# AndrewGuenther/fck-nat

Feasible cost konfigurable NAT: An AWS NAT Instance AMI

Repository: https://github.com/AndrewGuenther/fck-nat
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/fck-nat
Homepage: https://fck-nat.dev
Language: HCL
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-07-02T04:36:00+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 85/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 90, release rhythm 69, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1765, "days_push": 62, "days_rel": 211, "gap_med": 0, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2216, forks 94 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:27.155325+00:00)

## What it is
fck-nat is a ready-to-use AWS EC2 AMI (ARM and x86, built on Amazon Linux 2023) that turns a cheap instance like a t4g.nano into a NAT instance, replacing costly AWS Managed NAT Gateways. It includes Terraform/HCL deployment tooling and supports up to 5Gbps burst NAT traffic with optional high-availability mode.

## Use cases
- replace expensive AWS managed NAT gateway with a cheaper NAT instance
- deploy a NAT instance AMI with up-to-date security patches
- reuse bastion hosts as NAT instances
- cut VPC egress networking costs on AWS
- set up NAT for private subnets in a VPC with Terraform

## When to choose
- you're overpaying for AWS Managed NAT Gateways and need under 5Gbps of egress bandwidth
- you want a maintained, patched alternative to the EOL official AWS NAT Instance AMI
- cost savings matter more than a fully managed five-9s service

## When to avoid
- your workload requires more than 5Gbps of internet egress bandwidth
- you need fully managed five-9s availability and can't tolerate rare instance outages
- you prefer not to operate non-managed services

## Facets
- artifact type: infra-config
- maturity: active
- function: networking, infrastructure-as-code, deployment, self-hosted
- domain: cloud-computing, networking, infrastructure-as-code
- platform: cloud
- tags: nat-instance, aws-ami, amazon-linux-2023, cost-optimization, ec2, vpc, nat-gateway-alternative, devops, linux, arm

## Member repositories
- AndrewGuenther/fck-nat (main) score 85

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:27.155325+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:45:56.156736+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/AndrewGuenther/fck-nat (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:27.155325+00:00, sha 449c5a312415)
  - homepage: https://fck-nat.dev (fetched 2026-08-29T10:26:05.310889+00:00, sha 0cc59130a56d)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.