Backenly

Backenly is an open-source backend platform where a coding agent builds PostgreSQL tables, auth, storage, realtime and functions over MCP, and Backenly then monitors and maintains the running backend. It is available as Backenly Cloud or self-hosted from the same codebase. The platform is Apache-2.0, and the SDK, CLI, MCP server and agent skill are MIT.

What It Is

Backenly is a backend-as-a-service aimed at developers who build with coding agents such as Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Cline, GitHub Copilot and Zed. Each project gets its own PostgreSQL schema, REST endpoints served through PostgREST, auth with per-project signing secrets, file storage, realtime over server-sent events, and TypeScript functions with triggers and cron schedules. The agent connects through an MCP server using a scoped, revocable key. A CLI (npx @backenly/cli) covers schema, generated types, CI diffs, logs and read-only SQL, and there is also an agent skill file and llms.txt.

How Changes Are Governed

Every mutation goes through a single typed action kernel with dry-run, audit and rollback, and schema changes are read back from the live database before they count as done. Destructive actions such as dropping or emptying tables, dropping columns, deleting files or revoking keys do not run; they park as approval requests that only a person on the project can approve. The agent's key can request and poll but never approve. Restore points, change history and branches (clone, diff, merge) support risky work.

Autonomy and Self-Healing

A closed loop observes, detects, proposes, applies and verifies repairs every minute. Additive, reversible fixes, such as adding a missing index, are applied on their own after a snapshot, and each can be undone. Auth, destructive and irreversible changes always wait for approval in every autonomy mode. Backenly also describes a restructuring flow in which a table doing two jobs is split after approval, rehearsed on a copy of the data and kept in sync while apps keep working. The self-healing fixes are rule-based rather than model-driven.

Self-Hosting and Portability

Self-hosting uses Node.js 20+ and Docker Compose (PostgreSQL 15, Redis, PostgREST) via npm run selfhost; one deployment is one project. An AI provider key (Anthropic, OpenAI, or Bedrock) is needed only for natural-language tools. Direct Postgres connection strings and pg_dump exports are provided so data can move to any Postgres. Backenly Cloud runs in Mumbai, Frankfurt, US East, US West and Singapore.