Public case study for Kriya (formerly Tuffys) — the Insights Astrology API by Insights by Omkar. A commercial astronomy API computed from first principles.

---

TL;DR

Built and shipped Kriya (formerly Tuffys) — a commercial astronomy API now at 109+ v1 endpoints across Western, Vedic, Hellenistic, Jaimini, KP, and electional traditions — on a home-grown VSOP87D + ELP2000 + DOPRI8 engine.

The v1 launch on 2026-04-15 shipped 43 endpoints in a single focused execution day. That day was possible because the research, scoping, and architecture decisions happened weeks before the sprint started — the day was translation work, not invention. Since launch, the engine has grown across nine semver versions (v1 → v9.8.x) and ~250+ commits of disciplined iteration, more than doubling endpoint coverage and refitting the lunar theory to 0.87″ vs JPL Horizons.

This is not a wrapper around the dominant commercial astronomy library. It's not a proxy over a paid astrology API. It's primary-source math (Meeus, IMCCE VSOP87, ELP/MPP02, Standish) with a stateless JWT auth layer, dual-backend rate limiting, three MIT-licensed SDKs, interactive API docs, and tiered pricing — sitting alongside the parent consumer SaaS (Insights by Omkar) under the same LLC.

The lesson isn't "you can ship a 43-endpoint API in a day." It's that pre-execution decomposition is the skill, and the iteration cadence after the sprint is what separates a launch demo from a commercial product.

---

At a glance   _{last verified 2026-04-27}

Product	Commercial astronomy/astrology API · REST · OpenAPI 3.1
Coverage	109+ endpoints across 10+ domains · grew from 43 v1 endpoints over nine semver versions
Engine	Home-grown · VSOP87D (IMCCE) planets · ELP/MPP02 Moon (refit to 0.87″ vs Horizons in v9.1) · DOPRI8 8(7) integrator with 9-perturber force model · Meeus foundational
Accuracy	~1″ Mercury–Neptune · 0.87″ Moon · 36″ Sun · documented analytical-theory ceiling at /v1/accuracy
Auth	Stateless HS256 JWT · per-key quotas encoded in payload · denylist revocation
Rate limiting	Triple-fallback: Upstash Redis → Supabase RPC → in-process buckets
SDKs	TypeScript: npm install kriya-astrology · Python: pip install kriya-astrology · Go: go get github.com/omkarjaliparthi/kriya-go · all MIT · zero runtime deps
Frontend	Next.js App Router · live demo · /pricing · /docs/api with Scalar explorer
Tests	230+ golden-file assertions validated against Meeus published tables; 1,900+ total test assertions
CI/CD	GitHub Actions · typecheck + lint + test + build on every PR · OIDC PyPI publishing
Licensing	Proprietary server · MIT SDKs (intentional split — see decision doc)
Timeline	v1.0 shipped 2026-04-15 · v9.x running on sustained iteration cadence as of 2026-04-27
Parent business	Omkar's Holistic Services LLC (DBA Insights by Omkar) · formed May 2023

---

📑 Read the case study

1. Problem & market — why a new astrology API, who buys it, what the incumbents get wrong
2. Architecture — system, engine tree, API layer, auth/rate/SDK boundaries
3. Decision · engine from scratch — build vs wrap vs proxy · licensing + margin · moat
4. Decision · auth & rate limiting — stateless JWT + dual-backend rate limiter · why no database
5. Decision · licensing split — proprietary server + MIT SDKs · the integration-friction frame
6. SDK strategy — TypeScript + Python + Go · zero-deps principle · publish automation
7. Test strategy — Meeus golden files · CI gate · the astronomy "truth" question
8. Outcomes & lessons — what the one-day sprint proved, what breaks, what's next

Reference

• Accuracy disclosure — claims, tolerances, test layers, and what's not yet certified
• SOURCES — astronomy + interpretive provenance, public-domain line, explicitly excluded modern authors

---

Related artifacts

• PRD · public launch — in the TPM portfolio · success metrics, scoping, risk matrix
• RFC · home-grown ephemeris engine (build vs buy) — four-option weighted scoring · four-phase implementation plan
• Parent SaaS case study — the consumer product from which this API was conceptually extracted
• Live API · Interactive docs · Pricing
• Go SDK · TypeScript SDK (npm) · Python SDK (PyPI)

---

Skills this project evidences

Product	Program	Engineering	Business
API product design Developer experience Tiered pricing & packaging Positioning vs incumbents Accuracy-as-a-feature Docs that convert	Scope discipline (one-day sprint) Research ahead of execution Risk matrix · go/no-go CI gates as release discipline Versioning & compatibility	Astronomy math from papers Stateless auth architecture Dual-backend rate limiting Tree-shakeable TS modules Multi-language SDKs OpenAPI 3.1 authoring	Build vs buy (existential) Licensing as strategy Moat design Gross margin modeling Integration-friction framing LLC + DBA structuring

---

Hiring Founding PM · Senior PM · AI Platform PM · Senior TPM?
admin@insightsbyomkar.com · LinkedIn · GitHub