Manifest reference

antifailure.yaml sits at the repository root. af init writes one from what is already in the repository; nothing regenerates it afterwards, so an edit you make survives.

The rule worth knowing before reading anything else: an environment can reach nothing on the network except the hosts listed under egress, each in the mode named. Everything else is refused with a decision you can read.

Top level

Key	Type	What it is
version	int	Schema version. 1 today.
name	string	The project. Used in environment identifiers.
services	list	What runs.
database	block	Where the Postgres comes from.
egress	block	What the environment may reach.
personas	list	Users the agents sign in as.
workflows	list	What the agents do.
invariants	list	Statements about the data that must stay true.
insights	block	The Postgres native checks.
load	block	Production shaped traffic.
runtime	block	Where and how long environments run.
github	block	The pull request integration.

services

Key	Type	Notes
name	string	Required.
kind	string	web, worker, or cron. A web service gets a URL.
path	string	Directory, for a monorepo.
command	string	How to start it.
port	int	What it listens on. PORT is set for you.
health_path	string	Readiness check, default /.
health_timeout	duration	Default 180s.
migrate	string	Runs before the service, with a direct connection.
schedule	cron	For kind: cron.
replicas	int	Default 1.
depends_on	list	Other services that must start first.
env	list	Variables this service needs, by name.
resources	block	cpu and memory.
build	block	See below.

AF-RUN-042 Service web depends on cache, which the manifest does not declare.
AF-RUN-041 The services depend on each other in a cycle: web -> worker -> web

A cycle has no order that can start, so it is refused rather than resolved arbitrarily.

build

Key	Notes
strategy	auto (default), dockerfile, or buildpack.
dockerfile	Path, when it is not ./Dockerfile.
context	Build context, default the service’s directory.
target	A stage in a multi stage Dockerfile.
image	A prebuilt image, instead of building.
args	Build arguments.
allow_hosts	Hosts the build may reach. The build is sandboxed too.

env

    env:
      - name: STRIPE_SECRET_KEY
        sandbox: true
      - name: LOG_LEVEL
        value: debug
      - name: API_URL
        from: web

A name, never a secret. sandbox: true marks a variable that must hold a sandbox credential and never a live one, which is checked before anything starts. from takes the value from another service’s URL, so a worker can be told where the web service is without hardcoding a port.

A service receives what it declares and nothing else. The engine’s own environment is not passed through, or a preview would inherit whatever is exported on the laptop that started it.

database

Key	Notes
provider	docker (default) or neon.
version	Postgres major, default 17.
url_env	The variable services receive the connection string in.
source_url_env	Names the variable holding production’s read only URL.
masking_rules	Path to the rules, default masking.yaml.
seed	A command run against a fresh golden candidate.
project	For a hosted provider, its project identifier.
api_key_env	Names the variable holding that provider’s API key.
max_branches	The plan’s concurrent branch limit.
golden	schedule, max_age, retain, storage, storage_url.
subset	See below.

subset

  subset:
    enabled: true
    seed_table: organizations
    seed_where: "created_at > now() - interval '90 days'"
    max_rows: 100000
    follow_dependents: 2
    virtual_relationships:
      - from: events.actor_id
        to: users.id

A production shaped slice rather than the whole database. virtual_relationships is for joins your schema does not declare as foreign keys, which are the ones a subset silently breaks.

egress

Key	Notes
default	block (default) or allow.
allow_ipv6	Off by default.
rules	See egress.

runtime

Key	Notes
provider	local. kubernetes is named in the schema and not built yet; asking for it is refused rather than substituted.
ttl	How long an environment lives.
idle_sleep	Suspend after this long with no traffic.
domain	Wildcard domain for preview URLs.

When the manifest is wrong

AF-MAN-001 No antifailure.yaml was found in /path or any parent directory.
AF-MAN-002 The manifest at ./antifailure.yaml is not valid: services[0].port
must be between 1 and 65535
AF-MAN-003 The manifest declares schema version 2, which this build does not
understand.
AF-MAN-005 The manifest is larger than the 256 KiB limit.
AF-MAN-006 The path ../secrets in the manifest resolves outside the repository.

The schema refuses a key it does not know, so a typo is an error at the line rather than a setting that silently does nothing.

af doctor validates without running anything, which is the fast way to check an edit.

The JSON Schema

schemas/manifest.v1.json is the source of truth, and the Go types mirror it. A test validates real manifests against both, so a field in one and not the other fails the build. Point your editor at it for completion and inline errors.

Related: detection, egress, providers.