ShipShipShip is an open-source, self-hostable changelog and roadmap web application that lets product teams publish release notes, run a public roadmap, and gather community feedback through voting on proposed features.

What it is

ShipShipShip is a web application made of two parts: a Go 1.21 backend built on Gin, SQLite and GORM, and a SvelteKit 2 / Svelte 5 admin panel that uses TailwindCSS, shadcn-svelte and the TipTap editor. It ships as a single Docker image for both AMD64 and ARM64, so the same artifact runs on a laptop, a small VPS or an ARM-based server. The project is licensed under Apache-2.0, carries roughly 299 stars and 16 forks on GitHub, and was last pushed in February 2026.

The concrete problem it solves is tool sprawl around shipping. Teams typically keep release notes in one place, feature requests in another, and the newsletter in a third, with no shared notion of what has shipped and what is planned. ShipShipShip puts events (changelog entries), a voting system for proposed features, and an automated newsletter into one install with one database. It replaces the combination of a separate changelog site, a separate feedback board and a separate mailing workflow, and it does so on infrastructure the team controls, with the data held in a local SQLite database at DB_PATH rather than in a vendor account.

Key capabilities

• Rich event management with the TipTap editor, markdown support, tags and media uploads for changelog entries.
• Emoji reactions with eight types (👍❤️🔥🎉👀💡🤔👎) collected directly on published events.
• A voting system that lets community members vote on proposed features before they are built.
• A drag-and-drop kanban board with customizable statuses for moving roadmap items through delivery.
• A theme system where themes are installed through /admin/customization/theme with manifest-based configuration, and event statuses are mapped to theme categories.
• Newsletter automation that sends email when events change status, using customizable email templates and SMTP configuration for Gmail, Outlook, SendGrid and similar providers.
• A complete RESTful API for integrations, alongside the full-featured SvelteKit admin dashboard.

Who uses it and how

• Small product teams that want a public changelog plus voting without paying for a hosted board, and who already have a server or VPS to deploy a single Docker container on.
• Open-source maintainers who need release notes and a roadmap that live next to the rest of their project infrastructure and can be themed to match an existing site.
• Teams running a release-driven workflow where moving an event to a status such as "Released" triggers an automated newsletter to subscribers.
• Developers integrating changelog or roadmap data into other systems, using the RESTful API rather than the admin panel.
• Self-hosters who want the community-facing surface separated from the admin surface, with the public changelog served at the root URL only after a theme is installed and statuses are mapped.

Getting started

The README recommends Docker: run nelkinsky/shipshipship:latest with ADMIN_USERNAME, ADMIN_PASSWORD, JWT_SECRET and BASE_URL set, then visit /admin on port 8080 to complete setup. A Docker Compose file is provided as an equivalent path, and local development is done by cloning the repository and running ./start-dev.sh.

How it compares

No comparable product is named in the facts supplied for this entry, so the page states plainly that ShipShipShip stands alone in this registry on the changelog and roadmap axis.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster has to operate the container, provide persistent storage for the SQLite database, and configure SMTP before newsletter automation works; teams that need a clustered database or a horizontally scaled deployment have no documented path here. The configuration table also lists ADMIN_PASSWORD as admin and JWT_SECRET as your-secret-key-change-in-production by default, so those values must be replaced before any instance is exposed. It is a poor fit for teams that want a fully managed service with no operational work, and for anyone who needs a public changelog running immediately, since the root URL shows the admin interface until a theme is installed and statuses are mapped.

docker run -d \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -e ADMIN_USERNAME=admin \
  -e ADMIN_PASSWORD=changeme \
  -e JWT_SECRET=your-secret-key \
  -e BASE_URL=https://changelog.yourdomain.com \
  -v shipshipship_data:/app/data \
  nelkinsky/shipshipship:latest

version: "3.8"
services:
  shipshipship:
    image: nelkinsky/shipshipship:latest
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    environment:
      - ADMIN_USERNAME=admin
      - ADMIN_PASSWORD=changeme
      - JWT_SECRET=your-secret-key
      - BASE_URL=https://changelog.yourdomain.com
      - GIN_MODE=release
    volumes:
      - shipshipship_data:/app/data
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  shipshipship_data:

git clone https://github.com/GauthierNelkinsky/ShipShipShip.git
cd ShipShipShip

# Start backend + admin dev server
./start-dev.sh

# Or backend only
./quick-start.sh

# Full dev mode (hot reload)
./start-dev.sh

# Rebuild everything
./start-dev.sh --rebuild

# Backend only
./quick-start.sh

admin/              # SvelteKit admin panel (SPA)
  ├── src/routes/admin/
  │   ├── events/          # Kanban board
  │   ├── newsletter/      # Email management
  │   └── customization/   # Themes & branding
  └── build/        # Static output (served by backend)

backend/            # Go API server
  ├── handlers/     # API endpoints
  ├── models/       # Database models
  ├── services/     # Business logic (email, automation)
  └── main.go       # Server entry point

data/               # SQLite + uploads + themes

# Get public events
curl http://localhost:8080/api/events

# Add reaction
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/events/1/reactions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"reaction_type":"thumbs_up"}'

# Subscribe to newsletter
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/newsletter/subscribe \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email":"[email protected]"}'

# Create event
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/admin/events \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title":"New Feature","status":"Proposed","content":"..."}'