# BFFless

> The home for your AI-generated apps, internal tools, and HTML docs — with a backend, auth, and a path to your internal services. Self-hosted, open source.

## Overview

BFFless is a self-hosted, open-source platform that gives static frontends real backend capabilities. It's the home for the apps, internal tools, and HTML docs your team (and your AI coding agents) generate — somewhere they can actually live, with a backend and access control, behind your corporate boundary. It provides the infrastructure typically built into managed platforms - but you own and control everything. Technical framing for those who know the category: a self-hosted Supabase/Appwrite aimed at static sites and internal apps.

- Website: https://bffless.app
- Documentation: https://docs.bffless.app
- Full LLM Documentation: https://docs.bffless.app/llms.txt
- GitHub: https://github.com/bffless/ce
- License: O'Saasy

## What is BFFless?

BFFless serves as a "Backend for Frontend" without the backend boilerplate. Host AI-generated apps, internal tools, HTML docs, SPAs, and frontend assets — deployed from your CI/CD pipeline — with features that typically require custom infrastructure:

- **Home for AI-generated apps & internal tools**: Host the HTML apps, dashboards, and docs your AI agents and teams produce, behind auth
- **Static Asset Hosting**: Upload build artifacts from GitHub Actions
- **Traffic Splitting**: A/B testing and canary deployments
- **Proxy Rules**: Forward API requests without CORS headaches
- **Custom Domains**: Dynamic domain mapping with SSL
- **Deployment Aliases**: Named versions (production, staging, canary)
- **Multiple Storage Backends**: S3, GCS, Azure, MinIO, or local

## Quick Start

```bash
# Clone and configure
git clone https://github.com/bffless/ce.git && cd ce
cp .env.example .env
echo "ENCRYPTION_KEY=$(openssl rand -base64 32)" >> .env

# Start
./start.sh
```

Access admin at `https://admin.yourdomain.com`, create an API key, deploy:

```yaml
- uses: bffless/upload-artifact@v1
  with:
    api-url: ${{ secrets.BFFLESS_URL }}
    api-key: ${{ secrets.BFFLESS_API_KEY }}
    files: dist/**/*
```

## Key Features

### Traffic Splitting
Split traffic across deployments for A/B testing or canary releases. Configure percentage weights, sticky sessions, and override rules.

Live demo: https://demo.docs.bffless.app

### Proxy Rules
Forward `/api/*` requests to backend services. Eliminates CORS configuration. Supports header injection and per-environment overrides.

### Deployment Aliases
Named references to specific commits. Point `production` at a stable release while `staging` tracks the latest build.

### Multiple Storage Backends
Pluggable storage: AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob, MinIO (self-hosted), or S3-compatible services (DigitalOcean Spaces, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2).

## Tech Stack

- **Backend**: NestJS, TypeScript, Drizzle ORM, PostgreSQL
- **Frontend**: React 18, Vite, Redux Toolkit, TailwindCSS
- **Auth**: SuperTokens (self-hosted)
- **Proxy**: nginx with dynamic configuration
- **Container**: Docker Compose

## Requirements

| Resource | Minimum | Recommended |
|----------|---------|-------------|
| RAM | 1GB | 2GB |
| Disk | 20GB | 40GB |
| CPU | 1 vCPU | 2 vCPU |

Works on any Linux server. $5-10/month VPS from DigitalOcean, Linode, or Hetzner is sufficient.

## SSL Options

**Cloudflare (Recommended)**: 15-year certificates, DDoS protection, CDN included.

**Let's Encrypt**: Auto-renewing certificates, direct connection, requires port 80.

## Use Cases

- **Preview Deployments**: Every PR gets a unique URL
- **A/B Testing**: Split traffic 50/50 between variants
- **Canary Releases**: Gradual rollout (5% -> 20% -> 50% -> 100%)
- **Personalized Content**: Custom versions for specific audiences
- **Feature Flags**: Serve different configurations per environment
- **Coverage Reports**: Host test artifacts with permanent URLs

## Documentation

For comprehensive documentation including API reference, configuration options, storage setup guides, and security best practices:

- **Full Documentation**: https://docs.bffless.app
- **LLM-Optimized Docs**: https://docs.bffless.app/llms.txt

### Quick Links

- [Quick Start Guide](https://docs.bffless.app/getting-started/quickstart)
- [Architecture Overview](https://docs.bffless.app/reference/architecture)
- [API Reference](https://docs.bffless.app/reference/api)
- [Traffic Splitting](https://docs.bffless.app/features/traffic-splitting)
- [Proxy Rules](https://docs.bffless.app/features/proxy-rules)
- [Storage Backends](https://docs.bffless.app/storage/overview)
- [Environment Variables](https://docs.bffless.app/configuration/environment-variables)
- [Security](https://docs.bffless.app/reference/security)

## GitHub Actions

Official actions for CI/CD integration:

- [bffless/upload-artifact](https://github.com/marketplace/actions/bffless-upload-artifact) - Upload build artifacts
- [bffless/download-artifact](https://github.com/marketplace/actions/bffless-download-artifact) - Download artifacts

## Community

- [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/bffless/ce/issues) - Bug reports and feature requests
- [GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/bffless/ce/discussions) - Questions and ideas

## License

O'Saasy License - Free for personal and commercial use.

---

For detailed technical documentation optimized for LLM consumption, see: https://docs.bffless.app/llms.txt