Architecture

This section outlines the primary services, storage layers, and communication paths in a self-hosted Dreadnode stack.

System diagram

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     Frontend (SvelteKit)                         │
│                    packages/frontend/                            │
└─────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┘
                              │ HTTP/REST
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     API Server (FastAPI)                         │
│                      packages/api/                               │
└─────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┘
        │                     │                     │
        ▼                     ▼                     ▼
┌──────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐
│  PostgreSQL  │    │  ClickHouse  │    │   S3/MinIO   │
│              │    │              │    │              │
│ Users, Orgs  │    │ OTEL Traces  │    │  Packages    │
│ RBAC, Meta   │    │ Run Data     │    │  Storage     │
└──────────────┘    └──────────────┘    └──────────────┘

Components

Component	Purpose	Technology
API	Backend service and business logic	FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, Pydantic
Frontend	Web UI for users	SvelteKit, TypeScript
PostgreSQL	State data (users, orgs, RBAC)	Postgres 16
ClickHouse	Event data and telemetry	ClickHouse 24.x
S3/MinIO	Object storage for artifacts	AWS S3 or MinIO

Data flow

1. State Data (PostgreSQL): users, organizations, projects, RBAC metadata.
2. Event Data (ClickHouse): OTEL traces, run telemetry, high-volume logs.
3. Object Storage (S3/MinIO): packages, artifacts, file uploads.

API architecture (DDD)

The API follows a Domain-Driven Design layout. Each domain is isolated under app/[domain]/:

app/
├── api/v1/           # Router aggregation only
├── core/             # Foundational infrastructure (no external deps)
├── infra/            # External integrations (DB, S3, ClickHouse)
└── [domain]/         # Business domains (auth, users, projects, etc.)
    ├── models.py     # SQLAlchemy models
    ├── schemas.py    # Pydantic schemas
    ├── service.py    # Business logic
    ├── repository.py # Data access
    └── router_v1.py  # HTTP routes

Package overview

Package	Purpose	Technology
packages/api	Backend API server	FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, Pydantic
packages/sdk	Python client SDK	httpx, Pydantic
packages/frontend	Web application	SvelteKit, TypeScript, Tailwind
infra	AWS infrastructure	Pulumi (Python)

Communication paths

• The frontend communicates with the API via HTTP/REST.
• The API reads and writes state data in Postgres, event data in ClickHouse, and objects in S3/MinIO.