Polycrate

Polycrate is a modern automation framework and Ansible runtime for packaging, integrating, and automating complex applications and IT or cloud infrastructure.

The core: Polycrate makes heterogeneous IT in software delivery — platforms, cloud infrastructure, app deployments, and more — deterministically automatable and maintainable.

The problem Polycrate solves

Software comes in every shape, and so does the infrastructure it runs on. Delivering software to customers requires many complex tools and methods:

  • Container orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker)
  • Configuration management (Ansible, Chef, Puppet)
  • CI/CD pipelines (GitLab, Jenkins, GitHub Actions)
  • Cloud-provider APIs (AWS, Azure, GCP, bare metal)
  • Secrets management, monitoring, logging, networking…

Polycrate brings these tools and methods together behind one framework. The idea is to bridge the many paradigms involved in building and operating cloud-native infrastructure.

The technical binder is Ansible — an industry standard for configuration management and automation.

The full software development lifecycle

Polycrate supports both developers and operators across the SDLC: Develop (Blocks/Config) → Build (Actions/Playbooks) → Test → Deploy (Workflows) → Operate → Monitor (Artifacts/Logging).

Who Polycrate is for

Polycrate is for people and organizations that deliver software as a service:

  • SaaS providers that must deploy their platform reliably and reproducibly
  • Managed service providers that run heterogeneous customer environments
  • Internal platform teams that offer self-service infrastructure
  • DevOps engineers who want to automate and standardize operations
  • Developers who test and deploy in a consistent environment

Package tools, dependencies, and install logic into modular Blocks, combine them in a Workspace, and expose Actions for install and maintenance.

Polycrate in action

Why Polycrate?

The framework lets teams:

  • Build reproducible system blocks that can be tested, versioned, and shared
  • Compose those blocks with established guard rails
  • Move legacy systems into automation step by step
  • Automate new systems from day one
  • Bake migration paths into the infrastructure
  • Cover the entire SDLC in one workflow

Who uses Polycrate?

Organizations use it to run Dev, Ops, and DevSecOps workflows, keep sovereign systems across providers and architecture generations, and deliver software safely, predictably, and with high availability.

Links

Overview

Polycrate is a command-line tool and needs Docker on the system that runs it.

  1. Containerized execution: Actions run in a Docker container with cloud-native tools (Ansible, kubectl, Helm, cloud CLIs)
  2. Ansible first: Playbooks get workspace and block variables automatically
  3. Deterministic runs: Results do not depend on the local developer machine
  4. Block libraries: Ready blocks can be pulled from OCI-compatible registries

Cloud migration: leave hyperscaler lock-in

Move from AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud to a Kubernetes-native, standardized architecture on open standards. Polycrate is built for Data Act-conformant cloud migration: Ansible-based, Kubernetes-native, portable workspaces, free PolyHub alternatives (RDS → CloudNativePG, ElastiCache → Redis).

Cloud migration guide

Architecture

The CLI loads a workspace, starts a Docker container with the toolchain, and runs block actions. Operations are logged as transactions.

Core concepts

Blocks

Modular units that encapsulate tools, dependencies, and install logic — a database cluster, a Kubernetes install, an application, or a base OS.

→ More on Blocks

Workspace

The shared environment that combines blocks, their config, workflows, and shared artifacts.

→ More on Workspaces

Actions

User-facing commands for install and maintenance:

polycrate run database install
polycrate run my-app deploy
polycrate run cluster upgrade

→ More on Actions

Next steps