Josh Siviour
f719ce760c
* refactor: extract DescribeInstanceStatus selection and projection
The request semantics — the instance-ID filter, filter parsing, the visibility
check, state membership defaulting to running-only, and the status filters that
can only run against a built frame — live inside the node handler's vmMgr.View
closure, so nothing else can apply them. A second caller answering the same
request from cached records would have to restate them, and the copy that
drifts is the one no customer request exercises until it does.
StatusSelection parses the request once; StatusFor applies it to one VM and
projects, returning nil when the request does not cover it. Per-VM rather than
per-slice so the node keeps reading VM fields inside its lock exactly as before.
buildInstanceStatus takes az rather than reading s.config.AZ, because a caller
projecting another node's record must use the AZ on that record. The node
passes its own config value, so behaviour is unchanged. systemImpaired stays a
parameter: it is node-local memory pressure only an answering node can report.
No behaviour change; the twenty existing status tests pass untouched.
* feat: read node liveness from the heartbeat store
A gateway answering from cached records has no way to tell a node that is
quietly healthy from one that has died, because an idle node writes no records
and record age measures activity rather than liveness. Liveness reads the
heartbeats the daemon already publishes and judges a node stale after three and
a half missed beats.
Unknown is a distinct answer from Stale and the two must not collapse. A node
nobody has ever heard from may simply never have published, and a store the
gateway cannot reach is not evidence that anything died — both report Unknown,
and a failed read clears the previous answers rather than keeping them.
The threshold is deliberately tighter than the IPsec barrier's six beats. That
one gates a cluster encryption decision where calling a live node dead churns a
security barrier; this one decides whether to admit the control plane cannot
confirm a host, where the costly error is the opposite one. The IPsec window is
left alone. A test in the daemon asserts the publish interval and the gateway's
copy of it have not drifted, since the gateway cannot import that package.
* feat: report impaired status for instances on a node that stopped answering
DescribeInstanceStatus fans out over NATS and returns whatever the nodes send
back. A node that is down sends nothing, so its instances disappear from the
answer entirely and a dead host reads as no host.
Backfill from the instance record cache: for any cached instance no node
answered for, synthesise a status frame and mark the system status from the
heartbeat store. A stale node reports impaired; an unreadable heartbeat store
reports insufficient-data, because not knowing a host is healthy is not knowing
it is not.
A frame an answering node returned is never touched. The covered set is what
guarantees that, and it is asserted directly rather than only through the
handler, where dedupStatuses being first-writer-wins makes either guard alone
sufficient. A live node's omission is its own answer and is not backfilled, and
a cache that has not finished its first whole-set sync contributes nothing.
The zero-value StatusSynthesis disables the whole path, so a gateway wired
without a cache answers exactly as it did before.
* fix: use fan-out responder identity, not heartbeat age, to gate status synthesis
DescribeInstanceStatus previously skipped synthesising an instance whenever
its owning node's heartbeat was still live, even when that node did not
answer this particular fan-out. A node that goes down loses its instances
from the response entirely until its heartbeat crosses the stale threshold.
Switch the Gather call to ExpectedResponders so it tracks per-node identity,
and use SuccessResponders to decide whether an omission was deliberate.
Heartbeat age now only selects the label (impaired vs insufficient-data),
never whether to synthesise. Falls back to the old heartbeat-only rule when
any frame cannot be attributed to a node.
* test: tag existing status-synthesis tests with node identity
answerWith never set X-Node-ID, so every existing test in
status_synthesis_test.go silently ran down the Unidentified fallback
branch instead of the responder-set path real daemons take. Give
answerWith a node-ID parameter (reusing subscribeAsNode) and retag each
call to match the record it is about, so these tests exercise the
success-responder guard they are named for. Keep exactly one test,
via a new answerAnonymously helper, on the fallback branch deliberately.
* test: tag DescribeInstanceStatus_test.go replies with node identity
Same rot as status_synthesis_test.go: raw nc.Subscribe replies carry no
X-Node-ID, so every describe here also sat on the 3s Gather deadline.
These tests mostly pass StatusSynthesis{}, so synthesize bails at
Records == nil before the fallback branch is ever reached — the payoff
is dropping the per-test timeout, not fixing a correctness gap.
What is Spinifex? · Platform · Deploy · AWS Compatibility · Live Demo · Components · Architecture · Installation · Docs
Spinifex: the open, AWS-compatible cloud you run yourself
Spinifex, built by Mulga, recreates the AWS services your software already uses (EC2, EBS, S3, VPC, IAM) on infrastructure you control. Move workloads off the hyperscalers, run AI at a fraction of the cost, or take the cloud to the edge, without rewriting a line. The exact build you ship to AWS, Spinifex serves on your own hardware: same APIs, same Terraform, same SDKs.
