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Ecosystem

GitHub Organization as Application Catalog

The Towlion GitHub organization serves as a catalog of deployable applications. Each repository is a standalone, self-hostable application.

towlion/
  .github              # Organization profile and community health files
  platform             # Architecture docs and platform tools
  app-template         # Template for bootstrapping new apps
  todo-app             # Todo CRUD application
  hello-world          # Multi-app deployment test
  starter-app          # Created from app-template

Planned application repos include uku-companion, fretboard-trainer, chord-transposer, and practice-timer.

Repository Types

Organization Profile (towlion/.github)

The special .github repository provides the organization-level profile README displayed on github.com/towlion. Contains:

  • profile/README.md — marketing content shown on the org landing page

Platform Repository (towlion/platform)

The meta repository for the ecosystem. Contains:

  • Architecture documentation
  • Platform specification
  • Deployment guides

Application Template (towlion/app-template)

A GitHub Template Repository for creating new applications. Includes:

  • FastAPI backend scaffold
  • Next.js frontend scaffold
  • Docker configuration
  • GitHub Actions deployment workflow
  • Database migration setup

New apps are created by:

  1. Click "Use this template" to create a new repo
  2. Customize the application code
  3. Push — deploys automatically

Application Repositories

Each application is a separate GitHub repository under the towlion organization. Each one:

  • Is a standalone web application in its own repo
  • Contains its own Docker configuration and deployment workflow
  • Can be forked and self-hosted independently
  • Follows the application specification
  • Follows the platform's governance policies, including branch protection, PR requirements, and commit conventions

Multi-Application Runtime

The platform supports running many applications on a single server. All applications share core infrastructure:

Server
 ├── Caddy (reverse proxy)
 ├── PostgreSQL
 ├── Redis
 ├── MinIO
 ├── App 1 container
 ├── App 2 container
 └── App 3 container

Each application gets:

  • Its own subdomain (e.g., uku.towlion.com)
  • Its own database (e.g., uku_db)
  • Its own storage bucket
  • Its own container(s)

For details on how the server is structured and how app workflows interact with it, see Server Contract.

Core Philosophy

1. Repository-Driven Deployment

Each repository deploys itself — no central deployment platform needed.

repository → GitHub Actions → deployed application

2. Forkable Infrastructure

Anyone can deploy by forking:

fork → configure secrets → push → running application

3. Single-Server SaaS

Optimized for indie developers, small SaaS apps, AI-generated tools, and personal product ecosystems.

Target Use Cases

The ecosystem is designed for:

  • Small SaaS applications
  • Open-source developer tools
  • Web utilities
  • AI-generated applications
  • Self-hosted services