PaoPao

An open-source micro-community platform built with Go and Vue.
Designed for self-hosted social products, community experiments, and customizable deployments.

简体中文 · Live Demo · Pull Requests · Project Notes

PaoPao is a full-stack, open-source micro-community system. It combines a Go backend, a Vue 3 web client, and an optional Tauri desktop application, with a modular feature system for storage, search, logging, observability, and deployment strategy.

The repository is suitable for teams or individuals who want to run a community product, evaluate an extensible social platform, or build on top of an existing codebase instead of starting from scratch.

• Full-stack delivery: backend, web frontend, and desktop packaging live in one repository.
• Modular runtime features: enable different capability sets through Features suites such as Default, Develop, Demo, and Slim.
• Flexible infrastructure: supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Redis, Meilisearch, and multiple object storage providers.
• Multiple deployment paths: run from source, Docker, Docker Compose, or all-in-one container images.
• Self-hosting friendly: configuration is file-based and operational docs are already included in the repo.

More screenshots and live behavior are available at PaoPao.

This is the fastest way to bring up a local environment for evaluation.

git clone https://github.com/rocboss/paopao-ce.git
cd paopao-ce
docker compose up -d

Then open:

• http://localhost:8008 - PaoPao
• http://localhost:7700 - Meilisearch
• http://localhost:8001 - RedisInsight

• Go 1.24+
• Node.js 20.19+ or 22.12+
• MySQL 5.7+
• Redis
• Meilisearch
• Rust + Tauri prerequisites if you plan to build the desktop app

1. Import scripts/paopao-mysql.sql into MySQL.
2. Copy the sample config and adjust only the bootstrap-critical values for your environment.
3. Start the backend.

cp config.yaml.sample config.yaml
make run

To build a release binary instead:

make build

To serve the embedded web UI from the Go binary, build the web assets first and run with the embed tag:

make build-web
make run TAGS='embed'

cd web
cp .env .env.local
yarn
yarn dev

To produce static assets:

yarn build

cd web
yarn tauri build

For the full installation guide, Docker build variants, desktop prerequisites, and migration notes, see INSTALL.md.

config.yaml.sample is now a minimal bootstrap template. At runtime, PaoPao loads the embedded default config first, then overlays ./custom/config.yaml or ./config.yaml if present, preferring the first file it finds.

That means the external config can stay intentionally small. In the current design:

• Keep in YAML: ports, feature selection, database, Redis, JWT, and AdminSettings.EncryptionKey
• Prefer the admin UI (/#/admin/settings): site profile, app behavior limits, search provider settings, object-storage settings, SMS/payment settings, and other operational knobs supported by the registry
• Watch apply mode: some settings are live, while others are marked restart-required in the admin page

The Features section controls which capability bundles are enabled:

Features:
  Default: ["Base", "MySQL", "Option", "LocalOSS", "LoggerFile"]
  Develop: ["Base", "MySQL", "Option", "Sms", "AliOSS", "LoggerOtlp"]
  Demo: ["Base", "MySQL", "Option", "Sms", "MinIO", "LoggerOtlp"]
  Slim: ["Base", "Sqlite3", "LocalOSS", "LoggerFile"]
  Base: ["Zinc", "Redis", "Alipay"]
  Option: ["SimpleCacheIndex"]
  Sms: "SmsJuhe"

Typical examples:

# Use the default suite
release/paopao serve

# Use only the declared develop suite
release/paopao serve --no-default-features --features develop

# Add sms on top of the default suite
release/paopao serve --features sms

# Enable features explicitly
release/paopao serve --no-default-features --features sqlite3,localoss,loggerfile,redis

For the current implementation status of each feature, see features-status.md.

• INSTALL.md - installation, Docker usage, and desktop build instructions
• INSTALL_ZH.md - Chinese installation guide
• docs/README.md - documentation index
• docs/README_ZH.md - Chinese documentation index
• docs/deploy/ - deployment documentation
• docs/openapi/ - exported API documentation assets
• docs/proposal/ - design notes and feature proposals
• deployed-sites.md - known deployed instances
• ROADMAP.md - roadmap and planning notes

The project uses a staged branch model:

If you plan to contribute new functionality, target dev unless the maintainers specify otherwise.

Pull requests are welcome. If you want to contribute:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a branch from dev for feature work.
3. Keep changes focused and documented.
4. Open a PR with context about the problem, approach, and verification.

If you deploy your own instance, consider adding it to deployed-sites.md.

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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