Strata

There is no engine to install

Strata builds your game on its own machines, with the SimplyStream engine already in place. It turns each version you send it into a web build, puts it online, and plays it on a real GPU to prove it works. There is no engine fork to clone, no SDK to build and no build machine to keep running.

Work in the Unreal Editor you already have, 5.8 or 6.0, or without an editor at all: a coding agent can change your project and send it to Strata without Unreal installed. Each project picks its engine line, 5.8 or 6.0, when it is created, and Strata builds every version of it with the newest release of that line.

Ways to start

Create your project on Home or under Projects. It opens on its Start page, which lays out the ways below with your project's details already filled in, and tells you when Strata starts building.

Start from a sample

No game of your own yet? If you own the project and it has no game in Strata yet, the Start page can offer Start from a sample first. Pick one of Epic's sample games and Strata makes it your project: nothing is downloaded, because your project is made from the sample where Strata already keeps it. Strata then builds it, and when the build is done you can play it from the Overview.

A sample starts with the sample's own finished build, which is not yours, so the page asks Strata to build your copy and shows each step. How long that takes depends on the game, and the page says when it is done. If the build cannot start, the page says so and offers Build it to try again. The sample is only a starting point: send changes the same ways as any project, below. Samples appear only while Strata has one ready, so a project that does not see this choice starts the ways below.

Connect your project to Strata, once

Strata keeps your game's files in a repository joined to your project. For now the dashboard cannot join one for you, so either:

• Ask us. The Start page has an Ask us to connect it button that writes the email for you, or write to [email protected] with your project's name and ID. We set it up and write back.
• Do it yourself. Sign in at app.stratavcs.com with the email you use here. Open settings, and under Agent tokens make a token that names a new repository, such as my-game, with read and push ticked: Strata creates the repository with you as its owner. Then open the repository and, on its SimplyStream panel, paste your project's ID (on the Start page) and your account API key (on your Profile), and choose Link.

Let a coding agent do it

Once your project is connected, its Start page makes a token for your agent and shows the line that connects Claude Code to Strata. Then it gives you a prompt to paste into the agent: it sends your game, waits for the build and the GPU check, and hands you the play link.

Starting from nothing, with no project here yet? An agent can create both. Paste this into Claude Code, Codex or any agent that can run commands, with your email and your game's name filled in:

Read https://api.stratavcs.com/v1/agent/guide and set me up on Strata: my email is YOUR@EMAIL and the game is MY-GAME. Keep going until it's deployed and verified, then send me the play link.

You get one email asking you to approve what the agent may do. After you approve, the agent creates the project, sends your game, waits for the build and the GPU check, and hands you the play link. It makes a new project, so use a name you have not used here already.

Send your project files

Install the Strata command line tool. On macOS or Linux:

curl -fsSL https://api.stratavcs.com/v1/cli/install.sh | sh

On Windows, in PowerShell:

irm https://api.stratavcs.com/v1/cli/install.ps1 | iex

Make a token on your project's Start page (or use the one you made on Strata's site), and give it to the tool:

export STRATA_TOKEN=YOUR_TOKEN

Then, in the folder that holds your .uproject file, name the repository, save this version and send it:

strata init --repo my-game
strata commit -m "First version"
strata push

Every push builds, puts the build online and checks it on a GPU. Next time, run strata commit and strata push again. Strata keeps its own history of your files and leaves out the folders Unreal makes for itself, so it works alongside Git without touching it.

Bring a project from Fab or the Unreal Marketplace

Strata can bring a Fab or Marketplace project in and build it, with no download to your computer. For now we start the import. Use Ask us to import it on the Start page, or write to [email protected] with the listing's link, and we tell you whether it can come in. For a project you bought on your own account, open it in Unreal on your computer and send it as files.

Already have a web build?

You can still upload a packaged build yourself under Releases, without Strata.

After the first build

Everything Strata does shows up on your project's pages here:

• Source: every version you sent, and the build each one produced
• Builds: each build, how long it took, and why one failed
• Quality: the frames Strata captured while playing each build, in both graphics modes, desktop-class and mobile-class
• Releases: which build players launch, and moving them to a newer one

You can ship again, run the checks again or move players to a newer build from those pages, if your role on the project allows it. The project's owner decides who can do what under Team and settings.

What Strata is

Strata is the agent that gets your project running in the browser. It does the work between "I have a project" and "here is a URL anyone can open":

• Cook — build the project for the web
• Ship — put the built project online behind a link
• Repair — when a live session fails, gather the diagnostics, find the cause, and fix the build

You do not run build machines or GPU servers to get there.

What a run is

Each of those jobs is one run on your account. Cooks, ships and repairs all draw on the same allowance, so there is one number to watch instead of three. Runs and Allowances lists the limit for each plan.

One account, one set of projects

Strata is part of your SimplyStream account: the same sign-in, the same projects, the same billing. If you signed up through Strata, that account already works here — sign in with the same address and your projects are waiting.

What each plan includes

Free: two Strata runs a day. Free runs wait in a shared queue behind paid work, so at busy times they can take longer to start. Runs on a paid plan start immediately.

On a paid plan, runs are unlimited. A fair-use ceiling on build compute per day stops runaway jobs. Normal use never reaches it, and we contact you before it applies.

What counts as a run

Each cook, ship, check, import or repair Strata starts for you is one run. One ship (the build, its check, and the client and server parts) is one run. Runs count against the plan of the project's owner, whoever starts them.

A run that fails because of a problem on our side is refunded, so it does not count toward your allowance. A run that fails because of a problem in the project, or that you cancel, still counts.

Checking where you stand

The Strata runs card on the Billing page shows the allowance for your plan and what you have used. On Free the card shows how many runs are left today, what is running now, and when the next run frees up. Runs are counted over a rolling 24 hours, so each run's place in the allowance opens up again 24 hours after it started.

When a run is refused

A run is refused when the day's allowance is used, or when you already have the maximum number of runs in progress. The message names your plan and what would raise the limit. A refused run never starts, and nothing is charged for it.

What happens when a live session fails

A failing session does not have to be triaged by hand. SimplyStream groups the failure with related ones into a diagnostic cluster — the reason, the logs, the timeline, and how many sessions were affected — and hands that cluster to Strata.

Strata works from the cluster to find the cause and fixes the build or its configuration, so the next session behaves.

What a repair needs

Repairs work against the repository your project is connected to in Strata. Where a project has not been connected, the failure is kept for review instead of starting a run — so if you expect repairs on a project and are not seeing them, tell us.

On Free, a repair counts toward the same two runs a day as a cook or ship. Repairs on a paid plan start immediately, like any other run.

If you would rather fix it yourself

The clusters and their reports are kept, so the detail behind a failure is still there. Open a support request with the project and roughly when it happened and we can pull the exact session for you.