Charnik

A free, self-hostable, standalone D&D 5e (2014) + 5.5e (2024) character tracking system — not just a generator. Three roles in one app: build & level-up, play tracking (HP, slots, resources, conditions, concentration, rests, optional XP), and a compendium browser over all loaded content. Built so non-technical users own and edit their data as plain CSV.

Desktop app: Tauri v2 + SvelteKit (static SPA, TypeScript). No HTTP server — runs standalone in the system webview.

See docs/plan.md for the authoritative spec and roadmap.

Writing your own content? Effects — the author's guide is the effects column explained in plain language, with every effect kind and the formula language, as a page you can read in a browser. Its source is docs/guide/effects.md, and the normative spec lives in docs/internals/effects.md.

Install

Grab the latest Windows installer from the Releases page and run it. Linux and macOS builds aren't packaged yet — build from source (see below) in the meantime.

Prefer the .exe (NSIS) installer. If Releases also list an .msi, pick the *-setup.exe instead — it installs per-user without admin rights and gets auto-updates. The .msi is a system-wide package that needs admin and doesn't auto-update.

The installer isn't code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen shows an "unknown publisher" warning: choose More info → Run anyway. Once installed, Charnik checks for updates on launch — when a new version is out, an Update button appears in the top bar; click it to update and restart.

Develop

⚠ You need TWO repositories

The SRD content is a separate repo — that is what lets rules data be corrected and published without shipping a new app build. Clone them side by side; that layout needs no configuration:

git clone https://github.com/FernDragonborn/charnik.git
git clone https://github.com/FernDragonborn/charnik-content-srd.git

A different location goes in charnik.dev.json ({ "contentRepo": "…" }, gitignored) or the CHARNIK_CONTENT environment variable — not charnik.config.json, which is the app's runtime config in your data folder and has nothing to do with the checkout. Without the content, pnpm dev / pnpm build stop with the clone command rather than starting an app with no rules in it. The build vendors the CSVs into the app, so a release still ships them. Content fixes are commits in the CONTENT repo.

Requires Node 22 + pnpm. The TS side runs without Rust; the Tauri desktop build also needs Rust + platform toolchain (MSVC C++ Build Tools + WebView2 on Windows; webkit2gtk on Linux).

pnpm install
pnpm dev          # Vite dev server (web preview)
pnpm tauri dev    # desktop app (needs Rust toolchain)
pnpm test         # Vitest
pnpm lint
pnpm tauri build  # package the desktop app (unsigned — no signing key needed)

pnpm tauri build produces a working, unsigned installer — no signing key required, so anyone can build from source. Only official releases are signed (the updater's .sig files + latest.json are added by CI via src-tauri/tauri.release.conf.json, which needs the private key); local unsigned builds simply don't auto-update.

Licensing

Charnik separates code, bundled data, and user content — see COPYING.md for the full picture.

• Code → MIT. Take it, change it, ship it — just keep the copyright notice. (AGPL-3.0-or-later up to 0.5.0: we don't want to oblige you to make your code public, though sharing it back is welcome. Those releases stay available under AGPL.)
• Bundled data → CC-BY-4.0. Rules data derives from the WotC SRD 5.1 and SRD 5.2.1 and lives in its own repo, charnik-content-srd, with the licence and attribution beside it. Charnik ships SRD-only — add non-SRD material yourself into homebrew CSVs.
• Your homebrew → yours. Content you add stays author-owned; each source carries its own license + attribution. The app relicenses nothing.