About Refactr
The Refactr Platform is a highly usable, all-in-one platform for designing and delivering complex, secure cloud infrastructure and applications. With nearly zero setup, development, security, and operations, teams can quickly create repeatable, software-defined, and secure automation solutions that can be deployed with a few clicks.
At its core, the Refactr Platform is an orchestration layer above existing IT automation technologies, such as infrastructure-as-code (IaC), configuration management, CLIs, and web-based APIs. The underlying content can be uploaded directly to the application or can be pulled from version control. The platform’s workflow definitions, called pipelines, describe the execution order of the tools, and facilitate passing of data from one step to another using a built-in expression engine. The application includes a graphical, drag-and-drop pipeline builder for creating pipelines. Pipelines can also be edited directly in YAML format.
The system is designed with a security-first mindset and can be utilized in a wide variety of modern SecOps and DevSecOps pipelines. The back-end architecture, which provides isolated, ephemeral containers for every run, adds both additional layers of security and the ability to run any Linux-based tool imaginable, including automated security scanning and compliance benchmarking tools.
Drag-and-Drop Designer
Pipelines can be created without ever touching the command line using prebuilt, reusable steps. The execution sequence is immediately and constantly visualizable, incentivizing collaboration. Modifications to input variables, execution order, or control flow steps are accomplished with a few clicks. Pipelines are also serializable to YAML, allowing modifications directly from the API or from the built-in YAML editor.
Dynamic Pipeline Engine
Multiple tools can be chained together, passing the output of one tool into the input of subsequent tools. Pipeline steps can be executed in parallel. The order and scheduling of execution is controlled by a workflow system with conditionals and branching. Users get the power of continuous integration/delivery systems without building and maintaining a custom platform that would require hiring a team of DevOps engineers.
Run History
The application keeps a history of all job runs which would be lost by an operator using the command line. Use the real-time job viewer to monitor the progress of running jobs, with streaming console output and operation timeline.
Built-in Version Control
The Refactr Platform supports multiple revision control strategies to enable all workflows. Automation scripts, cloud templates, and configurations can be defined directly in the application, or can be pulled from an existing git repository.
Solution Catalog
Users can get started quickly with tested, hardened, production-ready reference architectures of common cloud deployments and automation pipelines. No coding is required - just select a pipeline and execute it right from the web application. When it’s time to customize or expand on the solution, all aspects of the solution are configurable.
Projects and Access Control
Pipelines are organized into projects, which can be shared among members of an organization. The platform includes access control per-project with a roles and permissions system designed to encourage collaboration between technical teams. Pipelines can also be cloned across projects and from the catalog to get started quickly.
Full-Featured API
All features available from the web application are also supported through a RESTful API. Current API documentation is available at https://api.refactr.it/v1.