What's an app?

Definition

An MDK app is a mdk.yaml declaring a Gateway with its plugins, one or more Workers, and their configuration, plus, optionally, a UI or headless consumer built against that same Gateway.

Anatomy

• mdk.yaml: the deployment unit. Names the stack, ports, which Worker packages run with what device config, and which Gateway plugins load with what config. This is what mdk onboard/mdk create write and mdk run reads.
• Worker plugin(s): yours if you're integrating a new device family; reused if you picked one that already ships (an Antminer worker, a demo worker).
• Gateway plugin(s): yours if you need a route no existing plugin exposes; reused for anything already bundled.
• UI or headless consumer: optional. A scaffolded dashboard, a script calling @tetherto/mdk-client directly, or nothing at all: Kernel and the Gateway don't require one.
• Kernel and the Gateway container: never yours to modify. They're the invariant core every app runs unchanged (see Architecture).

What an app is not

• Not a fork of Kernel or the Gateway: you never edit their source to build an app.
• Not a monolith: a Worker plugin, a Gateway plugin, and a UI are independently swappable pieces, not one codebase.
• Not a replacement for the Kernel: an app always sits on top of it, never instead of it.

Next steps

• Understand the integration model: what a Worker plugin and a Gateway plugin each get to do
• Understand architecture: how the pieces of an app talk to each other
• Build an app from an empty directory

Next steps

• Understand the integration model
• Understand architecture
• Build an app