SafeLaunch

An open-source, self-contained, single-binary feature flag server for micro-SaaS and indie developers.

Sits between a config file and the giants (Unleash / ConfigCat / LaunchDarkly). More than env vars, less than a platform.

You want to change a flag without a redeploy. That's the entire value proposition. If you don't need that, use env vars. If you need experimentation, team collaboration, and governance, use one of the giants.

---

Status: early development

SafeLaunch is a young, actively-developed project — not yet tagged, packaged, or ready for production use. There is no release binary, no CLI, no SDK, and no auth yet. What exists today:

• A Go API server (Gin) backed by embedded SQLite, with CRUD endpoints for boolean feature flags
• A small React + Vite dashboard, built and embedded into the Go binary via //go:embed
• A Dockerfile + docker-compose.yaml for running the server in a container

Not yet built: authentication, targeting rules / percentage rollouts / variants, the Python CLI, SDKs, observability, and the event pipeline. See roadmap.md for the full phased plan and current phase status.

Why this project exists

Who it's for: solo/indie developers and 1–5 person teams self-hosting on a small VPS who want to flip a flag without a redeploy.

Who it's not for: teams that need experimentation platforms (→ Statsig, GrowthBook), enterprise governance / SOC 2 (→ LaunchDarkly), or a hosted SaaS (SafeLaunch is self-hosted only).

Tech stack

Layer	Today	Planned
Server	Go, Gin, embedded SQLite (modernc.org/sqlite)	Same, plus API-key auth, evaluation engine, event pipeline
Dashboard	React + Vite, embedded via //go:embed	-
CLI	—	Python (Typer + rich), separate distributable
SDKs	—	TypeScript (MVP), Python + Ruby (post-MVP)
Cache	—	In-process (sync.Map / Ristretto), no Redis
Deploy	Docker (docker-compose up)	+ Linux binary via GitHub Releases, multi-arch Docker via goreleaser

Quickstart

Prerequisites

• Go 1.26+
• Node.js + pnpm (only if you're rebuilding the frontend)

Run from source

git clone https://github.com/epi-dev/safelaunch.git
cd safelaunch

# create a local env file (not committed)
echo "ENV=development" > .env

go run .

The server starts on http://localhost:8080. SQLite data is stored at ./db/feature_flags.db (created automatically on first run).

Run with Docker

docker compose up --build

Rebuild the frontend (optional)

The dashboard is pre-built into frontend/dist and embedded into the Go binary. To make frontend changes take effect in the binary:

cd frontend
pnpm install
pnpm build      # writes frontend/dist
cd ..
go run .        # re-embeds the fresh dist/ output

For live frontend development against a running Go server, use pnpm dev inside frontend/ (Vite dev server on :5173, proxied CORS is enabled when ENV=development).

Build a single binary (Linux)

1. Build the frontend first

//go:embed frontend/dist bakes in whatever is at that path at compile time, so the dashboard has to be built before the Go binary:

cd frontend
pnpm install
pnpm build      # writes frontend/dist
cd ..

2. Build the Go binary

CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o safelaunch .

Run the app:

./safelaunch

Cross-compiling for a Linux VPS

From macOS or any non-Linux dev machine, target Linux directly:

GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o safelaunch-linux-amd64 .
# Apple Silicon / arm64 servers:
GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm64 CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o safelaunch-linux-arm64 .

Copy the resulting file to the server, chmod +x, and run it.

If you'd rather ship a container than a bare binary — see Run with Docker above.

Roadmap

• roadmap.md — the 10-phase plan this project follows, gated on outcomes not deadlines

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE.