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0004: Airflow on MWAA as the default orchestrator

This record explains which orchestrator generated platforms use by default. Read it if you wonder why Dagster is not offered first.

Status: Accepted. Date: 2026-10-30.

Context

Target teams run on AWS. A generated platform needs a scheduler to load data and run dbt. Amazon Managed Workflows for Apache Airflow (MWAA) is the managed Airflow service on AWS. quicketl already has Airflow DAG generation.

Decision

We will use Airflow on MWAA as the default orchestrator. We will add Dagster only when a team needs it.

Consequences

Positive:

  • One orchestrator to template, test and document.
  • It matches the AWS-based teams we serve and reuses existing Airflow generation code.

Negative:

  • Teams that use another orchestrator get no template at first.
  • MWAA ties the default stack to AWS.