> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://fossa.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Fossa Architecture

> A deep dive into Fossa's technical infrastructure.

## Overview

This document outlines the architecture powering Fossa's infrastructure. Our system is built on a distributed architecture that leverages containerization and network segmentation to ensure maximum scalability, security, and maintainability.

## Networks and Key Components

The infrastructure is divided into Docker networks that separate public access
from internal service traffic:

* shared-network: Public-facing services and edge routing
* fossa-backend-services: Internal service-to-service communication
* monitoring-network: Metrics and observability traffic (optional)

## Components

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/fossa/Kcz96xjcTUQyALq2/images/fossa-architecture.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=Kcz96xjcTUQyALq2&q=85&s=70d681f73d35a4c3877f1fddf8c0b9ca" alt="Fossa Architecture Overview" className="rounded-xl border border-amber-500/20 shadow-2xl my-6 w-full" width="3600" height="2130" data-path="images/fossa-architecture.png" />

```mermaid theme={null}
graph LR
    Web[Fossa Web App] --> API[API Service]
    API --> RabbitMQ[(RabbitMQ)]
    Webhooks[Webhooks Service] --> API
    API --> Worker[Worker Service]
    Worker --> RabbitMQ
    API --> Postgres[(Postgres)]
    API --> Mongo[(MongoDB)]
    Worker --> Postgres
    Worker --> Mongo
```

### 1. Fossa Web Application

Our frontend platform is built with Next.js, delivering a seamless user experience through direct communication with our API layer.

### 2. Core Backend Services

The 2.0 stack splits backend responsibilities into dedicated services:

* API: Central service layer handling business logic and request processing
* Worker: Asynchronous processing for queues and background jobs
* Webhooks: Dedicated service for Git provider webhooks
* Analytics Worker: Ingestion worker (`WORKER_ROLE=analytics`) that powers the Cockpit dashboards.

### 3. MCP Manager

MCP Manager catalogs providers and integrations, then exposes them to Fossa so
teams can install MCPs from the Plugins screen.

### 4. Data Stores

Fossa uses two databases:

* Postgres: Relational data and embeddings metadata
* MongoDB: Flexible document storage

### 5. Messaging and Observability

RabbitMQ is required for 2.0, providing reliable asynchronous communication
between API, worker, and webhooks.

Prometheus and Grafana are optional and used for monitoring and visualization.

### 6. Fully Autonomous & Self-Contained

Fossa is 100% free, self-hosted, open-source software under the AGPL-3.0 license. There are no closed-source billing dependencies or cloud-only paywalls: every capability—including DORA metrics analytics in Cockpit, Fossy Rules, universal multi-provider BYOK LLM routing, and MCP plugins—executes entirely within your own self-hosted infrastructure.

## Next Steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Run Fossa Locally" icon="laptop" href="/en/how_to_deploy/local_quickstart/orchestrator">
    Ideal for local development and getting familiar with the full Fossa stack.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Deploy Fossa to Production" icon="rocket" href="/en/how_to_deploy/deploy_fossa/generic_vm">
    Perfect for production deployment and experiencing the full capabilities of Fossa.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>


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