Apache Answer is an open-source Q&A platform designed for teams and communities needing a robust, scalable solution for question-and-answer interactions. Whether you’re creating a customer support portal, an internal knowledge base, or a public community forum, Answer provides the infrastructure to manage questions, answers, votes, and comments with minimal overhead. Built with Go for the backend and React for the frontend, it leverages modern web technologies to deliver a responsive, feature-rich experience while maintaining high performance and reliability. Its Apache Foundation backing ensures community-driven development and long-term sustainability.
What You Get
- Full Q&A functionality - Supports questions, answers, comments, upvotes/downvotes, and best answer selection with a clean UI designed for user engagement.
- Plugin system - Extensible architecture allowing developers to create custom plugins to extend features like authentication, moderation tools, or integrations.
- Docker-based deployment - One-command installation via official Docker image with persistent data volume support for production use.
- Source build support - Full build pipeline using Go, React, and tooling like wire and mockgen for developers wanting to contribute or self-host with custom modifications.
Common Use Cases
- Building a customer help center - Companies replacing static KB articles with interactive Q&A where users can ask questions and vote on the best answers, reducing support tickets.
- Creating a community forum for developers - Open-source projects using Answer to host user discussions, troubleshooting threads, and feature requests in a structured Q&A format.
- Problem: Disorganized knowledge sharing → Solution: Apache Answer - Teams struggling with scattered documentation in Slack or email use Answer to centralize and surface high-quality answers with voting and tagging.
- Team workflow: DevOps and product teams managing internal FAQs - Engineering teams deploy Answer as an internal knowledge base where engineers can ask and answer technical questions with versioned, searchable content.
Under The Hood
Apache Incubator Answer is a modern, extensible Q&A platform that combines a Go-powered backend with a TypeScript/React frontend, designed for internationalization and plugin-driven customization. The system emphasizes modular architecture and clean separation of concerns to support scalable development and deployment.
Architecture
This project adopts a monolithic yet modular architecture, separating backend services from frontend components to enable clear division of responsibilities.
- The backend leverages Go with Gin framework, while the frontend uses React and TypeScript for a responsive UI
- Service-oriented design is implemented through distinct layers for data, business logic, and presentation
- Dependency injection and modular component design support maintainable and testable code structure
Tech Stack
The project utilizes a multi-language tech stack with Go and React, supported by a wide range of modern tools and libraries.
- Built with Go for backend services and TypeScript/React for the frontend, ensuring type safety and modern UI capabilities
- Integrates popular frontend libraries such as react-router-dom, zustand, and swr for enhanced functionality
- Employs Docker for containerization and Makefile for streamlined build automation and deployment workflows
- Comprehensive testing ecosystem includes Jest for frontend and Go’s native testing tools, with linting via golangci-lint
Code Quality
Code quality in the project is moderate, with consistent patterns and some technical debt present across modules.
- Core functionality is well-tested with a focus on business logic and repository operations, though coverage varies
- Error handling practices are mostly consistent, though some areas lack structured error types or context
- Naming conventions and modular structure promote code clarity, with a clear separation of concerns in repository modules
- Technical debt manifests in duplicated logic and gaps in validation or transaction handling in certain components
What Makes It Unique
This platform stands out through its extensibility, internationalization support, and plugin-driven architecture that enable flexible customization.
- Modular and extensible design allows for easy integration of new features or themes without modifying core code
- Comprehensive i18n support with dynamic translation loading provides seamless multilingual user experience
- A flexible plugin system enables UI and component extensions without requiring deep code changes or recompilation
- Unified configuration supports runtime adjustments and environment-based setups, enhancing deployment adaptability