Introduction

Meith is a fast, code-first forum engine: self-hosted by default, built on modern TypeScript, and quick enough to run with JavaScript disabled. It gives a community threaded discussions, search, permissions, moderation, paid memberships, themes, plugins and an operator CLI — on a server you control, with no per-member pricing, under the MIT licence.

This page is the philosophy. If you would rather see it than read about it, the quickstart has a board running on your machine in about a minute, and demo.meith.dev is a real one you can open now.

Server-first

Every page a member reads is rendered on the server. The browser gets HTML, not an application: threads, search, the composer and the admin screens all work with JavaScript switched off, and script only layers convenience — live previews, mention suggestions — on top of pages that already work without it. That baseline is not a fallback mode; it is how the board is built, and the e2e suite runs mostly with JavaScript off to keep it true.

Being server-first is also why the board stays fast. There is no bundle to hydrate before the first paint, and the performance budgets are enforced the other way around: the performance reference is generated from measured runs against a board with years of history in it, and a release that breaks a budget is never published.

Code-first

A board is a small repository, not a snowflake server. What the board is made of is pinned in code and versioned:

• package.json pins the engine — @meith/web, the CLI and the default theme, at one exact version that moves only when you upgrade.
• community.config.ts registers the themes the board ships and which one is the default, statically, so the compiler checks the lot.
• board.plugins.json names the installed plugins, and a generated registry makes them part of the build.

Everything the community does — forums, permissions, groups, members, settings, and every thread — lives in PostgreSQL and is run from the browser by the people who run the community. The line between the two is deliberate: a deploy can never delete a forum, and an organiser can never break the build. Configuration in code walks the whole boundary.

The same contracts are what you extend. Themes fill documented, versioned slots with typed view models; plugins attach to typed hooks and are isolated so one that crashes fails alone; and a REST API covers anything an administrator can do by hand.

Self-hosted by default

A production board is four containers — PostgreSQL, a one-shot migration service, the web app and a worker — on a machine your community rents. There is no company in the middle: the bill follows the server, never the membership, and when the people running it change, the board is handed over whole. Deployment has three routes up, from a guided panel to a compose file you operate yourself; there is also a serverless route on Vercel for boards that would rather not have a server at all.

Self-hosted does not mean self-reliant. Upgrades are versioned and documented, backups are CLI commands, and the operations guides assume the person minding the machine has an evening a month for it, not a pager.

Where to go next

• Quickstart — a board on your machine in about a minute, no database required.
• Deployment — the same board on your own domain.
• Configuration in code — what the board repository holds and why.
• Themes and plugins — the extension contracts.
• Migrating — moving a MyBB or phpBB board across whole, working passwords included.