ackify-ce/BUILD.md

Ackify Community Edition - Build & Deployment Guide

Overview

Ackify Community Edition (CE) is the open-source version of Ackify, a document signature validation platform with a modern API-first architecture. This guide covers building and deploying the Community Edition.

Architecture

Ackify CE consists of:

• Go Backend: Vue 3 SPA frontend served by Go backend with REST API v1, OAuth2 authentication, and PostgreSQL database
• Vue 3 SPA Frontend: Modern TypeScript-based single-page application with Vite, Pinia state management, and Tailwind CSS
• Docker Multi-Stage Build: Optimized containerized deployment

The built Vue 3 SPA is embedded directly into the Go binary via the //go:embed all:web/dist directive, allowing single-binary deployment.

Prerequisites

• Go 1.24.5 or later
• Node.js 22+ and npm (for Vue SPA development)
• Docker and Docker Compose (for containerized deployment)
• PostgreSQL 16+ (for database)

Building from Source

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/btouchard/ackify-ce.git
cd ackify-ce

2. Build the Vue SPA

cd webapp
npm install
npm run build
cd ..

This creates an optimized production build in webapp/dist/.

3. Build the Go Application

Run from project root:

# Build Community Edition
go build ./backend/cmd/community

# Or build with specific output name
go build -o ackify-ce ./backend/cmd/community

The Go application will serve both the API endpoints and the Vue SPA.

4. Run Tests

# Run Go tests
go test ./...

# Run Go tests with verbose output
go test -v ./backend/internal/...

# Run integration tests (requires PostgreSQL)
INTEGRATION_TESTS=1 go test -tags=integration -v ./internal/infrastructure/database/

Configuration

Environment Variables

Copy the example environment file and modify it:

cp .env.example .env

Required environment variables:

• ACKIFY_BASE_URL: Public URL of your application
• ACKIFY_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID: OAuth2 client ID
• ACKIFY_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET: OAuth2 client secret
• ACKIFY_DB_DSN: PostgreSQL connection string
• ACKIFY_OAUTH_COOKIE_SECRET: Base64-encoded secret for session cookies (32+ bytes)
• ACKIFY_ORGANISATION: Organization name displayed in the application

Optional configuration:

• ACKIFY_TEMPLATES_DIR: Custom path to emails templates directory (defaults to relative path for development, /app/templates in Docker)
• ACKIFY_LOCALES_DIR: Custom path to locales directory (default: locales)
• ACKIFY_SPA_DIR: Custom path to Vue SPA build directory (default: dist)
• ACKIFY_LISTEN_ADDR: Server listen address (default: :8080)
• ACKIFY_ED25519_PRIVATE_KEY: Base64-encoded Ed25519 private key for signatures
• ACKIFY_OAUTH_PROVIDER: OAuth provider (google, github, gitlab or empty for custom)
• ACKIFY_OAUTH_ALLOWED_DOMAIN: Domain restriction for OAuth users
• ACKIFY_OAUTH_AUTO_LOGIN: Enable automatic OAuth login when session exists (default: false)
• ACKIFY_LOG_LEVEL: Logging level - debug, info, warn, error (default: info)
• ACKIFY_ADMIN_EMAILS: Comma-separated list of admin email addresses
• ACKIFY_MAIL_HOST: SMTP server host (required to enable email features)
• ACKIFY_MAIL_PORT: SMTP server port (default: 587)
• ACKIFY_MAIL_USERNAME: SMTP username for authentication
• ACKIFY_MAIL_PASSWORD: SMTP password for authentication
• ACKIFY_MAIL_TLS: Enable TLS connection (default: true)
• ACKIFY_MAIL_STARTTLS: Enable STARTTLS (default: true)
• ACKIFY_MAIL_TIMEOUT: SMTP connection timeout (default: 10s)
• ACKIFY_MAIL_FROM: Email sender address
• ACKIFY_MAIL_FROM_NAME: Email sender name (defaults to ACKIFY_ORGANISATION)
• ACKIFY_MAIL_SUBJECT_PREFIX: Prefix for email subjects
• ACKIFY_MAIL_TEMPLATE_DIR: Custom path to email templates (default: templates/emails)
• ACKIFY_MAIL_DEFAULT_LOCALE: Default locale for emails (default: en)

Logging Configuration

Ackify uses structured JSON logging with the following levels:

• debug: Detailed diagnostic information (request/response details, authentication attempts)
• info: General informational messages (successful operations, API requests)
• warn: Warning messages (failed authentication, rate limiting)
• error: Error messages (server errors, database failures)

Example:

# Development - verbose logging
ACKIFY_LOG_LEVEL=debug

# Production - standard logging
ACKIFY_LOG_LEVEL=info

Logs include structured fields for easy parsing:

• request_id: Unique identifier for each request
• user_email: Authenticated user email
• method, path, status: HTTP request details
• duration_ms: Request processing time

