BaseHarbor

One application contract. Replaceable infrastructure.

A command-line tool that turns "I just want to build an app" into provisioned, secured, verified infrastructure — on your own machine, no vendor, no lock-in.

The problem

You know the drill. You want to build an app — and before the first feature works, you are configuring a database container, networking, ports, secrets, TLS, identity, backups and a monitoring stack.

BaseHarbor takes that work off your plate. It is a normal CLI — deterministic, no AI involved:

baha app init      # adopt your existing repo, or plan a new app
baha up            # provision, connect, secure, verify
baha status        # done — with evidence, not guesswork

Your app ends up at a stable, verified HTTPS URL (demo.baha.localhost by default), with identity, secrets and metrics on their own canonical hostnames — no port hunting, no certificate setup.

Your app receives normal bindings (DATABASE_URL, REDIS_URL, S3_ENDPOINT, OIDC_ISSUER, …) and keeps using its normal libraries. BaseHarbor is not a framework, not a PaaS, and never touches your code.

If you know Terraform, you already understand BaseHarbor

Terraform made infrastructure declarative: describe what you need, and it provisions it and keeps it from drifting — on AWS, Azure or GCP, without rewriting your code.

BaseHarbor does the same — one layer up, for your application's needs instead of raw infrastructure:

Terraform:   "I need a VM, a network, a DNS record."
BaseHarbor:  "My app needs SQL, a cache, secrets, object storage,
              identity, HTTPS exposure — provision it, wire it up, verify it."

Your baseharbor.yaml is the HCL of your application. Change the Target, keep the contract: Docker / Podman today, Kubernetes later — the way the same Terraform file targets different clouds.

BaseHarbor is not Terraform and does not replace it. It answers a question Terraform deliberately never covered: not "does the resource exist?" but "does the application actually work?"

What you get

• Create new applications — baha app new turns capability intent into a normal Go, Next.js, Python or Quarkus project, validates it, and keeps ecosystem-native libraries instead of introducing a BaseHarbor app framework.
• Multi-repo workspaces — one logical application can span monorepos, multiple existing worktrees and OCI components; guided workspace mapping keeps local checkout paths out of portable intent. baha app workspace status and fast-forward-only workspace update provide safe Git synchronization without hiding normal Git decisions.
• Adopt existing repositories — baha inspects your code, dependencies, workload sources and ports deterministically (parsers, rules, repository evidence — no LLM or external AI service). v0.4.20 understands Compose, repository-authored Podman Quadlet and raw Kubernetes YAML through one source-neutral evidence model, while keeping source syntax out of portable intent.
• Declare needs, not products — SQL, cache, durable key-value, document database, queue/pub-sub/stream messaging, secrets, object storage, identity and HTTPS exposure are logical capabilities; PostgreSQL, Valkey, MongoDB, RabbitMQ, S3-compatible storage and Keycloak are replaceable realizations underneath.
• Resource-aware local mutation — Docker/Podman preflight checks host memory headroom before starting providers/workloads; future Kubernetes/OpenShift providers use cluster-native capacity/quota/scheduling evidence instead of CLI-host memory.
• Everything wired and verified — provisioning, credentials, TLS, bindings, backups, updates, drift detection. READY means the real protocol/data flow was verified, not just that a container is up.
• Shared providers, isolated resources — one Target-owned provider can serve many applications while databases, cache resources, credentials, bindings and destroy ownership remain application-isolated. application shared | external placement, failing closed when unsupported.
• Managed identity — provider-neutral OIDC/OAuth2 with managed Keycloak or external providers, exposure-derived redirect/logout URIs, portable MFA/passkey policy, Service Binding 1.1 projection.
• Canonical local development access — one Target-scoped domain (default baha.localhost) with deterministic HTTPS names such as my-app.baha.localhost, pgadmin.baha.localhost, auth.baha.localhost — instead of exposing random loopback ports as developer UX.
• Optional provider management surfaces — pgAdmin, Redis Commander, Mongo Express, RabbitMQ Management, SeaweedFS Admin, OpenBao, Keycloak and Prometheus, selected per capability, never duplicated per application, environment-policy driven.
• Deployment Targets — Target + Application + Environment, with target-scoped state; Docker / Podman today, Kubernetes / OpenShift planned.
• Environment-aware operator access — trusted local operation in dev; authenticated OIDC operator access in test/prod, separate from application-user identity.
• Standard interfaces only — PostgreSQL · Redis/Valkey · MongoDB · AMQP 0-9-1 · S3 · HTTP · OIDC/OAuth2 · OTLP · environment variables · files. No BaseHarbor SDK, no imports in your app.
• Zero-trust by default — least privilege, scoped credentials, explicit trust boundaries, fail-closed behavior.

Runtime status: Docker and Podman are implemented Runtime Providers behind the same portable contract. Repository understanding is separate from runtime realization: v0.4.20 can inspect/adopt Compose, repository-authored Quadlet and raw Kubernetes YAML. The current repository-workload realization path remains Compose-based for Docker/Podman; Podman realizes that portable workload through native Quadlet units managed by rootless systemd --user. Kubernetes and OpenShift Runtime Providers are planned and are not implemented yet.

A CLI first — agent-ready if you want it

BaseHarbor is a command-line tool that automates your infrastructure work. Commands such as inspect, init, plan, up, status, doctor and policy checks are deterministic BaseHarbor functionality implemented in code. It has nothing to do with AI — unless you want it to:

baha agent describe -o json
baha mcp serve

The same operations you run by hand are exposed as structured JSON and a local MCP interface. That is the only place AI enters the picture: if you use an AI agent, it can operate BaseHarbor through these bounded, verified operations instead of raw shell access. No generic shell, no Docker socket, no unrestricted runtime execution. The MCP interface is an optional integration surface — it does not change how BaseHarbor detects, plans or verifies infrastructure. Without an agent, none of this matters: it is just a CLI doing work for you.

The coverage matrix lists every supported command, its JSON/MCP equivalent and explicit host or presentation modes. Automation examples cover protected secret files, workspaces, trust and control-plane operations. Extension publishers can run the public conformance profile; artifact verification and trust policy remain separate checks.

Application contract

The application describes what it needs, not how infrastructure must be implemented:

version: 1

app:
  name: my-app
  environment: production

services:
  sql:
    enabled: true

  cache:
    enabled: true

  object_storage:
    buckets:
      uploads: {}

  identity:
    enabled: true

secrets:
  required:
    - name: APP_SECRET

BaseHarbor exposes normal application-facing bindings such as:

DATABASE_URL
REDIS_URL
VALKEY_URL
S3_ENDPOINT
S3_BUCKET
OIDC_ISSUER
OIDC_CLIENT_ID
OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET_FILE
OIDC_CA_FILE
APP_SECRET

Your application keeps using native ecosystem clients, protocols and frameworks — standard OIDC libraries, standard database drivers, no BaseHarbor SDK.

Local development access

For dev, BaseHarbor keeps local access predictable without changing the portable application contract.

The effective Target owns one development domain, defaulting to baha.localhost. Browser-facing application and provider surfaces receive deterministic HTTPS names such as:

my-app.baha.localhost
pgadmin.baha.localhost
auth.baha.localhost
secrets.baha.localhost
metrics.baha.localhost

Docker serves these canonical development hosts on HTTPS port 443. Rootless Podman uses the fixed unprivileged HTTPS port 8443 and reports that port in canonical URLs; no host sysctl change is required.

A Target- and environment-scoped development account defaults to username developer, but the username is configurable. Its generated strong password and identity are reused across selected development management surfaces. When managed Identity is present, the same developer identity is reconciled through OIDC. The password is never printed by normal status, doctor, plan or evidence output. Test and prod do not use this shared development credential; they keep the authenticated operator-OIDC boundary.

Use the explicit commands when you need to inspect or change local development access:

baha dev domain
baha dev domain dev.example.internal
baha dev credentials
baha dev credentials --username USER
baha dev credentials --reset

What BaseHarbor is not

• Not a PaaS — self-hosted, runs on your Docker or Podman, no vendor.
• Not a framework — your code stays normal Go/Python/Node; no SDK, no BaseHarbor APIs in your app.
• Not a Kubernetes distribution — Docker/Podman today; Kubernetes is a future runtime for the same contract.
• Not an AI product — a deterministic CLI that automates infrastructure; agents can optionally drive it via MCP.
• Not Terraform — it does not manage cloud resources; it is the declarative layer above them, for your application.

Security is behavior

BaseHarbor does not treat security as a label. Current behavior includes:

• deny-by-default and fail-closed decisions;
• scoped application/runtime credentials;
• bucket-scoped S3 credentials;
• application-scoped runtime identities;
• standard OIDC application identity with file-based trust material for managed/private issuers;
• authenticated BaseHarbor operator boundaries for test/prod, separate from application-user identity;
• explicit directional cross-application connectivity;
• protected deployment state;
• real protocol/data-flow readiness checks;
• workload preflight checks for risky Compose settings such as privileged mode, runtime sockets, host networking, dangerous capabilities, devices and critical host mounts.

Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mcpdev80/baseharbor/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
baha version

Learn more

• Documentation home
• Getting started
• Architecture
• Application contract
• Providers
• Targets and deployment destinations
• CLI reference
• Normative specifications
• Roadmap

Project status

BaseHarbor is pre-v1. Manifest v1 is the current v0.4 compatibility surface.

Docker and Podman are the implemented Runtime Providers today. The portable application contract uses logical workload components rather than source-native Compose/Quadlet/Kubernetes identity. Compose is currently the realizable repository-workload source for Docker/Podman; raw Kubernetes and repository-authored Quadlet can already be inspected/adopted but require future realization support. Kubernetes and OpenShift remain future runtime tracks and must preserve the same application contract when implemented.

Normal feature, fix, chore and dependency pull requests target develop. The main branch represents released source.

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.