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Make Your Micro‑App Ecosystem Discoverable: Build an Internal App Store with Auth and Sandboxing

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2026-02-05

11 min read

Make micro‑apps discoverable and safe: build a private app catalog with per‑app auth, runtime sandboxes, and one‑click install/rollback for non‑dev teams.

Make your micro‑app ecosystem discoverable: build an internal app store with auth and sandboxing

Hook: Your teams are shipping dozens of small, single‑purpose micro‑apps — prototypes, automations, and low‑code tools created by non‑developers — but they live in Slack, shared drives, or a random VPS. That creates security gaps, duplicate effort, and no easy way to install, control permissions, or roll back a bad release. In 2026, the answer isn't more tickets; it's a private, discoverable internal app store that enforces per‑app auth and container sandboxes while giving non‑developers a one‑click install / rollback experience.

Executive summary — what you’ll get from this guide

Architecture you can implement with Docker, Kubernetes (k3s/k0s), or Proxmox
Concrete sandboxing options (gVisor, Kata, microVMs, Wasm) and when to use each
Per‑app permission patterns (OIDC, RBAC, per‑repo tokens, workload identity)
CI/registry workflow: build → sign → scan → attest → publish
UX patterns for non‑developer teams: templates, forms, approvals, safe defaults, rollbacks

Why an internal app store matters in 2026

By late‑2025 the micro‑app trend accelerated: AI‑assisted “vibe coding” and low‑code tools mean business teams build more apps than ever. These apps are useful — but fragmented. An internal app store resolves three common pain points:

Discovery: People can find, compare, and install apps instead of duplicating work.
Governance: Central policies for authentication, approval, and runtime controls.
Operational safety: Sandboxed execution, vulnerability scanning, and automated rollback.

Core components of the internal app store

Think of the store as a composed platform — catalog UI plus a deployment stack and a policy plane. Here are the pieces:

Catalog UI — searchable web UI that lists app metadata, owner, tags, screenshots, one‑click install button, and access controls.
Private container registry — Harbor, Quay, GitLab, or GitHub Packages to host images with per‑repo permissions.
Orchestrator — Kubernetes (k3s/k0s for small infra), Docker Compose for simple hosts, or Proxmox LXC/VM templates for stronger VM isolation.
Auth & RBAC — OIDC provider (Keycloak, Dex, or cloud IdP) + role mapping for per‑app permissions.
Sandbox runtime — gVisor/Kata/microVM/Wasm for stronger isolation than runc.
CI & Policy — BuildKit, cosign signing, Trivy/Clair scanning, SBOM (SPDX/CycloneDX) generation and OPA/Kyverno for admission policies.
Delivery & rollback — Helm charts, GitOps (ArgoCD/Flux) or a controlled Docker Compose template engine that supports revisions.

Sandboxing options — pick the right tool for the risk

Sandboxing is not one‑size‑fits‑all. Use these patterns based on your threat model and multi‑tenant needs.

1) Lightweight: Namespaces, cgroups, seccomp

Good for internal tools with low data sensitivity. Enable cgroups v2, conservative seccomp profiles, AppArmor/SELinux, and strict resource limits. This is what default Kubernetes + Pod Security Admission provides. Use network policies to restrict egress.

2) Process sandboxes: gVisor

gVisor provides syscall interception and is a low‑latency sandbox for multi‑tenant clusters. Use it when you need stronger isolation than runc but want near‑native performance. In Kubernetes, map runtimeClass to gVisor for app pods that need it.

3) MicroVMs & hardware virtualization: Kata Containers, Firecracker

For untrusted or high‑risk micro‑apps (third‑party code, unknown authors), prefer microVMs (Kata/Firecracker) which provide kernel‑level isolation. Expect higher memory overhead, but these are now common in 2026 as microVM runtime support matured across containerd and CRI plugins.

4) WebAssembly (Wasm) & WASI

Wasm runtimes (Wasmtime, Spin, Fastly's Lucet alternatives) are ideal for tiny functions and plugins from non‑dev teams. They give deterministic startup, small binary sizes, and strong sandboxing without full OS surface. Use Wasm for short‑lived micro‑apps and where language sandboxing helps.

5) VM templates via Proxmox or systemd‑nspawn

If policy requires VM isolation (PCI, PHI), deliver apps as preconfigured VM templates on Proxmox. Use cloud‑init or systemd service units to provide a consistent install experience for non‑dev teams.

