What is MicroLab
MicroLab is a desktop orchestrator (an app you install and open) that launches several microservices at once on your machine —with the communication between them already resolved— to test and run complete flows with minimal effort. It is project- and company-agnostic: it contains nothing from any specific project.
The problem it solves
Section titled “The problem it solves”Starting a micro locally today means, by hand: starting Docker, the infrastructure (Kafka/Redis/Postgres), creating the database, launching the right module with the local profile, and —the most costly part— deciding what to do with the other services it calls: do you launch them too?, point to DEV over VPN?, simulate them?
Doing that for several micros at once and having them talk to each other is tedious and error-prone: repeated ports, mispointed URLs, migrations against shared environments… MicroLab automates all of that and makes it repeatable.
What it does for you
Section titled “What it does for you”- Autodetects how each micro starts (its technology, ports, infrastructure and dependencies) and generates its description; you just review it.
- Resolves the ports at runtime so they don’t collide, even if they all declare 8080.
- Rewrites the URLs between micros according to how you resolved each dependency (local, cloud or mock), without touching the repos’ code.
- Launches the common infrastructure (Kafka, Redis, PostgreSQL) in Docker.
- Lets you observe everything while it runs: each micro’s status, live logs, the calls the mocks receive and metrics.
Who it is for
Section titled “Who it is for”For teams that develop and test locally systems of several microservices that call each other, and that today rely on manual instructions like LOCAL_SETUP.md executed step by step. MicroLab replaces that manual process with a program that orchestrates everything.
Product principles
Section titled “Product principles”- Minimal effort: whatever can be autodetected, is autodetected.
- Non-invasive: MicroLab never modifies the micros’ repos; it does everything by injecting configuration at startup.
- Reproducible and transparent: what it does is visible (logs, ports, status).