Spin Up a Full Go Backend in Minutes with PocketBase

PocketBase is an open‑source backend written in Go that combines an embedded SQLite database, authentication, file storage, real‑time API and a built‑in admin dashboard into a single binary, enabling a complete backend service to be set up in minutes.

Key Features

Embedded Database: Uses SQLite stored in a single file, requiring no external database server.

Authentication: Supports email/password and OAuth2 providers (Google, Facebook, GitHub) with JWT tokens and password‑reset flow.

File Storage: Offers local storage or S3 cloud storage with access‑control policies.

Real‑time Sync: Implements WebSocket and SSE for live subscriptions to record changes.

Admin UI: Built‑in dashboard for managing collections, users, files, and API logs, with auto‑generated API documentation.

Automatic API: Generates RESTful endpoints automatically from data models.

SDKs: JavaScript and Dart SDKs simplify integration with popular front‑end frameworks such as Angular, React, Vue, Flutter and Svelte.

Quick Start

Download the pre‑compiled binary for your platform from the GitHub Releases page, unzip it, and run the following command: ./pocketbase serve The service starts, automatically opens a browser to the installation page, and prompts you to create the first super‑admin account. After setup, the backend is accessible at http://127.0.0.1:8090.

Embedding in a Go Application

A minimal Go program can launch PocketBase programmatically:

package main

import (
    "log"
    "github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase"
)

func main() {
    app := pocketbase.New()
    // add custom routes or hooks here
    if err := app.Start(); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
}

The admin UI provides visual management of users, API configuration, file storage, and backup/restore capabilities, as shown in the accompanying screenshots.

Source Code

https://github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase