Ephemeral environments
on k3s, in minutes.
Spin up isolated, production-like environments for every PR, branch, or experiment. Share them with your team. Tear them down when you're done.
Built for your workflow
Trusted by platform teams at
"MicroStax cut our environment provisioning from hours to under a minute. Our devs ship faster and QA has never been smoother."
Jamie Kim
Staff Platform Engineer, NovaTech
Problem / Solution
Stop fighting your environments
Common infrastructure pain points, solved.
Hours wasted configuring dev environments
Spin up a full namespace in under a minute with a single YAML file.
"Works on my machine" bugs slip into production
Production-parity environments with real services, not mocks.
Shared staging is a bottleneck and money pit
Isolated per-branch environments with auto-shutdown and TTL controls.
How it works
From zero to environment in four steps
Connect cluster
Point MicroStax at your existing k3s (or any k8s) cluster. One-time setup via CLI or UI.
Define Blueprint
Write a microstax.yaml or import your existing Docker Compose file. Define services, volumes, and env vars.
Create env per PR
Every pull request or branch gets its own isolated namespace. Automatic CI/CD triggers via GitHub Actions.
Observe, share, destroy
Monitor logs, share a URL with your team, and auto-destroy on merge or TTL expiry.
Features
Everything you need to ship faster
From isolation to observability, MicroStax covers the full lifecycle of your dev environments.
Namespace Isolation + NetworkPolicies
Every environment runs in its own namespace with strict network boundaries. No cross-talk between tenants.
Log Streaming
Real-time log streaming from every pod. Tail, filter, and search across services from the UI or CLI.
Shareable URLs
Generate unique preview URLs for every environment. Share with teammates, PM, or QA with one click.
Auto-Shutdown & TTL
Set time-to-live policies so idle environments clean themselves up. No more forgotten clusters.
Template Gallery
Start from pre-built templates for common stacks. Customize and save your own blueprints.
Compose Import
Bring your docker-compose.yml and MicroStax converts it to a native blueprint automatically.
Seeding & Mocking
Seed databases with fixture data. Mock external APIs to test edge cases without live dependencies.
Snapshots
Capture a running environment state. Restore it later or share it as a reproducible baseline.
Baselines & Overlays
Define a shared baseline config, then layer per-environment overrides on top for maximum flexibility.
AI Diagnosis
Intelligent error analysis suggests fixes for failing pods, misconfigurations, and resource bottlenecks.
Integrations
Connects to your entire stack
First-class integrations for CI/CD, observability, and developer tools.
GitHub OAuth
Sign in with GitHub. Map repos to blueprints automatically.
GitHub Actions
Trigger environment creation on PR open, sync on push, destroy on merge.
REST API
Full CRUD API for environments, blueprints, and clusters. OpenAPI spec included.
CLI
microstax CLI for local development, scripting, and CI pipelines.
Prometheus Metrics
Export namespace-level metrics. Plug into your existing Grafana dashboards.
Webhooks
Get notified on env lifecycle events. Integrate with Slack, PagerDuty, or custom systems.
VS Code Extension
Manage environments, tail logs, and open tunnels directly from your editor.
MCP Server
Model Context Protocol server for AI agent integration and automated environment management.
GitLab SSO
GitLab OAuth and SSO for enterprise identity management.
SAML / OIDC SSO
Enterprise SSO with your existing identity provider.
BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud)
Run the MicroStax control plane in your own VPC for maximum data residency control.
Architecture
Simple by design, powerful under the hood
A clean request path from your CI/CD pipeline all the way to running services.
Clients
Control Plane
Data Layer
Runtime
Why MicroStax
The right tool for the job
Kubernetes-native isolation
Real namespaces, not Docker-in-Docker hacks. NetworkPolicies enforced by default.
Sub-minute provisioning
k3s is lightweight. MicroStax pre-warms clusters for near-instant environment creation.
Full lifecycle automation
Create on PR, sync on push, share with a URL, destroy on merge. Hands-free.
Cost controls built in
TTL, auto-shutdown, and metered billing mean you only pay for what you use.
| Feature | MicroStax | Compose | Tilt / Skaffold / Garden | Signadot / Qovery | Review Apps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Namespace isolation | |||||
| Sub-minute spinup | |||||
| PR-based lifecycle | |||||
| Shareable URLs | |||||
| Compose import | |||||
| Auto-shutdown / TTL | |||||
| Snapshots & baselines | |||||
| AI diagnosis |
Pricing
Transparent pricing, no surprises
Pay only for the environment-hours and resources you actually use. TTL and caps keep costs predictable.
Free
For solo devs and quick experiments.
Included
- 1 cluster connection
- 3 concurrent environments
- 100 env-hours / month
- Community support
- CLI + REST API
Metered
- Extra env-hours: N/A (hard cap)
Cost controls
TTL: 2 hours max
Pro Dev
For individual developers who need more power.
Included
- 2 cluster connections
- 10 concurrent environments
- 500 env-hours / month
- Snapshots & baselines
- Email support
Metered
- Extra env-hours: $0.05/hr
- Extra storage: $0.10/GB
Cost controls
TTL: 24 hours max, spending alerts
Team
For teams shipping production software.
Included
- Unlimited clusters
- Unlimited environments
- 2,000 env-hours / month
- All integrations
- AI diagnosis
- Priority support
Metered
- Extra env-hours: $0.03/hr
- Extra CPU: $0.02/vCPU-hr
- Extra storage: $0.08/GB
Cost controls
Configurable TTL, spending caps, auto-shutdown policies
Enterprise
For orgs with compliance and scale needs.
Included
- Everything in Team
- BYOC deployment
- SSO / SAML / OIDC
- Audit logs
- SLA & dedicated support
- Custom contracts
Metered
- Volume discounts
- Committed-use pricing
Cost controls
Organization-wide policies, budget guardrails
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Ready to ditch your staging bottleneck?
Join the waitlist for early access. Be among the first teams to ship with ephemeral environments on k3s.
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