A platform foundation for internal‑tooling fleets.
Plinth is an open-source platform for organisations that operate fleets of internal-tooling modules at regulated companies — banks, insurers, healthcare, government. A substrate, an SDK, a scaffolder. One Helm install. Modules grow on top.
v0.1.0 · open source · MITYou run a fleet of internal applications — project management, change requests, audit dashboards, HR tooling, internal admin. Modules that began as starters and grew. Every one re-implements the same plumbing: identity, authorisation, audit, observability, deployment. Every one inherits the same gaps: a session secret committed in .env.example, an authorisation layer that fails open in dev mode, no real healthcheck, no centralised logs.
Plinth is the foundation those modules should have stood on from day one. A substrate, an SDK, a scaffolder — assembled into something a small platform team can deploy, and let dozens of modules grow on top of without each one becoming the platform’s weakest link.
Who it’s for
Section titled “Who it’s for”Organisations that run multiple internal-facing modules, operate in a regulated context (banking, finance, insurance, healthcare, government), prefer on-premise or private-cloud deployment, and have a small platform team supporting a much larger app-developer audience.
Not for single-product startups, cloud-native teams already happy with managed services, or teams uncomfortable operating Kubernetes.
What’s shipped
Section titled “What’s shipped”| Repository | What it is | Install |
|---|---|---|
platform | Helm umbrella chart. CloudNativePG, Cerbos, OpenTelemetry Collector. Walking-skeleton dev profile. | git clone && helm install |
sdk-go (×7) | Fail-closed authz, non-blocking audit, OTel init, RFC 7807 errors, paginate, vault, health. | go get …/sdk-go/<pkg>@v0.1.0 |
sdk-ts (×7) | env, api-client, authz, authz-react, forms, otel-web, tables. | pnpm add @plinth-dev/<pkg> |
starter-api | chi + pgx, every Go SDK pre-wired into one running service. | git clone |
starter-web | Next.js 16 + React 19, every TypeScript SDK pre-wired into one app. | git clone |
cli | plinth new — scaffold both starters with identifiers rewritten. | go install …/cli/cmd/plinth@v0.1.1 |
scaffolder | Backstage software template emitting the same output as the CLI. | pnpm add @plinth-dev/scaffolder-actions |
example-access-requests | Worked internal-tool: temp-prod-access requests with approver workflow. | git clone |
sketch | DSL → typeset SVG architecture diagrams. CLI + GitHub Action. | npm i @plinth-dev/sketch |
Eight repositories, all v0.1.0, all MIT.
Where to go next
Section titled “Where to go next”- Curious about the opinions? Read the manifesto — six commitments that shape every default.
- Want to see the architecture? Architecture overview — full reference document.
- Building on Plinth? Start with the SDK design docs.
- Try the tools — Plinth Sketch is live in your browser, no signup.
- Standing the platform up? Follow the tutorial.