openSkool

An open-source community platform inspired by Skool.com. Build, manage, and grow online communities with courses, discussion feeds, leaderboards, and member management — all self-hosted and fully customizable.

Features

• Community Management — Create and manage multiple communities with custom settings
• Discussion Feed — Post and engage in community discussions with threaded comments
• Classroom — Organize and deliver courses within your communities
• Leaderboards — Gamified member rankings to drive engagement
• Member Profiles — Dedicated member pages with activity tracking
• Discovery — Browse and search public communities by category
• Invite System — Invite-based community access with shareable invite links
• Admin Dashboard — Platform-wide administration for users and communities
• Dark Mode — Full dark/light theme support
• Authentication — Secure auth via Clerk (SSO, social login, email)
• Real-time Backend — Powered by Convex for instant data sync

Tech Stack

• Framework: Next.js 16 (App Router, Server Components)
• Backend: Convex (real-time database, server functions)
• Auth: Clerk (authentication & user management)
• Styling: Tailwind CSS 4 + Radix UI
• Language: TypeScript (strict mode)
• Testing: Vitest + Playwright
• Deployment: Vercel

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• pnpm 9+
• A Convex account
• A Clerk account

Setup

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Livvux/openSkool.git
cd openSkool

2. Install dependencies:

pnpm install

3. Copy the environment file and fill in your credentials:

cp .env.local.example .env.local

Required environment variables:

Variable	Description
CONVEX_DEPLOYMENT	Your Convex deployment identifier
NEXT_PUBLIC_CONVEX_URL	Your Convex deployment URL
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY	Clerk publishable key
CLERK_SECRET_KEY	Clerk secret key
CLERK_WEBHOOK_SECRET	Clerk webhook signing secret

4. Start the development server:

pnpm dev

This starts both the Next.js dev server and Convex dev backend concurrently.

Open http://localhost:3000 to see the app.

Project Structure

src/
  app/              # Next.js App Router pages
    (marketing)/    # Landing & discovery pages
    (app)/          # Community pages (feed, classroom, members, etc.)
    (admin)/        # Admin dashboard
  components/       # Shared React components
  lib/              # Utilities
  hooks/            # Custom React hooks
convex/             # Convex backend (schema, mutations, queries)
e2e/                # Playwright end-to-end tests

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues and pull requests.

License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.