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Astra

Introduction

Welcome to the Astra documentation! This documentation is a reference for all the available features and options of Astra.

Lost?

  • View the Demo: A visual way to understand what Astra is.
  • FAQ: Looking for more information about Astra in general? The FAQ might be able to answer some.
  • Take a Look at What's in the Box: View what you get when you use Astra as your infrastructure platform.
  • Contact Me!: if you haven’t yet been in contact or received your Astra API key. Please note that the CLI will not function without this key.
  • Bootstrap Your Infrastructure: Start here if you’re looking to go from zero to one on your infrastructure.
  • User Reference: This section is for new users looking to operate and manage their infrastructure with Astra.

Background

Astra is a specialized cloud infrastructure toolkit designed to fast-track SaaS companies from initial setup to hyper-growth. It automates the provisioning and management of secure, best-practice-compliant infrastructure, so you can focus on building your product instead of wrangling cloud services.

Astra's vision is based on a few core goals that I believe make for an effective infrastructure:

  • Comprehensive Support: Recognizing that every startup is unique, Astra is designed to handle the majority of scenarios (the 80% case), while the included support assists with the remaining scenarios (the 20% case). This approach effectively positions Astra as a reliable third-party infrastructure team, offering design guidance and help in creating tailored infrastructure solutions.

  • Designed with Maintenance in Mind: Astra is developed with the operational engineer's needs as a priority. Questions like, "Who will maintain this?" and "What is the simplest way to maintain this?" are crucial. Astra is built to ensure that its output can be easily and ultimately maintained by a human engineer, ensuring that you are not solely dependent on Astra for any aspect of your infrastructure, while significantly easing the process.

  • Only What You Need, and Nothing More: Astra adheres to the YAGNI (You Aren't Gonna Need It) programming paradigm, a practice we believe is key to avoiding technical debt. Astra does not set up any unused elements from Day 1, yet it prepares your infrastructure for potential future expansion. This approach renders Astra both cost-effective (the average cost of a basic Astra setup is under $30 a month for AWS) and straightforward, including only the essentials for your success.

  • Zero-Cost Simplicity: Astra not only aims for simplicity in its creations but also in its offerings. The Astra CLI is developed with the goal of reducing cognitive load for users. It simplifies complex interactions between services into manageable, user-friendly actions, without compromising configurability or security.