forkstack

Instant, isolated development environments using zero-copy database and storage forks.

forkstack is a CLI tool for creating fully isolated development environments in seconds. Each developer gets their own copy of your entire stack—database and object storage—without duplicating data or slowing down.

Installation

# Recommended: install script
curl -LsSf https://forkstack.xyz/install.sh | sh

# Or with pip/uv
pip install forkstack
uv pip install forkstack

# Or with cargo
cargo install forkstack --bin forks

Why forkstack?

Traditional development environments share databases or require expensive duplication:

❌ Shared dev DB: Developers step on each other's data
❌ DB per developer: Expensive, slow to provision, hard to keep in sync
❌ Local-only: Can't test with production-like data

forkstack gives you the best of all worlds:

✅ Instant creation: New environments in seconds, not minutes
✅ Zero cost: Fork-on-write means no data duplication charges
✅ Full isolation: Each environment has its own DB and storage
✅ Production parity: Fork from production to test with real data
✅ Easy cleanup: Delete environments instantly when done

Quick Start

1. Create a config file

Create .forkstack.toml in your project:

[database]
provider = "turso"
organization = "your-org"
production = "my-app-prod"

[storage.uploads]
provider = "tigris"
bucket = "my-app-uploads"
endpoint = "https://fly.storage.tigris.dev"

2. Set credentials

export TURSO_API_TOKEN="your-token"
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="your-key"
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="your-secret"

3. Create a fork

$ forks create -n alice
Created fork: alice
Database: libsql://alice-your-org.turso.io
Storage:  uploads: s3://my-app-uploads/forks/alice/

4. Use your fork

Point your app at the fork URLs, work in isolation, then clean up:

$ forks delete alice
Deleted fork: alice

CLI Reference

forks create           # Create fork with random name
forks create -n alice  # Create fork with specific name
forks list             # List all forks
forks delete alice     # Delete a fork

How It Works

forks create
    │
    ├── Turso API: Create database branch
    │   └── Zero-copy fork from production DB
    │
    └── S3 API: Copy objects to fork prefix
        └── Full copy (or use Tigris bucket forks)

Database branching uses Turso's native branching—instant, zero-copy regardless of database size.

Storage forking copies objects to a fork-specific prefix. For zero-copy storage, use Tigris bucket forks.

Supported Services

Databases (pick one):

Turso - SQLite branches (recommended)
More coming soon (Neon, PlanetScale)

Object Storage (pick one):

Tigris - S3-compatible with bucket forks (recommended)
Any S3-compatible storage

Pattern Benefits

For Individual Developers

Test risky changes in isolation
Work on multiple features simultaneously
Fork from prod to debug with real data
Clean up experiments instantly

For Teams

No database conflicts between developers
Easy code review with deployable branches
Staging environments on-demand
Safe production debugging

For CI/CD

Ephemeral preview environments per PR
Cost-effective testing at scale
Automatic cleanup after merge

Documentation

Full documentation at forkstack.xyz

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Submit issues and PRs at github.com/russellromney/forkstack

License

Apache 2.0 - Use it however you want.

forkstack 0.1.0