# Pragmatic Approach (For Small Startup)

## Reality Check

You're a small startup with almost no users. Don't over-engineer.

**What actually matters:**
- ✅ Ship features
- ✅ Get users
- ✅ Make money
- ❌ Not protecting code nobody wants to steal yet

## The Simple Solution

### Single Repo, Feature Flags

```
agentarea-mcp-manager/ (one public repo)
├── internal/
│   ├── backends/
│   │   ├── kubernetes.go          # Standard K8s
│   │   └── kubernetes_advanced.go # Warm pool + Kata (all here!)
│   └── warmpool/
│       └── client.go              # All here, no build tags
└── config/
    └── config.go
```

### Enable Advanced Features

```go
// config.go
type Config struct {
    Mode string // "simple" | "advanced"
    
    // Advanced features (work in both modes!)
    WarmPool WarmPoolConfig
    UseKata  bool
}
```

```yaml
# values.yaml
mcpManager:
  mode: "simple"  # Default - works everywhere
  
  # Or:
  mode: "advanced"  # Enable warm pool, Kata, etc.
  warmPool:
    enabled: true
    size: 10
```

### That's It

**No license checks. No enterprise repo. No plugins.**

If someone wants to use advanced features:
1. They set `mode: advanced` in config
2. They need Kata installed (their problem)
3. They pay in complexity, not money

## Why This Is Fine

### 1. Go Code Is Easy to Reverse Engineer Anyway

```bash
# Anyone can do this:
go build -o mcp-manager .
strings mcp-manager | grep -i "warm pool"
# Found it! Now they know the feature exists.
```

Trying to "protect" Go code is security theater.

### 2. Self-Hosting Is Hard

Even if they steal your code:
- They need K8s cluster
- They need Kata configured
- They need to maintain it
- They need to debug it

**Reality:** They'll just pay you to host it.

### 3. You Have No Users to Steal From

Focus on:
- Getting users
- Making product better
- Building moat through service, not code

### 4. Later You Can Add Licensing

When you actually have enterprise customers:

```go
// Add this later, when it matters
func checkLicense() bool {
    // For now, always return true
    return true
    
    // Later:
    // return license.Validate(os.Getenv("LICENSE_KEY"))
}
```

## Simplified Architecture

### Just Two Modes

```go
func (p *Provider) Create(instance *MCPInstance) error {
    if p.config.Mode == "advanced" {
        // Try warm pool first
        if pod, err := p.warmPool.Find(); err == nil {
            return p.activateFromWarmPool(instance, pod)
        }
    }
    
    // Fallback to standard (works in both modes)
    return p.createStandard(instance)
}
```

### Config

```yaml
# Simple mode (default)
spec:
  mode: "simple"
  # Creates standard K8s Deployment
  # Works on any K8s cluster
  # 5-15s cold start

# Advanced mode
spec:
  mode: "advanced"
  runtimeClass: "kata-qemu"  # Optional
  warmPool:
    enabled: true             # Optional
  # Requires Kata for isolation
  # 200-500ms start with warm pool
```

## What You Actually Build

### Phase 1 (Now): Make It Work

```go
// internal/backends/kubernetes.go

func (b *KubernetesBackend) Create(ctx context.Context, instance *MCPInstance) error {
    if instance.Mode == "advanced" && b.warmPool != nil {
        return b.createWithWarmPool(ctx, instance)
    }
    return b.createStandard(ctx, instance)
}
```

One file. One function. Done.

### Phase 2 (Later): Add Licensing If Needed

When you have paying customers asking for it:

```go
func init() {
    if licenseKey := os.Getenv("LICENSE_KEY"); licenseKey != "" {
        // Enable advanced features
        config.EnableAdvancedFeatures = true
    }
}
```

## Documentation

```markdown
## Deployment Modes

### Simple Mode (Default)
Works on any Kubernetes cluster.

```yaml
mode: simple
```

### Advanced Mode
Requires Kata Containers. Faster cold starts with warm pools.

```yaml
mode: advanced
warmPool:
  enabled: true
```

Install Kata:
```bash
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/main/tools/packaging/kata-deploy/kata-deploy.yaml
```
```

## The Honest Business Model

**Don't sell code. Sell:**

1. **Managed hosting** - "We run it for you"
2. **Support** - "We'll fix it at 3am"
3. **Integrations** - "Works with your stack"
4. **SLA** - "99.9% uptime guarantee"

**Open source the code. Close source the convenience.**

## Summary

| Approach | Effort | Protection | Recommendation |
|----------|--------|------------|----------------|
| Separate repos | High | High | ❌ Overkill |
| Build tags | Medium | Medium | ❌ Overkill |
| License checks | Medium | Low | ❌ Overkill |
| **Simple feature flag** | **Low** | **None** | ✅ **Do this** |

### Just Do This

```go
if config.Mode == "advanced" {
    // Use warm pool
} else {
    // Standard K8s
}
```

One repo. All code public. Ship features. Worry about protection when you have something worth protecting.
