Project management your bank can run on its own servers.
Chai is a source-available alternative to Basecamp. Messages, to-dos, teams and projects in one calm place, installed inside your network, with your data in your database.
Free to self-host for internal use under FSL-1.1-MIT. No user limits. Paid support if you want someone to call.
Projects
Rolling out Chai
Getting to go-live
1 of 5 done
Go on, tick a few. This is how to-dos behave in Chai.
Good project tools exist. Banks mostly can’t use them.
The problem is rarely the software. It is where the software runs, and who else can reach what is stored in it.
- The data leaves the building
- Project threads end up holding customer names, audit findings and system diagrams. Once that sits in a vendor’s cloud, it is an outsourcing arrangement, and your regulator has rules about those.
- The approval takes longer than the project
- Vendor risk assessment, data-residency questions, legal review, a cloud register entry. Most teams give up halfway and go back to email and a shared spreadsheet.
- The tools you are allowed to use are heavy
- What is already approved tends to be a ticketing system built for software teams. Operations, compliance and business teams open it once and never return.
Chai takes the simplest route around all three. It is a small, friendly project tool that you install on a server you already own, behind the firewall you already run.
What’s inside
Chai does a handful of things and tries to do them well. If you have used Basecamp, you will know your way around in a minute.
Project chats and direct or group conversations are already built in, with @mentions, editing and search. Search also finds messages, to-dos and comments across your workspace.
A home for the company, each team, and each project
Company HQ holds what everyone should see. Teams get a standing space of their own. Projects are for work that starts and ends. Three kinds of space, and that is the whole structure.
Nobody has to design a workflow or configure a board before they can post their first update.
Company HQ
Gulf Commercial Bank
Teams
- IT Governance
- Retail Operations
- Compliance
Projects
- Core banking upgrade
- Branch refresh, phase 2
- Annual audit follow-up
Messages instead of reply-all
Every project has a message board. Someone posts an update or a question, the discussion stays underneath it, and the person who joins in month three can read how a decision was made.
It is the part of Chai that replaces the long email chain with fourteen people in copy.
Message board
New message-
Cut-over plan for the weekend of the 14th
Maryam A., 6 comments
-
Audit asked for evidence on change approvals
Hassan R., 2 comments
-
Vendor confirmed the new SFTP endpoint
Priya N., 1 comment
To-dos with a name next to them
Lists of tasks, grouped however the project needs. Each to-do can be given to a person, so the weekly meeting stops being a round of “who had that one?”
There are no story points, swimlanes or sprint ceremonies. People tick things off, and everyone can see what is left.
Before cut-over
- Freeze changes on the old system
- Reconcile balances after the trial run Yusuf K.
- Sign-off from compliance Priya N.
- Send the branch notice Maryam A.
You decide who sees what
People register, sign in with a link sent to their work email, and see only the teams and projects they have been added to. Add someone when they join a project, remove them when they move on.
Because sign-in runs through your own mail server, there are no passwords for Chai to store.
People on this project
- Remove
Maryam A.
Project lead
- Remove
Yusuf K.
Core banking
- Remove
Priya N.
Compliance
Add people to this project…
Not there yet
Chai is young, and it is better you hear that from this page than discover it after installing. These are on the list and not built.
- Automated check-ins
- Docs and files
- More database options
- An API
- Mobile apps
Chat, notifications and search are already part of Chai. This list is for work that has not shipped yet.
Runs on things your infrastructure team already knows
No container platform to learn and no new cloud account to open. If your bank runs any Java application today, it can run Chai.
- A Java runtime
- Chai is a Spring Boot app packaged as an executable JAR with embedded Tomcat.
- A database
- MySQL for a real installation, or SQLite if you just want to look around.
- A mail server
- Any SMTP relay you already have. Chai uses it to send sign-in links.
-
1. Get the code
git clone https://github.com/zbaloch/chai.git cd chai -
2. Point it at your database and mail server
export chai_spring_port=8080 export chai_spring_datasource_url=jdbc:sqlite:database.sqlite export chai_spring_mail_host=smtp.yourbank.internal export chai_spring_mail_port=25 export chai_spring_host_url=https://chai.yourbank.internal -
3. Build and run the executable JAR
mvn package java -jar target/chaiweb-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
The full list of settings is in the README. If you would rather not do this yourself, that is what paid support is for.
Free to run. Paid if you want us on the hook.
There is one Chai. Nothing is held back for paying customers. What you pay for is people: someone to install it, keep it current, and answer when it matters.
Run it yourself
For teams with the engineers and the appetite to own it.
Free
and it stays free
- The complete application and its source
- Every feature, with no user or project limits
- FSL-1.1-MIT licence for internal use and self-hosting
- Help from the community through GitHub issues
The licence does not allow offering Chai as a competing hosted service. See the licence terms.
Run it with support
For banks that need a supplier behind anything in production.
Annual agreement
priced by the size of your installation
- Installation on your servers, alongside your team
- Upgrades planned and carried out with you
- Bugs that affect you fixed ahead of the queue
- A named person to contact, with agreed response times
- Answers for your vendor and security questionnaires
- A walkthrough session for the people who will use it
Write to hello@chaiprojects.com. Tell us roughly how many people will use Chai and where it will run.
| Yourself | With support | |
|---|---|---|
| The software | Identical | Identical |
| Users and projects | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Installation | You do it | We do it with your team |
| Upgrades | You pull and deploy | Planned and done together |
| When something breaks | Open a GitHub issue | Contact us directly |
| Response time | Best effort | Agreed in writing |
| Vendor paperwork | Not available | Included |
| Cost | Free | Annual fee |
For the person who has to approve this
Someone in information security or IT risk will be asked whether Chai is acceptable. These are the short answers. The long ones are in the source.
- Where is our data stored?
- In the database you configure, on infrastructure you control. Chai has no storage of its own anywhere else.
- Who can read the code?
- Anyone. The source is public on GitHub, so your team can review it before it goes near production. Chai is source-available under the FSL-1.1-MIT licence.
- How do people sign in?
- With a one-time magic link sent to their email address through your own SMTP server. Chai does not use passwords.
- What does it depend on?
- Java, Spring Boot with embedded Tomcat, and MySQL. These are common technologies that may already be on your approved list.
- What if the project is abandoned?
- You still have the source, the licence to change it, and your data in a standard database. Nothing switches off.
- Can we change it?
- You can modify Chai for permitted uses such as running it internally. The FSL-1.1-MIT licence does not allow offering it as a competing hosted service.
Why I built this
I have spent two decades in banking technology, and for most of that time I have watched capable teams run serious projects out of email threads and a spreadsheet called “tracker final v7”.
It was never because they wanted to. The tool they liked was hosted somewhere they were not allowed to put data, and the tools they were allowed to use felt like filling in a form.
Chai is my attempt at the tool I wanted those teams to have: small enough to understand, pleasant enough that people use it without being told to, and installed where the bank’s data already lives.
Zaheer, maintainer of Chai
Questions people ask
Something missing? Write to hello@chaiprojects.com and a person will answer.
Is the free version limited in any way?
No. There is one codebase and everybody gets all of it. Support customers do not receive extra features, a different build or a higher user limit.
Can we try it before installing anything?
Yes. Create an account at app.chaiprojects.com and use it for as long as you like. It is the same application you would install.
Should we put real bank data in the hosted demo?
Please don’t. The hosted version exists so you can see how Chai feels. Anything confidential belongs in your own installation, which is the whole reason Chai exists.
What do we need to run it?
A server with Java, a MySQL database, and access to an SMTP server for magic-link sign-in emails. Chai runs as an executable JAR with embedded Tomcat. SQLite works too if you only want a quick look.
How is support priced?
As an annual agreement, sized to your installation. Send a short note saying how many people will use Chai and where it will run, and you will get a written quote back.
Can we start free and add support later?
Yes, and many teams should. Install it, run a pilot with one department, and get in touch when it is heading for production.
Does Chai have chat?
Yes. Projects have their own chats, and people can have direct or small-group chats. Chats support @mentions, editing and search.
Are we allowed to modify it?
The FSL-1.1-MIT licence allows use, modification and self-hosting for permitted purposes, including internal company use. It does not allow offering Chai as a competing hosted service. Each release becomes MIT-licensed after two years; releases made before September 30, 2026 remain under MIT. Read the full licence terms.
Is Chai connected to Basecamp?
No. Chai is an independent project inspired by how Basecamp organises work. It shares no code or design assets with it.