Questions about Edict
Edict is a mobile backend in development. These are the questions people ask most, answered in terms of what is planned. Nothing here describes released software.
4 questions
The product
What Edict is, where it stands, and who it is for.
What is Edict?
Edict is a backend for mobile apps, in development. You choose the capabilities your app needs, such as sign-in, subscriptions, push notifications, AI limits, and data, and describe how they behave in one configuration file. Edict is designed to connect them, so you do not wire each service together by hand.
Can I use Edict today?
No. Edict is in development, and everything on this site describes planned work. There is no launch date. A hosted beta is planned. Joining the waitlist is the way to hear when it opens.
Who is Edict for?
The first audience is developers who build mobile apps with help from AI coding agents and do not want to become backend specialists. It is also for independent mobile developers and small teams. Mobile apps are the focus. Other kinds of app may come later.
Why compose modules instead of offering separate APIs?
Edict is designed so that capabilities know about each other. A subscription plan can limit an AI feature, and an owner rule on a record can become user-scoped access, without code that joins them. That connection is the aim of the design. It is not yet a released feature.
4 questions
Building with Edict
How you would describe a backend, and what stays your code.
How do I describe my backend?
In one configuration file, shown on this site as edict.yaml. You list the modules your app needs and set their behavior, such as plans, quotas, and ownership. The syntax on this site is illustrative and is not final.
Do I write backend code?
The planned first version does not run customer-written backend functions or arbitrary code. You configure behavior through typed, reusable operations instead. Custom backend code may be considered later as an advanced option.
Which mobile frameworks and SDKs will Edict support?
Edict is aimed at developers who use React Native, Expo, Swift, Kotlin, and Flutter. Which SDKs ship first has not been decided. Generated TypeScript clients are planned. No SDK is available today.
Which sign-in, payment, and push providers will it work with?
The plan includes Apple Sign In, Google Sign In, email sign-in, App Store and Google Play in-app purchases for subscriptions and credits, RevenueCat, Stripe where store policies allow it, Apple Push Notification service, and Firebase Cloud Messaging. These are planned capabilities. None is available, and the list is not a commitment.
3 questions
AI agents and AI features
Working with a coding agent, and putting AI inside your app.
Can AI coding agents work with Edict?
That is a design goal. The planned tooling includes a CLI, an MCP server, agent skills, a machine-readable catalog of modules, and structured validation errors. An agent would find the modules, edit the configuration, validate it, and start a local backend. None of this tooling is released.
What is the MCP server?
MCP is a protocol that lets an AI agent call tools. Edict plans an MCP server so an agent can look up modules and check a configuration without scraping documentation. It is planned and not available yet.
Will Edict help me add AI features to my app?
The planned AI gateway keeps provider credentials on the backend, streams replies, and applies usage quotas and per-user limits that can follow a subscription plan. The first model favors bringing your own provider credentials. Supported providers are not committed.
4 questions
Local development and hosting
Building on your own machine, then moving to managed hosting.
Can I build and test without paying for hosting?
Free local development is part of the planned experience. The local runtime is designed to run PostgreSQL, test users, mock subscriptions, simulated notifications, and simulated AI requests on your own machine. It is not available yet.
Do simulated services prove my integrations work?
No. Simulated providers let you test your business rules. They do not prove that a real provider integration works. You would still validate against real provider test environments before production.
Where will the hosted backend run?
Managed hosting is planned for when you are ready to ship. Hosting regions and production terms have not been decided.
Can I move from local to production without rewriting?
That is the intent. The same configuration is designed to describe both the local backend and the hosted one, so moving to production is a deployment step and not a rebuild. This has not been proven yet.
3 questions
Data and PostgreSQL
Where your app data lives and how it changes over time.
Is Edict built on PostgreSQL?
Edict is designed around PostgreSQL, with a backend planned in Rust. The entities you describe are intended to compile into native tables and constraints. Edict does not aim to hide PostgreSQL from you, and the generated output is meant to be readable.
How would schema changes and migrations work?
Safe migrations are a planned part of the database module, and the local runtime is meant to test them before deployment. Claims about automatic migrations stay qualified until they are built and tested.
Can I move an existing backend to Edict?
That has not been decided. No import tool is promised. Edict is being designed first for new mobile app backends, and for apps that grow on top of them.
2 questions
Pricing and licensing
What is decided about cost and source code, and what is not.
How much will Edict cost?
Pricing has not been decided, and this site publishes no prices. The plan has three stages: free local development, a hosted trial, and paid production. All three are planned.
Is Edict open source?
The current plan is to license the mobile SDKs, CLI, MCP server, agent skills, example apps, and public configuration specifications under the MIT License. The compiler, execution engine, core business-logic packages, local runtime, and core self-hosting components would use the Elastic License 2.0. That license is source-available and is not approved as open source by the OSI. This is the intended model, and not every repository is published yet.
Get an invitation when the beta opens.
Joining gets you email updates while Edict is built, and an invitation to the hosted beta when it opens.
Building now. No launch date yet.
Join the beta waitlist
Open the signup form on KitEdict is in development. Joining does not create an account or start a trial.