enlace

Serve all your web apps from a single command. They don't import it. They don't know it's there.

Tired of launching a separate server for each app? Register your apps with enlace — point it at where they live — and serve them all with one command. Python ASGI apps get mounted in-process. Non-Python apps (Node.js, Go, etc.) get spawned as supervised child processes and routed via reverse proxy. External services and static sites work too. Your apps stay independent — no code changes, no shared dependencies. For more details, see the Philosopy section.

Quick start

The quickest way to start is to use enlace via AI. That's what we'll demo here. For those want to work in CLI or python, see the late Under the hood sectiob.

Install

pip install enlace

Skills are bundled with the package. To make them available to Claude Code:

# Link enlace's skills into your project (or globally)
skill link-skills "$(python -c 'import enlace; print(enlace.__path__[0])')"

# Or symlink manually
ln -s "$(python -c 'from enlace import skills_dir; print(skills_dir())')"/* .claude/skills/

Using enlace with an AI agent

enlace ships with AI agent skills that let Claude Code (or any compatible agent) handle the entire workflow through natural language:

"Add my_app to the platform"
"Can my_app be enlaced?"
"Diagnose /path/to/my_app and fix what you can"
"List my apps"
"List the apps configurations"
"Serve all my apps"

Available skills

Skill	What it does	Trigger phrases
enlace	Create apps, configure platform.toml, understand conventions, serve	"add an app", "serve my apps", "configure enlace"
enlace-diagnose	Analyze an app for compatibility, suggest fixes that preserve standalone operation	"can this be enlaced?", "diagnose this app", "what needs to change?"
enlace-dev	Modify the enlace package itself — add features, fix bugs, extend middleware	"add X to enlace", "implement Y in enlace"

What the AI does for you

Onboarding an existing app: The agent runs enlace diagnose, reads the report, and presents findings in three tiers: enlace-side fixes (no app changes), app changes that preserve standalone, and warnings. It proposes specific code changes and applies them with your approval.

Creating a new app: The agent scaffolds the directory structure, writes server.py with a FastAPI app, optionally creates frontend/index.html, registers it in platform.toml, runs enlace check, and starts serving.

Day-to-day operations: The agent runs enlace serve, enlace check, enlace show-config as needed, interprets the output, and explains what's happening.

Philosophy

Apps don't depend on enlace. enlace is an operator's tool, not a library your app imports. Your app is a standard Python module with app = FastAPI(). It runs standalone with uvicorn server:app. enlace just happens to know how to find it, mount it at a route prefix, and serve it alongside other apps. (See Zero Coupling for how enlace provides services like auth and storage without creating a dependency.)

enlace (the platform)          your app (Python, Node, Go, ...)
├── fastapi                    ├── fastapi (or express, gin, ...)
├── uvicorn                    ├── pandas (or whatever you need)
├── pydantic                   └── ... your domain libs
├── argh
└── httpx (optional, for proxy)
                               ← no arrow here: your app does NOT import enlace

Two principles in tension:

1. Apps should not need to change. All aggregation logic lives in enlace. When an app is hard to mount, prefer enlace-side config (app.toml, env vars) over app code changes.

2. Enlaced apps must still work alone. When changes are suggested, they preserve standalone operation. The pattern: env-var with current value as default — standalone uses the original, enlace overrides at build time. (See Standalone Preservation for the env-var-with-default pattern and fix classification.)

For the full rationale — including how these principles interact, where the balance sits today, and what enlace aspires to handle better — see the Design Principles document.

Under the hood

For those who want direct control, here's the CLI, Python API, and configuration system that the skills use internally.

Simple FastAPI example

pip install enlace

# Create an app
mkdir -p apps/hello
cat > apps/hello/server.py << 'EOF'
from fastapi import FastAPI
app = FastAPI()

@app.get("/greet")
def greet(name: str = "world"):
    return {"message": f"Hello, {name}!"}
EOF

# Serve it
enlace serve
# → http://localhost:8000/api/hello/greet?name=Thor

CLI

enlace serve              # Start backend (dev mode, hot reload)
enlace show-config        # Resolved config with provenance
enlace check              # Validate config, check route conflicts
enlace list-apps          # Table: name, route, type, access
enlace diagnose <dir>     # Analyze an app for enlace compatibility

Python API

from enlace import diagnose_app, discover_apps, build_backend

# Diagnose an app
report = diagnose_app("/path/to/my_app")
print(report)              # Human-readable report
print(report.is_enlaceable)  # True if no critical blockers

# Discover and compose
config = discover_apps()
app = build_backend(config)  # FastAPI app with all sub-apps mounted

App discovery

enlace discovers apps by filesystem conventions:

apps/
├── my_tool/
│   └── server.py          # has `app = FastAPI()` → mounted at /api/my_tool
├── dashboard/
│   ├── server.py           # backend
│   └── frontend/
│       └── index.html      # served at /dashboard/
├── calculator/
│   └── server.py           # typed functions, no `app` → auto-wrapped as routes
├── blog_node/
│   ├── app.toml            # mode = "process", command = ["node", "server.js"]
│   └── server.js           # spawned + proxied at /api/blog_node
└── docs/
    ├── app.toml            # mode = "static", public_dir = "dist"
    └── dist/index.html     # served directly

Convention	Default	Override in app.toml
Serving mode	asgi	mode (asgi, process, external, static)
Route prefix	/api/{dir_name}	route
Entry point	First of server.py, app.py, main.py	entry_point
ASGI app object	Attribute named app	app_attr
Frontend assets	frontend/index.html	frontend_dir

Everything enlace infers is inspectable (enlace show-config --verbose) and overridable via app.toml, platform.toml, environment variables, or CLI flags.

Configuration

platform.toml (project root):

[platform]
apps_dirs = ["apps"]                # Directories containing app subdirs
app_dirs = ["/path/to/standalone"]  # Individual app directories
backend_port = 8000

[conventions]
entry_points = ["server.py", "app.py", "main.py"]
app_attr = "app"
frontend_dir = "frontend"

app.toml (per-app, in app directory):

# Python ASGI (default mode — just overrides)
route = "/api/custom-route"
entry_point = "backend/main.py"
access = "public"
display_name = "My App"

# Non-Python or separate process
mode = "process"
command = ["node", "server.js"]
port = 3001
route = "/api/blog"

# External upstream
mode = "external"
upstream_url = "http://192.168.1.50:3000"

For process/external modes: pip install enlace[process]

Override precedence (lowest → highest):

defaults → filesystem conventions → app.toml → platform.toml → env vars → CLI flags

App modes

Mode	Description	How it works
asgi (default)	Python ASGI apps	Imported + mounted on gateway FastAPI
process	Any app as a child process	Spawned, health-checked, reverse-proxied
external	Pre-existing upstream	Proxied, no lifecycle management
static	Static file directory	Served directly

Within asgi mode, apps are further classified:

Type	How detected	How mounted
asgi_app	Module has callable app attribute	parent.mount(prefix, sub_app)
functions	No app attr, has typed public functions	Auto-wrapped as API routes
frontend_only	No backend entry, has frontend/index.html	Static file serving only