Overview

AsyncStandUp replaces synchronous stand-up meetings with a scheduled async workflow. Each morning, the application emails (or Teams-messages) every developer with a set of team-specific questions. Developers respond via a web form or directly in a Teams Adaptive Card. The application collects all responses, flags blockers, tracks mood, and sends a daily summary to the team.

Everything runs from a single PHP application. No cloud vendor lock-in. No monthly subscriptions. The only external dependencies are an SMTP server and — optionally — a Microsoft Teams webhook or bot registration.

The main dashboard shows all teams, today's participation status, and quick actions.

Features

Requirements

Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/cedric-r/asyncstandup.git
cd asyncstandup

2. Configure the application

cp config/config.example.php config/config.php
# Edit config/config.php with your database, SMTP, and app settings

3. Create the database

SQLite (simplest):

# Ensure the data/ directory is writable
mkdir -p data
chmod 750 data
# Schema is applied automatically on first run, or run manually:
php -r "require 'src/Db.php'; getDb(require 'config/config.php');"

MySQL / PostgreSQL:

# Create the database, then apply the schema:
mysql -u root -p asyncstandup < db/schema.sql
# or
psql -U postgres asyncstandup < db/schema-postgresql.sql

4. Set up cron jobs

# Run every minute — each script checks per-team time + timezone on every run
* * * * *  www-data  php /var/www/asyncstandup/cron/send_standups.php  >> /var/log/asyncstandup.log 2>&1
* * * * *  www-data  php /var/www/asyncstandup/cron/send_summaries.php >> /var/log/asyncstandup.log 2>&1

5. Run locally (for testing)

php -S localhost:8080 -t public/
# Open http://localhost:8080

Configuration

All configuration lives in config/config.php. Copy from config/config.example.php and edit:

<?php
return [
    // ── Database ──────────────────────────────────────────────
    'db' => [
        'driver'   => 'sqlite',        // 'sqlite' | 'mysql' | 'pgsql'
        'path'     => __DIR__ . '/../data/asyncstandup.db',  // SQLite only
        'host'     => 'localhost',     // MySQL/PostgreSQL
        'port'     => 3306,
        'name'     => 'asyncstandup',
        'user'     => 'dbuser',
        'password' => 'secret',
    ],

    // ── SMTP ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
    'smtp' => [
        'host'       => 'smtp.example.com',
        'port'       => 587,
        'encryption' => 'tls',         // 'tls' | 'ssl' | ''
        'username'   => 'user@example.com',
        'password'   => 'smtp-password',
        'from_email' => 'standup@example.com',
        'from_name'  => 'AsyncStandUp',
    ],

    // ── Application ───────────────────────────────────────────
    'app' => [
        'url'      => 'https://standup.example.com',
        'timezone' => 'Europe/Paris',
        'debug'    => false,
    ],

    // ── MS Teams Bot (optional) ───────────────────────────────
    'teams_bot' => [
        'app_id'           => 'xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx',
        'app_secret'       => 'your-bot-app-secret',
        'service_url'      => 'https://smba.trafficmanager.net/emea/',
        'bot_webhook_path' => '/bot/webhook',
    ],
];

Organisations & Teams

The hierarchy is: Organisation → Team → Members → Questions. An admin creates an organisation, then creates teams within it. Team owners manage their own members and questions.

Team Settings

Team edit page showing the notification mode selector with Teams configuration fields.

Questions

Each team defines its own standup questions. Questions are ordered (drag to reorder), and each can be flagged as a blocker question (⚠️) or a mood question (😊). Only one blocker and one mood question per team.

Question management — toggle blocker and mood flags per question.

Submitting Standups

Developers receive a prompt each morning (email or Teams DM). They click the link and fill in their standup on a simple form. Each token is single-use and expires after the team's standup window.

If the team uses Teams DM mode, the Adaptive Card has inline text inputs — answers are submitted without leaving Teams.

Response Browser

Browse all standup responses — filter by date, member, or team. Blocker answers are highlighted in red.

Team Dashboard

Engineering team dashboard showing today's submissions, participation history, and mood trend.

Dashboard with 30-day mood tracking. The weekly dip on Wednesdays and peak on Fridays is clearly visible.

