Platform Mesh

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Service provider ​

Service providers build and operate services that can be consumed through Platform Mesh. They define the declarative API contract for a capability and own the automation that turns consumer intent into real service instances.

Provider examples include teams offering databases, certificates, CI/CD pipelines, AI infrastructure, or internal platform services.

Goal ​

Expose a service capability through a stable API while keeping implementation details, runtime topology, and provider operations behind the provider boundary.

Responsibilities ​

  • Define the service API consumers use to request and manage capabilities.
  • Publish that API through Platform Mesh so consumers can discover and bind it.
  • Reconcile consumer desired state into provider-owned runtime resources.
  • Report lifecycle status back to consumers.
  • Choose the right integration path for the provider's API and controller model.

Ownership boundary ​

The provider owns what can be ordered (the API schema) and how it gets fulfilled (the controller logic). They do not own the consumer's workspace, the consumer's resources, or the platform runtime. The API contract is the only surface visible across that boundary; everything behind it — clusters, VMs, SaaS calls, internal databases — stays inside the provider.

This separation keeps the lifecycle API consistent even when the underlying implementation changes. A provider can migrate from self-hosted infrastructure to a managed cloud service without breaking consumer workflows.

Common questions ​

  • Should this provider use api-syncagent or multi-cluster-runtime?
  • Which CRDs or APIs should be exposed to consumers?
  • How does consumer desired state reach the provider runtime?
  • How does provider status flow back to the consumer workspace?
  • How can one provider consume another provider's API?

Start with Integration paths to choose a mechanism, then read api-syncagent or multi-cluster-runtime depending on the provider model. Use Interaction patterns to understand provider-to-consumer and provider-to-provider flows, and API sharing for the contract between provider and consumer workspaces.

When you are ready for hands-on work, follow the Provider quick start tutorial for the api-syncagent path, then Build a multi-cluster-runtime provider for the custom-controller path.

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