//core

DigitalFrontier Core Quick Start

Deploy your first DigitalFrontier Core workload in 5 minutes

Docs are being migrated. These are the getting-started guides. Product names have been updated to DigitalFrontier, but the SDK, CLI and config identifiers in code samples still reference their current names — we publish the surface that actually exists rather than a renamed one. The full API reference is being moved to its own documentation site.

Prerequisites

A Digital Frontier account
Core CLI installed

Installation

macOS

brew install blazing-cli

Linux

curl -fsSL https://get.digitalfrontier.so/core | sh

Verify Installation

core --version

Initialize Your Project

Create a new project directory:

mkdir my-app && cd my-app
core init

This creates a basic compose.yaml file.

Your First Service

Edit compose.yaml to define a simple web service:

version: "0.2"

services:
  web:
    image: nginx:latest
    cpu: 1
    memory: "2Gi"
    replicas: 2

    network:
      ingress:
        expose:
          - port: 80
            protocol: http

Validate Your Configuration

Check for errors:

core validate

You should see:

✓ Schema validation passed
✓ Feature validation passed
✓ No compliance issues

Preview the Deployment

See what will be deployed:

core plan

Output:

⚙ Running core plan...

Provider Selection:
  Primary: GCP (cost-optimized)
  Fallback: [Akash, DFC]

Resources:
  ✓ Service: web (2 replicas)
  ✓ Load Balancer: HTTP (port 80)
  ✓ Auto-scaling: disabled

Estimated Cost: $12/month ± 10%

✓ Plan successful

Deploy

Apply your configuration:

core apply

Output:

⚙ Deploying...
  ✓ Creating service: web
  ✓ Provisioning load balancer
  ✓ Starting replicas (2/2)

✅ Deployment successful

Service URL: http://web-a3d5.df.app
Status: https://console.digitalfrontier.so/deployments/df-20251203-00123

Check Status

View your deployment:

core status

Update Your Service

Let's add HTTPS and autoscaling. Edit compose.yaml:

version: "0.2"

services:
  web:
    image: nginx:latest
    cpu: 1
    memory: "2Gi"

    # Add autoscaling
    autoscaling:
      enabled: true
      min_replicas: 2
      max_replicas: 10
      target_cpu_percent: 70

    network:
      ingress:
        expose:
          - port: 443
            protocol: https
            tls:
              auto: true  # Automatic TLS certificates

Apply the changes:

core apply

DigitalFrontier Core will:

Provision TLS certificates automatically
Update the load balancer to HTTPS
Enable autoscaling (2-10 replicas)

Add a Database

Let's add a PostgreSQL database. Update compose.yaml:

version: "0.2"

services:
  web:
    image: nginx:latest
    cpu: 1
    memory: "2Gi"
    autoscaling:
      enabled: true
      min_replicas: 2
      max_replicas: 10
      target_cpu_percent: 70
    network:
      ingress:
        expose:
          - port: 443
            protocol: https
            tls:
              auto: true
    # Reference database credentials
    secrets:
      - secret_ref: db-credentials
        mode: env
        keys:
          host: DB_HOST
          username: DB_USER
          password: DB_PASSWORD

  db:
    image: postgres:15
    cpu: 2
    memory: "4Gi"
    replicas: 1
    storage:
      - mount_path: /var/lib/postgresql/data
        size: "50Gi"
        persistent: true
    network:
      ingress:
        expose:
          - port: 5432
            protocol: tcp
            internal_only: true  # Not exposed to internet

Create the database secret:

core secrets create db-credentials \
  --type db-credentials \
  --data host=db.internal \
  --data username=appuser \
  --data password=your-secure-password

Apply:

core apply

Clean Up

Remove all resources:

core destroy

Confirm when prompted.

Next Steps

Learn Core Concepts

Services - Understanding service configuration
Architecture - Core platform architecture
Organizational Hierarchy - Teams and projects

Advanced Features

Autoscaling - Scale based on metrics
Multi-Cloud - Deploy across clouds
Deployment Lifecycle - Manage deployments

Providers

GCP Provider - Deploy to Google Cloud
DFC Provider - Digital Frontier Cloud
Akash Provider - Decentralized compute

Common Commands

Command	Description
`core init`	Initialize a new project
`core validate`	Validate configuration locally
`core plan`	Preview deployment changes
`core apply`	Deploy infrastructure
`core status`	Check deployment status
`core logs`	View service logs
`core destroy`	Delete all resources

Getting Help

Documentation - Complete reference
Discord Community - Get support
Email Support - Contact us

Example Projects

Browse complete examples:

Simple Web App - Basic HTTP service
API with Database - REST API + PostgreSQL
ML Training - GPU workload with autoscaling
Microservices - Multi-service application
Multi-Cloud HA - High-availability deployment

Find examples at github.com/digitalfrontier/core-compose-examples

DigitalFrontier Core

DigitalFrontier Flow