Use cases

Why teams use Simfra

A local AWS environment that starts in seconds, costs nothing to run, and behaves like the real thing.

CI/CD testing

Run your full infrastructure test suite against a real AWS-compatible environment in your CI pipeline. No shared AWS account, no credential management, no cleanup scripts.

✓Spin up a fresh environment per pipeline run in seconds
✓Test Terraform modules with plan/apply/destroy cycles
✓Validate IAM policies, resource policies, and cross-account access before merging
✓No flaky tests from shared state or rate limits
✓Run hundreds of parallel pipelines without AWS costs

GitHub Actions

services:
  simfra:
    image: ghcr.io/simfra-dev/simfra:latest
    ports:
      - "4599:4599"

steps:
  - run: terraform apply -auto-approve
    env:
      AWS_ENDPOINT_URL: http://localhost:4599

Local development

Develop against a full AWS environment running on your laptop. No internet required, no shared account conflicts, instant feedback.

✓All 88 services on one port, one container
✓SDKs and CLI tools work unchanged with a single endpoint override
✓Docker-backed Lambda, RDS, ElastiCache, and EKS for realistic development
✓Persist state across restarts with SQLite
✓No risk of accidentally modifying production resources

terminal

$ docker run -p 4599:4599 \
    -e SIMFRA_DOCKER=true \
    -e SIMFRA_DATA_DIR=/data \
    -v simfra-data:/data \
    ghcr.io/simfra-dev/simfra:latest

$ export AWS_ENDPOINT_URL=http://localhost:4599
$ aws sqs create-queue --queue-name orders
$ aws lambda invoke --function-name process-order ...

Rapid prototyping with AI agents

Give AI coding agents access to a full AWS environment with zero wait time, zero cost, and zero risk. Agents can create, test, and iterate on infrastructure and application code against real AWS APIs instantly.

✓No waiting for CloudFormation stacks or provisioning delays
✓Agents can apply and destroy infrastructure thousands of times without cost
✓No risk of runaway costs from agent errors or loops
✓No IAM credentials to leak or manage
✓Full AWS API fidelity means agent-generated code works in production

agent workflow

# Agent iterates freely against local AWS
$ terraform apply     # instant, free
$ terraform destroy   # instant, free
$ terraform apply     # try a different approach

# When ready, same code deploys to real AWS
$ export AWS_ENDPOINT_URL=  # unset
$ terraform apply     # production

Proof of concept work

Validate architectural decisions before committing to AWS spend. Test multi-service architectures, cross-account patterns, and complex integrations locally.

✓Prototype event-driven architectures with real SNS/SQS/EventBridge delivery
✓Test Step Functions workflows against live Lambda and DynamoDB
✓Validate cross-account access patterns with real IAM evaluation
✓Build and test CI/CD pipelines with CodePipeline, CodeBuild, and CodeDeploy
✓Share reproducible demos with your team via Docker Compose

docker-compose.yml

services:
  simfra:
    image: ghcr.io/simfra-dev/simfra:latest
    ports:
      - "4599:4599"
    environment:
      SIMFRA_DOCKER: true
      SIMFRA_DATA_DIR: /data
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - simfra-data:/data

Reducing AWS development costs

Stop paying for development and staging environments that sit idle or accumulate forgotten resources. Simfra runs on hardware you already have.

✓Eliminate per-developer AWS sandbox accounts
✓No forgotten EC2 instances, RDS databases, or NAT gateways running overnight
✓No data transfer charges for local development
✓No CloudWatch, CloudTrail, or Config costs from dev activity
✓Run the same infrastructure code against Simfra locally and AWS in production

User sandboxes

Give every developer, contractor, or team their own isolated AWS environment. No cross-contamination, no shared resource conflicts, no cleanup coordination.

✓Multi-account support with full IAM isolation between users
✓Each sandbox starts clean or from a bootstrapped baseline
✓No organizational overhead of managing AWS accounts and SSO
✓Sandboxes are ephemeral and disposable by default
✓Admin API for programmatic sandbox creation and teardown

terminal

# Create isolated sandboxes via admin API
$ curl -X POST http://localhost:4599/_simfra/accounts \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $ADMIN_TOKEN" \
    -d '{"name": "developer-alice"}'

$ curl -X POST http://localhost:4599/_simfra/accounts \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $ADMIN_TOKEN" \
    -d '{"name": "developer-bob"}'

Training and education

Teach AWS services and cloud architecture without giving students access to a real AWS account. Every student gets their own isolated environment.

✓Students can experiment freely without cost concerns
✓No risk of accidental resource creation in production accounts
✓Built-in web console for visual exploration of resources
✓IAM policy enforcement teaches real permission models
✓CloudShell provides a browser-based terminal for hands-on exercises

Have a different use case?

We'd love to hear how you're using Simfra.

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