FAQ

What is a Cloud Functor ?

A cloud functor is an acyclic DAG (topology) of composable cloud entities viz functions, mutations, events, routes, states, queues and channels. tc implements the Cloud Functor pattern.

Note

The word functor was popularized by Ocaml’s parameterized modules. These modules, called functors, are first class. Cloud functors are similar in that they are treated as first class and are composable much like Ocaml’s elegant modules.

Why does it have to be a topology or a graph ?

In the Cloud Functor world, a lambda is a not a micro service, a topology is. A topology comprises of core entities (functions, mutations, events, routes, states, queues, pages and channels) and their components. This topology is considered a single atomic unit of deployment. tc composes these and builds a graph to ascertain their dependencies, order of creation by doing a topology sort etc.

How does it compare to other Cloud deployers ?

tc is an application composer that implements the Cloud Functor pattern. It is not fair to compare these tools as all of them are unique and suited for different needs. tc may or may not be for you.

	Terraform	Amplify	Serverless	SST	tc
Entity Abstraction	No	No	No	No	Yes
Entity Composition	No	No	No	No	Yes
Dynamic Permissions	No	No	No	No	Yes
Dynamic Flows	No	No	No	No	Yes
Stateful	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Namespacing	No	No	No	No	Yes
Sandboxing	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Canaries	No	No	No	No	Yes
Written in	Go	Nodejs	Nodejs	Typescript	Rust
IAC	Yes	Yes			Generated
Fullstack	Maybe	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cloud Agnostic	Yes	No	No	No
Function builders	No	No	Limited	Limited	Sophisticated
License	BSL	Apache2.0	MIT	MIT	MIT

If tc generates the infrastructure boilerplate, can I modify and update it ?

For the most part, the generated permissions, defaults are good for development and prototype. However, if you need something auditable, it can always be overlayed See https://tc-functors.org/entities/functions#permissions