Configuration

Every flag below is set on the serve subcommand. Run ./plainq serve -h for the complete list.

Most useful flags

Flag	Default	Purpose
`-storage.driver`	`sqlite`	Storage backend: `sqlite` or `postgres`.
`-storage.path`	`./plainq.db`	Path to the SQLite database file.
`-storage.postgres.dsn`	required when `postgres`	PostgreSQL connection string.
`-grpc.addr`	`:8080`	gRPC listener address.
`-http.addr`	`:8081`	HTTP listener address (Houston + metrics + health).
`-auth.enable`	`true`	Toggle JWT auth.
`-auth.jwt.secret`	required when auth is on	HMAC secret used to sign access/refresh tokens.
`-auth.access.ttl`	`60m`	Access token TTL.
`-auth.refresh.ttl`	`720h`	Refresh token TTL.
`-metrics.route`	`/metrics`	Prometheus-style metrics endpoint.
`-health.route`	`/health`	Liveness/readiness endpoint.

Storage backends

PlainQ ships with two storage backends behind the same Storage interface.

SQLite (default)

Small, fast, and the right choice for local development and single-node deployments. It pairs naturally with Litestream for cheap, continuous replication to object storage.

./plainq serve -storage.path=/data/plainq.db \
  -auth.jwt.secret="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"

PostgreSQL

Use Postgres when you want a shared backend across replicas.

./plainq serve -storage.driver=postgres \
  -storage.postgres.dsn="postgres://user:pass@host:5432/plainq?sslmode=require" \
  -auth.jwt.secret="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"

Listeners

PlainQ exposes two listeners:

gRPC (-grpc.addr, default :8080) — all queue operations.
HTTP (-http.addr, default :8081) — the Houston admin UI, plus the /health and /metrics endpoints.

Authentication

The JWT secret powers Houston’s login/onboarding and the account subsystem. See the project’s AUTH.md and the authentication & RBAC docs in the repository for the full story, including OAuth/OIDC provider setup.