Per‑app permissions & auth — patterns that scale

Goal: let business users install apps they’re allowed to use, while operations control who can publish, update, or remove apps.

Central identity (OIDC): Keycloak, Dex, or your corporate IdP. Authenticate users and provide group claims that map to roles in the catalog.
Catalog RBAC: Catalog roles: Viewer, Installer, Owner, Publisher, Auditor. Map these roles to OIDC groups via claims.
Registry ACLs: Per‑repo tokens and short‑lived pull tokens for installers. Push credentials only for CI builders — and treat robot accounts like first‑class secrets: rotate them, audit their use, and limit scope.
Runtime RBAC / workload identity: Use Kubernetes RBAC and workload identity (SPIFFE/SPIRE) so the runtime can request secrets/certs without baked tokens.
Per‑app scoping: Each app gets metadata that lists required scopes (e.g., read HR API). The catalog UI prompts the installer to request access and routes approvals to app owners or approvers.

CI/registry pipeline (practical, secure flow)

Design the pipeline so every published app is signed, scanned, and attested:

Build with BuildKit (cacheable, parallel) and create multi‑arch images if needed.
Generate SBOM (syft) and attach to the image (OCI artifacts or repository).
Scan with Trivy/Clair and block high‑severity findings via policy. Record advisory metadata.
Sign images with cosign (or Notary v2) and store signatures in the registry.
Create an attestation that includes SBOM, test results, and a link to source commit.
Publish as a versioned release to the registry and update the catalog index (a JSON/YAML manifest or a Helm chart repo).

In 2025–2026, image signing and SBOMs became standard practice for trusted internal catalogs — adopt them now.

Delivery & one‑click install UX for non‑dev teams

Non‑technical teams need a simple, auditable flow. Design the catalog and backend to support:

Templates: Each app has a template (Helm chart, Docker Compose template, or VM cloud‑init) with typed parameters and sensible defaults.
Form builder: The UI renders a parameter form (env vars, storage size, access groups) and validates input client‑side before deploy.
Approval pipeline: Optional approvers (security, data owners) can auto‑approve certain categories. Use a simple workflow (Slack/Email + approve button) integrated with your IdP/OAuth flow.
One‑click install: The UI sends the templated manifest to a backend service which creates a release in GitOps, or triggers an orchestrator API (Helm install, Docker Compose deployment) with the installer’s scoped token.
Rollback button: Expose a version history and a one‑click rollback that either triggers Helm rollback, reverts a Git commit (GitOps), or uses orchestrator revision history.

Example: Minimal stack you can deploy in a weekend

Here’s a pragmatic pattern to get a working internal store fast:

Host a small k3s cluster or single k0s controller for team workloads.
Install Harbor as your private registry (projects per team/app) and enable robot accounts.
Run Keycloak for OIDC + group sync. Configure Catalog RBAC to map Keycloak groups to store roles.
Use ArgoCD or Flux as the delivery mechanism; publish per‑app Helm charts in a repo that ArgoCD watches.
Use cosign + Trivy in CI to sign and scan images, failing the pipeline on critical vulns.
Run gVisor or Kata as an optional runtimeClass for apps that require sandboxing; leave default apps on standard runtime to save resources.

For non‑Kubernetes hosts, provide an alternative path: a Docker‑Compose template server that runs on a control machine and uses SSH+systemd to deploy Compose stacks with rootless Podman.

Practical config snippets

Two short examples to illustrate the metadata and RBAC mapping. Use these as starting points for your store's catalogue format.

Catalog manifest (YAML metadata)

name: where2eat
version: 1.2.0
owner: "team-ops@example.local"
description: "Group dining recommender"
icon: "/assets/where2eat.png"
template: "helm://charts/where2eat"
requirements:
  - permission: "hr:read"
  - sandbox: "gvisor"

Kubernetes RoleBinding example for installers

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
  name: app-installer-binding
  namespace: app-catalog
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: Role
  name: app-installer
subjects:
  - kind: Group
    name: installers@example.local

Rollback strategies that non‑devs can use safely

Rollbacks must be both simple and safe. Provide three levels:

Immediate rollback: Trigger revert to the previous release (Helm rollback / kubectl rollout undo). Use when the new version fails health checks.
Safe rollback with database snapshot: Automatically snapshot persistent volumes (Velero, restic) before upgrades for stateful apps and coordinate DB schema rollbacks or compensating migrations.
GitOps revert: Revert the Git commit that changed the chart/manifest. This maintains audit trails and is preferred where compliance matters.

Operational runbook & monitoring

Instrument the store and apps so non‑dev owners can see health without shell access:

Expose a lightweight dashboard (Prometheus + Grafana, or managed observability) per app with read‑only access for owners.
Aggregate logs to a central ELK/Opensearch instance with RBAC for owners to search their apps only.
Enable alerting on failed deployments, high vulnerability scores, or sandbox violations.
Automate regular backups and test restores for at least one app monthly.

Security checklist — 12 practical controls

Require OIDC SSO + MFA for catalog access.
Enforce image signing and SBOMs for published apps.
Block pulls of unsigned images in admission controller.
Use per‑repo robot accounts and rotate credentials.
Apply network policies and egress restrictions by default.
Provide sandbox level metadata and enforce via runtimeClass.
Scan images and block critical/high vulns.
Audit logs for installs/rollbacks and retain for compliance window.
Use resource quotas and limit ranges to prevent noisy neighbors.
Enable automatic backups and test restores.
Require approval workflows for apps requesting sensitive scopes.
Use OPA/Gatekeeper or Kyverno policies for admission controls.

Advanced strategies: verification, attestation and runtime policy

In 2026, three trends are worth integrating early:

Attestation chains: Build attestation metadata into your app release (who built it, tests passed, SBOM, cosign signature). Use this data for automated trust decisions.
Policy as code: Keep policies in Git alongside charts. Use OPA/Gatekeeper to enforce them at admission time and Kyverno for easy mutation of manifests.
Workload identity: Migrate secrets use to SPIFFE/SPIRE or native cloud workload identity so apps never store long‑lived credentials.

Case study (brief): internal store for a mid‑sized fintech

In early‑2026 a fintech with 200 developers and 600 business users deployed an internal store to tame micro‑app sprawl. Key decisions:

k3s cluster with three node groups: default, gVisor, and Kata for high‑risk apps.
Harbor for image hosting + robot accounts; Cosign enforced.
ArgoCD for GitOps; Helm charts for app templates; a catalog UI built on top of ArgoCD Application CRDs.
Keycloak with group sync from Okta; installers were mapped to an “installers” group and needed approvals for sensitive scopes.

Result: discovery increased 4x, duplicate apps fell 60%, and time‑to‑install for non‑dev teams dropped from 5 days to 30 minutes with audit trails and safe rollback.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

Too many runtimes early: Start with two sandbox classes (default + strict). Add more when you have reasoned demand.
No approval flow: Without approvals, sensitive scopes will be granted frequently. Define approvals for sensitive scopes from day one.
No attestation: If images aren't signed with provenance, you lose trust. Make signing an enforced requirement in CI.
Complex UX: Non‑devs need simple forms and defaults. Don’t surface raw YAML in the first release.

Next steps: an actionable 6‑week roadmap

Week 1: Build the proof‑of‑concept catalog UI and connect it to your OIDC provider.
Week 2: Stand up a private registry (Harbor) and create robot accounts for CI.
Week 3: Integrate a simple CI pipeline: build → scan → SBOM → cosign → push.
Week 4: Deploy delivery (ArgoCD/Helm) and wire one sample app with a one‑click install form.
Week 5: Add sandbox runtime support (gVisor or Kata) and label templates by required sandbox level.
Week 6: Roll out to pilot teams, collect feedback, and iterate on approvals and rollback UX.

Final takeaways

By 2026, micro‑apps are ubiquitous. A private internal app store with per‑app permissions, sandboxing, signed artifacts, and a simple install/rollback UX turns chaos into a governed, discoverable platform. Start small, enforce signing and policies early, and make the install UX friendly for non‑developers — the rest is operational discipline.

Actionable takeaway: Ship a catalog POC this month: k3s + Harbor + Keycloak + ArgoCD + a single Helm template. Add cosign in CI and a rollback button in the UI before you invite your first non‑dev user.

Call to action

Ready to make micro‑apps discoverable and safe? Start your proof‑of‑concept with the six‑week roadmap above. If you want, I can generate a tailored deployment plan for your environment (kubernetes, Proxmox, or standalone VPS) including a sample Helm chart, ArgoCD app manifest, and Keycloak mappings — tell me your preferred orchestrator and security constraints and I’ll draft it.

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