catalog-service is a library used to manage the deployment and launching of virtual machines on numerous targets. Even though it is called "catalog service", it is not actually a distinct service but rather a combination of a library used by mint, and a rmake3 plugin used to deploy and launch systems.

Because different target types have different resources and configuration, catalog-service is also responsible for encapsulating configuration into smartform descriptors so that clients can interact with a variety of targets without having any specific knowledge about how they work.