Calcifer.Forge

Calcifer.Forge is not just a template — it's the missing layer between your software and your business model. While most .NET templates give you CRUD endpoints and basic auth, Forge ships with the infrastructure that actually makes software sellable.

Built on .NET 8 LTS with Clean Architecture principles and vertical slice organisation, Forge provides a production‑ready foundation that includes:

• Authentication & authorisation (JWT + Identity)
• Licensing engine (key generation, validation, expiry, machine binding)
• Feature gating with declarative attributes
• Seat control (concurrent usage limits)
• Modular feature architecture (plug‑and‑play modules)
• Background jobs (Hangfire) and event bus
• OpenAPI / Swagger out of the box

Forge follows Clean Architecture with a practical twist — vertical slices within each layer. This means features are self‑contained, testable, and deployable independently.

Layer breakdown

Request flow

Client → API Gateway (Kong/YARP) → Authentication Middleware (JWT) → License Validation Middleware → Feature Gate Filter → Module Handler → Response

Each module can define its own endpoints, validators, and dependencies — but they all share the same licensing and gating pipeline.

The licensing engine is the heart of Forge's monetisation infrastructure. It handles the complete lifecycle — creation, validation, activation, expiration, and revocation — with no third‑party dependencies.

API reference

{
  "licenseKey": "LIC-PRO-XXXX-XXXX",
  "machineId": "DESKTOP-A1B2C3"
}

{
  "activated": true,
  "tier": "professional",
  "features": ["analytics", "export", "multi-tenant"],
  "seatsRemaining": 4,
  "expiresAt": "2027-04-01T00:00:00Z",
  "machineIdBound": "DESKTOP-A1B2C3"
}

Feature gating in Forge goes beyond simple role checks. It operates at the endpoint level using custom attributes, allowing you to control which license tiers can access which features — declaratively.

[RequireFeature("analytics")]
[RequireFeature("export")]
public async Task<IResult> ExportAnalyticsReport(
    IAnalyticsService analytics,
    ILicenseContext license)
{
    var report = await analytics.GenerateReport(license.TenantId);
    return Results.File(report.ToCsv(), "text/csv");
}

Available attributes

Seat control limits concurrent usage of a license key. Each activation consumes one seat; when the user logs out or the machine is deactivated, the seat is freed.

// Seat management service
public class SeatManager : ISeatManager
{
    public async Task<bool> TryOccupySeatAsync(string licenseKey, string machineId)
    {
        var license = await _licenseRepo.GetByKeyAsync(licenseKey);
        var activeSeats = await _seatRepo.CountActiveSeatsAsync(licenseKey);
        if (activeSeats >= license.SeatLimit) return false;
        await _seatRepo.AddAsync(new Seat(licenseKey, machineId));
        return true;
    }
}

Seat limits are enforced at the API middleware level, so even custom endpoints cannot bypass seat checks.

All settings are in appsettings.json and can be overridden by environment variables (using the __ delimiter).

{
  "Licensing": {
    "Salt": "your-secret-salt-here",
    "DefaultTier": "basic",
    "AllowOfflineValidation": false,
    "SeatTimeoutMinutes": 720
  },
  "FeatureGating": {
    "CacheDurationSeconds": 300,
    "StrictMode": true
  },
  "Jwt": {
    "Issuer": "calcifer-forge",
    "Audience": "calcifer-api",
    "ExpiryMinutes": 60
  }
}