Why I built a consulting delivery platform in Rust
After a decade of delivering consulting engagements across pharma, finance, and manufacturing, I noticed a pattern: the actual delivery was always the weakest part.
The problem
Every engagement ended the same way. Training videos on Vimeo. Process models in Miro. Documentation in Notion. Data platforms on the client’s SharePoint. Websites managed by an external agency.
I’d hand the client a document with links to five different tools and say “here’s your delivery.” That’s not a product — it’s a scavenger hunt.
What I wanted
A platform where I could package everything from an engagement — media, processes, training, data tools, websites — into a single self-hosted environment the client actually owns. One URL. One login. Their server.
No competitor does this. Nextcloud handles files but not video transcoding or process modeling. Notion handles docs but not media pipelines. Vimeo handles video but nothing else.
What I built
AppKask is a Rust binary that packages:
- Media Pipeline: Upload video → auto-transcode to HLS. Upload images → auto-convert to WebP. Upload PDFs → auto-generate thumbnails.
- Smart Workspaces: Folders that know what app to open. Assign “course” and it becomes a training environment. Assign “bpmn-simulator” and it becomes a process modeler.
- Access Codes: Share any folder with a code. No accounts needed. Your client opens a link, enters a code, and browses their deliverables.
- Standalone Delivery: Ship the client a binary for their own server. White-label with their branding.
Why Rust?
Because when you hand infrastructure to a client, it has to just work. No JVM. No Node.js runtime. No dependency chain. One binary, one SQLite file. Starts in milliseconds, backs up by copying two files.
Get started
docker compose up
open http://localhost:3000Create your first client workspace in five minutes.