Platform Overview
Null Autos is a cloud-native, multi-tenant platform for Android Automotive software development. This page gives you the mental model: the major components, how they cooperate, and where your work runs.
The big picture
Core components
Access layer: how you reach the platform
- Web Portal: the customer-facing application. Launch and connect to emulators, browse snapshots, manage your tenant, and onboard new teams.
nullctlCLI: the official command-line tool for scripting and automation. See the CLI reference.- REST + gRPC API: direct programmatic access for pipelines and custom integrations. See the API introduction.
Control plane
The control plane is the core of the platform: a single API server that every client talks to. It:
- provisions and tears down emulators on demand,
- clones and manages snapshots,
- enforces permissions on every request,
- streams device logs, ADB traffic, and vehicle data,
- and manages tenants, users, groups, and the device fleet model.
The control plane keeps its state in a managed database and delegates fine-grained authorization to a dedicated authorization service.
Identity
All sign-in flows through single sign-on (SSO) over OIDC. Each tenant gets its own identity boundary, and the platform can federate to your existing identity provider. See Identity & Access.
Cloud runtime
The actual work runs on elastic cloud infrastructure:
- Emulators run as isolated workloads on virtualization-capable nodes.
- Android builds run on on-demand compute that scales up and back down.
- Workspaces run as browser-based development environments.
- Snapshots live on a high-performance storage tier, and device video is relayed to browsers through a secure media relay.
Design principles
| Principle | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| API-first | Everything the portal does is available over the API and CLI, so anything you do by hand you can automate. |
| Multi-tenant by default | Your organization's resources are isolated from every other tenant. |
| Snapshot-centric | Fast, reproducible device and build state comes from a shared snapshot system. |
| Cloud-native | The platform scales horizontally, and emulators and builds use elastic compute. |
| GitLab-integrated | Source, CI/CD, and identity tie into GitLab (SaaS or self-managed). |
Where to go next
- Architecture: a closer look at the components and how a request flows through them.
- Multi-Tenancy: how tenants and isolation work.
- Identity & Access: authentication and permissions.
- Security: what protects your data and devices.