[kesmit13]

Summary

singlestoredb.server.free_tier provisioned a server through shell.singlestore.com. That service has been shut down, so free_tier.start() can no longer succeed. This PR removes:

• singlestoredb/server/free_tier.py
• the "Cloud Free Tier" section of the API reference (docs/src/api.rst), with the "Server Tools" intro reworded to describe Docker only
• the Free Tier section of ARCHITECTURE.md

singlestoredb.server.docker is unaffected. Its open_shell() runs a local mysql client against the container and doesn't depend on the hosted shell service.

User-facing change for the release notes: import singlestoredb.server.free_tier now raises ModuleNotFoundError. Users should switch to singlestoredb.server.docker. whatsnew.rst is left for the release bump; the historical v1.12 entry stays as it is.

Verification

• import singlestoredb, singlestoredb.server.docker succeeds
• A fresh Sphinx build (-E) of docs/src gives no free_tier warnings
• No remaining references outside whatsnew.rst history and generated docs/ output, which gets regenerated at release
• pre-commit passes

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

---

Note

Medium Risk
Removes a public module and breaks existing imports, though the underlying hosted service no longer works.

Overview
Removes singlestoredb.server.free_tier and the whole singlestoredb/server/free_tier.py module, which provisioned servers via the shut-down shell.singlestore.com API. singlestoredb.server.docker is unchanged.

ARCHITECTURE.md and docs/src/api.rst now describe Server Tools as Docker-only: the Cloud Free Tier section, examples, and autosummary entries are gone.

Breaking change: import singlestoredb.server.free_tier raises ModuleNotFoundError. Callers should use singlestoredb.server.docker instead.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 5e33312. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.}

[Copilot]

🟢 Approval recommended

No active review issues remain for the removal of the retired Free Tier interface and related documentation.

No open issues 🎉

What changed in this PR

Removes the Cloud Free Tier server interface because its backing service has shut down. Docker remains the supported server-management option and is unchanged.

Changes:

• Deletes singlestoredb.server.free_tier; existing imports now raise ModuleNotFoundError, and users should migrate to singlestoredb.server.docker.
• Removes Free Tier documentation and updates Server Tools descriptions to cover Docker only.

File	Description
singlestoredb/​server/​free_tier.py	Deletes the retired Cloud Free Tier implementation.
docs/​src/​api.rst	Removes Free Tier examples and API entries; describes Docker-only support.
ARCHITECTURE.md	Removes Free Tier guidance and narrows Server Tools to Docker.

_{Review effort: Balanced}