Pulse - Feel the Pulse

Pulse is a lightweight, self-hosted web application for running interactive live sessions like polls, Q&A, rankings, ratings, and wordclouds. It's built for speed, real-time interactivity, and privacy.

Features

• Real-Time Synchronization: Uses Socket.io to push results instantly to all connected screens.
• Multiple Session Types:
  • Wordcloud (Dynamic sizing based on frequency)
  • Poll (Single Choice)
  • Ranking (Prioritization)
  • Rating (5-Star Scale)
  • Q&A (Audience questions with upvotes)
  • Open Ended (Brainstorming)
• Session Timer: Hosts can set a live countdown that automatically locks the session when time is up.
• Multi-Tenant Architecture: Secure dashboard for multiple users/teachers to manage their own independent sessions.
• Glassmorphism UI: Modern, slick, and highly responsive UI built with Tailwind CSS and Framer Motion.
• Privacy First: Self-hosted on your own infrastructure. No third-party tracking.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React, Vite, Tailwind CSS, Framer Motion, Recharts
• Backend: Node.js, Express, Socket.io, Prisma (SQLite), JWT Authentication
• Infrastructure: Docker & Docker Compose

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose

Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/thefraggle/pulse.git
cd pulse

2. Configure Environment Variables

You can customize the installation by providing environment variables. For a quick start, Pulse will use safe defaults, but for production, you must set your own secrets!

# Backend variables
cp backend/.env.example backend/.env
# Frontend variables
cp frontend/.env.example frontend/.env

Edit both .env files to set your own ADMIN_PASSWORD and JWT_SECRET.

3. Run with Docker Compose

docker compose up -d --build

Note: The first time the container starts, Prisma will automatically push the SQLite database schema.

4. Access the App

Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost (or your server's IP/Domain).

• Public View: http://localhost/
• Admin Dashboard: http://localhost/dashboard (Login using admin and your configured ADMIN_PASSWORD).

Legal & Privacy Notice Customization (White-Labeling)

If you want to host Pulse publicly, you might want to link your own Legal Notice (Impressum) and Privacy Policy. Pulse allows you to inject these links dynamically without altering the code.

1. Create a public/impressum.html inside the frontend/ directory (These files are ignored by git so your personal data stays private).
2. Set VITE_IMPRESSUM_URL=/impressum.html in your frontend/.env.
3. Rebuild your docker container. The links will now appear in the footer.

License

MIT License - Copyright 2026 Daniel Notthoff.