NEXUS

Source-available business management suite for service-oriented teams.

NEXUS combines CRM, project management, invoicing, time tracking, HR, marketing automation, uptime monitoring, and workflow automation into a single, self-hosted web application. Internal use is free with no subscription fees. Commercial hosting or SaaS use requires a commercial license — see LICENSE.md for details.

Built for digital agencies, IT service companies, consultancies, and software development teams.

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Features

Module	What it does
CRM	Company and contact management, relationship mapping, revenue analytics
Projects	Gantt planning, milestones, tasks, team assignments, budget tracking
Invoicing	PDF generation, ZUGFeRD/XRechnung, recurring billing, cash flow, FinTS bank balance
Time Tracking	Focus sessions, break management, workload heatmaps, billable hours
HR	Vacation, sick leave, travel expenses, team capacity analytics
Marketing	Prospect pipeline, campaign management, Sankey funnel charts
Sentinels	Visual no-code automation — triggers, conditions, commands
Uptime Monitoring	HTTP health checks with alerting via email and team chat
Calendar	CalDAV and CardDAV protocol support for universal device sync

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	Angular 21+, TypeScript, Bootstrap 5, RxJS
Backend	Laravel 13, PHP 8.3+, Eloquent ORM
Database	MySQL / MariaDB
Real-Time	Laravel Reverb (WebSockets)
Auth	Token (simple) or Keycloak SSO
Docker	PHP-FPM + nginx + supervisor in one container

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Repository Structure

nexus/
├── frontend/          Angular SPA (TypeScript)
├── backend/           Laravel API (PHP)
├── docker/            Docker build files
│   ├── Dockerfile     Multi-stage build (Node → Angular, Composer → PHP)
│   ├── entrypoint.sh  Container startup (migrations, seeding, caching)
│   ├── nginx.conf     Reverse proxy config (port 3200 → Angular + backend)
│   └── supervisord.conf  PHP-FPM, nginx, queue worker, scheduler, Reverb
└── docker-compose.yml Quick-start with MariaDB included

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Running with Docker

The quickest way to get NEXUS running is with Docker Compose. This builds the application from source and starts it together with a MariaDB database.

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop (Windows / macOS) or Docker Engine + Docker Compose (Linux)
• Docker ≥ 24, Docker Compose ≥ 2
• ~4 GB RAM available to Docker
• Ports 3200 and 8000 free on the host (configurable)
• Docker Desktop must be running before any docker command (Windows/macOS: start it from the Start Menu / Applications and wait for the taskbar icon to stop animating)

1. Configure

cp .env.example .env

Open .env and set at minimum:

Variable	Description	Default
ADMIN_EMAIL	Initial admin account e-mail	admin@example.com
ADMIN_PASSWORD	Initial admin account password	changeme
DB_PASSWORD	MariaDB password for NEXUS	nexus
DB_ROOT_PASSWORD	MariaDB root password	nexus_root

Important: Change all default passwords before exposing NEXUS to a network. DB_USERNAME must not be root — MariaDB reserves that name.

2. Build and start

The first run builds the Docker image from source (Angular + PHP). This takes a few minutes.

docker compose up -d

Subsequent starts use the cached image and are instant.

3. Open in browser

Service	URL
NEXUS	http://localhost:3200
Backend API	http://localhost:8000

Log in with the ADMIN_EMAIL / ADMIN_PASSWORD you set in .env.

4. Stop

docker compose down

Data is stored in Docker volumes (db_data, storage_data) and survives restarts. To delete all data:

docker compose down -v

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Building the Docker Image manually

If you want to build and tag the image yourself (e.g. for a private registry):

docker build -f docker/Dockerfile -t nexus:latest .

The build context is the repository root. The multi-stage Dockerfile handles everything:

• Stage 1 — Node.js 22: installs npm dependencies and compiles the Angular app for all locales
• Stage 2 — PHP 8.4-FPM + nginx: installs Composer dependencies, copies the built frontend, configures the runtime

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Optional configuration

Custom ports

FRONTEND_PORT=3200
BACKEND_PORT=8000
DB_PORT_HOST=3308

Mail

MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.example.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=noreply@example.com

Keycloak SSO

APP_AUTH=keycloak
KEYCLOAK_BASE_URL=https://keycloak.example.com
KEYCLOAK_REALM=my-realm
KEYCLOAK_CLIENT_ID=nexus
KEYCLOAK_REALM_PUBLIC_KEY=<your-public-key>

Leave APP_AUTH=token (the default) for simple token-based auth without Keycloak.

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Development setup

For local development without Docker, run frontend and backend separately:

Backend (PHP / Laravel):

cd backend
composer install
cp .env.example .env && php artisan key:generate
php artisan migrate --seed
php artisan serve          # → http://localhost:8000
php artisan reverb:start   # WebSocket server

Frontend (Angular):

cd frontend
npm install
npx ng serve --configuration=de   # → http://localhost:4200

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License

NEXUS is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1 (BSL). Key terms:

• Free for internal use — self-host NEXUS for your own organization at no cost
• Commercial license required — offering NEXUS as a hosted/SaaS product to third parties requires a commercial license (€25 EUR/tenant/month, minimum €100/month)
• Converts to AGPL v3 — four years after each release, that version becomes fully open source under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0

BSL is a source-available license, not an OSI-approved open-source license. The source code is publicly available and forkable, but with the commercial-use restrictions described above.

See LICENSE.md for the full terms or contact info@at2-software.com for commercial licensing.

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Contributing