Reqcore

The open-source ATS you own. No per-seat fees. No data lock-in. No secret algorithms.

Live Demo · Documentation · Roadmap · Report Bug

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Most recruiting software holds your candidate data hostage behind per-seat pricing and opaque algorithms. Reqcore is different — it runs on your infrastructure, your team scales without increasing your software bill, and every feature is open source so you can inspect and modify everything.

Why Reqcore?

	Reqcore	Greenhouse	Lever	Ashby	OpenCATS
Open source	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅
Self-hosted	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅
No per-seat pricing	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅
Own your data	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅
Transparent AI ranking	🔜	❌	❌	❌	❌
Modern tech stack	Nuxt 4 / Vue 3	—	—	—	PHP 5
Active development	✅ 2026	✅	✅	✅	❌ Stale
Resume parsing	🔜	✅	✅	✅	❌
Pipeline / Kanban	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Public job board	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Document storage	✅ MinIO	✅	✅	✅	✅
Custom application forms	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
Local AI (privacy-first)	🔜 Ollama	❌	❌	❌	❌

Features

• Job management — Create, edit, and track jobs through draft → open → closed → archived
• Candidate pipeline — Drag candidates through screening → interview → offer → hired with a Kanban board
• Public job board — SEO-friendly job listings with custom slugs that applicants can browse and apply to
• Custom application forms — Add custom questions (text, select, file upload, etc.) per job
• Document storage — Upload and manage resumes and cover letters via S3-compatible storage (MinIO)
• Multi-tenant organizations — Isolated data per organization with role-based membership
• Recruiter dashboard — At-a-glance stats, pipeline breakdown, recent applications, and top active jobs
• Server-proxied documents — Resumes are never exposed via public URLs; all access is authenticated and streamed
• API rate limiting — Global per-IP limits on all /api endpoints with stricter auth/write thresholds

Quick Start

Windows users: Open Git Bash and run all commands there instead of Command Prompt or PowerShell.

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Step 1 — Install Docker

Docker packages the app, database, and file storage into containers so you don't have to install anything else manually.

Your OS	How to install
Mac	Download Docker Desktop for Mac → install → open it
Windows	Download Docker Desktop for Windows → install → open it
Linux	Follow the Docker Engine install guide for your distro

Once installed, verify Docker is running:

docker --version

You should see something like Docker version 27.x.x. If you get command not found, Docker isn't running yet — open Docker Desktop and try again.

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Step 2 — Download Reqcore

Clone the repository (this downloads the source code):

git clone https://github.com/reqcore-inc/reqcore.git
cd reqcore

Don't have git? Download it here, or download a ZIP and unzip it manually.

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Step 3 — Generate your secret keys

This creates a .env file containing random passwords and secrets. You only run this once.

./setup.sh

You'll see: ✅ .env generated with random secrets.

Windows CMD / PowerShell? Run cp .env.example .env instead, then open .env and replace every placeholder value with a random string of your choice.

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Step 4 — Start the app

docker compose up

The very first run takes 3–5 minutes while Docker builds the app image and downloads dependencies. This is normal — you only wait this long once. Subsequent starts take seconds.

When you see a line like:

app  | Listening on http://[::]:3000

...the app is ready.

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Step 5 — Open Reqcore

Go to http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

Click Sign up to create your account and first organization. That's it — you're running your own ATS.

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Optional: Load demo data

Want to explore with pre-filled jobs, candidates, and a pipeline? Open a new terminal window while the app is running and run:

docker compose exec app npm run db:seed

Then sign in with:

• Email: demo@reqcore.com
• Password: demo1234

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Managing your instance

# Stop the app (your data is kept)
docker compose down

# Start it again
docker compose up

# Rebuild after pulling new code
docker compose up --build

# Stop and delete ALL data (irreversible)
docker compose down -v

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What's running

Service	URL	Description
App	localhost:3000	The Reqcore web UI
MinIO Console	localhost:9001	File storage browser (S3-compatible)
Adminer	localhost:8080	Database browser — only with --profile tools

To enable Adminer (a visual database browser):

docker compose --profile tools up
# Open http://localhost:8080
# System: PostgreSQL  |  Server: db  |  Username & Password: from your .env

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Troubleshooting

Problem	What to do
docker: command not found	Docker isn't installed, or Docker Desktop isn't open yet
permission denied: ./setup.sh	Run chmod +x setup.sh first, then try again
App shows a connection error	The first build is still running — wait 30 seconds, then refresh
Port 3000 or 5432 already in use	Another app is using that port — stop it, or edit the port in docker-compose.yml
Upload / file errors	Run docker compose logs minio — MinIO may still be starting up
Need to rotate a secret	Edit .env, then run docker compose up --build

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Framework	Nuxt 4 (Vue 3 + Nitro)
Database	PostgreSQL 16
ORM	Drizzle ORM + postgres.js
Auth	Better Auth with organization plugin
Storage	MinIO (S3-compatible)
Validation	Zod v4
Styling	Tailwind CSS v4
Icons	Lucide (tree-shakeable)

Project Structure

app/                          # Frontend (Nuxt 4 srcDir)
  pages/                      #   File-based routing
  components/                 #   Auto-imported Vue components
  composables/                #   Auto-imported composables (useJobs, useCandidates, etc.)
  layouts/                    #   Dashboard, auth, and public layouts
server/                       # Backend (Nitro)
  api/                        #   REST API routes (authenticated + public)
  database/schema/            #   Drizzle ORM table definitions
  database/migrations/        #   Generated SQL migrations
  utils/                      #   Auto-imported utilities (db, auth, env, s3)
  plugins/                    #   Startup plugins (migrations, S3 bucket)
Dockerfile                    # Multi-stage build for the app container
docker-compose.yml            # App + Postgres + MinIO (+ optional Adminer)
setup.sh                      # One-time secret generator → writes .env

Deployment

Reqcore is designed to run on a single VPS. The reference deployment uses:

Component	Role
Hetzner Cloud CX23	2 vCPU, 4GB RAM, Ubuntu 24.04 (~€5/mo)
Caddy	Reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS
Cloudflare	DNS, DDoS protection, edge SSL (free tier)
Docker Compose	Postgres + MinIO (localhost only)
systemd	Process management with auto-restart

Deploy

ssh deploy@your-server '~/deploy.sh'
# Pulls latest code, installs, builds, restarts — zero downtime

See ARCHITECTURE.md for the full deployment architecture diagram.

Scripts

Command	Description
npm run dev	Start development server
npm run build	Build for production
npm run db:generate	Generate migrations from schema changes
npm run db:seed	Seed database with demo data
npm run db:studio	Open Drizzle Studio (database browser)
npm run i18n:crowdin:upload	Upload source locale file to Crowdin
npm run i18n:crowdin:download	Download latest translations from Crowdin
npm run i18n:crowdin:sync	Upload sources and then download translations

Internationalization

Reqcore uses Nuxt i18n (@nuxtjs/i18n) with Crowdin for translation management. Implementation details and setup steps (including Crowdin native GitHub integration) are documented in I18N.md.

Roadmap

Reqcore is actively developed. Here's what's next:

Status	Milestone
✅ Shipped	Jobs, Candidates, Applications, Pipeline, Documents, Dashboard, Public Job Board, Custom Forms
🔨 Building	Resume parsing (PDF → structured data)
🔮 Planned	AI candidate ranking (Glass Box — shows matching logic), team collaboration, email notifications, candidate portal

See the full Roadmap and Product Vision.

Contributing

Reqcore is in early development and contributions are welcome. Check CONTRIBUTING.md for development workflow, DCO sign-off requirements, and submission guidelines.

License

Licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0).