Philosophy

Agents are the new operators

Software development is changing. AI agents write code, debug issues, and ship features. But when it comes to infrastructure — deploying, scaling, monitoring — agents hit a wall. They can't click buttons. They can't read dashboards. They can't fill out forms.

Ink removes that wall. Every infrastructure operation is an MCP tool call. Your agent deploys a service the same way it writes a function — programmatically, without human intervention.

Design principles

Agent-first, not agent-added

Ink wasn't built as a traditional platform with an agent wrapper. The MCP interface is the primary interface. The web dashboard exists for visibility, but agents don't need it.

Every feature ships as an MCP tool first. If an agent can't do it, it's not done.

Convention over configuration

Agents work best when defaults are sensible. Ink auto-detects your framework, picks the right build strategy, allocates resources, and assigns a URL. Zero config for the common case. Full control when you need it.

"Deploy a FastAPI app" → auto-detects Python, installs dependencies,
starts uvicorn, assigns a URL — no Dockerfile, no YAML, no CI pipeline.

Observable by default

Agents need to see what's happening. Every service exposes CPU, memory, and network metrics. Build logs and runtime logs are available through MCP tools. When something breaks, your agent reads the logs and fixes the code — without you opening a browser.

Secure multi-tenancy

Every workload runs in a gVisor sandbox — a userspace kernel that prevents container escapes. Network policies enforce strict namespace isolation. Credentials are encrypted at rest. Agents operate within permission boundaries automatically.

Transparent pricing

Per-minute billing with no hidden costs. Your agent can check credit balance, see usage breakdown, and even top up credits autonomously. No surprise bills, no opaque pricing tiers.

The MCP standard

Ink uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) — an open standard for connecting AI agents to external tools. Any MCP-compatible client can connect to Ink: Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, and more.

This means Ink works with every major AI coding assistant today, and any future client that adopts MCP.