Veil — Binary Distribution Platform 📦

veils.systems is a minimal platform to distribute binaries, track downloads, and collect user feedback — built using a serverless AWS architecture.

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What This Project Does

• Serve veil binaries (Linux / Mac / Windows)
• Track downloads & visits in real-time
• Collect user feedback via UI
• Send email responses (AWS SES)
• Deliver frontend globally using CDN

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🧠 Architecture Overview

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📂 Infra Structure (Terraform)

infra/
├── main.tf
├── variables.tf
├── outputs.tf
├── providers.tf
├── versions.tf
├── terraform.tfvars
├── backend.tf

├── modules/
│   ├── dynamodb/
│   ├── lambda/
│   ├── apigateway/
│   ├── s3/
│   └── cloudfront/

├── environments/
│   └── dev/

└── scripts/
    └── package_lambda.sh

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🧩 Modules Explained

🔹 dynamodb

Creates:

• veil-metrics → stores counts (downloads, visits)
• veil-feedback → stores user feedback

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🔹 lambda

Deploys:

• veil backend (Node.js)
• Handles all business logic
• Integrates with DynamoDB and SES

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🔹 apigateway

Exposes APIs:

GET  /download
GET  /api/stats
POST /api/feedback

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🔹 s3

Creates:

• Frontend hosting bucket
• Binaries storage (/releases/*)

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🔹 cloudfront

Main entry layer:

/              → frontend
/api/*         → backend
/releases/*    → binaries

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Core Flows

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Download Flow

User clicks Download
 ↓
/download?os=linux
 ↓
API Gateway
 ↓
Lambda
 ↓
1. Increment metrics
2. Decide binary
 ↓
302 Redirect
 ↓
CloudFront → S3
 ↓
Download starts

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📊 Stats Flow

GET /api/stats
 ↓
Lambda
 ↓
Fetch DynamoDB data
 ↓
Return JSON

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💬 Feedback Flow

POST /api/feedback
 ↓
Lambda
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Validate input
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Store in DynamoDB
 ↓
Send email via SES
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Return success

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🗄️ Data Model

veil-metrics

Field	Example
metric_type	download_count_linux
count	123

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veil-feedback

Field	Example
email	user@email.com
message	"Great tool"
timestamp	epoch

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⚙️ Environment Variables

FROM_EMAIL=verified@domain.com

👉 Must be verified in AWS SES

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🛠️ Deployment Steps

1. Package Lambda

cd lambda/veil-handler
zip -r function.zip .

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2. Initialize Terraform

cd infra
terraform init

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3. Plan

terraform plan

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4. Apply

terraform apply

Security

• Input validation (feedback API)
• OS allowlist (download endpoint)
• CORS enabled
• IAM least privilege

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Performance Design

• Lambda uses 302 redirect (no file serving)
• CloudFront handles delivery
• DynamoDB writes are parallel
• APIs are fail-safe

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Future Improvements

• Rate limiting (WAF / API Gateway)
• CI/CD pipeline
• Monitoring dashboards
• Multi-region support

Design Principles

• Backend controls logic
• Frontend stays minimal
• CDN-first delivery
• Serverless scalability
• Clean modular infra (Terraform)

Built with ☕ - Om Sharma

Feel free to clone and mess around but dont forget to get credits.