🤖 AI that does the work
Connect your AI
AlianHub ships an MCP server, so the AI app you already use can work inside your workspace. Open AI → Connect your AI, copy the address, and add it as a custom connector in Claude, ChatGPT or Claude Code; then ask in everyday words to find tasks, add tasks and subtasks, comment, log time or change a status. A change to one task is made at once with Undo; anything wider waits for a person in the AI Inbox; every change is written in the audit log; and it cannot delete tasks, docs, comments or projects, or change who may do what.
flowchart LR
You["🙋 You"] -->|ask in everyday words| AI["🤖 Your own AI<br/>Claude · ChatGPT · Claude Code"]
AI -->|MCP, acting as you| Hub["⚙️ AlianHub<br/>your role and permissions"]
Hub -->|change to one task| Done["✅ Made at once<br/>with Undo"]
Hub -->|"wider change, new field, view,<br/>rule or project, closing a task"| Inbox["📥 AI Inbox<br/>waits for a person"]
Inbox -->|Approve| Done
Inbox -.->|Decline, with a reason| AI
Done --> Work["📋 Tasks · projects · team"]
Hub -.->|every change| Audit["🧾 Audit log"]
Step-by-step: docs/CONNECT-YOUR-AI.md · every tool: docs/MCP-AGENT-GUIDE.md · using it day to day: docs/guide/agents/
👥 One workspace for every team
One project per team, the same people across all of them, and time tracking and dashboards that cover every team. The names in small print are the role agents a team pack turns on.
Built for software teams too: connect GitHub and see pull requests linked to tasks, run sprints with burndown and a Gantt chart, let the Bug Triager sort new bugs, and work from Claude Code over MCP.
Move in from Jira, ClickUp, Trello, Asana, Monday.com or a CSV spreadsheet — imports can be undone (moving from ClickUp).
Everything in one workspace
AlianHub is free, open-source project management software you host yourself. It brings task management, sprint planning, time tracking with timesheets and optional screenshots, Gantt charts, Kanban boards, docs and automations into one workspace. Each person can connect their own AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT or Claude Code) over MCP to find, add and update work for them. Teams use it as a self-hosted alternative to Jira, ClickUp, Linear and Monday.com, released under the AGPL-3.0 license and run with Docker on your own servers. Built for enterprises, startups and growing teams — no per-seat pricing, no vendor lock-in, your data on your own servers.
Your browser picks the light or dark version. The workspace shown is made-up demo data. Try the live demo to explore for yourself.
- 📋 Project & task management — Create projects with custom milestones, sprints, statuses, and custom fields. Track tasks across List, Board, Table, Calendar, Gantt, and Workload views with drag-and-drop, sub-tasks, checklists, attachments, comments, due dates, and reminders. See views, filters and saved views.
- 👥 Team collaboration with RBAC — Assign tasks to users, manage role-based permissions per company, and create custom roles with dynamic permission rules. Roles, guests, private projects and lists (people and roles). Multi-tenant by design — a single instance can host multiple companies, each with isolated data.
- ⚡ Real-time collaboration via Socket.io — Changes propagate to every connected client instantly. No polling, no stale views, no
F5 refreshes.
- 🔍 Advanced search & saved filters — Find tasks by project, status, assignee, creator, due date, or priority. Save frequently used filters for one-click reuse.
- 🏃 Sprint planning — Plan work in sprints with a backlog, start and complete a sprint, and follow it with burndown, velocity and sprint reports.
- 📊 Gantt chart — A bar per task from start date to due date. Drag bars to reschedule and draw links to show which task blocks another. Milestones show as diamonds (Gantt guide).
- 📝 Docs & wiki — Write briefs, decisions and meeting notes as docs beside the work, nest pages, comment, keep versions, and share a read-only public link.
- ⚙️ Automations — Rules that do a small job when something happens, for example "when a task is marked done, tell the project lead". See rules.
- 🧩 Custom fields — Add the details your team tracks to every task (custom fields).
| Capability | Status |
|---|
| List · Board (Kanban) · Table · Calendar · Gantt · Workload views | ✅ Shipped |
| Sub-tasks, checklists, attachments, comments, custom fields | ✅ Shipped |
| Time tracking — timesheets + optional screenshots / activity | ✅ Shipped |
| Custom roles & per-company RBAC | ✅ Shipped |
| Sprints, milestones & reports | ✅ Shipped |
| AI task / sub-task / project generation | ✅ Shipped |
| Built-in chat & channels · real-time sync (Socket.io) | ✅ Shipped |
| Docs & wiki pages · automations (rules) | ✅ Shipped |
| Connect your own AI (Claude, ChatGPT) over MCP | ✅ Shipped |
| Import from ClickUp | ✅ Shipped |
Features evolve continuously — see Discussions for what's next and CHANGELOG.md for what just shipped.
- Agent teams — ready-made team packs create one agent per role, with starter rules, tags and workflows. A company view shows the roles as an org chart, and a dispatcher can route new tasks to a role, in suggest or apply mode.
- AI planning — the Ask box and the project generator plan with the server model, name and set up views, and can add starter automations that start switched off. A workspace can set a daily AI budget.
- GitHub — connect GitHub in one click, pick repositories per project, and see pull requests linked to tasks.
- Connect your own AI — the MCP tools and sign-in by address are on by default for new installs; upgraded installs keep them off until an owner turns them on.
- Installable app — the web app can be installed, and its shell opens offline.
Every release is listed in CHANGELOG.md.
Self-host in 1 minute
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aliansoftwareteam/AlianHub-Project-Management-System/main/docker-compose.yml
echo "JWT_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d
# AlianHub running at http://localhost:4000
Needs Docker with Compose. Images are published to GHCR (ghcr.io/aliansoftwareteam/alianhub:latest), multi-arch (amd64 + arm64). The Compose file runs MongoDB 7. Every environment variable is in .env.example and docs/ENV.md.
docker compose pull && docker compose up -d
Migrations run automatically at boot, before the server starts listening, and each one is recorded in the database. A failed migration does not stop the server: /health reports migrationError and the next boot retries it. To run them by hand set MIGRATIONS_AUTO=false and use npm run migrate:status, npm run migrate -- up --dry-run and npm run migrate. Back up before a major upgrade. Settings → Instance → Upgrade shows the running version, the latest release and the migration state. The full walkthrough is in docs/ADMIN-GUIDE.md.
Requires Node.js 20.x (engines in package.json) and MongoDB 7 running on mongodb://localhost:27017. If you don't have it: docker run -d -p 27017:27017 mongo:7 or download from mongodb.com.
git clone https://github.com/aliansoftwareteam/AlianHub-Project-Management-System.git
cd AlianHub-Project-Management-System
npm run setup
npm run setup installs all dependencies (root and frontend) in parallel, generates a .env file with secure random secrets, starts the server (the same entry production uses) and opens http://localhost:4000 in your browser.
On an empty database the app opens its first-run setup (/setup): create your own owner account and company, optionally with sample data. Mail, storage, AI and sign-in providers are configured afterwards from Settings → Instance (product owners only) or through environment variables — see docs/ENV.md for every variable and docs/ADMIN-GUIDE.md for the operator walkthrough.
On a new install each person can connect their own AI (Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code) out of the box: the MCP tools and sign-in by address are on by default, and an outside app's risky writes wait for a person. The AI acts only as that person, with the permissions they grant it. Set MCP_OAUTH=off, MCP_TOOLS_DATA=off, MCP_TOOLS_MANAGE=off or MCP_TOOLS_WORK=off in .env, or switch them under Settings → Instance → AI, to turn any of it off. An upgraded install keeps them off until an owner turns them on there; see docs/MCP-AGENT-GUIDE.md.
| Command | What it does |
|---|
npm run setup | Install deps, prepare .env, and start the server |
npm run dev | Same as setup but skips dependency install |
npm run setup:reset | Wipe node_modules and reinstall everything |
npm run setup -- --no-open | Start without auto-opening a browser |
npm test / npm run lint | Jest (unit + conventions) / ESLint — the CI gate |
cd frontend && npm test | Vitest component specs |
For active development with hot-reload, run the backend (npm run nodemon) and the frontend dev server (cd frontend && npm run serve) separately. Developers: docs/DEVELOPER-GUIDE.md.
AlianHub is a full-stack, open-source project management system for teams that want flexibility, transparency and ownership over their workflows: self-hosted, extensible and customizable for real-world organizational needs. It runs in the browser and as a desktop app, for internal tools, enterprise deployments and long-term team collaboration. Built with Vue (frontend), Node.js (backend), MongoDB (database) and Electron (desktop), in a single repository.
