# Introduction Backbench helps teams to release software quickly, we are a cloud based development and collaboration platform for internet-scale applications. It helps companies achieve fast prototyping and faster time to market/product releases. Backbench is a fully programmable serverless platform. Eliminating the need to deploy and manage servers lets companies shorten the development cycles and minimizing the risk of bugs and increasing innovation. Backbench is a development platform to build and run independent micro-services with continuous integration and deployment. Our goal is to provide all the flexibility and control letting you bring your own services (BYOS). It is a rapid prototyping platform, where users can program and publish internet-scale applications in seconds which we achieve by reducing the problem of developing and provisioning them to a mere configuration of well behaved abstract systems. It ships with its own programming language BBLANG and your favorite Node.js. It is designed to and works seamlessly with existing "things" on the internet, making it trivial to develop custom workflows like tailoring a cloud automation and orchestration solution. Nevertheless, Backbench is a playground for experimenting with all amazing internet services. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://backbench.gitbook.io/backbench-docs/master.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.