OAuth2 Providers

Supported providers:

• google (default)
• github
• gitlab
• Custom (specify ACKIFY_OAUTH_AUTH_URL, ACKIFY_OAUTH_TOKEN_URL, ACKIFY_OAUTH_USERINFO_URL)

Deployment Options

Option 1: Direct Binary

1. Build the application
2. Set environment variables
3. Run the binary:

./ackify

Option 2: Docker Compose (Recommended)

1. Configure environment variables in .env file
2. Start services:

docker compose up -d

3. Check logs:

docker compose logs ackify-ce

4. Stop services:

docker compose down

Option 3: Docker Build

# Build Docker image
docker build -t ackify-ce:latest .

# Run with environment file
docker run --env-file .env -p 8080:8080 ackify-ce:latest

Database Setup

The application requires PostgreSQL. When using Docker Compose, the database is automatically created and configured.

For manual setup:

1. Create a PostgreSQL database
2. The application will automatically create required tables on first run
3. Set the ACKIFY_DB_DSN environment variable to your database connection string

Health Checks

The application provides a health endpoint:

curl http://localhost:8080/health

Production Considerations

1. HTTPS: Always use HTTPS in production (set ACKIFY_BASE_URL with https://)
2. Secrets: Use strong, randomly generated secrets for ACKIFY_OAUTH_COOKIE_SECRET
3. Database: Use a dedicated PostgreSQL instance with proper backups
4. Monitoring: Monitor the /health endpoint for application status
5. Logs: Configure proper log aggregation and monitoring

API Endpoints

API v1 (RESTful)

All API v1 endpoints are prefixed with /api/v1.

Public Endpoints

• GET /api/v1/health - Health check
• GET /api/v1/csrf - Get CSRF token for authenticated requests
• GET /api/v1/documents - List all documents
• GET /api/v1/documents/{docId} - Get document details
• GET /api/v1/documents/{docId}/signatures - Get document signatures
• GET /api/v1/documents/{docId}/expected-signers - Get expected signers list

Authentication Endpoints

• POST /api/v1/auth/start - Start OAuth flow
• GET /api/v1/auth/logout - Logout
• GET /api/v1/auth/check - Check authentication status (if ACKIFY_OAUTH_AUTO_LOGIN=true)

Authenticated Endpoints (require valid session)

• GET /api/v1/users/me - Get current user profile
• GET /api/v1/signatures - Get current user's signatures
• POST /api/v1/signatures - Create new signature
• GET /api/v1/documents/{docId}/signatures/status - Get user's signature status for document

Admin Endpoints (require admin privileges)

• GET /api/v1/admin/documents - List all documents with stats
• GET /api/v1/admin/documents/{docId} - Get document details (admin view)
• GET /api/v1/admin/documents/{docId}/signers - Get document with signers and stats
• POST /api/v1/admin/documents/{docId}/signers - Add expected signer
• DELETE /api/v1/admin/documents/{docId}/signers/{email} - Remove expected signer
• POST /api/v1/admin/documents/{docId}/reminders - Send email reminders
• GET /api/v1/admin/documents/{docId}/reminders - Get reminder history

Public Endpoints

• GET / - Vue SPA (serves index.html for all routes)
• GET /health - Health check
• GET /api/v1/auth/callback - OAuth2 callback handler

Note: Link unfurling for messaging apps (Slack, Discord, etc.) is handled automatically via dynamic Open Graph meta tags in the Vue SPA. There are no separate /embed or /oembed endpoints.

Development

Vue SPA Development

For Vue SPA development with hot-reload:

cd webapp
npm install
npm run dev

This starts a Vite development server on http://localhost:5173 with:

• Hot module replacement (HMR)
• TypeScript type checking
• API proxy to backend (configured in vite.config.ts)

The development server proxies API requests to your Go backend (default: http://localhost:8080).

Backend Development

Run the Go backend separately:

# In project root
go build ./backend/cmd/community
./ackify

Or use Docker Compose for complete stack:

docker compose up -d

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Port already in use: Change ACKIFY_LISTEN_ADDR in environment variables
2. Database connection failed: Check ACKIFY_DB_DSN and ensure PostgreSQL is running
3. OAuth2 errors: Verify ACKIFY_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID and ACKIFY_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET
4. SPA not loading: Ensure Vue app is built (npm run build in webapp/) before running Go binary
5. CORS errors in development: Check that Vite dev server proxy is correctly configured

Logs

Enable debug logging to see detailed request/response information:

ACKIFY_LOG_LEVEL=debug ./ackify

Debug logs include:

• HTTP request details (method, path, headers)
• Authentication attempts and results
• Database queries and performance
• OAuth flow progression
• Signature creation and validation steps

Contributing

This is the Community Edition. Contributions are welcome! Please see the main repository for contribution guidelines.

License

Community Edition is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPLv3).