---
title: Reference
description: Feature presence compared with DIY scripts, Amoro, LakeOps, Crunch and managed cloud services, plus Cryo's public surfaces.
canonical: https://tech-pw.github.io/cryo/reference/
updated: 2026-10-18
---

# Reference

Cryo is an Apache-2.0, self-hosted Apache Iceberg maintenance platform. This page lists what is in the box, what is not, and how it compares.

## Feature presence, not a ranking

A filled mark is an unqualified yes in the project README. A half mark means partial, limited or capability-gated. An empty mark means no, or that the cell is not documented or not applicable.

Source: README comparison table, Amoro cells checked against apache/amoro 6d3cd42. For Cryo, sorting is Spark only and Hilbert is capability-gated. For DIY, maintenance and admission exist only if you build them. Amoro sorting honours table sort order and has no Z-order. Amoro admission is quota-based, not live engine load. Amoro health is a numeric score, not an A to F grade, and has no cost projection. For managed cloud services, sorting and health grading vary and admission is not applicable. Crunch health reporting is savings-focused, not an A to F grade.

| Capability | Cryo | DIY | Amoro | LakeOps | Crunch | Managed cloud |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |

| Maintenance operations | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

| Sorting or clustering | Partial | No | Partial | Yes | Yes | No |

| Compression below ZSTD | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |

| Load-aware admission | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No |

| Health grade and cost | Yes | No | Partial | Partial | No | No |

| Data leaves your infrastructure | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |

| Fleet assignment UI | Yes | No | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes |

## Public surfaces

The web UI talks only to the API. The scanner, scheduler, governor and workers are reached through the API and never directly from a browser.

Figure 1Everything goes through the API

*The API is the only public entry point.*

- **Read path
Text description
- Web UI to API (REST)

- API to Platform services

The API groups its resources as `tables`, `runs`, `presets`, `assignments`, `audit`, `sources` and `destinations`. The OpenAPI document is served at `/openapi.json`, and the web client's types are generated from it.

## Launch tier

Cryo is pre-1.0. The launch-tier surface is the scanner, planner, governor, Trino and Spark engines, presets, audit, and the run console. Native Go compaction is a configured path, not assumed on.

## Where to go next

ArchitectureCatalogs on the read side, engines on the write side, Cryo in the middle.MaintenanceThe planner emits a plan with no SQL strings. The order is fixed in code.DeploymentSelf-hosted on Kubernetes with your engines where they are.GitHubThe Apache-2.0 source is public. Issues and pull requests are open.

Source: https://tech-pw.github.io/cryo/reference/
Markdown: https://tech-pw.github.io/cryo/reference/index.md