convex-backend

Convex is an open-source reactive database aimed at web application developers. It combines a database, a place to write server functions, and client libraries, letting developers fetch data and implement business logic with strong consistency by writing pure TypeScript. The project is designed to make building and scaling dynamic, live-updating applications easier. The backend is developed by the Convex team, with the public repository synced to internal work within a few days. The README notes that the software is well tested internally, including randomized testing frameworks, though those tests are not part of the open-source offering. Small bug fixes are welcomed, and feedback is encouraged through Discord. Getting started is easiest through the hosted cloud platform, which offers a free tier suitable for small applications and side projects. For those who prefer to run it themselves, the self-hosted product includes most cloud features, such as the dashboard and CLI, and works with tools like Neon, Fly.io, Vercel, Netlify, RDS, SQLite, and Postgres. Self-hosting can be done with Docker (recommended) or a prebuilt binary, with detailed instructions in the self-hosting guide and community support in the #self-hosted Discord channel. The repository layout includes Rust code under crates/, with the main binary and a local_backend application server on top of the Runtime, plus npm-packages/ containing public and internal TypeScript packages such as udf-runtime for the user-defined functions JS environment and system-udfs for system functions used by the CLI. The README includes disclaimers: self-hosters should follow the guide and change default instance secrets and admin keys; Convex is most thoroughly tested on Linux and Mac, with less experience on Windows; and self-hosted builds include an anonymous beacon that can be disabled with the --disable-beacon flag. The beacon reports only a random deployment identifier, database migration version, backend git revision, and uptime.