Octarq — the self-hosted back office for one-person companies & AI-native teams

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Octarq is a single Go binary you extend with plugins — the self-hosted operations backend for indie hackers, one-person companies, and small AI-native teams.

Own a domain? Octarq already gives you the things you'd otherwise wire together from three SaaS bills: short links with analytics, inbound/outbound email, and DNS automation — each shipped as a first-class plugin, not a locked-in feature. Then you extend it the same way its own core is built: a small Go interface + a React page = a new tool in your back office. And because Octarq speaks MCP, every plugin you add is instantly drivable by your AI agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop).

One binary. No CGO. SQLite by default. go:embed'd dashboard. Extend without forking.

<p align="center"> <img src="docs/assets/octarq-demo.gif" alt="Octarq agent-native demo — drive every plugin over MCP from your terminal" width="720"> </p>

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Why Octarq

Think of it as the intersection of three tools you already know:

• PocketBase's single-binary, extend-in-an-afternoon developer experience —
• applied to Dub-style links + real domain/email/DNS infrastructure —
• with an n8n-style plugin ecosystem for connectors (Telegram, Webhooks, SMS, …) —
• and every capability is agent-native over MCP.

Octarq isn't a URL shortener that also does email. It's a framework: links/email/DNS are the reference plugins that prove the model, and the ecosystem grows toward whatever a one-person company needs to self-host next.

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Batteries included (the reference plugins)

These ship in the default build so Octarq is useful on minute one:

• 🔗 Links — custom/random slugs, geo/device/OS/language routing, expiration & click limits, expired-URL fallbacks, time-series analytics with bot detection, UTM builder, QR codes, tags (optional MaxMind GeoIP).
• ✉️ Mail — serverless inbound mail via Cloudflare Email Routing (no port 25, no spam daemons), catch-all auto-provisioning, a full client (read/reply/send over your SMTP relays, download raw .eml), on-demand AI summaries (BYO key).
• 🌐 DNS — Cloudflare & DNSPod CRUD, subdomain presets for short-link + email auth (MX/SPF/DKIM), native comment/notes mapping.
• 🏢 Workspaces & RBAC — isolated multi-tenant orgs, server-enforced roles, invite/onboarding, hashed Bearer API tokens.

Every one of these is a plugin.Plugin + UIPlugin — the exact same seam your own plugins use.

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Agent-native: your plugin is an MCP tool

Octarq ships a built-in MCP server (octarq mcp, over stdio and SSE/stream) so assistants like Claude Code can read and query your instance — list_links, list_mailboxes, list_domains, export_data, plus a guarded read-only SQL tool (SELECT/WITH only, row-capped, secrets auto-redacted).

The point isn't "we added AI." The point is the framework wiring: a plugin that implements the optional MCPProvider interface exposes its own tools to every connected agent — no extra plumbing. Write a plugin, and your AI agent can drive it.

📬 New OTP email arrives ──▶ your 10-line plugin (OnEmail hook)
                              ├─ generates a short link (links service)
                              └─ exposes it as an MCP tool ──▶ Claude Code consumes it

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Quick start

Zero config — one command, no .env:

docker run -p 8080:8080 -v octarq-data:/data octarq/octarq

On first boot Octarq generates a secret key and an initial admin password (both persisted under /data, printed once