Ampt Up(date) #2

I'm thrilled to be part of such a productive team! Over the last two weeks, we've fixed several bugs and implemented a range of improvements that significantly enhance the Ampt experience. Here are some highlights from our latest releases.

Improvements

• Introducing Next.js support! Now you can build full-stack applications on Ampt with Next.js 12. See the docs for more information. We've also added a starter template to get you up and running quickly.
• We're thrilled to announce support for WebSockets! With this new feature, developers can now build real-time communication apps such as chat, collaboration tools, online gaming services and more. For more information, check out our docs and read the announcement blog. We've created a simple sample app for ideas on how to use WebSockets on Ampt.
• We're excited to announce the addition of the deploy command to the Ampt CLI. With this feature, developers can easily create stable and scalable stage environments for their applications. Unlike sandboxes that are only available during active development or preview environments that are automatically torn down after use, stage environments provide a permanent environment for hosting production traffic. To create a stage environment, simply run deploy [your-stage-name] to build and deploy your frontend and backend applications.
• Ampt now supports assigning custom domains to stage environments. With this feature, you can personalize your application by using your own custom domain instead of the default ".ampt.app" domains. Custom domains can be added from the "Settings" menu under an app's stage in the dashboard. Please note that custom domains can only be assigned to stage environments and are not available for developer sandboxes or preview environments.
• We've added the ability to automatically detect outdated versions of @ampt packages. The CLI will prompt you to update outdated dependencies before starting your developer sandbox.

Bug Fixes

• During the Ampt Private beta, each account has a limit of 10 total environments (soft limit). We've fixed an issue that was returning an incorrect error message when this limit was reached. If you exceed the limit, you can delete environments from the dashboard.
• We resolved some conflicts between Next.js support and our http interface that caused issues with Node-based web frameworks such as Express and Koa.
• We've fixed some broken links to the documentation on the Ampt Dashboard to make it easier for you to access the information you need.
• We've made several improvements to the CLI experience to provide a smoother and more efficient developer experience.

What's new in space?

Infrastructure FROM Code and LLMs might just be the perfect match, especially with the continued push towards conversational programming interfaces. Our friends at Dark made a strong pivot in this area: https://blog.darklang.com/gpt/. We believe there's still a lot to figure out in this space, especially around infrastructure deployment and management for production applications. But using tools like ChatGPT to enable developers to build applications just by describing what the application should do, is something we've been experimenting with as well.

Yehuda Cohen shared a detailed article about his extensive experience with the evolution of managing cloud infrastructure. He starts with click-ops, then moves on to Infrastructure-AS-Code, and finishes with the emerging Infrastructure FROM Code space. Definitely worth the read, but set aside some time because it's a long one.

Our CEO, Jeremy Daly, was a guest on Eric Johnson's "Sessions with SAM and Friends" a few weeks ago. You can watch the full episode here. It's amazing to see how much the Ampt team has delivered since this was recorded!

What’s next for Ampt?

The private beta has been live for a few weeks now, and it's been amazing watching our beta testers try out Ampt! We're listening to user feedback and continuously improving our platform to ensure it meets the needs of modern cloud developers. If you haven't already, make sure you sign up for the waitlist to join our growing community. Stay tuned for more updates, and be sure to join us on Discord to connect with our community and share your thoughts.