Apache Answer
apache · Forums & communities
GitHub stars
15,701Awaiting first sync
No measured star history yet
What is Apache Answer?
Apache Answer gives you a question and answer site, in the style of a community forum, that you host yourself. It suits a public help centre where customers help each other, or an internal knowledge base where staff write an answer once and point others to it. Voting and accepted answers bring the most useful replies to the top.
Apache Answer is self-hosted Q&A software for community forums, help centres and internal knowledge bases. Members ask and answer questions, comment, vote and accept the answer that helped, while tags, search and reputation keep content organised. Plugins add third-party login, search engines, file storage and notifications, and version 2.0 added an AI assistant and an MCP server.
Core capabilities
- Questions, answers, comments, voting and accepted answers in one place.
- Reputation, badges, tags and revision history help run the community.
- Plugins add SSO, Elasticsearch or Meilisearch, S3 storage and Slack alerts.
Questions, answers and reputation
Members post questions in Markdown with a live preview, then others answer, comment and vote. The person who asked can accept the answer that worked. Tags organise content and can be followed, and members earn reputation and badges that show their expertise and unlock privileges. Anyone can edit posts, and every change is kept in a revision history.
- Q&A
- Voting
- Reputation
- Tags
Plugins, login options and AI
Official plugins cover third-party login such as OAuth2, Google and DingTalk, search with Elasticsearch, Meilisearch or Algolia, file storage on S3, Aliyun OSS or Tencent COS, captcha, anti-spam review and notifications to Slack or WeCom. Admins control registration, login methods and allowed email domains, and can restrict content to members. Version 2.0 added an AI assistant, an MCP server and API keys, so AI tools can work with the site's content. The interface supports several languages, dark mode and mobile layouts.
- Plugins
- SSO
- Search
- AI assistant
Run it yourself under Apache-2.0
The quickest start is the official apache/answer Docker image on port 9080 with a data volume, or the docker-compose.yaml file from the docs. A binary is also available: answer init runs the installer and answer run starts the site. Answer works with SQLite, MySQL or PostgreSQL, and the web installer sets the language, database, site URL and admin account. Answer is a project of the Apache Software Foundation and is released under the Apache-2.0 licence.
- Self-hosted
- Docker
- SQLite
- Apache-2.0
Where it fits
Use cases
- 01
Run a public help centre for your product
Install Answer with Docker Compose and use the web installer to set the site URL and admin account. Customers post questions in Markdown, other members answer and vote, and the person who asked accepts the answer that solved it. Tags group questions by product area, and members can follow the tags they care about.
- 02
Build an internal knowledge base for staff
In the privacy settings, limit registration to your company email domains and make content visible to members only. Add a connector plugin such as OAuth2 Basic or Google Connector so staff sign in with accounts they already have. Anyone can improve an answer later, and every edit is kept in the revision history.
- 03
Keep spam and noise out of the community
Turn on a reviewer plugin such as Akismet Anti-Spam or Review Basic so suspicious posts are held for moderators. Captcha plugins such as Basic Captcha or Google reCAPTCHA v2 add a check against bots. Admin, moderator and user roles decide who can manage users and content.