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CloudAlt Backend Docs

Backend Overview

Backend Architecture Overview

Section titled “Backend Architecture Overview”

CloudAlt’s backend follows an API-first architecture with three independent Django services.

Design Principles

Section titled “Design Principles”

1. Business Unit Separation

Section titled “1. Business Unit Separation”

Each BU has its own Django project with:

  • Independent database schemas
  • Separate deployment pipelines
  • Isolated scaling characteristics

2. Centralized Membership

Section titled “2. Centralized Membership”

Users have one membership per Business Unit, shared across all divisions within that BU.

Example: A user joining Pink Guest (Stay Overnight) automatically has access to Roommate Works and Stay Match with the same credentials.

See ADR-001: Centralized Membership for the full decision rationale.

3. Pure REST API

Section titled “3. Pure REST API”
  • No Django templates (frontend is separate React/React Native apps)
  • JSON-only responses
  • OpenAPI/Swagger documentation auto-generated

Service Communication

Section titled “Service Communication”
Frontend Apps (React/React Native)
        ↓
API Client Layer (TypeScript)
        ↓
REST API Endpoints (Django REST Framework)
        ↓
PostgreSQL (Supabase) + Firestore + Cloud Storage

Database Organization

Section titled “Database Organization”

Each division has its own PostgreSQL schema within the shared Supabase database:

  • stays_stayovernight - Stay Overnight data
  • stays_roommate - Roommate Works data
  • stays_staymatch - Stay Match data
  • discovery_altfinder - AltFinder data
  • services_pridecity - Pride City data
  • services_bonjour - Bonjour Locker data

Next Steps

Section titled “Next Steps”