Loomio

Loomio is an open‑source, self‑hosted decision‑making platform designed for collaborative groups such as boards, cooperatives, and distributed teams. From a technical standpoint it functions as a full‑stack web application that orchestrates asynchronous discussion, proposal creation, voting, and audit logging. The core goal is to replace lengthy meetings with a structured, transparent workflow that records every decision and its rationale. The system exposes RESTful endpoints for proposals, votes, users, and groups, enabling developers to build custom front‑ends or integrate Loomio into existing tooling.

Key Features

• Proposal lifecycle – Users can create, comment on, and vote on proposals with a rich text editor that preserves formatting and links.
• Group management – Hierarchical groups with nested sub‑groups, role‑based permissions (admin, member, observer), and invitation workflows.
• Audit trail – Immutable logs of all actions (creation, edits, votes) stored in the database and exposed via APIs for compliance or reporting.
• Webhooks & API – Outbound webhooks for events (e.g., proposal_created, vote_cast) and a comprehensive JSON API that supports pagination, filtering, and field selection.

Technical Stack

The application follows Rails’ convention‑over‑configuration philosophy but is intentionally modular: the core engine (loomio-core) can be extracted as a gem and reused in other Ruby projects.

Core Capabilities

• REST API – CRUD operations for users, groups, proposals, votes, and comments; supports JSON:API standards.
• GraphQL Endpoint – Optional GraphQL layer for efficient data fetching in complex UIs.
• Webhook System – Register URLs to receive POST payloads on specified events; supports retry logic and signature verification.
• SAML/OIDC Authentication – Pluggable authentication backends for enterprise SSO.
• Internationalization (i18n) – Locale files in YAML; developers can add new languages via the admin UI or code.

Deployment & Infrastructure

Loomio ships with a Docker Compose file that brings up Rails, PostgreSQL, Redis, and Sidekiq in isolated containers. For production, the recommended approach is a Kubernetes cluster with persistent volumes for PostgreSQL and Redis, leveraging Helm charts provided in the loomio-deploy repo. The application is stateless aside from session data, which can be stored in Redis or a database-backed session store. Horizontal scaling is achieved by running multiple Rails workers behind an NGINX reverse proxy, with Sidekiq pods scaling independently. Health checks expose /health and /metrics endpoints for Prometheus monitoring.

Integration & Extensibility

• Plugin System – The loomio/plugins directory allows developers to mount Rails engines that inject routes, models, and views.
• API Extensions – Custom endpoints can be added by extending controllers or adding new resources; the API is versioned (/api/v1/...).
• Webhooks – External services can subscribe to events; Loomio guarantees at‑least‑once delivery with exponential backoff.
• Custom Templates – Proposal templates are stored as JSON and can be edited via the UI or API, enabling domain‑specific workflows.
• Single Sign‑On – Integrate with LDAP, Okta, or Azure AD via OmniAuth strategies.

Developer Experience

The project follows standard Rails conventions, making onboarding straightforward for Ruby developers. The documentation is comprehensive: a DEVSETUP.md guide, API reference docs generated with Swagger/OpenAPI, and a community handbook for contributors. The open‑source license (GNU AGPL) ensures that any derivative work remains free, which encourages collaboration. The community is active on GitHub issues and a dedicated Slack channel for contributors.

Use Cases

• Cooperative Governance – A self‑managed cooperative can deploy Loomio to record board decisions, ensuring transparency for all members.
• Distributed Product Teams – Agile teams replace lengthy retrospectives with lightweight proposals, enabling faster iteration.
• Non‑Profit Boards – Legal compliance is simplified by the audit trail and versioned proposals.
• Open‑Source Projects – Maintainers can use Loomio to manage feature roadmaps and community voting without external tools.

Advantages

• Open‑Source & AGPL – No licensing fees and full source control for customizations.
• Ruby on Rails Ecosystem – Leverages mature libraries, gems, and a large developer base.
• Built‑in Audit & Compliance – Immutable logs reduce the need for third‑party audit tools.
• Flexible Deployment – Works on bare metal, cloud VMs, or Kubernetes; Docker images simplify CI/CD pipelines.
• Extensible Architecture – Plugins and API hooks allow deep integration with existing workflows (e.g., Slack, GitHub).

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