What is Spinifex?
Spinifex is an open-source infrastructure platform that recreates the AWS service surface (EC2, EBS, S3, VPC, IAM) on bare-metal, edge, and on-premises environments. Run cloud-native software without a hyperscaler.
Built for teams that need:
- The AWS tooling you already use (AWS CLI, SDKs, Terraform), with nothing to rewrite
- Full control of the stack: your hardware, your network, your data, your keys
- A cloud that keeps running offline, through disconnection, with no external control plane
- An open core (AGPL-3.0), auditable and yours to keep, with no lock-in
You change where your software runs, not what it is.
The Platform
From commodity hardware up to unmodified AWS tooling, every layer is replaceable and yours to own.
Three Ways To Deploy
The same AWS-compatible platform runs in three shapes. Pick the one that matches your hardware.
Neocloud
Lift and shift onto a partner Neocloud without rewriting workloads. GPU capacity (H100 / H200 / B200), cheaper, available now. Change an endpoint, keep the software.
On-premise
Host Spinifex on your own hardware in your own data centre. You get a multi-node HA cluster integrated with your storage and networking, so the stack, the data, and the jurisdiction stay yours.
Edge
Cloud where the cloud can't reach. Air-gapped sites, vehicles, vessels, factories, and clinics. Compute next to the data, running through disconnection, on hardware you own. The same AWS APIs your software already uses.
AWS Compatibility
Spinifex speaks the AWS API surface. The AWS SDKs, AWS CLI, and Terraform all work unchanged, whether you deploy at the edge, on-premise, or on a partner Neocloud.
| Service | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|
| EC2 | Compute | Available |
| EBS | Block Storage | Available |
| S3 | Object Storage | Available |
| VPC | Networking | Available |
| IAM | Identity & Auth | Available |
| ALB / NLB | Load Balancers | Available |
| EKS | Kubernetes | Available |
| ECR | Container Registry | Available |
| ECS | Container Service | Available |
| RDS | Databases | Available |
| Bedrock | AI Deployment | Q3 2026 |
Roadmap items ship under the same AWS API surface. Code written for AWS today keeps working the moment they land. Track what's shipped in the release notes.
Live Demo
Create a live sandbox in under a minute. The fastest way to experience the stack. Try Spinifex against one of your own workloads on infrastructure we run for you.
- Live in under a minute. No card, no install.
- Yours for 72 hours to test and experiment.
- Real AWS-compatible endpoint, access keys and console.
- EC2, EBS, S3, VPC, IAM, EKS and RDS, ready to call.
- Point your existing AWS CLI or Terraform straight at it.
Sign up at https://mulgadc.com/signup
Core Components
Spinifex (Compute and Platform Services – EC2, EKS, ECS, RDS)
Spinifex is a minimal VM orchestration layer built on top of QEMU, exposing an EC2 compatible API. It manages lifecycle operations like start, stop, and terminate through QEMU's QMP interface. Designed to be straightforward and scriptable, Spinifex lets you launch VMs with the AWS CLI, SDKs, or Terraform, without Kubernetes or a heavyweight orchestrator.
The managed services build on that same instance layer. An EKS node group, an ECS container instance, and an RDS database are Spinifex VMs on your own hardware, each driven through its own AWS API.
- EC2 – VM lifecycle on bare metal, cloud-init and IMDS metadata, key pairs, tags, spot instances, capacity reservations, and GPU passthrough
- EKS – Managed Kubernetes on k3s, with HA control planes, managed node groups, cluster add-ons, an OIDC provider, and IAM access entries
- ECS – Task and service scheduling across container instances, with awsvpc ENIs, capacity providers, rolling deployments, and GPU-aware placement
- ECR – Private container registry backed by Predastore, with content-addressed blobs deduplicated per account and lifecycle policies
- RDS – Managed PostgreSQL and MariaDB, with parameter groups, automated backups, and DNS endpoints served by Northstar
- ALB / NLB – Layer 7 load balancing on HAProxy and layer 4 on nginx
stream, with health checks and ACM-issued listener certificates - VPC and IAM – OVN-backed networking and security groups, with roles, policies, and SigV4 auth applied across every service
Viperblock (Block Storage – EBS Alternative)
Viperblock is a high-performance, WAL-backed block storage service that replicates volumes across multiple nodes. It's built for reliability and speed, with support for snapshots, recovery, and direct connection to QEMU instances using NBD or virtio-blk.
