roadmap.md

Mist PaaS - Product Roadmap

Vision: A lightweight, self-hostable Platform-as-a-Service for developers and small teams, competing with Coolify, Dokploy, CapRover, and Dokku.

Legend

• ✅ Implemented
• 🚧 In Progress
• 📋 Planned
• 💡 Future Consideration

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🎯 Core Features Status

1. Application Deployment

• ✅ Docker-based deployments
• ✅ Git integration (GitHub)
• ✅ Custom Dockerfile support
• 📋 Auto-generated Dockerfile
• ✅ Build and start commands
• ✅ Port configuration
• ✅ Real-time deployment monitoring
• ✅ Deployment queue system
• ✅ Build logs streaming
• ✅ Webhook-based auto-deployment
• 📋 Rollback to previous deployments
• 📋 Blue-green deployments
• 📋 Canary releases
• 📋 Multi-stage builds optimization
• 📋 Build cache management
• 📋 Deployment preview environments (PR previews)
• 📋 Deployment scheduling
• 📋 Health check integration
• 📋 Deployment hooks (pre/post deploy scripts)
• 📋 Manual approval gates

2. Git Provider Integration

• ✅ GitHub App integration
• ✅ OAuth installation flow
• ✅ Repository browser
• ✅ Branch selection
• ✅ Commit tracking
• ✅ Push event webhooks
• 📋 GitLab integration
• 📋 Bitbucket integration
• 📋 Gitea/Forgejo support
• 📋 Self-hosted Git support
• 📋 Pull request deployments
• 📋 Commit status updates
• 📋 Multi-repo apps (monorepo support)

3. User & Access Management

• ✅ JWT authentication
• ✅ Role-based access (admin/user)
• ✅ First-time setup flow
• ✅ User creation by admin
• ✅ HTTP-only cookies
• 📋 User deletion by admin
• 📋 Password reset flow
• 📋 Email verification
• 📋 Two-factor authentication (2FA/TOTP)
• 📋 SSO integration (OAuth2, SAML)
• 📋 API tokens for CLI/API access
• 📋 Session management UI
• 📋 Invite system with email
• 📋 Team roles (owner, admin, developer, viewer)
• 📋 Fine-grained permissions

4. Project & Organization

• ✅ Project creation and management
• ✅ Project ownership
• ✅ Multi-member projects
• ✅ Project tags
• 📋 Project templates
• 📋 Project quotas (resource limits)
• 📋 Project billing/usage tracking
• 📋 Project transfer ownership
• 📋 Archived projects
• 📋 Project-level environment variables
• 📋 Project settings inheritance

5. Domain & SSL Management

• ✅ Custom domain configuration
• ✅ Multiple domains per app
• ✅ Traefik reverse proxy integration
• ✅ SSL status tracking
• 📋 Let's Encrypt automatic SSL (ACME)
• 📋 Certificate renewal automation
• 📋 Custom SSL certificate upload
• 📋 Wildcard domain support
• 📋 Domain verification (DNS/HTTP)
• 📋 WWW redirect options
• 📋 Force HTTPS
• 📋 HSTS headers
• 📋 Custom headers configuration
• 📋 CDN integration (Cloudflare, etc.)

6. Environment & Configuration

• ✅ Environment variable CRUD
• ✅ Build-time variables
• ✅ Runtime variables
• 📋 Environment variable encryption
• 📋 Secrets management
• 📋 Environment templates
• 📋 .env file import/export
• 📋 Environment variable history
• 📋 Bulk edit/copy between apps
• 📋 Integration with Vault/Secrets Manager
• 📋 Variable validation rules

7. Monitoring & Observability

• ✅ Real-time system metrics (CPU, RAM, disk)
• ✅ Container logs streaming
• ✅ Deployment logs
• ✅ WebSocket-based monitoring
• 📋 Application performance monitoring (APM)
• 📋 Custom metrics collection (StatsD, Prometheus)
• 📋 Error tracking (Sentry-like)
• 📋 Uptime monitoring
• 📋 HTTP response time tracking
• 📋 Log aggregation and search
• 📋 Log retention policies
• 📋 Log export (S3, Elasticsearch)
• 📋 Alerting system (email, Slack, Discord, webhook)
• 📋 Status page generation
• 📋 Incident management
• 📋 Resource usage analytics
• 📋 Cost estimation

8. Database Services

• 📋 PostgreSQL provisioning
• 📋 MySQL/MariaDB provisioning
• 📋 Redis provisioning
• 📋 MongoDB provisioning
• 📋 Database backups (automated)
• 📋 Point-in-time recovery
• 📋 Database connection pooling
• 📋 Database migration tools
• 📋 phpMyAdmin/pgAdmin integration
• 📋 Redis Commander integration
• 📋 Database replication
• 📋 Database metrics monitoring

9. Storage & Volumes

• 📋 Persistent volume management
• 📋 Volume backups
• 📋 Volume snapshots
• 📋 S3-compatible storage integration
• 📋 NFS/CIFS mount support
• 📋 Volume encryption
• 📋 Volume size limits
• 📋 Shared volumes between apps
• 📋 Volume migration tools

10. Additional Services

• 📋 Cron job scheduling
• 📋 One-off task execution
• 📋 Worker processes
• 📋 Message queue integration (RabbitMQ, Kafka)
• 📋 Background job management
• 📋 Service discovery
• 📋 Internal DNS

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🚀 Feature Roadmap by Priority

Phase 1: Core Stability & Security

Goal: Make Mist production-ready for small teams

High Priority

• [✅] SSL/TLS Automation

  • [✅] Integrate Let's Encrypt ACME client
  • [✅] Automatic certificate issuance
  • [✅] Auto-renewal 30 days before expiry
  • Certificate storage in database
  • [✅ ] Force HTTPS option per app
  • [] Custom certificate upload

• Deployment Rollback

  • Store deployment history
  • One-click rollback to previous version
  • Rollback UI in dashboard
  • Keep last N deployment images
  • Image cleanup policy

• Resource Management

  • [✅] CPU limits per container (Docker --cpus)
  • [✅] Memory limits per container (-m flag)
  • [✅] Restart policies (always, on-failure, unless-stopped)
  • Health checks (Docker HEALTHCHECK)
  • [✅] Container auto-restart on failure
  • Resource usage alerts

• User Management Completion

  • User deletion by admin (fix existing implementation)
  • Password reset via email
  • Email verification
  • User profile editing
  • API token generation for CLI access
  • Session management (view/revoke sessions)

• Security Enhancements

  • Rate limiting on API endpoints
  • CORS configuration
  • [✅] Webhook signature verification (GitHub)
  • Secrets encryption at rest
  • [✅] Audit log population (user actions)
  • Security headers (CSP, X-Frame-Options)
  • IP whitelist for admin actions

Medium Priority

• Advanced Logging

  • Centralized log storage (database or file rotation)
  • Log search and filtering UI
  • Log retention policies (delete after N days)
  • Log download/export
  • Structured logging for apps (JSON parsing)
  • Log levels (info, warn, error)

• Notification System

  • Email notifications (SMTP config)
  • Slack integration
  • Discord webhooks
  • Custom webhook notifications
  • Notification preferences per user
  • Event types: deployment success/fail, SSL expiry, resource alerts

• Backup & Recovery

  • Database backup automation
  • One-click restore
  • Backup to S3/local storage
  • Scheduled backups (daily, weekly)
  • Volume snapshots
  • Export/import projects

Phase 2: Database & Services

Goal: Add managed database provisioning

High Priority

• PostgreSQL Management

  • One-click Postgres container deployment
  • Version selection (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
  • Automatic backups (pg_dump)
  • Connection string generation
  • Auto-inject DB env vars into apps
  • pgAdmin integration
  • Database user management
  • Database replication (primary/replica)

• Redis Management

  • One-click Redis deployment
  • Version selection
  • Password protection
  • Persistence options (RDB, AOF)
  • Redis Commander UI
  • Pub/sub support
  • Redis Sentinel for HA

• MySQL/MariaDB Management

  • One-click deployment
  • Version selection
  • Backups (mysqldump)
  • phpMyAdmin integration
  • User and privilege management

Medium Priority

• MongoDB Management

  • One-click deployment
  • Mongo Express UI
  • Backup and restore
  • Replica set support

• Database Migration Tools

  • Built-in migration runner
  • Schema diff viewer
  • Seed data management

• S3-Compatible Storage

  • MinIO integration
  • Upload/download files via UI
  • Bucket management
  • Access key generation

Phase 3: Advanced Deployment

Goal: Support complex deployment strategies

High Priority

• Preview Environments

  • Auto-deploy on pull request
  • Unique subdomain per PR (pr-123.app.domain.com)
  • Auto-destroy on PR close/merge
  • Comment on PR with preview URL
  • Ephemeral databases for previews

• Deployment Strategies

  • Blue-green deployments
  • Canary releases (gradual traffic shift)
  • A/B testing support
  • Zero-downtime deployments guarantee
  • Health check before traffic switch

• Build Optimization

  • Docker layer caching
  • Shared build cache across deploys
  • Multi-stage build support
  • Parallel builds (if multiple apps)
  • Build queue prioritization

Medium Priority

• Deployment Workflows

  • Manual approval gates
  • Deployment scheduling (deploy at specific time)
  • Pre-deploy hooks (run tests)
  • Post-deploy hooks (warm cache, send notification)
  • Deploy from specific commit/tag
  • Deploy to specific environment (staging, prod)

• GitLab/Bitbucket Support

  • GitLab OAuth integration
  • GitLab webhooks
  • Bitbucket integration
  • Self-hosted Git support (Gitea, Gogs)

Phase 4: Enterprise Features

Goal: Scale to larger teams and production workloads

High Priority

• Multi-Node Support

  • Docker Swarm orchestration
  • Kubernetes support (alternative)
  • Multi-server deployment
  • Load balancing across nodes
  • Node health monitoring
  • Node auto-scaling

• Auto-Scaling

  • Horizontal scaling (multiple containers)
  • Vertical scaling (adjust resources)
  • Auto-scale based on CPU/memory
  • Auto-scale based on request rate
  • Scheduled scaling (e.g., scale up during business hours)

• High Availability

  • Database replication
  • Redis Sentinel/Cluster
  • Failover automation
  • Health checks and auto-recovery
  • Zero-downtime maintenance mode

Medium Priority

• Advanced RBAC

  • Custom roles creation
  • Fine-grained permissions (deploy, view, admin)
  • Team-level access control
  • Resource-level permissions
  • SSO integration (Okta, Auth0, Google Workspace)
  • SAML support

• Compliance & Governance

  • Audit log viewer UI
  • Compliance reports (SOC 2, GDPR)
  • Data retention policies
  • Encryption at rest for all data
  • Secrets rotation automation
  • Vulnerability scanning (Trivy, Clair)

• Cost Management

  • Resource usage tracking per project
  • Cost estimation
  • Budget alerts
  • Idle resource detection
  • Resource recommendations

Phase 5: Developer Experience

Goal: Make Mist the easiest PaaS to use

High Priority

• CLI Tool

  • mist login - Authenticate
  • mist deploy - Deploy from local repo
  • mist logs - Stream logs
  • mist ps - List containers
  • mist restart - Restart app
  • mist env - Manage env vars
  • mist db - Manage databases
  • mist run - Execute one-off commands

• API Improvements

  • OpenAPI/Swagger documentation
  • Webhooks for all events
  • API versioning
  • API rate limiting

• Dashboard UX

  • Onboarding wizard for new users
  • Quick start templates (Next.js, Django, Rails, etc.)
  • Drag-and-drop .env file upload
  • App cloning (duplicate with settings)
  • Bulk operations (restart all, update all)
  • Dark mode toggle
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Real-time collaboration (see who's online)

Medium Priority

• Marketplace/Templates

  • Pre-configured app templates
  • One-click WordPress, Ghost, n8n, etc.
  • Docker Compose import
  • Dockerfile templates library
  • Community templates sharing

• Integrations

  • Sentry error tracking
  • Datadog APM
  • New Relic integration
  • LogDNA/Papertrail
  • PagerDuty alerts
  • StatusPage.io integration
  • Stripe for billing (if going SaaS)

• Documentation

  • Interactive tutorials
  • Video guides
  • API reference
  • Best practices guide
  • Migration guides (from Heroku, Vercel, etc.)
  • Troubleshooting playbook

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🏗️ Infrastructure & DevOps Improvements

Code Quality & Testing

• Unit tests for Go backend (target 80%+ coverage)
• Integration tests for API endpoints
• E2E tests for dashboard (Playwright/Cypress)
• Load testing (k6, Locust)
• Security scanning (gosec, npm audit)
• Dependency updates automation (Dependabot)
• CI/CD pipeline (GitHub Actions)
• Pre-commit hooks (gofmt, golint, prettier)

Performance Optimization

• Database query optimization (indexes)
• Connection pooling for SQLite
• WebSocket connection pooling
• Gzip compression for API responses
• Image optimization (compress Docker layers)
• Lazy loading in dashboard
• Pagination for large lists

Deployment Queue Improvements

• Replace in-memory queue with persistent queue (BoltDB, BadgerDB)
• Multi-worker support (configurable worker count)
• Queue priority levels (urgent, normal, low)
• Queue metrics (wait time, processing time)
• Failed job retry mechanism (exponential backoff)
• Queue dashboard (see pending/running jobs)
• Concurrent deployments per project
• Deployment queue limits (prevent queue flooding)