Mood Tracking

Enable mood tracking by marking one question as the mood question (😊 toggle on the Questions page). Developers answer with a number 1–5 in free text (e.g. "4 — feeling good!"). The application extracts the score automatically.

• 1 — Not great
• 2 — Below average
• 3 — Okay
• 4 — Good
• 5 — Excellent

The 30-day trend chart on the dashboard and the average score in daily summaries both draw from these scores.

Blocker Flagging

Mark one question as the blocker question (⚠️ toggle). Non-empty answers to this question are:

• Highlighted in red in the response browser
• Prefixed with ⚠️ in email and Teams summaries
• Shown with a "BLOCKER" badge in the daily summary email

Submission Reminders

Reminders are handled automatically by send_standups.php on every run — members who have not submitted by the configured reminder window receive a nudge using their existing token. No separate cron entry needed.

Configurable Frequency

MS Teams Integration

AsyncStandUp supports three notification modes. Each team picks one independently:

Channel Summaries (no Azure required)

1. In your Teams channel → Apps → Connectors → Incoming Webhook → Create
2. Copy the webhook URL
3. In team settings, select Teams Channel Summary only and paste the URL

That's it. The daily summary posts to the channel as an Adaptive Card with all member responses.

Bot DM Prompts (bot registration required)

1. Go to Azure Portal → Bot Services → Create → Free tier
2. Note the App ID and create a client secret (App Secret)
3. Set the messaging endpoint to https://your-server.com/bot/webhook
4. Add to config/config.php:

   'teams_bot' => [
       'app_id'           => 'your-app-id',
       'app_secret'       => 'your-app-secret',
       'service_url'      => 'https://smba.trafficmanager.net/emea/',
       'bot_webhook_path' => '/bot/webhook',
   ],

5. In team settings, select Teams DM + Channel Summary

The admin Teams Integration page shows each team's notification mode, webhook URL, and any recent delivery errors.

REST API

Base URL: https://your-server.com/api/v1/

All requests require an API key in the Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer sk-<your-64-char-key>

Rate limit: 100 requests per hour per API key. Exceeding returns HTTP 429 with a Retry-After header.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-..." https://your-server.com/api/v1/teams

# Optional query params: ?date=2026-08-18&page=1&per_page=20

curl -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "answers": {
      "1": "Fixed the login bug",
      "2": "Writing tests for the auth module",
      "3": ""
    }
  }' \
  https://your-server.com/api/v1/teams/1/submissions

MCP Server

AsyncStandUp ships with a Model Context Protocol server. Connect it to Claude Desktop or any MCP-compatible AI client to query and submit standups by natural language.

Starting the server

ASYNCSTANDUP_API_KEY=sk-your-key php mcp/server.php

Claude Desktop configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "asyncstandup": {
      "command": "php",
      "args": ["/path/to/asyncstandup/mcp/server.php"],
      "env": {
        "ASYNCSTANDUP_API_KEY": "sk-your-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available tools

Admin Panel

User administration — approve registrations, manage roles, see last login.

Teams Integration admin — mode badges, webhook URLs, last error with timestamp.

API Key Management

Each user manages their API keys from Profile → API Keys. Keys are:

• Generated with bin2hex(random_bytes(32)) — 64-char hex, shown once only
• Stored as a SHA-256 hash — the plain key is never stored
• Soft-deleted on revoke (revoked_at timestamp) — audit trail preserved

API key management — generate named keys, view masked preview, revoke individually.

Cron Jobs

Both scripts run every minute. Each team has its own standup time and timezone configured in Team Settings. Deduplication guards prevent double-sending.

# /etc/crontab
* * * * *  www-data  php /var/www/asyncstandup/cron/send_standups.php  >> /var/log/asyncstandup.log 2>&1
* * * * *  www-data  php /var/www/asyncstandup/cron/send_summaries.php >> /var/log/asyncstandup.log 2>&1

Database

Switch databases by changing the db.driver key in config/config.php. All three backends use the same application code — no ORM, plain PDO with parameterised queries.

Security Notes

Test Suite

php php83/php.exe tests/phpunit.phar --configuration tests/phpunit.xml

Tests use a fresh SQLite in-memory database per test class. No external services, no mocking of HTTP calls — all tests run against real production functions.

What Was Built (Story History)