Status and limits

Anvil Cloud is alpha software with real implementation across the runtime, builder, local server, React/Vite client path, CLI, Lens, and AWS preview adapter.

Use it for inspection, local development, adapter design, demos, tests, and contribution work. Do not treat it as production hosting. The useful question is not "is it done?" It is "which parts are implemented, which parts are gated, and what evidence should I inspect before trusting a Cell?"

Implemented surfaces

Surface	Current state
Runtime DSL	app, query, mutation, endpoint, job, workflow, service, channel, table, and field builders exist.
Runtime execution	handleRuntimeRequest supports query, mutation, endpoint, job, and workflow handlers. Services run through the runtime ServiceSupervisor, not per-request invocation.
Agents	defineAgent, agent capabilities, explicit shallow subagents, approval contracts, provider-neutral manifests, provider registry, deterministic local stub inference, mounted Cell Agents, local invocation/session/channel simulation routes, CLI contract commands, AWS Bedrock inference provider support, and the Agent Sandbox target architecture exist.
Runtime host	Host adapter interfaces exist for db, files, env, auth, logs, events, and jobs.
Builder	Config, import policy, typecheck, server/client bundle, manifest extraction, generated client, and build metadata exist.
Local runtime	Local HTTP server, JSON database with snapshot branches and TTL cleanup, files, auth, logs, usage events, events, jobs, workflows, supervised services, manifest, and inspection state exist.
CLI	new, dev, check, review, build, agents, channels simulate, inspect, logs, usage --local, usage --preview, db table and branch lifecycle commands, workflows, services list, named deploy --preview, rollback --preview --dry-run, and destroy --preview exist.
Client	React/Vite is the current paved road. The browser client supports generated query/mutation metadata, mounted agent session helpers, token lookup, structured runtime errors, hook helpers, and manual refetch.
Lens	Local Lens is served at /_anvil/lens and reads the same local runtime truth as CLI JSON: manifest, capabilities, auth users, logs, traces, usage totals, active database branch, database state, workflows, services, and diagnostics.
Examples	examples/notes is the canonical local demo. examples/aws-preview is the AWS-compatible smoke Cell.
AWS preview	Plan, review aggregation, CloudFormation synthesis, artifacts, optional provisioner, named preview metadata, Lambda bridge, DynamoDB, S3, SQS, EventBridge events and schedules, Step Functions workflows, outbound fetch guard, ECS/Fargate service resource synthesis, CloudWatch logs, remote inspect, remote logs, usage visibility, rollback intent, preview destroy, cost-driver hints, and cleanup hints exist.

Non-goals for alpha

Anvil Cloud alpha does not aim to provide:

• arbitrary cloud resource authoring in Cell code
• direct provider SDK access from Cell handlers
• raw container or Kubernetes authoring in Cell code (long-running work goes through the service primitive; container-backed execution such as ECS/Fargate is a future deployment adapter concern)
• second production cloud adapter
• raw Terraform, CDK, or SST authoring surface for Cell authors
• enterprise networking or VPC support
• hosted SaaS control plane
• marketplace
• perfect JavaScript sandbox

Safety comes from a smaller contract: declared capabilities, import restrictions, runtime adapters, adapter-generated provider policy, and deployment isolation.

