Octarq 发布自托管运营后端，单 Go 二进制内置短链、邮件与 DNS 并支持 MCP

One Go binary. Short links, email and DNS included. Extend it with plugins — and drive all of it from your AI agent over MCP.

Website · Docs · Quick start · Solopreneur Blueprint · Write a plugin · Plugins · 简体中文

What is Octarq?

Octarq is the self-hosted operations backend for indie hackers, one-person companies, and small AI-native teams — the back office you'd otherwise assemble from three SaaS subscriptions.

Own a domain? Octarq already gives you short links with analytics, inbound/outbound email, and DNS automation — each shipped as a first-class plugin, not a locked-in feature. Then you extend it the same way its own core is built: a small Go interface + a React page = a new tool in your back office. And because Octarq speaks MCP, every plugin you add is instantly drivable by your AI agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop).

One binary. No CGO. SQLite by default. go:embed'd dashboard. Extend without forking.

Quick start

Zero config — one command, no .env:

# Production zero-config (auto-generates secret key & admin password):
docker run -p 8080:8080 -v octarq-data:/data ghcr.io/octarq-org/octarq:latest

# Or instant local eval (log in immediately with admin / admin):
docker run -p 8080:8080 -e OCTARQ_SECRET_KEY=dev -e OCTARQ_ADMIN_PASSWORD=admin -v octarq-data:/data ghcr.io/octarq-org/octarq:latest

On first boot without environment variables, Octarq generates a secret key and an initial admin password (both persisted under /data, printed once in the logs) and comes up on SQLite. Open http://localhost:8080, grab the password from the container logs (or use admin if specified above), and log in. Mail, DNS and GeoIP are all opt-in — configure them later from Settings, nothing is required to start.

That's the full stack — dashboard, API, redirector, MCP — in one container.

Prefer to build from source?

git clone https://github.com/octarq-org/octarq && cd octarq
make release                                                # builds ./octarq with the dashboard embedded
OCTARQ_SECRET_KEY=… OCTARQ_ADMIN_PASSWORD=… ./octarq        # serves on :8080

Set OCTARQ_SECRET_KEY / OCTARQ_ADMIN_PASSWORD explicitly (see .env.example + docker compose) whenever you want to manage them yourself. A minimal image lives in deploy/Dockerfile.binary.

Why Octarq

• One binary, one afternoon. Download it, run it, extend it. No runtime to install, no services to wire together, no CGO.
• Real infrastructure, not a toy. Short links with geo/device routing and bot-filtered analytics, custom-domain email you can actually read and reply to, DNS automation against Cloudflare and DNSPod.
• A framework, not a bundle. Links, mail and DNS are plugins written against the same public interface you get. Nothing about them is privileged.
• Agent-native by construction. Every plugin's capabilities reach your AI agent over MCP without extra plumbing.
• Yours. Your server, your database, your domain, MIT-licensed.

Batteries included (the reference plugins)

These ship in the default build so Octarq is useful on minute one:

See the links and mail plugins in action

Everything else — auth, orgs, audit log, notifications, job queue, webhooks, backups — is core, and available to every plugin you write.

Agent-native: your plugin is an MCP tool

Octarq ships a built-in MCP server (octarq mcp over stdio; SSE and Streamable HTTP on the server at /api/mcp/sse and /api/mcp/stream) so assistants like Claude Code can read and query your instance — namespaced tools such as octarq_network__list_links, octarq_identity__get_latest_otp, octarq_infra__query_db_readonly and octarq_infra__export_data. Every tool is scoped to the caller's own workspace with org_id isolation; SQL access is SELECT-only with sensitive columns redacted, and duplicate tool registrations fail closed instead of silently overwriting.

The point isn't "we added AI." The point is the framework wiring: a plugin that implements the optional MCPProvider interface exposes its own tools to every connected agent — no extra plumbing. Write a plugin, and your AI agent can drive it.

📬 New OTP email arrives ──▶ your 10-line plugin (OnEmail hook)
                              ├─ generates a short link (links service)
                              └─ exposes it as an MCP tool ──▶ Claude Code consumes it

Claude Desktop MCP config

{ "mcpServers": { "octarq": {
  "command": "/path/to/octarq", "args": ["mcp"],
  "env": { "OCTARQ_DB_DSN": "/path/to/octarq.db" }
}}}

🌟 Autonomous Solopreneur Blueprint: Explore the official Autonomous Solopreneur Blueprint & Runnable Scaffold (examples/autonomous-solopreneur) — demonstrating how Claude Code & Cursor automate DNS deliverability audits, UTM marketing shortlinks, business mailbox OTP extraction, and offline Ed25519 licensing completely unattended. Also see the architecture guide and workflow templates.

Extend it (write a plugin)

A plugin is one repo with two mirror halves, composed at build time (like xcaddy — pick your plugins, build a binary):

// backend: implement a 3-method interface, get DB/auth/audit/DNS/mail/cache for free
func (Plugin) Name() string          { return "hello" }
func (Plugin) Models() []any         { return nil }
func (Plugin) Mount(mux plugin.Mux, ctx *plugin.Context) {
    mux.Handle("GET /api/hello/ping", ctx.Guard(http.HandlerFunc(pong)))
}

// frontend: a React page from the shared SDK — matches the app, a11y for free
export const helloPlugin: UIPlugin = {
  name: "hello",
  routes: [{ path: "/hello", Component: lazy(() => import("./Page")) }],
};

• Never fork, never import internal/* — everything is on plugin.Context (DB, Guard, Encrypt, Audit, Notify, SendMail, OnEmail, DNS, cache, geo, webhooks, job queue…), evolved additive-only.
• Routes auto-gate (404 when disabled), plugins talk via a service registry (no cross-imports), models auto-migrate.
• Compose a custom binary without editing code — the xcaddy model:

  OCTARQ_PLUGINS='[{"go":"github.com/you/octarq-plugin-foo","npm":"@you/octarq-plugin-foo"}]' make plugin-build

Scaffold one in seconds — octarq plugin new <name> writes a buildable Go + web skeleton to start from.

Official plugins & starter template → octarq-plugins (Telegram, Webhook, the agent-native Mail Links demo, and a _template to copy) · Guide → Writing a plugin

Octarq's own Pro edition is just another set of plugins built against this same public interface — nothing the community can't do.

Setup guides

• Email via Cloudflare Worker — deploy deploy/cloudflare-email-worker.js, set a catch-all route, enable Accept email.
• GeoIP analytics — set OCTARQ_MAXMIND_LICENSE_KEY (free) and Octarq auto-downloads + hot-loads GeoLite2. See deploy/GEOIP.md.
• MCP in Claude Desktop — point claude_desktop_config.json at octarq mcp (config above).
• Backup & restore — octarq backup / octarq restore back up the database. Back up the whole /data directory (database plus the generated octarq.secret / octarq-admin-password.txt key files), and note Postgres backup needs host-side pg_dump. See Backup & restore.

Development

make dev                                                  # backend (Air hot reload) + Vite frontend
# or run individually:
(cd server && OCTARQ_SECRET_KEY=dev OCTARQ_ADMIN_PASSWORD=dev go run .)
(cd server && go test ./... -race)

Contributions welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT.