MantisBase | Lightning fast BaaS in C++

Lightning fast BaaS in C++ — Open Source, Single Binary, Full Backend, Anywhere.

Auto-generated APIs, authentication, realtime updates, and an admin dashboard in one backend. Ships with SQLite out of the box and supports PostgreSQL. Deploy as a single binary or embed in your C++ app.

🔸 Authentication 🔸 Realtime Database 🔸 Admin Dashboard 🔸 File Storage

MantisBase admin dashboard — try the free demo

Features

Everything you need for a full backend

One binary, portable and embeddable. Perfect for embedded devices, desktop apps, or standalone servers.

Auto-generated REST APIs

Create database tables and get instant CRUD endpoints. Every entity gets list, get, add, update, and delete.

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JWT authentication

Built-in auth with access control rules. Public, auth-only, or custom expressions per operation.

Learn more

Realtime (SSE)

Subscribe to live database changes over Server-Sent Events. Works with SQLite and PostgreSQL.

Learn more

Admin dashboard

Web UI at /mb for managing data, schemas, and access rules. No code needed for CRUD and config.

Try demo

File uploads

Handle file storage and serving with multipart/form-data. Attach files to records and serve them via URL.

Learn more

Embeddable

Use as a library in your C++ applications. Link MantisBase and run your backend inside your process.

Embedding guide

What is MantisBase?

MantisBase is a lightweight C++ library that provides a complete backend: one binary, no external runtime, portable and embeddable. Create tables and get instant REST APIs, JWT auth, realtime updates, and a web admin dashboard.

Built for speed and extensibility. Perfect for embedded devices, desktop apps, or standalone servers. All dependencies are included as submodules—no surprises.

Read the docs

1 Binary Full backend, anywhere

Ready to try it? Get started in minutes

Run the free demo or download the binary. One command and you have a full backend with API and admin dashboard.

Try free demo

Quick Start

Up and running in seconds

Pick a topic below and follow the steps.

Download & setup

Get the binary, run Docker, or build from source. Default port is 7070.

Pre-built binary

# Download from GitHub Releases, extract, then:
./mantisbase serve

Download from GitHub Releases.

Docker

docker run -p 7070:80 allankoech/mantisbase

Check it out on Docker Hub.

Build from source

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/allankoechke/mantisbase.git
cd mantisbase
cmake -B build && cmake --build build
./build/mantisbase serve

Server: http://localhost:7070 · API: /api/v1/ · Dashboard: /mb

Quick API

Create a schema (e.g. posts) via the dashboard or API, then use the endpoints below.

# List records
curl http://localhost:7070/api/v1/entities/posts

# Create (with auth header when required)
curl -X POST http://localhost:7070/api/v1/entities/posts \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "Hello", "content": "World!"}'

# Get one, PATCH, DELETE: /api/v1/entities/posts/{id}

Full API reference

Embedding in C++

Add MantisBase as a submodule and link it in your CMake project.

#include <mantisbase/mantisbase.hpp>

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
  auto& app = mb::MantisBase::create(argc, argv);
  return app.run();
}

Embedding guide

Admin dashboard

Manage data, schemas, and access rules in the browser at /mb. Create an admin user first:

./mantisbase admins add admin@example.com your_secure_password

Then open demo.mantisbase.com or http://localhost:7070/mb and sign in.

Realtime (SSE)

Subscribe to live database changes over Server-Sent Events. Works with SQLite and PostgreSQL.

# Open SSE connection (comma-separated entity topics)
GET /api/v1/realtime?topics=posts,users

# Or update topics for existing session
POST /api/v1/realtime
{"client_id": "...", "topics": ["posts", "users"]}

Realtime API docs

Auth & access rules

Login returns a JWT. Use it in the Authorization: Bearer header. Per-entity rules: public, auth, or custom expressions.

# Login
curl -X POST http://localhost:7070/api/v1/auth/login \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"entity": "users", "identity": "user@example.com", "password": "..."}'
# Response: {"token": "...", "user": {...}}

# Use token
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_JWT" http://localhost:7070/api/v1/entities/posts

Auth & rules docs

Contributing

Get involved

MantisBase is open source. Contributions are welcome. See the guidelines and open an issue or PR on GitHub.

Contributing guide

Get help

Questions or bugs? Open an issue or discussion on GitHub.

GitHub Issues

Sunbelt Computer Software

PL/B Language Development and Support

Lightning fast BaaS in C++ — Open Source, Single Binary, Full Backend, Anywhere.

Everything you need for a full backend

Auto-generated REST APIs

JWT authentication

Realtime (SSE)

Admin dashboard

File uploads

Embeddable

What is MantisBase?

Ready to try it? Get started in minutes

Up and running in seconds

Download & setup

Quick API

Embedding in C++

Admin dashboard

Realtime (SSE)

Auth & access rules

Get involved

Get help