Known limits

Limit	Impact
Auth lifecycle is provider-owned	Token verification is real locally and on AWS (local IdP + OIDC config), but session/refresh management and login UI belong to your provider. See Auth.
CLI packaging is alpha	The Cloud CLI package is @anvilstack/cloud-cli and exposes anvil-cloud. From the anvil-cloud workspace, use pnpm anvil-cloud ... after pnpm build; inside examples, use node ../../packages/cli/dist/index.js ....
Generated client is early	React/Vite is the default UI path and hook helpers exist, but invalidation is manual, there is no cache policy layer, and the generated surface is query/mutation metadata rather than a full SDK.
AWS preview is alpha, not production hosting	Preview provisioning exists for the checked-in smoke Cell, including named deploys, public runtime checks, remote inspect/logs, and destroy. Plans include cleanup commands and cost drivers. Rollback is dry-run recovery intent only because deployment history and restorable client assets are not yet stored.
No hosted control plane	A local Lens UI (/_anvil/lens) and the ControlPlaneApi contract exist, but inspect and logs still depend on local state or AWS deployment metadata. A hosted plane would be a future adapter behind the same contract. See Anvil Lens.
Workflows need deeper remote inspection	Local workflows have durable run state, retries, timeouts, resume behavior, CLI commands, and Lens inspection. AWS preview maps workflows to Step Functions, but remote workflows list/show --app is not wired yet.
Services are local-only	The service primitive is supervised by the local runtime. AWS preview blocks service-bearing deploys before provisioning until the Fargate runner executes the exact Cell handler. See Services.
Usage is visibility, not billing	anvil cloud usage --preview reports declared resource counts and cost-driver hints. It does not query AWS billing or produce prices.
Agents are foundation-level	Mounted Cell Agents and shallow subagent trees run locally and compile to manifests. Project-agent discovery and deterministic Guardian review exist; hosted orchestration, production approval UI, trace-linked parent/child sessions, durable multi-step tool execution, and hosted memory are not implemented yet. See Anvil Agents.
Agent evals are local-first	Mounted agent eval suites run locally through anvil-cloud eval, support baseline comparisons, and can write updated baselines for CI review. Hosted eval orchestration and remote eval execution are not wired yet.
Agent sessions are local-first	Mounted agents support local persisted sessions, ordered events, continuation tokens, and SSE replay streams. AWS preview session transport and hosted continuation are not wired yet. See Anvil Agents.
Channels are contract-first	Channel bindings compile into the manifest and local simulation can route messages into mounted agent sessions. Real Slack/GitHub/Discord adapters, signature verification, and deployed webhook ingress are not wired yet. See Anvil Agents.
Agent Sandboxes are first-slice implemented	Runtime sandbox types, brokered credential declarations, local Docker/process providers, local backend selection, local inspect session reporting, the AWS Lambda MicroVM sandbox provider, deploy-plan entries, compatibility gates, cost/review reporting, and CLI readiness output exist. Live network-bound credential injection, session streaming, workspace snapshots, sandbox-aware Lens views, and remote inspect/logs are not implemented. See Agent Sandboxes.

What to verify before trusting a Cell

Run:

anvil cloud check --json
anvil cloud build --json
anvil cloud inspect --local --json
anvil cloud logs --local --json

Before preview deploy, inspect:

• manifest
• declared capabilities
• generated client output
• import policy diagnostics
• typecheck diagnostics
• deployment plan
• CloudFormation template
• artifact summary, including the Lambda bundle hash and content-addressed key
• rollback, cleanup, and cost-driver hints in the deployment plan

What to verify before trusting AWS preview

Before treating AWS preview as more than a local deploy experiment, verify:

• artifact bucket configuration
• stack creation or update behavior
• Lambda runtime URL
• pnpm verify:aws-preview against examples/aws-preview
• generated IAM permissions
• DynamoDB table shape
• S3 asset and file behavior
• SQS and scheduled job behavior
• EventBridge event and scheduled-job behavior
• CloudWatch logs
• deployment metadata table
• remote inspect and logs
• preview cleanup through anvil cloud destroy --preview --app <name> --yes
• rollback intent for versioned preview metadata plus the current artifact-promotion limit: redeploy a known-good checkout or destroy the preview stack when direct pointer promotion is not enough

Contribution priorities

Useful next work includes:

• documenting a complete OIDC setup flow for ANVIL_AWS_SMOKE_TOKEN
• adding negative auth tests and cleanup assertions to pnpm verify:aws-preview
• remote workflow run-state persistence and remote CLI/Lens inspection
• exact Cell service-handler execution inside the Fargate preview task path
• auth provider integration examples
• richer Guard capability checks
• generated client examples: loading/error examples, token handling, invalidation patterns, and typed examples around examples/notes
• standalone project-agent manifest generation beyond instruction discovery
• provider-mode examples for AWS Bedrock with local contract checks
• production approval, memory, sandbox, and durable orchestration adapter work for agents
• AWS Lambda MicroVM-backed Agent Sandboxes for sandbox-required agents
• automated artifact rollback beyond dry-run intent
• real cost reporting beyond declared usage visibility and preview plan cost drivers
• clearer package publishing path
• custom domain support

Keep the contract small. The first version should be understandable, not omniscient.