An example system includes a number of nodes, each including a processor and a non-transitory machine readable medium storing a copy of an operating system image. Each copy of the operating system image may include a minimum set of artifacts of a cloud platform application, and lifecycle manager program instructions that, when executed by any of the nodes, instantiate a lifecycle manager for the respective node. The lifecycle manager may be configured to, in response to receiving a platform cluster creation request, automatically establish a cloud platform of the cloud platform application including the respective node as a sole member, and then invite others of the nodes to join the cloud platform. The lifecycle manager may also be configured to, in response to receiving an invitation to join an established cloud platform of the cloud platform application that was established by another one of the nodes, automatically integrate the respective node into the established cloud platform.