Open Mercato is an AI-supportive, modular, and extensible foundation framework for building enterprise-grade CRMs, ERPs, and commerce backends. It targets development teams seeking a production-ready platform with strong defaults that can be extensively customized for R&D, new processes, operations, and growth. The platform offers a flexible data model and workflow orchestration, enabling rapid development of tailored business applications.

How It Works

The platform employs a modular architecture where features reside in src/modules/<module>, supporting auto-discovery of frontend/backend components, APIs, and database entities. It utilizes MikroORM for per-module entities and migrations, an Awilix DI container per request, and a modern stack including Next.js App Router, TypeScript, zod, and bcryptjs. Multi-tenancy is a core feature, with strict organization/tenant scoping and multi-hierarchical organizations. Data encryption is tenant-scoped and field-level, managed via MikroORM hooks for secure data at rest. A spec-driven development approach using .ai/specs/ ensures clarity and consistency before coding begins.

Quick Start & Requirements

• Primary Install: Monorepo setup requires Yarn 4+. Clone the repository, checkout the develop branch, run yarn install, copy and edit apps/mercato/.env.example to apps/mercato/.env (setting DATABASE_URL, JWT_SECRET, REDIS_URL), then run yarn generate, yarn initialize (or reinstall), and yarn dev.
• Prerequisites: Yarn 4+, PostgreSQL, Redis. Optional: OpenAI/Anthropic API keys for AI features.
• Docker Deployment: Clone the repo, then run docker compose -f docker-compose.fullapp.yml up --build.
• Documentation: Full installation and deployment guides are available at docs.openmercato.com.

Highlighted Details

• Modular architecture with auto-discovery and overlay overrides for easy extension.
• Custom entities and dynamic forms allow live management of fields, validators, and UI widgets.
• Multi-tenant by default with multi-hierarchical organization support and feature-based RBAC.
• Tenant-scoped, field-level data encryption protects sensitive information while maintaining query flexibility.
• AI-supportive foundation is structured for assistive workflows, automation, and conversational interfaces.

Maintenance & Community

The project follows a spec-driven development process documented in .ai/specs/. Contributions are welcomed, with guidelines in CONTRIBUTING.md. The community can be joined via Discord at https://discord.gg/f4qwPtJ3qA. The project is supported by Catch The Tornado.

Licensing & Compatibility

The project is licensed under the MIT license, which permits commercial use and integration into closed-source applications.

Limitations & Caveats

The recent migration to a monorepo structure requires users to update file paths and import aliases. Yarn 4+ is a mandatory prerequisite. Setting up core services like PostgreSQL, Redis, and essential environment variables (JWT_SECRET, DATABASE_URL) is necessary for bootstrapping.