Abstract: Examples of techniques to deploy an application on an application platform are described. In an example, an input application design, that defines dependencies for the application for the components of the application platform based on capability attributes and characteristic attributes, is received. The capability attributes provide deployment requirements of the application and the characteristic attributes provide specifications of the deployment requirements. A candidate design comprising at least one of the components of the application platform is identified based on the attributes. The candidate design is a configuration of the application platform to deploy the application. A service design, that specifies operational requirements for deploying the application, is generated based on the candidate design.