The first fully open-source Developer Experience suite for GitHub-native teams
Changelog · Contributing · Security
Dashboard: team pulse, blockers, and activity at a glance
sparQ is the first fully open-source Developer Experience suite for GitHub-native teams. It's a set of focused products that share one self-hosted home. Start with Pulse today, with Metrics and Knowledge on the way.
| Product | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Pulse | ||
| GitHub-native project management, async standups, team presence, and delivery visibility | Available | |
| Metrics | ||
| DORA metrics and engineering analytics | Coming soon | |
| Knowledge | ||
| LLM-powered knowledge base from your codebase | Coming soon |
GitHub-native project management, async standups, team presence, and delivery visibility for teams living in GitHub. Self-hosting is always free. Forever.
Runs on SQLite out of the box. Zero external dependencies.
GitHub Sync— Projects, tasks, and status derived from PRs, issues, and commits** Async Standups**— Template-driven daily check-ins with audio recording and transcription** Blockers Board**— Track blockers with owners, urgency tiers, and automatic nudges** Presence**— See who's available, focused, blocked, or out across the team** Action Items**— Three-tier urgency system (Now / Later / Whenever), weekly plans** Chat & DMs**— Real-time messaging with channels, direct messages, and reactions** Documents**— Notes, e-signatures with audit trail, knowledge base** People**— Directory, onboarding, 1-on-1s, hiring pipeline** Time & Attendance**— Clock in/out, PTO requests, schedules, punch corrections** AI Assistant**— Optional LLM-powered features (OpenAI or Anthropic)** Mobile API**— Full REST API with JWT auth** Multi-language**— Built-in i18n with installable language packs
git clone https://github.com/sparqsoft/sparq.git
cd sparq
docker compose up
Open http://localhost:8000 to get started.
Requires Python 3.13+ and uv.
git clone https://github.com/sparqsoft/sparq.git
cd sparq/pulse
make venv
source venv/bin/activate
make run
Open http://localhost:8000.
By default sparQ uses SQLite (zero-config). To use PostgreSQL, set DATABASE_URL
in your .env
:
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://sparq:sparq@localhost:5432/sparq
Then start a Postgres container and run:
cd pulse
make db-start
make run
Copy .env.example
to .env
in the pulse/
directory. The app auto-generates one on first run if missing.
Key settings:
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
SECRET_KEY |
||
| Auto-generated | Flask session secret | |
DATABASE_URL |
||
SQLite (data/sparq.db ) |
||
| Database connection string | ||
FLASK_DEBUG |
||
false |
||
| Enable debug mode | ||
LLM_PROVIDER |
||
openai |
||
AI provider (openai or anthropic ) |
||
OPENAI_API_KEY |
||
| -- | Required for AI features | |
MSA_USER |
||
| -- | Admin panel username (disabled if unset) | |
MSA_PASS |
||
| -- | Admin panel password (disabled if unset) |
See pulse/.env.example for the full list.
sparQ includes a built-in admin console at /msa
for managing organizations, workspaces, and users. It is disabled by default. Set both MSA_USER
and MSA_PASS
in your .env
to enable it.
sparQ sends transactional emails for signups, password resets, and magic link logins. Configure email from the admin panel or via environment variables.
Option 1: Admin Panel (recommended)
- Enable the MSA admin panel (set
MSA_USER
andMSA_PASS
) - Navigate to
/msa/email
- Select a provider (Gmail, Microsoft 365, SendGrid, Mailgun, AWS SES, or custom SMTP)
- Enter your credentials and click Save Configuration - Use Test Connection andSend Test Email to verify
Option 2: Environment Variables
Set these in your .env
to configure email without the admin panel:
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
SMTP_HOST |
|
SMTP server hostname (e.g., smtp.gmail.com ) |
|
SMTP_PORT |
|
SMTP port (default: 587 ) |
|
SMTP_USERNAME |
|
| SMTP username or email address | |
SMTP_PASSWORD |
|
| SMTP password or app-specific password | |
SMTP_FROM_EMAIL |
|
| Sender email address | |
SMTP_PROVIDER |
|
Provider name (e.g., gmail , sendgrid , custom ) |
Environment variables take priority over admin panel settings. Fields locked by env vars are shown with a lock icon in the admin panel.
Gmail users:Enable 2-Step Verification, then generate an[App Password]. Use the 16-character app password, not your regular password.
If no email provider is configured, signup falls back to direct password-based registration (no email confirmation).
sparQ syncs tasks and blockers with GitHub Issues. Connect using a classic Personal Access Token (PAT):
- Go to
GitHub → Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens → Tokens (classic) - Create a new token with these scopes:
repo
andadmin:repo_hook
- In sparQ, go to
Settings → Integrations and paste your token and repository (
owner/repo
) - Open Settings → Integrations → GitHub → Match GitHub people and map each GitHub account to a sparQ member, so commit and PR activity is attributed to the right person (unmapped accounts are skipped). Members can also self-map in their own settings.
That's it. Issues, labels, and assignees sync between sparQ and your repository, and commits and pull requests show up in the Status feed as each person's current activity.
Self-hosting behind a reverse proxy?SetGITHUB_WEBHOOK_BASE_URL
to your public URL (e.g.https://app.example.com
) so the auto-registered webhook resolves correctly, and setGITHUB_WEBHOOK_SECRET
to verify inbound webhooks (required in production).
sparq/
├── pulse/ # Main application (sparQ Pulse)
│ ├── app.py # Application factory
│ ├── modules/ # Feature modules (core, updates, presence, etc.)
│ ├── system/ # Framework (db, auth, email, middleware, etc.)
│ ├── tests/ # Unit, integration, and e2e tests
│ ├── Makefile # Dev commands (make run, make venv, etc.)
│ └── requirements.in # Python dependencies
├── metrics/ # (coming soon)
├── knowledge/ # (coming soon)
└── docker-compose.yml
Backend: Python, Flask, SQLAlchemy, Flask-SocketIO** Database**: SQLite (default) or PostgreSQL** Frontend**: Server-rendered Jinja2 templates, HTMX** Real-time**: WebSocket via Flask-SocketIO** Production**: Gunicorn
cd pulse
python -m pytest tests/
make reset
make run V=1
We welcome contributions! Please read our Contributing Guide to get started.
If you find a security vulnerability, please follow our Security Policy instead of filing a public issue.
This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0.
Copyright (c) 2025-2026 sparQ Software LLC.