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Externa 1.4.0 is out

Open source · Self-hosted · Built on Laravel

Quick to install. Yours to keep.

qiick makes open-source software you run on your own servers. No lock-in, no seat fees, your data in your database. Start with Externa, a headless CMS, or Excubia, health checks for your Laravel apps.

See the productsView on GitHub

Built on Laravel and tools you already know

Laravel
Herd
PHP
Postgres
MySQL
Redis
Docker
React
Inertia
Vite
Tailwind CSS

Products

Each qiick product is open source under MIT, self-hosted, and built on Laravel.

  • Externa

    Available

    Open-source headless CMS for structured content and files.

    An admin UI for editors, a Public API for developers and permissions for teams, plus an AI assistant that shows its work and an optional MCP server for your own agents. Externa is a standalone Laravel app: install it on your server and connect any frontend.

    Install

    composer create-project qiick/externa-core my-externa

    Latin externa, neuter plural of externus: what faces the outside world. Externa publishes your content outward, to every frontend.

  • Excubia

    Release candidate

    Health checks for Laravel apps, in CI and in production.

    Excubia reads your lockfiles and reports end-of-life PHP, Laravel and Node versions, known vulnerabilities, abandoned and outdated packages and blockers for the next Laravel major, with an ordered upgrade plan. Through Artisan it also checks the app and its infrastructure, and it can report to your own excubia-app.

    Install

    composer require --dev qiick/excubia-core

    Latin excubiae: the guards posted outside the camp, keeping watch so everyone else could rest.

A closer look at Externa

Our flagship, now at 1.4: content modelling, APIs, files and a transparent AI assistant in one Laravel app.

Create a project with Composer, then run the installer. It writes your .env, migrates the database and seeds roles and a super admin. Registration is off and security headers are on by default.

More in the workshop. Further products follow the same rules: open source, self-hosted, built on Laravel. We announce them here when they are ready.

How we build

Four rules every qiick product follows

  • Open source

    MIT, never cut down

    Every product is on GitHub under the MIT licence: read it, fork it, change it. No paid edition holds features back.

    LICENSE
    MIT License

Copyright (c) Qiick and Externa contributors

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge,
to any person obtaining a copy of this software
and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without
restriction, including without limitation the
rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of
the Software …

  • Self-hosted

    Your server, your data

    Your data stays in your database, and nothing is sent to qiick. No telemetry.

    • VPS
    • Docker
    • Your laptop

  • Built on Laravel

    A stack you already know

    Each product is a Laravel app or package, installed with Composer. If you know Laravel, you can read it and extend it.

    Laravel
    PHP

  • Ready for AI agents

    One source for you and your assistant

    Docs as llms.txt and Markdown, reports as JSON, agent instructions in every repository. Coding assistants work from the same source you do.

    llms.txt
    # Externa

> Documentation for Externa — open-source
> headless CMS for Laravel.

## Getting started

- [Quick Start](…/quick-start.md)
- [Installation](…/installation.md)
- [Supported databases](…/supported-databases.md)
- [Using with AI coding tools](…/ai-coding-tools.md)

## Concepts

- [Architecture](…/architecture.md)
- [Collections data model](…/collections-data-model.md)
…

Frequently asked questions

Can't find your answer? Ask on GitHub.

    • What is qiick?

      The umbrella brand for a family of open-source, self-hosted products built on Laravel.

    • Is it free?

      Yes. The products are MIT licensed and you can run them for free. A managed hosting option may come later; the open-source core will stay complete.

    • Where does it run?

      On your own infrastructure. Externa runs on any server with PHP 8.4 and a supported database: a VPS, Docker, or locally with Laravel Herd. Excubia is a Composer package for your Laravel app and needs PHP 8.2+.

    • What is Externa?

      A headless CMS with an admin UI, REST and GraphQL APIs, files and permissions. Its AI assistant shows its reasoning, tool calls and sources, and asks before it writes; an optional MCP server lets your own agents use it. It works with any frontend, with official starters for Next.js, Nuxt, Astro and SvelteKit.

    • What is Excubia?

      A health check for Laravel apps. It reads your lockfiles and reports end of life, known vulnerabilities, abandoned and outdated packages and blockers for the next Laravel major, with an upgrade plan. Through Artisan it also checks the running app, and it can send reports and runtime data to excubia-app, a dashboard you host yourself.

    • Is Excubia ready for production?

      Excubia 1.0 is a release candidate: it is feature-complete and its public contracts are frozen, so only fixes land before 1.0.0. Externa is stable.

    • Will there be more products?

      Yes. New products appear on this site once they are ready to install.

    • Who is behind qiick?

      qiick is made by Luca Giardi, a developer based in Germany. lucagiardi.com

    • How can I get in touch?

      Use the contact form, or open an issue or discussion in the qiick-io GitHub organization.

Up and running in minutes

Every qiick product installs with Composer on your own server. Pick one and follow the quick start.

Get started with ExternaGet started with ExcubiaView on GitHub