Find your center. Challenge your limits. Log your growth.
Centrd is a free, open-source, and self-hostable web-based diary designed for potters tracking their throw counts, stages, and challenge milestones (like the 200 Cylinder or 100 Bowl challenge).
It runs on a 100% self-hosted, local-first architecture, meaning all potter profiles, throw logs, configurations, and photos stay saved on your own home server or local machine with complete privacy.
- Free, Open-Source & Self-Hostable: 100% free and private software that you control. Run it on your home server (Synology NAS, Raspberry Pi, Docker) or local computer without cloud subscriptions or third-party trackers.
- No Ads, No Subscriptions, No "Pro" Versions: All features are available to all users for free — no hidden costs or premium tiers. And if you want to make changes, fork it and build your own version!
- Multiple Potter Profiles & Studio Hosting: Support multiple potter accounts with 100% data isolation on a single shared server — ideal for households with multiple potters or shared studio servers. Choose different avatars for different potters.
- Multiple Saved Challenges & Active Selector: Create, save, and switch between multiple named challenge series (e.g. "Spring 100 Bowl Challenge", "Fall 200 Cylinder Sprint"). Easily switch your active challenge, rename challenges in place, or create new ones right from Settings without losing any past progress.
- Tag-Based Challenge Progress & Multi-Tagging: Attach multiple challenge tags to any piece. Challenges track progress purely via tags, allowing a single entry to count toward multiple active or historical challenges simultaneously.
- Shareable Challenge Settings: Export custom challenge configurations to JSON and share them with friends or studio mates so everyone can compete in the exact same challenge.
- ZIP Logbook Backup & Rebuild: Export your complete throwing log, sticky notes, and photos into a structured markdown and ZIP archive. Import any exported ZIP backup file to rebuild your full journal and photo gallery on a new server or machine.
- Pure Studio Logbook Mode (Disable Challenges Entirely): Turn off challenges entirely with a single toggle in Settings to use Centrd as a peaceful, pressure-free studio diary with an unfiltered studio overview dashboard.
- Interactive Sticky Notes: Attach stage-specific sticky notes (e.g. Wet Clay, Trimmed, Glaze Application, Fired) to any entry. Notes are color-coded and organized in an interactive sticky-note stack on each entry card. Images related to the stage appear in the sticky note when opened.
- Full-Screen Lightbox & Stage Remapping: You can map images to different stages when they are opened, or delete them.
- Customizable Pottery Stages: Add custom pottery stages (e.g. Underglazed, Wood Fired, Raku Fired) or delete/remap existing stages.
- Custom Weight Classes & Class Targets: Define custom weight categories with specific weights, names, units, and target counts.
- Flexible Decimal Weights & Global Units: Log throws using precise decimal weights (e.g.
1.3 lbor0.8 kg). The app automatically maps entries to the closest whole-number challenge class while preserving the exact decimal value in history. Globally switch between Pounds (lb) and Kilograms (kg). - Pacing Strategies & Deadlines: Track pacing strategies including custom target dates or daily/weekly/monthly cadence targets.
- Prioritizes Quick Logging: The app is minimalistically designed to quickly log a pot with muddy fingers, not to be fiddling around with the millions of different options available in other apps.
| Dashboard Overview | Throwing Logbook | Sticky Note Details |
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| Track ring progress & switch active challenges | Browse history cards with stage filter pills | Attach color-coded notes & stage photos |
| Potter Profile Selector | Challenge & Stage Settings | Sleek Dark Mode |
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| Multi-potter profile selection & avatars | Configure weight targets, stages, & units | Full dark mode theme for studio lighting |
Setting up Centrd on your local computer or home server (Synology NAS, Raspberry Pi, Docker) is quick and requires no external databases or cloud API keys.
- Node.js (v18.0 or newer)
- npm (comes packaged with Node.js)
git clone https://github.com/mosswild/centrd.git
cd centrd
npm install# Build frontend assets & boot the server
npm run build
npm run serverOpen http://localhost:5001 on your computer!
📲 Connecting from a phone, iPad, or tablet? To access Centrd from your mobile devices across your home Wi-Fi network, see Accessing Across Your Home Network.
Centrd can be deployed inside a Docker container with external volume mounts exposing the database (db.json) and photo uploads (uploads/) to your host filesystem.
Using docker-compose:
version: '3.8'
services:
centrd:
build: .
container_name: centrd
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "5001:5001"
environment:
- PUID=1000 # Set to your user ID (e.g. 1026 for Synology user)
- PGID=1000 # Set to your group ID (e.g. 100 for Synology group)
- TZ=America/New_York
- PORT=5001
- DATA_DIR=/config/data
- UPLOADS_DIR=/config/uploads
volumes:
- ./config:/config # Maps db.json & uploads folder to hostStart the container:
docker compose up -d --build📖 Synology NAS Setup Guide: For step-by-step GUI instructions using Synology Container Manager, check out the Synology NAS Docker Setup Guide.
Once the server is running on your host machine, you can connect to it from any phone, tablet, or computer connected to your home Wi-Fi network.
On your host server, open the terminal and find its local network IP address:
- macOS / Linux: Run
ifconfigorip a(look forinetunder your active Wi-Fi or Ethernet adapter, e.g.192.168.1.45). - Windows: Run
ipconfigin Command Prompt (look forIPv4 Address).
Open the web browser on your phone or tablet (e.g., Safari on iPhone, Chrome on Android) and navigate to your server's IP address on port 5001:
http://<YOUR-SERVER-IP-ADDRESS>:5001
(Example: http://192.168.1.45:5001)
Note
Custom Hostname (Local DNS): If you prefer not to type your server's IP address and port number every time, you can configure a friendly hostname (like http://centrd.local). Check out the Local DNS & Port Setup Guide for instructions.
Tip
Mobile Home Screen App: You can add Centrd to your phone's home screen for an app-like experience!
- iOS (Safari): Tap the Share button and select "Add to Home Screen".
- Android (Chrome): Tap the Menu (three dots) and select "Add to Home Screen" or "Install App".
If you want to run the application locally to test, modify code, or style components:
# Concurrently starts the backend server (port 5001) and Vite frontend server (port 5173)
npm run devOpen http://localhost:5173/centrd/ in your browser. Any requests to /centrd/api are automatically proxied to port 5001 by the dev server.
- All databases are stored in the server directory under
server/data/db.json. - All photo uploads are saved inside
server/uploads/. - Both of these paths are ignored by Git (configured in
server/.gitignore), ensuring your private clay diary records and studio photos are never committed or uploaded online.
This project is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.
- Free for Personal Use: Anyone is free to use, modify, share, and self-host this software for personal, educational, or studio use.
- Non-Commercial: Commercial use, selling copies of this software, monetizing derivative works, or profiting from its distribution is strictly prohibited.
- ShareAlike: Any derivative works or modifications must be distributed under the exact same non-commercial license.