Calimero Cloud & MDMA
Calimero Cloud is the hosted user-facing experience for managing nodes and related infrastructure.
MDMA is the backend system that actually provisions, tracks, and operates that experience.
The two belong together:
- Cloud is the product surface.
- MDMA is the orchestration and control plane behind it.
Main components
Section titled “Main components”From the MDMA repository, the system is split into three core services:
| Component | Role |
|---|---|
| Manager | API and control plane for node lifecycle, users, plans, SSO, and admin flows |
| Dispatcher | Background worker that executes provisioning and reconciliation tasks |
| Cloud | End-user frontend for sign-in, plans, dashboard, and node UX |
Mental model
Section titled “Mental model”flowchart LR
USER[User or operator] --> CLOUD[Calimero Cloud UI]
CLOUD --> MANAGER[Manager API]
MANAGER --> DB[(Shared database)]
MANAGER --> DISP[Dispatcher]
DISP --> GCP[GCP resources]
DISP --> PHALA[Phala KMS and TEE services]
DISP --> DB
MANAGER --> NODE[Managed nodes and endpoints]
classDef lime fill:#14210a,stroke:#a5ff11,color:#f5ffe0,stroke-width:2px;
classDef cyan fill:#0b2526,stroke:#39d0c8,color:#dcfffd,stroke-width:2px;
classDef purple fill:#221133,stroke:#c084fc,color:#f7ecff,stroke-width:2px;
classDef orange fill:#2c1805,stroke:#ffb54d,color:#fff2d6,stroke-width:2px;
class USER lime;
class CLOUD,MANAGER cyan;
class DB,DISP purple;
class GCP,PHALA,NODE orange;
What MDMA actually handles
Section titled “What MDMA actually handles”The source material describes MDMA as a node manager plus hosted platform support. In practice it covers:
- creating and deleting nodes,
- reconciling desired and actual node state,
- managing one-time join keys and invitations,
- coordinating hosted KMS / TEE-related infrastructure,
- exposing cloud-facing user flows,
- enforcing plan and billing behavior,
- routing operator tasks through background execution.
Why the split exists
Section titled “Why the split exists”The split between Manager and Dispatcher keeps the system sane:
- the Manager handles user-facing APIs and desired state,
- the Dispatcher performs the slower, environment-touching work,
- the Cloud frontend stays focused on user experience rather than infrastructure details.
This is a standard pattern for hosted infrastructure products, and it fits Calimero well because node provisioning and TEE/KMS integration are not instantaneous operations.
Hosted vs local
Section titled “Hosted vs local”| If you want | Best fit |
|---|---|
| A local node on your machine | Calimero Desktop or local operator docs |
| A scriptable local cluster | Merobox |
| Direct node operations | meroctl |
| A managed hosted node experience | Calimero Cloud + MDMA |
Documentation split in this section
Section titled “Documentation split in this section”- Cloud Dashboard & Plans explains the end-user product view.
- Operator Architecture explains provisioning, services, and deployment flow.
Where TEE fits
Section titled “Where TEE fits”MDMA also references Phala-backed KMS flows and managed secure infrastructure. For the trust and attestation side of that story, see: