Butterbase OSS provides an open-source, AI-native backend-as-a-service solution, offering developers the foundational components for building AI-driven applications without vendor lock-in. It integrates a Postgres data plane, authentication, storage, serverless functions, an AI gateway, and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, targeting developers seeking a flexible and powerful backend infrastructure.

How It Works

The core of Butterbase OSS is the control-api, a Fastify-based service orchestrating application management, authentication, storage, serverless functions, an AI gateway, and Row-Level Security (RLS). It leverages multiple PostgreSQL databases for control, data, and runtime planes, alongside S3/R2 compatible storage and a Deno runtime for serverless functions. A key differentiator is the embedded MCP server, designed to facilitate agent-driven interactions with the backend services.

Quick Start & Requirements

• Requirements: Docker, Node.js (v22+), npm.
• Installation: Requires cloning with submodules: git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/NetGPT-Inc/butterbase-oss.git. Install dependencies with npm ci and copy environment variables (cp .env.example .env).
• Running: Start the local stack using docker compose -f docker-compose.local.yml up -d. Database migrations (npm run migrate:all) and seeding (npm run seed:dev) are separate manual steps requiring specific environment variable configurations.
• Documentation: Detailed setup, local development, and troubleshooting are available in SETUP.md. Contribution guidelines are in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Highlighted Details

• AI Gateway: Centralized routing for LLM traffic.
• Model Context Protocol (MCP): Enables agent-driven application logic.
• Multi-Plane Postgres Architecture: Dedicated databases for control, data, and runtime operations.
• Serverless Functions: Executed via a Deno runtime.
• Row-Level Security (RLS) built-in.
• License: Apache-2.0.

Maintenance & Community

Butterbase OSS is the initial open-source release (v0.1.0) from NetGPT Inc. While the data plane is production-tested via their managed offering, the OSS distribution and its public APIs are stabilizing. Community interaction channels like Discord or Slack are not explicitly mentioned in the README.

Licensing & Compatibility

The project is licensed under the permissive Apache-2.0 license, generally allowing for commercial use and integration into closed-source projects without copyleft restrictions.

Limitations & Caveats

As an initial open-source release, the self-hosted version lacks features present in the managed Butterbase.ai offering, such as multi-region orchestration, billing integration, upstream AI router adapters, and operational dashboards. Public APIs and the MCP surface are noted as stabilizing, and documentation/defaults may evolve based on community feedback from self-hosted deployments.