AH Original · Case study 04

HorizechWorkspace

Private2025 – NowPlatform · .NET + Next.js

Horizech’s own platform: a .NET 10 core and launcher that install, update and roll back apps, plugins, providers and themes at runtime, with Next.js frontends loaded on demand and a Hub that publishes every package.

Private platform behind a company login. Screens are recreated from its source with fictional data.

Role: Full-stack · team of three
Stack: .NET 10 · Next.js · YARP
Year: 2025 – Now

HWS Workspace Manager listing installed plugins with versions and available updates — hws · workspace manager

HWS Hub package page for Courses with dev, beta and stable versions and the Promote Version dialog — hws hub · promote version

Type: Modular workspace platform
Role: Full-stack · team of three
Stack: .NET 10 · Next.js · YARP
Access: Private · behind login

01. The platform

One core, any product.

HWS is the platform Horizech builds its client products on. Instead of a new backend per project, a workspace installs the packages it needs, each with its own API, screens and settings. ProjSafe and Wiscademy both run on it. A package is one of four kinds, and each declares what it depends on in a manifest.

1
Core
Loads every package, routes its API and holds the shared contracts.
21
Apps
Courses, Blogs, E-Commerce, Records, Tasks, Hourglass, Workspace Manager…
18
Providers
Contracts such as Database, Email, Media, LLM or Payment Gateway.
38
Plugins
Implementations: PostgreSQL, SES or SMTP, Bunny or S3, Stripe, RevenueCat…

02. A new workspace

Six stepsto a running stack.

A fresh workspace opens a setup wizard: choose providers, plugins and apps, download them from the Hub, configure each one, then create the root user. Required providers and the ones a choice depends on are ticked for you.

Recreated from the source with fictional data

HWS: Setup wizard: pick the providers a workspace needs — Setup wizard: pick the providers a workspace needs

03. Configured by manifest

No settings screen is written by hand.

Every plugin lists its parameters in its manifest: name, label, type, whether it is required. The wizard and Workspace Manager build their forms from that list, so a new plugin is configurable the day it is published.

HWS: Each plugin's form is built from its manifest — Each plugin's form is built from its manifest

HWS: Everything installed, grouped by kind — Everything installed, grouped by kind

04. Workspace Manager

Install, update, roll back.

Workspace Manager is the app that manages all the others, and the one I did most of the work on. It checks every installed package against the Hub, installs a chosen version from a chosen channel, and lets an admin pick which plugin fills each provider a package needs.

Install, update, configure or uninstall without a redeploy
Choose the plugin behind each provider while installing
Update scan of apps, plugins, providers and themes
Every action listed with its inputs, outputs and example

HWS: Installed plugins, checked against the Hub — Installed plugins, checked against the Hub

HWS: Pick a channel and each provider's implementation — Pick a channel and each provider's implementation

HWS: Every action a package registers, with its contract — Every action a package registers, with its contract

05. The Hub

Where every package is published.

Packages reach workspaces through the HWS Hub, backed by a registry on Cloudflare Workers. I built most of the Hub frontend: publishing a version, promoting it between dev, beta and stable, and managing publishers and their invitations.

Publish a version, then promote it dev → beta → stable
Workspaces follow the channel they are set to
Publishers, members and invitations
Search, categories and paging over every package

HWS: Move a tested build from beta to stable — Move a tested build from beta to stable

HWS: A publisher's packages and their channels — A publisher's packages and their channels

06. Architecture

Packages in, no redeploy.

The launcher runs in Docker and keeps the last versions of each package so one can be rolled back from the server. The core loads package assemblies and routes their APIs through a YARP reverse proxy. Each package’s screens load in the browser as a remote entry and share one UI kit, HUI.

Launcher
.NET 10 · Docker
Core
YARP proxy · plugin loading
Packages
Apps · plugins · providers
Frontends
Next.js · remote entries · HUI
Hub & registry
Cloudflare Workers · D1 · R2

Workspace Manager
Install and update dialogs, provider choice on install, themes, configuration by URL
HWS Hub
Publish and promote with channels, publishers and invitations, paging and i18n
Core & launcher
Instance bundles, public sites with an app launcher, theme packages, the start-up splash
Apps & plugins
Courses, Blogs and E-Commerce apps; Horizech LLM and DeepSeek plugins

07. In numbers

86 repositories, three people.

Work began in September 2025 and is still going. The platform is split into one repository per package, plus the core, launcher, Hub, registry, licensing and UI kit. Across the HWS repositories, 526 of 3,145 commits are mine.

83: Packages with a manifest
847: Registered backend actions
526: Of 3,145 commits mine

08. Technologies