basecamp/once-campfire

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

4526 stars · 775 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded

Campfire is a self-hosted, web-based group chat application from Basecamp, written in Ruby on Rails, offering rooms, DMs, file sharing, search, and bot integrations. It ships as a single Docker image for one-machine deployment with no subscription fees.

Use cases

• self-host a team chat to replace Slack or Teams
• run a private internal chat on my own server without subscription fees
• set up a backup chat system when Slack goes down
• host a private chat space for an executive team or event
• study a well-written Rails codebase as educational material
• deploy a chat app with one command using Docker

When to choose

• you want to own your chat data and avoid recurring SaaS costs
• you need simple group chat with rooms, DMs, mentions, and search
• you prefer a single-machine Docker deployment that is easy to maintain
• you want customizable chat software with the full source code under MIT

When to avoid

• you need enterprise features like SSO, compliance, or advanced integrations
• you rely on Slack's extensive app ecosystem or video calls
• you cannot operate your own server or handle updates and backups

Facets

application · maturity active

chat-interface http-server websocket search-engine file-upload webhook self-hosted messaging-platforms web-development developer-tools self-hosted ruby group-chat slack-alternative team-communication rails single-machine-deployment once docker linux web-server

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="basecamp/once-campfire")