graph TB
subgraph clients["Clients"]
Browser["🌐 Web Browser<br/>Vue.js + Pinia"]
Desktop["💻 Desktop App<br/>Electron"]
end
subgraph server["Server (Node.js + Express)"]
API["⚙️ Express API<br/>/api/v2/*"]
Socket["⚡ Socket.io<br/>real-time events"]
end
DB[("🗄️ MongoDB<br/>company-scoped<br/>multi-tenant")]
Storage[("📦 Storage<br/>Wasabi S3 or local filesystem")]
Browser -->|REST + WebSocket| API
Browser -.->|live updates| Socket
Desktop -->|REST + WebSocket| API
Desktop -.->|live updates| Socket
API --> DB
API --> Storage
Socket --> DB
All data is scoped to companyId for multi-tenancy: a single AlianHub instance can host multiple companies, each with isolated data. Deeper docs: .claude/ARCHITECTURE.md · .claude/DESIGN.md
Why AlianHub
Why teams pick AlianHub over Jira, ClickUp or Linear:
| What you get | How |
|---|
| 🏠 Self-hosted and open source | Run it on your own servers with Docker; the code is AGPL-3.0 and your data stays in your own MongoDB. |
| 💸 No per-seat pricing | Add as many people as your server can hold. |
| ⏱️ Time tracking built in | Timers, weekly timesheets with approval, and an optional desktop tracker with screenshots, without a separate add-on. |
| 🤖 Bring your own AI | Each person connects Claude, ChatGPT or Claude Code over MCP; the AI acts only as that person, every change is logged, and risky changes wait for approval (how it works). |
| 📦 Easy to move in | Import tasks, subtasks, comments, checklists and custom fields from a ClickUp export (guide). |
| 🏢 Multi-tenant | One instance can host several companies, each with isolated data. |
Capabilities that are free and built-in here — but paid, limited, or absent in other open-source PM tools:
| Capability | AlianHub | Plane (open-source) |
|---|
| Time tracking with screenshots | ✅ Free | ❌ Not available |
| Custom fields | ✅ Free | 💲 Paid |
| Custom roles & permission matrix | ✅ Free | ❌ 3 fixed roles |
| Dashboards & widgets | ✅ Free | 💲 Paid (custom) |
| Built-in chat | ✅ Free | ❌ Not available |
| AI project generation | ✅ Free (your API key) | ❌ Not available |
| Milestones | ✅ Free | ❌ Not available |
Comparison reflects each project's open-source edition; both are AGPL-3.0. AlianHub is younger and still closing gaps of its own — see Discussions for what's next.
FAQ
Yes. AlianHub is free and open source under the AGPL-3.0 license. You can self-host it with no per-seat pricing. Paid help with hosting, customization and support is available from Aliansoftware if you want it.
Yes, that is how it is meant to run. Use the Docker Compose file (images on GHCR for amd64 and arm64) or install from source with Node.js and MongoDB. See docs/ADMIN-GUIDE.md and docs/ENV.md.
AlianHub covers the everyday project work — tasks, sprints, Board, List, Calendar, Gantt and Workload views, docs, automations and time tracking — but runs on your own servers under an open-source license. See Why AlianHub.
Yes. Export from ClickUp as CSV or Excel and import it under Settings → Import & export. Tasks, subtasks, statuses, assignees, dates, tags, checklists, comments and custom fields come across, and the import can be undone. docs/MOVING-FROM-CLICKUP.md lists what comes across and what does not.
AI Assist generates tasks, subtasks, checklists, descriptions and sprint plans from plain language, using your own LLM API key. Each person can also connect Claude, ChatGPT or Claude Code over MCP to work in AlianHub for them — see Connect your AI.
The GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). You can use, modify and self-host it freely; if you run a modified version as a public network service you must publish your changes. See License.
Yes. Start a timer on a task or add time by hand, send in a weekly timesheet for approval, and optionally use the desktop tracker for screenshots and activity. See docs/guide/time.md.
📘 Full user guide & API reference: help.alianhub.com
Yes: 👉 https://demo.alianhub.com. Demo data may reset periodically.
Contributing
Contributions are welcome — bug reports, feature ideas, documentation fixes, and pull requests of all sizes. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md (how to submit issues and PRs), BRANCHING.md (branch model and PR workflow) and the Code of Conduct. Looking for something to work on? Browse good first issues or help wanted.
Roadmap: what we're working on, planned and considering lives in GitHub Discussions. Want to suggest something? Open a feature request or start a discussion.
Security: if you discover a vulnerability, do not open a public issue — report it through GitHub Security Advisories as described in SECURITY.md.
Governance: AlianHub is maintained by core maintainers (company-backed), with the long-term goal of a community-driven project with dedicated maintainers.
Support and community
Full guide: SUPPORT.md. AlianHub is built and maintained by Aliansoftware, who also deploy, customize and support it for teams: managed hosting and deployment on your infrastructure or ours, custom features and integrations, and priority support with response-time targets.
Contributors ♥️ Thanks
AlianHub is a community-driven project: thank you to everyone who works on issues and pull requests and answers questions in Discussions.
License
Licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0) — see LICENSE and COPYRIGHT. You can use, modify, self-host and distribute AlianHub freely, and run a private modified version internally without publishing changes. If you run a modified version as a public network service (SaaS), you must publish your modifications under the same license. Need a different license for commercial / closed-source use? Contact [email protected].