Database Improvements

• Database connection pooling
• Database migrations rollback support
• Database seeding for development
• Database backup to S3 automatically
• Read replicas support

Docker & Container Improvements

• Support for Docker Compose files
• Multi-container apps (web + worker + cron)
• Private Docker registry support
• Image vulnerability scanning (Trivy)
• Image signing (Docker Content Trust)
• Resource quotas (prevent noisy neighbor)
• Container network policies
• Support for Podman (alternative to Docker)

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🎨 UI/UX Enhancements

Dashboard Improvements

• Application Management

  • App settings page (split into tabs)
  • Visual deployment pipeline (stages shown as steps)
  • Deployment comparison (diff between versions)
  • Quick actions menu (restart, rebuild, scale)
  • App metrics charts (CPU, RAM, requests)
  • App activity timeline

• Project Management

  • Project dashboard (overview of all apps)
  • Project resource usage visualization
  • Project member management UI
  • Project settings page
  • Project templates

• User Management

  • User list with search and filters
  • User detail page (activity, permissions)
  • User invitation flow
  • User role assignment UI
  • Bulk user operations

• Logs & Monitoring

  • Advanced log viewer (search, filter, highlight)
  • Log export button (download as .txt/.json)
  • Real-time log tailing with pause/resume
  • Log levels toggle (show only errors)
  • Multi-container log aggregation
  • System metrics dashboard (detailed charts)
  • Alert rules configuration UI

• Databases Page

  • List all databases
  • Create new database (type selection)
  • Database connection info (copy button)
  • Database backups list
  • Database metrics (connections, queries)
  • Quick access to admin UIs (pgAdmin, phpMyAdmin)

• Settings Page

  • System-wide settings
  • SMTP configuration
  • Notification settings
  • SSL/TLS settings
  • Backup settings
  • Security settings (2FA enforcement)
  • Integration settings (Slack, Sentry, etc.)

• Status Page

  • System status (all services)
  • Incident history
  • Scheduled maintenance
  • Public status page option

Accessibility

• Keyboard navigation support
• Screen reader compatibility (ARIA labels)
• High contrast mode
• Focus indicators
• Reduced motion option

Mobile Responsiveness

• Mobile-optimized layouts
• Touch-friendly buttons
• Mobile navigation menu
• PWA support (installable app)

---

🔒 Security Best Practices

Authentication & Authorization

• Enforce strong password policies
• Prevent password reuse
• Account lockout after failed attempts
• Session timeout configuration
• Multi-factor authentication (TOTP)
• WebAuthn/Passkey support
• OAuth2 for user login (Google, GitHub)
• JWT token rotation
• Refresh token implementation

Infrastructure Security

• Secrets encryption with AES-256
• TLS 1.3 for all connections
• Certificate pinning
• Security headers (HSTS, CSP, X-Frame-Options)
• Input validation and sanitization
• SQL injection prevention (parameterized queries)
• XSS prevention
• CSRF protection
• Rate limiting (DDoS protection)
• IP whitelisting for admin panel
• Firewall rules (UFW/iptables)
• Regular security audits
• Dependency vulnerability scanning
• Container security scanning (Trivy)
• Penetration testing

Compliance

• GDPR compliance (data export, deletion)
• SOC 2 Type II readiness
• HIPAA compliance (if needed)
• Data residency options
• Privacy policy and terms of service
• Cookie consent (if applicable)

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📊 Analytics & Telemetry

User Analytics (Optional, Opt-in)

• Anonymous usage statistics
• Feature usage tracking
• Error reporting (crash dumps)
• Performance metrics (page load, API latency)
• User feedback collection
• NPS surveys

Application Analytics (Per-App)

• Request count per endpoint
• Response time percentiles (p50, p95, p99)
• Error rate tracking
• Bandwidth usage
• Geographic request distribution
• User agent analysis
• Referrer tracking

---

🌍 Deployment & Distribution

Installation Methods

• ✅ Bash install script (current)
• 📋 Docker Compose installation
• 📋 Helm chart for Kubernetes
• 📋 Ansible playbook
• 📋 Terraform modules
• 📋 One-click installers (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, etc.)
• 📋 AWS CloudFormation template
• 📋 Snap package
• 📋 DEB/RPM packages

