ClearFlask

ClearFlask is a self‑hosted feedback, roadmap and announcement platform that replaces proprietary SaaS solutions such as Canny or UserVoice. From a developer’s perspective, the core of ClearFlask is an opinionated micro‑service architecture that separates concerns between a Go‑based backend, a React/TypeScript frontend, and a pluggable persistence layer. The application exposes a RESTful API for creating feedback items, voting, tagging, and roadmap milestones, while also providing a GraphQL endpoint for fine‑grained data retrieval. This dual API surface allows developers to integrate ClearFlask into existing CI/CD pipelines, internal dashboards or custom mobile apps with minimal friction.

Architecture & Technical Stack

• Backend – Implemented in Go (1.22+), the service uses the chi router for lightweight request handling and gorm as an ORM. The data model is intentionally normalized to support both PostgreSQL and MySQL as relational backends, with optional Elasticsearch for full‑text search and analytics. The Go codebase follows clean‑architecture principles, separating domain logic from infrastructure adapters.
• Frontend – A modern React application built with Vite, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS. It communicates with the backend via the REST/GraphQL APIs, supports internationalization, and includes a real‑time WebSocket layer for live feedback updates.
• Containerisation – ClearFlask ships as a Docker Compose stack that includes optional services such as Redis (for caching), Postgres, and an Elasticsearch node. The Compose file is split into profiles (with-deps, no-deps) to allow developers to swap dependencies or run the app in a minimal environment.
• Deployment – The project offers straightforward deployment instructions for Docker, Kubernetes (via Helm charts), and AWS ECS. It also provides scripts for automatic migration between search backends, ensuring that data can be moved without downtime.

Core Capabilities & APIs

• Feedback Management – CRUD operations for feedback items, comment threads, voting, and moderation. The API supports rich metadata (tags, categories, custom fields) that can be leveraged to build custom dashboards.
• Roadmap & Announcements – Create, update, and publish roadmap milestones and public announcements. The API exposes endpoints for ordering items, setting visibility, and linking feedback to roadmap tasks.
• Search & Analytics – Elasticsearch integration provides full‑text search, faceted filtering, and aggregation queries. The Go service exposes a lightweight REST endpoint for retrieving analytics (e.g., top tags, feedback density).
• Webhooks & Extensibility – ClearFlask can emit webhooks on key events (new feedback, vote changes) to external services like Slack or Zapier. Developers can also implement custom plugins by extending the Go service with middleware or by exposing additional REST endpoints.

Deployment & Infrastructure

ClearFlask is designed for self‑hosting on any infrastructure that supports Docker. A single docker-compose.yml file pulls all dependencies, but developers can replace the default Postgres/Elasticsearch stack with cloud‑managed services or local instances. For production, the recommended setup includes:

• TLS termination via Let’s Encrypt or a corporate certificate manager.
• Reverse proxy (NGINX/Traefik) to handle routing, rate limiting, and caching.
• Horizontal scaling – The Go service is stateless; multiple replicas can be run behind a load balancer, with Redis providing session persistence if needed.

Integration & Extensibility

ClearFlask’s open‑source nature means that developers can fork the repository, modify the domain logic, or contribute new features. The API is fully documented in Swagger/OpenAPI format and includes example payloads for common operations. Custom integrations are straightforward: any service that can make HTTP requests to the API or consume its webhooks will work out of the box. For deeper integration, developers can tap into the Go codebase to add new authentication providers (OAuth2, SAML) or custom data models.

Developer Experience

• Configuration – Environment variables control all aspects of the stack (database URLs, mail server settings, feature flags). The Docker Compose file demonstrates a minimal yet fully functional setup.
• Documentation – The README covers deployment, architecture, and contribution guidelines. A dedicated docs/ directory hosts API specs and migration guides.
• Community & Support – The project is hosted on GitHub with an active issue tracker. Contributors are encouraged to submit pull requests, and the maintainers provide timely feedback on feature requests.

Use Cases

1. Product Teams – Replace paid feedback tools with a self‑hosted alternative that keeps data in-house while offering the same UI and API features.
2. Customer Support – Embed a feedback widget on internal portals, collect suggestions from users, and route them to engineering via the API.
3. Open‑Source Projects – Use ClearFlask to gather feature requests, prioritize roadmap items, and publish announcements directly from the community forum.
4. Enterprise Deployments – Integrate with existing authentication (LDAP/Okta) and data analytics pipelines, ensuring compliance with internal security policies.

Advantages

• Zero Vendor Lock‑In – Own all user data and control the deployment environment.
• Performance & Flexibility – Go’s compiled binaries deliver low latency; PostgreSQL/Elasticsearch can be swapped based on workload.
• Licensing – Released under a permissive license (MIT), allowing commercial use without royalty fees.
• Extensibility