloud</b>
</p>Encore is the infrastructure platform for the intelligence era, where engineers and AI agents build production systems without waiting on infrastructure. Run and validate with real infrastructure locally and in preview environments, then deploy to your own AWS or GCP account.
It has two parts that work together:
encore run starts the whole system locally with real Postgres, real Pub/Sub semantics, and distributed tracing.You can also use just the SDK and provision everything yourself with Terraform or any other tool.
import { SQLDatabase } from "encore.dev/storage/sqldb";
import { Topic } from "encore.dev/pubsub";
import { Bucket } from "encore.dev/storage/objects";
// Define a Postgres database
const db = new SQLDatabase("users", { migrations: "./migrations" });
// Define a Pub/Sub topic
const signups = new Topic<SignupEvent>("signups", {
deliveryGuarantee: "at-least-once"
});
// Define an object storage bucket
const avatars = new Bucket("avatars", { versioned: true });
Each declaration becomes a node in Encore's application graph. Encore runs the migrations and stands up local equivalents on encore run, and provisions the cloud equivalents on deploy:
| Resource | Local | AWS | GCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| SQL Database | Postgres | RDS | Cloud SQL |
| Pub/Sub | NSQ | SNS + SQS | Cloud Pub/Sub |
| Object Storage | Local FS | S3 | GCS |
| Cache | Redis | ElastiCache | Memorystore |
| Cron | Manually triggered | Encore Cloud | Encore Cloud |
| Secrets | Encore vault | Secrets Manager | Secret Manager |
| Compute | Local | Fargate / EKS | Cloud Run / GKE |
When you push a change that adds or modifies a resource, Encore diffs the application graph against the environment, provisions whatever is missing in your AWS or GCP account, and rolls out the new code against it.
Encore separates application semantics from environment-specific configuration. In code, you define what resources your app needs, not how each environment should configure them. That keeps services portable across clouds, regions, accounts, scale profiles, and local development.
Encore provisions every resource with sane production defaults, then helps you manage configuration separately from your application code:
| Language | Docs |
|---|---|
| TypeScript | encore.dev/docs/ts |
| Go | encore.dev/docs/go |
| Python | Coming soon |
The same infrastructure model runs locally, in per-PR preview environments, and in production:
encore run starts the whole system locally: real Postgres, real Pub/Sub semantics, type-safe service-to-service calls, plus a local dashboard with distributed tracing. Infrastructure namespaces let multiple branches or agents work in parallel with isolated state. This lets you validate changes with real infrastructure semantics before pushing code.With this workflow, the fail-loop moves from "push, wait, fix" to "run locally, see it work, push." This tight loop makes Encore particularly effective with AI coding agents, since every change can be validated with real infrastructure immediately after each code change. See the Development Workflow docs for more.
You don't need a rewrite, and you don't need to use Encore for every part of your system.
Start with a low-risk, frequently-changed service. See the migration guide for the full playbook.
Encore is designed to make leaving easy. 99% of your code is regular Go or TypeScript, so there's not much to rewrite. See the migrate-away guide for more.
Encore integrates at the application layer, which means a few constraints to be clear about up front:
encore build docker works on any provider.| Tool | What it does | How Encore differs |
|---|---|---|
| Pulumi / CDK / Terraform / SST | Infrastructure-as-Code for provisioning cloud resources | Infrastructure is generated from your application code, so the same code runs locally and deploys to AWS or GCP. |
| Convex / Supabase / Firebase | Managed backend-as-a-service platforms | Runs in your own AWS or GCP account. No vendor lock-in. |
| Render / Fly.io / Railway / Vercel | PaaS-style deployment platforms | Deploys to your own cloud account, not a managed runtime. |
encore app create # scaffold a project
cd myapp
encore run # run locally with provisioned infra + dev dashboard
Install Encore:
brew install encoredev/tap/encorecurl -L https://encore.dev/install.sh | bashiwr https://encore.dev/install.ps1 | iexFull walkthrough in the Quickstart guide.
Encore is built for AI-assisted development. When you run encore app create, you can pick your AI tool (Cursor, Claude Code, etc.) and Encore generates the right rules files for it, plus configures an MCP server that lets agents introspect your app: services, APIs, databases, traces. Combined with the fast local-to-preview-env iteration loop above, agents can validate their own changes end-to-end against real infrastructure instead of guessing.
See the AI integration docs for more details.
The Encore CLI ships a local dashboard for inspecting services, APIs, traces, databases, Pub/Sub messages, and architecture diagrams in real time. Run encore run and it is there at localhost:9400.
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/461b902f-8fd3-46f1-a73c-0ebbfa789ce3
Encore Cloud is the optional managed platform. It connects to your AWS or GCP account and provisions the resources your code declares in your own VPC. Other features:
See pricing for details.
You can also skip the platform entirely. Run encore build docker to produce a standalone image and supply your own infra config (provisioned via Terraform, Pulumi, or any other tool). See the self-hosting guide.
200+ Teams are already shipping production apps with Encore, including: Groupon, Echo.xyz (a Coinbase company), Bookshop.org, Gradient Labs, Ashby, Later.com, Pallet, Pave Bank, and Playwire. Use cases span AI, fintech, logistics, commerce, web3, and more. See case studies to learn more.
Encore is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.
The framework, parser, compiler, runtime, CLI, and everything needed to develop, build, and self-host an Encore application is Open Source. Encore Cloud, the optional managed deployment platform, is a commercial service.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for additional details.