- Fast, durable virtual disks
- Replication for resilience
- Exposed over NBD or embedded in VMs
- High performance WAL logs on local NVMe drives, reducing IO traffic to S3
- In-memory read/write block cache
Predastore (Object Storage – S3-Compatible)
Predastore is a fully S3-compatible object storage system. It supports the AWS S3 API, including Signature V4 authentication, multipart uploads, and Terraform provisioning. Predastore chunks data and distributes it across nodes using Reed-Solomon erasure coding, so it survives node loss and suits large-scale or low-bandwidth sites.
- S3-compatible API and auth
- Multipart uploads, streaming reads/writes
- Data redundancy with Reed-Solomon encoding
Northstar (Authoritative DNS)
Northstar is a lightweight authoritative DNS server that handles both internal service discovery and public-facing DNS for a Spinifex cluster. Zones are human-readable TOML files, served from the local filesystem or synced from Predastore, keeping DNS configuration in the same object storage as the rest of your infrastructure.
- Authoritative DNS over UDP, TCP, and DNS-over-TLS
- Service discovery for cluster components via SRV records
- Zone files stored locally or in S3-compatible storage
Architecture at a Glance
Every AWS API call is authenticated at the gateway, published to a NATS subject, and answered by whichever daemon claims it. Daemons are stateless: scale horizontally by starting more. No etcd, no Kubernetes, no external control plane. Just systemd units, a NATS cluster, and your hardware. Deep dive: docs/DESIGN.md.
Self-hosted Installation
Installation requires an Ubuntu 26.04 or Debian 13 system. See the detailed documentation at docs.mulgadc.com for installing Spinifex.
Bare Metal ISO
The recommended installation is a bootable x86 installer for bare-metal hardware.
curl -fLO https://iso.mulgadc.com/spinifex.iso
Follow the USB install guide to write the ISO to USB and install on your hardware.
Single Node Install
Prerequisite: Spinifex requires a Linux bridge configured on the host for VM networking. See the single-node install guide for setup details.
curl -fsSL https://install.mulgadc.com | bash
sudo /usr/local/share/spinifex/setup-ovn.sh --management
sudo spx admin init --node node1 --nodes 1
sudo systemctl start spinifex.target
export AWS_PROFILE=spinifex
aws ec2 describe-instance-types
Development Setup
For a complete development environment see the Source Install documentation.
Spinifex UI
Spinifex ships with a built-in web console, an optional alternative to the AWS CLI, SDKs, and Terraform. If you know the AWS Management Console, the Spinifex UI fills the same role: a browser-based view of your instances, volumes, buckets, VPCs, and IAM resources, without leaving your own network.
Each node serves the console on port 3000 over TLS, and it comes up with spinifex.target:
- Same API, different surface. The UI issues the same AWS SigV4 calls the CLI does, so RBAC, audit trails, and IAM policies apply the same way.
- Single sign-on against your AWS credentials. Log in with the access keys from
~/.aws/credentialson the node where Spinifex is installed. There is no separate user database. - Self-hosted, works offline. The Spinifex binary embeds the UI and each node serves it directly, with no external CDN or analytics calls.
For the full walkthrough, covering first-time TLS certificate trust, login, and a feature tour, see Launching the Web UI in the cluster setup guide.
Development Philosophy
Built by Engineers, For Engineers
Spinifex is developed by experienced infrastructure engineers with deep AWS expertise, including former AWS team members who understand the intricacies of building production-grade cloud services. Our team brings decades of combined experience from AWS, enterprise infrastructure, and edge computing environments.
AI-Assisted Development
Spinifex is architected and implemented by experienced engineers, with Claude Code accelerating certain development tasks. The split keeps the quality and reliability standards that production infrastructure demands:
How We Use Claude Code:
- Code Generation: Boilerplate AWS API structures and handlers
- Documentation: Comprehensive development guides and API documentation
- Testing: Test case generation and validation scenarios
- Refactoring: Large-scale code restructuring and optimization
What Remains Human-Driven:
- Architecture Decisions: Core system design and scalability choices
- Security Implementation: Authentication, encryption, and threat modeling
- Performance Optimization: Real-world performance tuning and benchmarking
- Production Operations: Deployment strategies and operational procedures
Trademarks
"AWS", "Amazon Web Services", and all related service names (EC2, EBS, S3, VPC, IAM, and others) are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Mulga Defense Corporation and Spinifex are independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Amazon.com, Inc. or Amazon Web Services, Inc. References to AWS services describe interoperability and compatibility only.
License
Spinifex is open source under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0, with a commercial license available. You're free to use, modify, and deploy it anywhere you need reliable infrastructure without depending on centralized cloud platforms.