Open-source Feedback Management Tool.
Alternative to Canny and UserVoice.

Contents

• Managed hosting
• Self hosting
  • One-click deploy
  • Quick start
  • Kubernetes deployment
  • Deploy dependencies
    • Via Docker
    • Via Kubernetes
    • Via AWS
  • Deploy ClearFlask
    • Setup
    • Run
  • Maintenance
    • Migration between Elasticsearch/MySQL
• Contributing
  • Code quality
  • Building
  • Architecture
  • Release
• Security Policy

Managed Hosting

Support our open-source development by choosing cloud hosting with scalable pricing, check us out on our website.

Self Hosting

One-click deploy

Deploy a self-contained instance (API server, SSR frontend, MariaDB) in a few clicks — no custom domain required, it works entirely on your generated domain:

Quick start

For a quick start using Docker, download the Docker Compose service file as docker-compose.yml, and run the following:

docker-compose --profile with-deps up

Point your browser at http://localhost and create an account using email admin@localhost.

You also want to setup outgoing mail, read the Email section.

If you wish to host it on your domain other than localhost, read the DNS section and then setup SSL/TLS certificates.

Kubernetes deployment

For self-hosting, we provide Kubernetes Helm charts.

Installation

1. Add the Helm repository:

helm repo add clearflask https://clearflask.github.io/clearflask
helm repo update

2. Install dependencies (MySQL + LocalStack):

helm install clearflask-deps clearflask/clearflask-dependencies \
  --set mysql.enabled=true \
  --set localstack.enabled=true

3. Generate secrets and install ClearFlask:

TOKEN_SIGNER=$(openssl rand -base64 172 | tr -d '\n')
CURSOR_KEY=$(openssl rand -base64 16)
SSO_SECRET=$(uuidgen)
CONNECT_TOKEN=$(uuidgen)

helm install clearflask clearflask/clearflask \
  --set global.domain=yourdomain.com \
  --set server.config.searchEngine=READWRITE_MYSQL \
  --set server.secrets.tokenSignerPrivKey="$TOKEN_SIGNER" \
  --set server.secrets.cursorSharedKey="$CURSOR_KEY" \
  --set server.secrets.ssoSecretKey="$SSO_SECRET" \
  --set server.secrets.connectToken="$CONNECT_TOKEN"

4. Access your instance:

kubectl port-forward svc/clearflask-connect 3000:80
# Visit http://localhost:3000

See the Helm Chart documentation for more information.

Replace dependencies

There are several dependencies that you can swap out for ClearFlask:

• AWS DynamoDB or Localstack or API-compatible alternative (ScyllaDB is not fully compatible)
• MinIO or AWS S3 or API-compatible alternative
• One of:
  • MySQL or Aurora
  • ElasticSearch or OpenSearch
• Email service via SMTP or AWS SES

And a few optional:

• Google ReCaptcha
• Let's Encrypt automagic certificate management
• CloudFront as a CDN (Use in front of clearflask-connect)

Via Docker

You can spin up all dependencies via Docker.

Simply add the --profile with-deps to your docker-compose command when starting ClearFlask.

All database content will be persisted to local filesystem under data folder.

Via Kubernetes

Production-ready Helm charts are available:

helm repo add clearflask https://clearflask.github.io/clearflask
helm repo update

helm install clearflask-deps clearflask/clearflask-dependencies \
  --set mysql.enabled=true \
  --set localstack.enabled=true

This deploys:

• MySQL/MariaDB for search and filtering with persistent storage (20Gi default)
• LocalStack for DynamoDB, S3, and SES emulation with persistent storage (10Gi default)
• ElasticSearch (optional) for advanced search with persistent storage (50Gi default)

All databases are persistent by default using PersistentVolumeClaims. See the Helm Chart documentation for configuration options.

Via AWS

For production workload, you will want to spin up these dependencies yourself and point ClearFlask to their endpoints.

IAM access

For AWS services, clearflask-server auto-detects Access Keys using either a configuration property or the default locations. If you are running in EC2 or ECS, keys detection is automated, you just need to create the appropriate IAM role.

AWS DynamoDB

Provide IAM access including create table permission as table is created automatically by ClearFlask on startup.

IAM actions:

• CreateTable
• BatchGetItem
• GetItem
• Query
• BatchWriteItem
• DeleteItem
• PutItem
• UpdateItem

AWS S3

Create a private bucket with IAM access to ClearFlask.

IAM actions:

• ListBucket
• GetObject
• DeleteObject
• PutObject

You can also use an API-compatible alternative service such as Wasabi, MinIO...

ElasticSearch or MySQL

Recommended is AWS ES, give the proper IAM access

IAM actions, all in these categories:

• List
• Read
• Write
• Tagging

Alternatively you can deploy it yourself (cheaper) or host it on Elastic. Or you can choose to use MySQL/Aurora as a cheaper alternative.

AWS SES

In order to setup SES, you need to seek limit increase via AWS support.

Change the config property ...EmailServiceImpl$Config.useService to ses and give the proper IAM access.

IAM actions:

• SendEmail
• SendRawEmail

Alternatively use any other email provider and fill out the SMTP settings

Deploy ClearFlask

ClearFlask consists of two components:

• clearflask-server: Tomcat application for serving API requests
• clearflask-connect: NodeJS for SSR, dynamic cert management and serving static files

Via Kubernetes (Recommended for Production)

No build required - uses pre-built Docker images.

# Add Helm repository
helm repo add clearflask https://clearflask.github.io/clearflask
helm repo update

# Generate required secrets
TOKEN_SIGNER=$(openssl rand -base64 172 | tr -d '\n')
CURSOR_KEY=$(openssl rand -base64 16)
SSO_SECRET=$(uuidgen)
CONNECT_TOKEN=$(uuidgen)

# Install ClearFlask
helm install clearflask clearflask/clearflask \
  --set global.domain=yourdomain.com \
  --set server.config.searchEngine=READWRITE_MYSQL \
  --set server.secrets.tokenSignerPrivKey="$TOKEN_SIGNER" \
  --set server.secrets.cursorSharedKey="$CURSOR_KEY" \
  --set server.secrets.ssoSecretKey="$SSO_SECRET" \
  --set server.secrets.connectToken="$CONNECT_TOKEN"

Features:

• Horizontal Pod Aut