| title | short_title | description | keywords | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serverless Container Framework - Documentation | Serverless Container Framework | Develop and deploy containers seamlessly across AWS Lambda and AWS ECS Fargate. Develop containerized applications with hot reloading, local emulation, and automated infrastructure setup. The perfect bridge between serverless and containers. |
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Serverless Container Framework
Update: In June 2025, we launched a new version of SCF with many additional features. Review the Upgrading Guide to learn more. For documentation of the original SCF, visit the legacy docs here.
One solution to deploy serverless workloads everywhere - Serverless Container Framework (SCF) is a unified development and deployment experience for containers on serverless platforms.
The value of SCF lies in its Heroku-like experience for deploying containers on serverless platforms, without vendor lock-in. Deploy to any container-supporting serverless platform. While PaaS providers charge hefty markups based on compute usage, SCF charges only a fixed cost per each container you deploy. Even better, SCF's license is free for every developer/organization making less than $2 million in revenue per year.
SCF delivers an architecture that capable of massively scalable APIs and event handling. It uses AWS Cloudfront functions for request routing, allowing developers to freely mix and transition between AWS Lambda and AWS ECS Fargate compute options, accompanied by a rich development experience.
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Features
Unified Container Development & Deployment
- Deploy seamlessly to AWS Lambda and ECS Fargate via a single workflow (and more providers soon)
- Mix Lambda and Fargate compute within a single API
- Switch compute platforms instantly without code rewrites or downtime
- Optimize container builds automatically for each compute service
- Write Node.js and Python apps naturally - No Dockerfiles needed
- Get production-ready infrastructure in seconds with automated VPC, networking & ALB setup
Rich Development Experience
- Develop Lambda and Fargate containers rapidly with true local emulation
- Route and simulate AWS ALB requests via localhost
- Accelerate development with instant hot reloading
- Inject live AWS IAM roles into your containers
- Enjoy an elegant logging and debugging experience
Production-Ready Features
- Smart code/config change detection for deployments
- Supports one or multiple custom domains on the same API
- Automatic SSL certificate management
- Secure AWS IAM and network defaults
- Load environment variables from .env, AWS Secrets Manager, AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store, HashiCorp Vault, HashiCorp Terraform state, and more via Serverless Framework Variables
- Multi-cloud support coming soon
Configuration
Serverless Container Framework offers simple YAML to deliver complex architectures via a serverless.containers.yml file. Here is a simple example of a full-stack application.
name: acmeinc
deployment:
type: aws@1.0
containers:
# Web (Frontend)
service-web:
src: ./web
routing:
domain: acmeinc.com
pathPattern: /*
compute:
type: awsLambda
# API (Backend)
service-api:
src: ./api
routing:
domain: api.acmeinc.com
pathPattern: /api/*
pathHealthCheck: /health
compute:
type: awsFargateEcs
awsFargateEcs:
memory: 4096
cpu: 1024
environment:
HELLO: world
awsIam:
customPolicy:
Version: '2012-10-17'
Statement:
- Effect: Allow
Action:
- dynamodb:GetItem
Resource:
- '*'
integrations:
# Slack notifications for API errors
error-alerts:
type: slack
name: 'API Error Alerts'