Kottster

Kottster is a self‑hosted, Node.js‑based instant admin panel generator that turns any relational database into a fully functional CRUD and analytics interface. From a developer’s perspective, it abstracts the boilerplate of building data‑centric UIs while still exposing a rich API surface for customization. The core workflow starts with a CLI (@kottster/cli) that scaffolds a TypeScript project, after which the @kottster/server package spins up an Express/Next.js hybrid runtime. The application automatically discovers database schemas via Prisma, creating RESTful endpoints and GraphQL resolvers on the fly. This tight coupling between schema introspection and UI generation allows developers to iterate rapidly: add a new table, run npm run dev, and instantly get an editable list view without writing any additional code.

Kottster’s stack is deliberately minimal yet powerful:

• Runtime – Node.js v20+, built on top of the Next.js framework for server‑side rendering and API routes, combined with Express middleware for custom endpoints.
• ORM & Schema – Prisma is the backbone for database connectivity. It supports Postgres, MySQL/MariaDB, SQL Server, and SQLite, providing a unified schema language that Kottster parses to generate UI components.
• UI Layer – React 18 with TypeScript, styled using Tailwind CSS. The visual builder is a drag‑and‑drop editor that produces declarative JSON configurations, which are then rendered as React components at runtime.
• State & Auth – NextAuth.js handles authentication, while a lightweight JWT/Session strategy keeps the admin panel stateless for horizontal scaling.
• Deployment – Docker images are pre‑built, exposing a single KOTTSTER_PORT (default 5480). The container can be orchestrated with Docker Compose or Kubernetes, and the application is stateless except for a small SQLite/Prisma schema cache that can be persisted in a shared volume.

• Auto‑Generated CRUD – For every table, Kottster creates list, create, edit, and delete pages with pagination, sorting, and filtering out of the box.
• Custom Pages – Developers can drop a React component into the /pages/custom directory; Kottster will expose it as an admin route, automatically wiring in authentication and database access.
• Dashboard Builder – A visual chart editor supports bar, line, pie, and table widgets. The underlying data queries are generated from Prisma aggregates, allowing real‑time analytics without writing SQL.
• API Exposure – Beyond the UI, Kottster exposes RESTful endpoints (/api/v1/<table>) and a GraphQL endpoint (/graphql) that mirror the generated CRUD operations, enabling integration with other services.
• Extensibility Hooks – Middleware hooks (beforeCreate, afterUpdate, etc.) let developers inject business logic. Webhooks can be configured to trigger on CRUD events, facilitating CI/CD pipelines or external notifications.

Being self‑hosted, Kottster removes vendor lock‑in. The Docker image is lean (~200 MB) and can run on any Linux host with Docker or Kubernetes. For production, a reverse proxy (NGINX/Traefik) is recommended to handle TLS termination and HTTP2. Because the app is stateless, scaling horizontally is trivial: spin up multiple replicas behind a load balancer and share the same database. Persistent storage is only required for optional assets (uploads, custom templates) and can be mounted as a Docker volume or an S3‑compatible bucket via environment variables.

• Plugin System – Kottster ships with a plugin API that lets you register custom widgets or authentication providers. Plugins are simple NPM packages that export a register function, receiving the Kottster app instance.
• Webhooks & Events – CRUD operations emit events (kottster:recordCreated, kottster:recordDeleted) that can be subscribed to via an internal event bus or external HTTP endpoints.
• Custom Auth – While NextAuth.js is the default, you can replace it with a custom provider (OAuth2, LDAP) by supplying your own auth.js module.
• Data Sync – Prisma’s schema migration tooling (prisma migrate) can be run alongside Kottster, ensuring that database changes are reflected in the admin UI without manual intervention.

The project structure follows standard Next.js conventions, making it immediately familiar to React developers. Documentation is comprehensive, with a dedicated API reference and tutorial videos that walk through adding custom pages or extending the visual builder. The CLI is opinionated but flexible, allowing you to choose a database provider at scaffold time. Community support is active; the GitHub repo has frequent issue responses, and a Discord channel provides real‑time help. Licensing under Apache 2.0 gives developers freedom to modify and redistribute the code without copyleft constraints.

• Rapid Prototyping – Spin up an admin panel for a new microservice and iterate on data models without writing UI code.
• Internal Ops Dashboards – Provide non‑technical staff with dashboards that aggregate metrics from Postgres or MySQL.
• Custom CRUD for Legacy Systems – Wrap an existing SQL Server database with a modern UI, exposing only the necessary tables to end users.
• CI/CD Pipelines – Use Kottster’s API endpoints in automated scripts to seed databases or perform bulk updates.
• Open‑Source Projects – Embed