Flowclass

Flowclass is an open-source operations platform built for education businesses — tutorial centres, training academies, and small-to-medium schools that need more than a spreadsheet but less than an enterprise ERP.

Our Story

We spent two years building Flowclass as a SaaS product — a single platform for small to medium education companies and tutorial centres to automate their payments, scheduling, and student management.

Over time, we realised that every education business runs differently. A music school works nothing like a coding bootcamp. A tutoring centre has workflows that a language school would never recognise. A SaaS with fixed opinions on how things should work just isn't scalable across that kind of diversity.

So we pivoted. We moved to an enterprise model — per-contract, customised on top of our core Flowclass software — and focused on building a platform flexible enough to fit each client's actual operations. We still host Flowclass for our clients, but all future development happens here, in the open, with the community.

The goal is simple: build the operations system that fits every education business.

What's Included

Flowclass ships with a full suite of modules out of the box:

• Class types — regular, recurring, and flexible schedule types to match how you actually run classes
• Application platform — student enrolment flows with custom fields and approval stages
• Online payment integration — Stripe-powered payments with receipt upload and verification
• Invoicing — generate, track, and manage invoices per student or class
• Student CRM — full student records, enrolment history, and communication log
• Promotions — coupons, package discounts, and more
• Email notifications — automated emails triggered by enrolments, payments, and reminders
• And much more — reporting, materials, scheduling, and integrations

Screenshots

Self-hosting

Anyone can run Flowclass on a single 8 GB instance with Docker installed:

git clone https://github.com/your-org/flowclass-open-source
cd flowclass-open-source
pnpm start

That's it. The start script handles Docker, dependencies, and all three apps (web, API, admin).

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Quick Start

PostgreSQL is required and must run via Docker. Use the start script to run the entire application:

pnpm start

This script will:

1. Check that Docker is running (on macOS, start Docker Desktop automatically if needed)
2. Start PostgreSQL, SMTP (Mailpit), and CloudBeaver via Docker
3. Create .env from .env.example if missing
4. Install dependencies and start all apps (web, api, admin)

Environment

A single .env file at the project root is used by all apps. Copy from the template:

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env with your database credentials and any other required values.

URLs: Three variables for the three apps: API_BASE_URL (API), NEXT_PUBLIC_WEB_BASE_URL (Web), VITE_ADMIN_BASE_URL (Admin). When Web/Admin vars are not set, they default to the same domain as the current page (window.location.origin).

Ports

App	Port	URL
API	3100	http://localhost:3100
CloudBeaver	3101	http://localhost:3101
Admin	3000	http://localhost:3000
Web	3001	http://localhost:3001

CloudBeaver (Database Management)

CloudBeaver provides a web UI for managing the PostgreSQL database. Run pnpm start first to ensure Postgres and CloudBeaver are running.

1. Open http://localhost:3101
2. On first run, create an admin account (username and password of your choice)
3. Add a new database connection:
   • Connection type: PostgreSQL
   • Host: postgres (the Docker service name, not localhost)
   • Port: 5432
   • Database: flowclass
   • Username: postgres
   • Password: postgres

Common Commands

pnpm start        # Run entire app (Docker + install + dev)
pnpm dev          # Start all apps (web, api, admin)
pnpm dev:web      # Start web only
pnpm dev:api      # Start API only
pnpm dev:admin    # Start admin only
pnpm build
pnpm lint
pnpm type-check
pnpm test
pnpm evaluate:functionality

Docker Deployment

docker compose up --build

This Docker setup runs:

• postgres for the primary database (data persists in a Docker volume named postgres-data)
• cloudbeaver at http://localhost:3101 for database management (see CloudBeaver above)
• api on http://localhost:3100
• admin on http://localhost:3000
• web on http://localhost:3001

Uploaded media is stored in a Docker named volume media-data (mounted at /workspace/uploads in the API container) and served by the API (/media/file/*). CloudBeaver data (connections, settings) persists in cloudbeaver-data. Data persists across container restarts. No S3 bucket is required.

Manual Setup

If you prefer to run services manually instead of pnpm start:

docker compose up postgres smtp cloudbeaver -d
pnpm install
cp .env.example .env
pnpm dev

Open-Source Mode Defaults

This repository is configured for open-source distribution:

• subscription/paywall flows are disabled in this open-source build
• no production secrets are stored in source control
• environment variables must be provided via the root .env file (copy from .env.example)

Workspace Layout

• apps/web — Next.js frontend
• apps/api — Nest.js backend
• apps/admin — Vite + React admin app

Prerequisites

• Node.js 24 (use nvm use or fnm use if you have .nvmrc / .node-version)
• pnpm (>=10)
• Docker (for PostgreSQL and SMTP)

Contributing

1. Fork and clone the repository.
2. Create a branch for your change.
3. Run lint, type-check, and functional evaluation before opening a PR.
4. Submit a PR with a clear test plan.

Licenses

• Root open-source code: MIT (LICENSE)
• Self-host/server copyleft terms: AGPL-3.0 (LICENSE-AGPL)

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Documentation & Guide

Full documentation is available at flowclass.io/docs, including:

• Getting started — environment setup, first run, and configuration
• Architecture overview — how the web, API, and admin apps fit together
• Self-hosting guide — deploying with Docker and configuring your environment
• Contributing guide — code style, branching, and PR process

For the fastest path from zero to a running instance, start with the Getting Started guide before working through the sections below.

For full product details, screenshots, and customer stories, visit flowclass.io.