SaaS Controller

Multi-cloud service orchestration for devenv. Declarative service definitions with pluggable providers. Manages local dev (sc up with Tailscale HTTPS) and cloud deployment (sc deploy).

Architecture

Providers own the full service lifecycle. Each provider generates its own docker-compose stack with a Tailscale sidecar for HTTPS on the tailnet.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  saas-controller                      │
│                                                       │
│  ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │              Providers (WHAT)                   │  │
│  │  Each provider owns up() + deploy()            │  │
│  ├────────────────────────────────────────────────┤  │
│  │  zuplo          │ API gateway + docs portal    │  │
│  │  docker-compose │ Generic compose stacks       │  │
│  │  [your own]     │ via externalProviders        │  │
│  └────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
│                                                       │
│  sc up topology (per service):                        │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐        │
│  │ docker-compose stack                      │        │
│  │  ┌───────────┐  ┌──────────────────────┐ │        │
│  │  │ tailscale │  │ app container(s)     │ │        │
│  │  │ sidecar   │◀─│ network_mode:        │ │        │
│  │  │           │  │   service:tailscale  │ │        │
│  │  │ HTTPS:443 │  │ PORT=3000            │ │        │
│  │  └───────────┘  └──────────────────────┘ │        │
│  │  URL: https://sc-<slug>-<service>.<tailnet> │     │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────┘        │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Import

# devenv.yaml
imports:
  - github:afterthought/saas-controller

Or as a flake input:

# flake.nix
inputs.saas-controller.url = "github:afterthought/saas-controller";
# In your devenv module:
imports = [ inputs.saas-controller.outPath ];

Example A: Minimal Service

A hello-world service running locally with Tailscale HTTPS:

# devenv.nix
{ pkgs, lib, config, ... }:
{
  imports = [ /* saas-controller module */ ];

  saas-controller.services.hello-world = {
    enable = true;
    provider = "hello-world";
    providerConfig = {
      path = "examples/hello-world";  # dir with server.mjs + Dockerfile
    };
    environments = {
      local.enable = true;
    };
  };
}

sc up              # Starts compose stack with tailscale sidecar
                   # Prints: https://sc-<slug>-hello-world.<tailnet>:443

Example B: Zuplo Gateway with Secrets

A Zuplo API gateway with secretspec profiles, multiple environments, and secret management:

{ pkgs, lib, config, ... }:
{
  imports = [ /* saas-controller module */ ];

  saas-controller.services.my-gateway = {
    enable = true;
    displayName = "My API Gateway";
    provider = "zuplo";
    providerConfig = {
      project = "my-gateway";       # Zuplo project name
      account = "my-account";       # Zuplo account
      path = "services/my-gateway"; # Path to zuplo project in repo
    };

    environments = {
      local.enable = true;
      production.enable = true;
      preview.enable = true;
    };

    # Secret management
    secretspec = {
      auth.provider = "client-myorg";  # SecretSpec provider alias
      auth.saToken = "client-myorg";   # 1Password SA token alias
      environments = {
        local = {
          serviceProfiles = [ "tailscale" ];
          # → validates TS_CLIENT_SECRET, TS_CLIENT_ID
        };
        production = {
          serviceProfiles = [ "zuplo-backend" ];
          # → validates zuplo secrets for production
        };
      };
      tags = [ "tailscale" "zuplo" ]; # For filtered checking
    };
  };
}

sc up                              # Start locally with tailscale HTTPS
sc deploy my-gateway -e production  # Deploy to production
sc check-secrets --tag tailscale   # Validate tailscale secrets

Secret Profiles

Secrets are managed in two layers: controller-level profile definitions and per-service composition.

Controller Level: Define profiles

saas-controller.secretProfiles = {
  tailscale = {
    TS_CLIENT_SECRET = {
      description = "Tailscale OAuth client secret";
      required = true;
      providers = [ "saas-controller" ];
    };
    TS_CLIENT_ID = {
      description = "Tailscale OAuth client ID";
      required = false;
      providers = [ "saas-controller" ];
    };
  };
  my-api-keys = {
    API_KEY = {
      description = "External API key";
      providers = [ "saas-controller" ];
    };
  };
};

Service Level: Compose profiles per environment

services.my-service.secretspec = {
  auth.provider = "client-myorg";      # SecretSpec provider alias
  auth.saToken = "client-myorg";       # 1Password SA token alias
  environments = {
    local = {
      serviceProfiles = [ "tailscale" ];
      # Only tailscale secrets needed locally
    };
    production = {
      serviceProfiles = [ "my-api-keys" ];
      # API keys needed for production deployment
    };
  };
  tags = [ "tailscale" ];            # For sc check-secrets --tag
};

Provider Auto-Export

Providers can declare secretProfiles in their implementation. These are automatically merged into saas-controller.secretProfiles. When a service uses a provider, that provider’s profiles are auto-included — no manual wiring needed.

For example, the zuplo provider exports zuplo and zudoku profiles. Any service with provider = "zuplo" automatically gets those profiles available.

Checking Secrets

sc check-secrets                         # Check all services
sc check-secrets --tag tailscale         # Only tailscale-tagged services
sc check-secrets --service my-gateway    # Specific service
sc secret-status                         # Show secret-to-service mapping table

CLI Reference

# Local development
sc up                                    # Start all local services
sc up my-gateway                         # Start specific service

# Deployment
sc deploy                                # Deploy all to production (default)
sc deploy --environment production       # Deploy all to production
sc deploy my-gateway -e preview          # Deploy specific service to preview
sc undeploy my-gateway                   # Remove persistent service

# Secret management
sc check-secrets                         # Validate all service secrets
sc check-secrets --tag tailscale         # Filter by tag
sc check-secrets --service my-gateway    # Filter by service
sc secret-status                         # Secret-to-service mapping table

# Secret reconciliation
sc setup-env production                  # Check all secrets for production
sc diff-secrets local production         # Compare secrets between environments
sc reconcile-secrets                     # Show all secrets across all environments
sc reconcile-secrets -e production       # Show secrets for one environment

# Other
sc help                                  # Show help
provision-projects                       # One-time project setup

Task Integration

# sc up is also available as a devenv task
devenv tasks run saas:up

# Deploy with environment via task input
DEVENV_TASK_INPUT='{"environment": "production"}' devenv tasks run saas-deploy:my-gateway

Provider Summary

For detailed provider documentation: read references/provider-reference.md

Extensibility

Register custom providers:

saas-controller.externalProviders.my-provider = ./providers/my-provider.nix;

See EXTENDING.md for provider authoring guide and template.

Tailscale Setup

sc up requires one-time Tailscale setup (ACL tags, OAuth client). See references/tailscale-setup.md for step-by-step instructions.

SA Token Provider Setup

Services with secretspec.auth.saToken need the sa-tokens secretspec provider alias configured. The secretspec.toml is auto-generated from service configs at nix eval time — developers only configure the provider backend once.

One-time setup per machine:

secretspec config provider add sa-tokens "keyring://"   # macOS Keychain
secretspec config provider add sa-tokens "env://"       # Environment variables (CI)

Naming: saToken = "client-willdan" maps to OP_SA_CLIENT_WILLDAN.

Verify: secretspec config provider list

Deeper Questions

For questions not covered here, use DeepWiki MCP:

ask_question("afterthought/saas-controller", "<your question>")

Or read the source at github:afterthought/saas-controller.