Muster

A self-hostable, open-source organizing CRM combining contact/CRM depth with a multi-org dashboard structure — built for political parties, campaigns, and advocacy organizations that want full control of their supporter data.

Features

• Multi-tenant org hierarchy — arbitrary-depth nested organizations (national → state → electorate → branch) using PostgreSQL ltree, with scoped team member permissions that cascade down the tree
• People / contacts — full CRM records with custom properties (typed EAV), assessment status tracking, geolocation, and full-text search
• CSV import — bulk-import contacts with per-row error reporting
• Filter / query-builder engine — a JSON-based filter format that compiles to ActiveRecord queries, supporting nested AND/OR groups, custom property filters, PostGIS radius search, and org-descendant queries
• Saved lists — dynamic (live query) or frozen-snapshot contact lists built on the filter engine
• Events & shifts — single- or multi-day events with bookable shifts, capacity limits, RSVPs, and signups
• Donations & membership dues — one-off donations plus a full membership lifecycle (signup, renewal, lapsing, cancellation)
• Turfs & canvassing — PostGIS polygon turf-cutting with canvass attempt logging and knock-result tracking
• Automations — trigger-based step sequences (update a property, tag a contact, with email/SMS steps stubbed pending integration)
• Pages & forms — a block-based public page builder with form submission capture and duplicate-contact detection

Tech stack

• Ruby on Rails 8.1 with Hotwire (Turbo + Stimulus) and Tailwind CSS
• PostgreSQL 16 with PostGIS, ltree, citext, and pg_trgm extensions
• Sidekiq + Redis for background jobs
• MinIO (S3-compatible) for file storage
• Devise for authentication

Every third-party integration in the broader roadmap (voice, SMS, email, maps, video, analytics) has an open-source or self-hostable option, so the whole stack can run without proprietary SaaS dependencies. See the architecture notes below for the planned integration map.

Getting started

Prerequisites

• Ruby 3.3+ (managed via mise or similar)
• Docker + Docker Compose
• PostgreSQL client tools (postgresql-client)

Setup

1. Clone the repo and install dependencies:

   git clone https://github.com/acemtaylor/muster.git
   cd muster
   bundle install

2. Start the backing services:

   docker compose up -d

3. Create the database and run migrations:

   bin/rails db:create db:migrate

4. Start the app:

   bin/dev

5. Visit http://localhost:3000 and sign in (create a team member via bin/rails console if you don't have one yet — see below).

Creating your first team member

org = Organization.create!(name: "Your Org", slug: "your-org", kind: "organization")

TeamMember.create!(
  email: "you@example.org",
  password: "changeme123",
  organization: org,
  role: "admin",
  scope_org_ids: [org.id]
)

Project status

This project is under active development. The core data model — orgs, people, the filter engine, events, donations/memberships, canvassing, automations, and forms — is built and tested. A basic dashboard UI covers people and events management.

Not yet built:

• Email/SMS integration (Listmonk, Jambonz/Kannel)
• Voice/calling (Jambonz, Asterisk)
• Team chat + Kanban helpdesk board
• Reporting dashboards
• Public-facing page rendering for the page builder

License

TBD