Banyan Bat: 🚢 Dockerizing Fraud-Free Swarajya: Building Forts for Modern-Day Defense

“Code that works is good. Code that runs anywhere is great. Code that stands strong like a fort — that's legendary.”
Inspired by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s empire-building wisdom.

🧭 Quick Recap

In our open-source journey toward a fraud detection system inspired by the Swarajya movement, we’ve already built:

🛡️ sindhudurg: Fraud Scoring API (Spring Boot)
🧠 tanaji: AI Engine (FastAPI + Python)
📜 dadoji: Rules Engine
⚡ jiva: Redis-based caching
🏦 ramchandrapant: PostgreSQL for transaction storage
📊 kanhoji: Prometheus + Grafana Monitoring

Now it’s time to bring these warriors together in formation — reliably, portably, and scalably.

🏰 Inspired by Shivaji Maharaj’s Fort Strategy

Shivaji Maharaj built over 300 forts — not to dominate land, but to secure Swarajya.
Every fort was:
- Modular
- Self-sufficient
- Strategically connected but independently operational

That’s exactly what Docker does for us today in software.

⚔️ Shivaji’s Forts = Our Containers

Forts of Swarajya	Docker Microservices
Had their own food, water	Contain dependencies & config
Stood independently	Isolated service containers
Could signal one another	Docker networking
Decentralized command	Compose-managed services
Fortified walls	Runtime boundary & security
Moved troops via sea/land	Image portability across environments

🧠 Each microservice is a Fort. Docker is our General. Compose is our battle plan.

🛠 Why Docker?

Before Docker: Manually ran services, installed dependencies, dealt with port conflicts
Now: 1 command spins up the entire system reliably across machines

🧩 What We’re Running in Docker

Container Name	Module
sindhudurg-app	Spring Boot REST API
tanaji-api	FastAPI AI Service
ramchandrapant	PostgreSQL DB
jiva	Redis Cache
kanhoji-prometheus	Prometheus Monitoring
kanhoji-grafana	Grafana Dashboard

📂 docker-compose.yml (Snippet)

services:
  sindhudurg-app:
    build: ./sindhudurg
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    depends_on:
      - tanaji-api
      - redis
      - postgres-db

  tanaji-api:
    build: ./tanaji
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"

  redis:
    image: redis:7

  postgres-db:
    image: postgres:15
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: transactions_db
      POSTGRES_USER: txn_db_user
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: transactions_secret

🚀 Run the System

docker compose up --build

This command:

Starts all services
Builds Docker images
Connects networks internally

🔍 Test a Transaction

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/v1/fraud-score \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "transactionId": "txn001",
    "userId": "user123",
    "amount": 5000,
    "currency": "INR",
    "paymentMethod": "risky",
    "cardNumberLast4": "1234",
    "transactionTime": "2025-04-22T14:30:00Z",
    "location": "risky",
    "deviceId": "d1234",
    "ipAddress": "192.168.1.10",
    "merchantId": "m123"
  }'

📊 Monitoring in Action

Prometheus: http://localhost:9090
Grafana: http://localhost:3000 (Login: admin/admin)

🐛 Troubleshooting Log

Problem	Fix
Port Conflicts	Mapped to different host ports
Redis not visible	Skipped advanced metrics for MVP
Connection refused	Used service names, not localhost
Postgres driver error	Added missing dependency
Grafana not showing data	Fixed Prometheus targets

🎯 What I Learned

Docker = Forts for Software
Each service = A garrison of Swarajya
Shivaji Maharaj didn’t wait for chaos — he built resilience.

📌 GitHub

https://github.com/pcm1984/fraud-free-swarajya

🛤 What’s Next?

📬 Notification Service (SMS, Email)
🔁 Santaji – Feedback Learning Loop
🧪 Integration Testing + Observability

🙏 Final Thought

“If Shivaji Maharaj could build forts that confused and defeated the mightiest empires…
...surely we can build software systems that don't fall apart on deploy.” 🇮🇳

Banyan Bat

Monday, July 7, 2025

🚢 Dockerizing Fraud-Free Swarajya: Building Forts for Modern-Day Defense