Skill of the Month – Encore

What is Encore? 

Encore is an open-source backend development framework that lets engineers build cloud-native applications without having to manually wire up infrastructure. Instead of writing separate configuration for your databases, message queues, cron jobs, and API endpoints, you define everything in code and Encore handles the provisioning and deployment automatically. It’s designed to close the gap between writing application logic and getting it running reliably in the cloud.

It supports deployment to AWS and GCP out of the box, as well as Encore’s own cloud platform, and comes with a local development environment that mirrors production closely. The idea is that backend engineers spend less time on infrastructure plumbing and more time on the product itself – without sacrificing the control or visibility that teams need in production.

What are some things to know about Encore?

• Infrastructure from code, not config – Encore generates your cloud infrastructure directly from your application code. There’s no separate Terraform or YAML to maintain; the framework infers what’s needed and provisions it, keeping your infra and your logic in sync.

• Built-in observability from day one – Encore comes with distributed tracing, structured logging, and a local dashboard out of the box, so you’re not bolting on monitoring as an afterthought. You get visibility into your services without extra setup.

• Designed for microservices without the overhead – Encore makes it straightforward to define services, APIs, and inter-service communication in a way that scales naturally, without the boilerplate that typically comes with microservice architectures.

Why learn Encore?

Backend infrastructure complexity has become one of the biggest drains on engineering teams. The toolchain required to go from code to production – cloud configuration, CI/CD, observability, networking – often takes as long to maintain as the product itself. Encore is part of a growing category of tools aimed at cutting that overhead significantly.

For engineers, it’s a genuinely useful addition to a modern backend skill set, particularly for those working in or moving towards cloud-native roles. For businesses, the appeal is straightforward: faster time to production and smaller teams able to manage more. As the demand for lean, efficient backend development grows, familiarity with frameworks like Encore is increasingly worth having on your CV.

Use Cases for Encore

• Rapidly building and deploying microservice architectures without dedicated DevOps support

• Startups and scale-ups looking to move fast without accumulating infrastructure debt

• Internal tooling and backend APIs where speed of delivery matters

• Teams migrating from monoliths who want a structured path to service-based architecture

• Greenfield cloud-native projects where clean, maintainable infra-as-code is a priority

Topic of the Month

Backend Development Is Due a Rethink

There’s a quiet frustration that’s been building in backend engineering for a while. The tools available for building cloud-native applications have grown enormously in power and flexibility – but so has the complexity of working with them. Configuring infrastructure, managing deployment pipelines, wiring up observability – these are all necessary, but they’re also time that isn’t spent building the actual product. For many teams, especially smaller ones, the overhead has become genuinely unsustainable.

Encore is one of the more interesting responses to that problem. Rather than adding another layer of abstraction on top of existing complexity, it takes the position that infrastructure should be a natural consequence of your application code – not a separate discipline running alongside it. It’s an opinionated approach, and opinionated tools aren’t for everyone, but the tradeoff it offers is real: less configuration, faster iteration, and a tighter feedback loop between what you build and how it runs.

The broader trend here is worth paying attention to. The market is increasingly rewarding engineers who can operate across the full backend stack – application logic, infrastructure, and observability – without needing a dedicated platform team behind them. Tools like Encore are accelerating that shift. Whether it becomes a dominant standard or remains a strong niche option, the problem it’s solving isn’t going away, and engineers who understand this space will be well positioned as teams continue to look for ways to do more with less.

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