+1. Looks great as a standalone provider On Mon, Sep 21, 2026, 11:55 Amogh Desai <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Kaxil, > > +1 on the standalone provider. > The infrastructure vs model vendor split makes sense to me. > > I have two questions regarding this: > > 1. When the common.ai sandbox backend starts taking modal_conn_id, does > that make the Modal provider a > dependency of common.ai, or is it an optional import that only kicks in > when someone actually uses Modal? > I just want to ensure that common.ai stays light for people who are not > using Modal. > > 2. How do you plan to test this, particularly in CI? AFAICT, Modal is a > paid service. > > Thanks & Regards, > Amogh Desai > > On Mon, Sep 21, 2026 at 6:38 AM Kaxil Naik <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > I'd like to propose a new community provider, > > apache-airflow-providers-modal, for Modal (https://modal.com/), the > > serverless compute platform for running functions, GPU jobs and sandboxed > > containers. Targeting Airflow 3+ and shipping as incubation, same as the > > Anthropic and OpenAI providers. > > > > Scope of the first version > > > > - A modal connection type (token id and secret, optional Modal > > environment), so Modal credentials live in an Airflow connection and > > secrets backend rather than in MODAL_TOKEN_ID / MODAL_TOKEN_SECRET on > every > > worker. > > - ModalHook, which turns that connection into an authenticated > modal.Client > > and hands out handles to deployed functions and classes, secrets, > volumes, > > apps and sandboxes, each scoped to the connection's environment. > Execution > > stays on the Modal SDK objects (.remote(), .spawn(), Sandbox.wait()), so > > the hook does not re-wrap the SDK. > > > > No operators or executor in this first PR. The intent is to land the > > connection type and hook first, because several things want them: the > Modal > > backend for the common.ai sandbox toolset (#72910) currently has to read > > ambient credentials, and a ModalExecutor that runs each task in its own > > Modal sandbox has a working prototype that I'd bring as a follow-up PR > once > > the provider exists to host it. > > > > Why a standalone provider rather than a piece of common.ai > > > > common.ai is provider-agnostic. Modal is infrastructure, not a model > > vendor: a connection type, an executor and compute-oriented operators > have > > no home in an AI-neutral interface, and tying non-AI Modal users to > > common.ai would be the wrong dependency direction. The sandbox backend > > stays in common.ai and will take an optional modal_conn_id resolved > > through > > this hook, which is the same "vendor provider alongside common.ai" split > > we > > settled on for Anthropic and OpenAI. > > > > Working implementation > > > > https://github.com/apache/airflow/pull/73418 > > > > I'm happy to steward and sponsor the provider, and would welcome a > > co-steward per the community provider policy. If there are no objections > > within seven days I'll proceed with merging. > > > > Thanks, > > Kaxil > > >