Cloud Provider Integration

• 📋 DigitalOcean Marketplace
• 📋 AWS Marketplace
• 📋 Google Cloud Marketplace
• 📋 Azure Marketplace
• 📋 Hetzner Cloud
• 📋 Linode Marketplace
• 📋 Vultr Marketplace

Update Mechanism

• 📋 In-app update checker
• 📋 One-click update button
• 📋 Automatic updates (opt-in)
• 📋 Rollback to previous version
• 📋 Update notifications
• 📋 Changelog viewer

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🤝 Community & Ecosystem

Open Source

• Contribution guidelines (CONTRIBUTING.md)
• Code of conduct
• Issue templates (bug, feature request)
• Pull request template
• Developer documentation
• Architectural decision records (ADRs)
• Plugin/extension system

Community Building

• Discord/Slack community
• GitHub Discussions
• Blog/Changelog
• Twitter/X account
• YouTube tutorials
• Community showcase (who's using Mist)
• Contributor recognition

Documentation

• Getting started guide
• Architecture overview
• API documentation (OpenAPI)
• Deployment guides (various platforms)
• Troubleshooting guide
• Best practices
• Comparison with other PaaS (Coolify, Dokploy)
• FAQ

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🏆 Competitive Analysis

How Mist Compares (Post-Roadmap)

Feature	Mist	Coolify	Dokploy	CapRover	Dokku
Self-hosted	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Docker-based	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Git integration	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Real-time monitoring	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
Managed databases	📋	✅	✅	✅	❌
SSL automation	📋	✅	✅	✅	✅
Rollback deploys	📋	✅	✅	✅	✅
Preview environments	📋	✅	❌	❌	❌
Multi-node support	📋	❌	✅	✅	❌
Web UI	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
CLI tool	📋	✅	✅	✅	✅
Lightweight	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅
Go backend	✅	❌ (Node)	❌ (Node)	❌ (Node)	✅
SQLite DB	✅	❌ (Postgres)	❌ (Postgres)	❌ (Mongo)	N/A

Mist's Unique Selling Points:

1. Ultra-lightweight: Single binary + SQLite (no external DB needed)
2. Real-time everything: WebSocket-first architecture for instant feedback
3. Go performance: Fast, memory-efficient backend
4. Smart monitoring: Hybrid REST/WebSocket approach saves resources
5. Simple setup: One-script installation, no complex dependencies

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🎯 Success Metrics

Technical Metrics

• Performance: API latency < 100ms (p95)
• Reliability: Uptime > 99.9%
• Scalability: Support 1000+ apps per instance
• Security: Zero critical vulnerabilities
• Code Quality: Test coverage > 80%

Community Metrics

• Adoption: 1000+ GitHub stars in year 1
• Contributors: 50+ community contributors
• Deployments: 10,000+ active Mist instances
• Documentation: 100% of features documented

Business Metrics (If SaaS)

• Users: 10,000+ registered users
• Paid Plans: 1000+ paying customers
• MRR: $50k+ monthly recurring revenue
• Churn: < 5% monthly churn rate

---

🚦 Quick Wins (Do First)

These are high-impact, low-effort features to prioritize:

1. SSL/TLS with Let's Encrypt (1-2 weeks)

   • Huge value, moderate effort
   • Makes Mist production-ready immediately

2. Deployment Rollback (1 week)

   • Critical for production use
   • Simple implementation (keep old images)

3. Resource Limits (3-4 days)

   • Prevents one app from crashing server
   • Just Docker flags

4. Email Notifications (1 week)

   • Immediate user value
   • Simple SMTP integration

5. Log Search/Filter (3-4 days)

   • Huge UX improvement
   • Frontend-only work

6. PostgreSQL Provisioning (1-2 weeks)

   • Most requested feature
   • Enables serious apps

7. Deployment History UI (2-3 days)

   • Easy win, looks professional
   • Data already exists

8. App Templates (1 week)

   • Great onboarding experience
   • Simple JSON configs

9. Webhook Notifications (3 days)

   • Enables integrations
   • Simple HTTP POST

10. Dark Mode (2 days)

    • Low effort, high appreciation
    • CSS variables only

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📝 Notes

• This roadmap is a living document and will evolve based on community feedback
• Features marked with 📋 are prioritized based on user demand and competitive analysis
• Security and performance improvements are ongoing parallel to feature development
• We follow semantic versioning (MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH)
• Breaking changes are avoided when possible; when necessary, they're clearly documented

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🤝 Contributing

Want to help build Mist? Check out:

• CONTRIBUTING.md - Contribution guidelines
• Issues - Pick a task
• Discussions - Share ideas

Last Updated: December 13, 2025