SendLit

Open-source email marketing platform

Tech stack

• TypeScript
• PostgreSQL
• Redis
• Bull MQ
• Nextjs
• Tailwind CSS
• shadcn/ui

Status

SendLit is being bootstrapped by extracting the email composing/sending/ automation capabilities out of CourseLit and reusing the OAuth2 implementation from MediaLit's API. See ARCHITECTURE.md for the full migration plan. apps/api (including its MCP server), packages/email-editor, packages/email-blocks and apps/web are built and have been validated end-to-end (OAuth login, contacts, templates, broadcasts and sequences, including the automation/ delivery loop, and raw JSON-RPC calls against the MCP server). Account-wide analytics, bounce handling and multi-user accounts are still on the roadmap.

Packages

• apps/api — OAuth2-protected REST API: contacts, templates, broadcasts/ sequences, mail sending and automation.
• apps/web — the dashboard UI (Next.js): sign in, manage contacts, compose templates/broadcasts/sequences, start/pause automations.
• packages/email-editor — the WYSIWYG email editor (@sendlit/email-editor).
• packages/email-blocks — headless composing blocks for broadcasts/ sequences/templates (@sendlit/email-blocks), used by apps/web.

Running everything locally

1. Start Postgres and Redis (e.g. via Docker).
2. apps/api: copy .env.example to .env, fill in the values, then pnpm --filter @sendlit/api db:push and pnpm --filter @sendlit/api dev.
3. apps/web: copy .env.example to .env.local (API_URL pointing at the API above), then pnpm --filter @sendlit/web dev.
4. Build the two shared packages at least once so apps/web has something to import: pnpm --filter @sendlit/email-editor build && pnpm --filter @sendlit/email-blocks build (re-run, or use their dev scripts, after changing either package).

Self-hosting with Docker Compose

The root Compose stack runs PostgreSQL, Redis, the API, and the web dashboard. It also uses a one-shot init service to apply database migrations and create the first account, its default team, and a team-scoped API key.

cp .env.example .env
# Set the required secrets in .env (commands are included as comments there).
docker compose up --build -d
docker compose logs init

Set SUPER_ADMIN_EMAIL before the first start. The init logs contain the initial API key exactly once; save it in a password manager and use it as the x-sendlit-apikey header. If it is lost, create a replacement in the dashboard or through the authenticated API. Open the dashboard at WEB_CLIENT (by default, http://localhost:3000) and API documentation at API_PUBLIC_URL/docs.

For an internet-facing deployment, set API_PUBLIC_URL, WEB_CLIENT, PROTOCOL=https, and DOMAIN to the public values before the first start. Put the API and web ports behind a TLS reverse proxy; set ENABLE_TRUST_PROXY=true when that proxy forwards client IPs. Back up the postgres-data volume and keep the .env secrets stable: changing the ESP encryption key makes stored team SMTP credentials unreadable.