Wall Calendar

A touch-screen family calendar that runs on your own hardware. No accounts, no subscription.

Status: shows and edits iCloud calendars next to events added on the display, with Reminders lists, kids' tasks and reward jars, a photo album and screen saver. Everything lives in a SQLite file on this machine. Google sync and the Raspberry Pi setup come next (see "What's next").

See it in action

The people, events and photos below are made up for the demo.

Calendar

Week, day and month views; tap an event to see it, filter by person, and add events with address suggestions and drive times. After a while idle, the screen saver takes over.

Tasks

Daily tasks, chores and bonus tasks for each kid. Bonus tasks earn stars, and finishing the day's tasks gets a Hooray. Each kid has a History, and parents can add, edit and reorder tasks, including one-time ones.

Rewards

Kids put their stars into reward jars. A full jar is earned and then redeemed, and parents can edit jars or make new ones.

Photos

The family album: browse photos, pick the ones the screen saver shows, and flip through them on the calendar.

Screenshots

Week	Month
Day	Lists (shared Reminders lists)
Tasks	Rewards: jars filling, earned and redeemed
Settings	Parent lock: view-only until unlocked
Screen saver: photos, the time, weather and today's events

Run it on your computer

Needs Node.js 22 or newer.

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173. The API runs on port 3000; the page reloads as you edit code.

To run it the way the wall display will (one process, built UI):

npm run build
npm start          # http://localhost:3000

Data lives in data/calendar.db. Delete that file to start over.

Connect iCloud

1. At account.apple.com → Sign-In and Security → App-Specific Passwords, create one called "Wall calendar". Your normal Apple password is never used, and you can revoke this one anytime.
2. Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your Apple ID and that password. .env is git-ignored; keep it that way.
3. Restart the server. It syncs on start and every 5 minutes, from 3 months back to 13 months ahead.

Tap an iCloud event to see it, edit it or delete it (see "Using it"). In that view you can also pick who it's for. The pick is kept on this display, covers every repeat of the event, and survives future syncs.

Calendars: in Settings, link each iCloud calendar to a person (all its events become theirs) or leave it on By event, and untick Show to keep a calendar off the wall. Who an event is for is decided in this order: your pick on the event, then the calendar's person, then Claude's pick from the title.

Sort by person automatically (optional): add ANTHROPIC_API_KEY to .env and restart. After each sync, Claude reads the titles of events nobody has assigned yet (and your family's names) and picks who each is for, e.g. "Sam - swim class" goes to Sam and "Riley & Sam dentist" to both. Your own picks always win. Event titles and family names are sent to the Anthropic API. If syncing fails (wrong password, no internet), a banner says so and the last synced copy stays on screen.

Connect Reminders

iCloud Reminders have no API a Raspberry Pi can use (Apple moved them off CalDAV in iOS 13), so each iPhone syncs them with a Shortcut. Each phone sends its lists to the wall; items added or ticked off on the wall wait (marked ↻) until a phone that has that list runs the Shortcut and applies them. Lists shared between you show up from either phone; private lists come from their owner's phone only.

1. .env needs REMINDERS_TOKEN (any long random text) and the server must be reachable on your Wi-Fi:HOST=0.0.0.0. Restart after changing either.
2. On each iPhone, make a Shortcut called "Sync wall lists". Use the Pi's address, the token, and a name for the phone (e.g. Alex):
   1. Get Contents of URL http://<pi-address>:3000/api/reminders/phone/pending?device=Alex, header Authorization = Bearer <token>. Get the dictionary value changes.
   2. Repeat with Each change: if op is add, add a reminder titled title to the list named list; if complete or uncomplete, find the reminder in list with that title and set it completed or not. Add each change's id to a list variable applied.
   3. Find Reminders that are not completed, plus ones completed in the last day. For each, make a dictionary { list: <List name>, title: <Title>, done: <Is Completed>, due: <Due Date> } and add it to a list variable items.
   4. Get Contents of URL http://<pi-address>:3000/api/reminders/phone/sync, method POST, same header, JSON body { device: "Alex", items: <items>, applied: <applied> }.
3. Automations (Shortcuts > Automation, set to run immediately): App > Reminders > Is Closed, so changes reach the wall as soon as you leave Reminders, plus a few Time of Day runs so wall changes reach your phone even when you don't open Reminders.

The Shortcut only works while the phone is on your home Wi-Fi; runs elsewhere just fail quietly.

On a Mac (before the Pi): the server can sync this Mac's Reminders itself, with no Shortcut. Put REMINDERS_MAC=1 in .env (plus REMINDERS_TOKEN) and restart. It reads every list, empty and shared ones included, every REMINDERS_MINUTES (default 5), and sends wall changes to Reminders a few seconds after they're made. The first run, macOS asks to let the app running the server control Reminders; allow it. Lists can be hidden from the wall with Choose lists on the Lists page.

Travel times

Events with an address (iCloud's location, or the Address field on events added here) get a Travel time button: the drive from home with predicted traffic, and when to leave to arrive on time. From there, Remind me sets a "time to leave" alert on the wall (at leave time, or 10 or 15 minutes before), with a chime. Traffic is checked again about 30 minutes before leaving, and the alert moves if the drive got longer.

1. In Google Cloud Console, create a project, enable the Routes API, and turn on billing (Google's monthly free credit covers a family's use many times over).
2. Create an API key under APIs & Services → Credentials and restrict it to the Routes API.
3. Put it after GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY= in .env and restart. Set your home address in Settings.

Each tap asks Google twice (to match traffic to when you'd leave); answers are reused for 10 minutes. Alerts show on the wall, not on phones.

On phones (home-screen app)

The app installs on iPhones and Android phones as a home-screen app: full screen, with its own icon, and it opens even without a connection (showing what it last loaded). Data always comes from the wall's server.

1. The phone has to reach the server. At home, put HOST=0.0.0.0 in .env on the machine running it and restart. Away from home, use Tailscale (free for a family): install it on the server machine and each phone, and the phones can reach it from anywhere, privately.
2. On the phone, open the server's address in Safari and tap Share → Add to Home Screen. While developing on the Mac (npm run dev) that's http://<mac's address>:5173 (the page server follows HOST too); on the Pi (npm start), http://<pi's address>:3000.

Set a family PIN first (Settings → Family PIN): after that, every device (phones and the wall) signs in with it once and stays signed in for a year. Settings lists the devices signed in, with Sign out for each, and Change the PIN (optionally signing out every other device). Five wrong PINs lock that device out for 15 minutes. A master PIN (set for you) is the one that can change the family PIN, so knowing the family PIN isn't enough; it also signs in. The master PIN can't be changed from the app. The phones' Reminders Shortcut keeps using REMINDERS_TOKEN. For the offline start (and phone notifications, later), iPhones need the address to be HTTPS. With MagicDNS and HTTPS certificates turned on in the Tailscale admin, run tailscale serve --bg 5173 on the Mac while developing (--bg 3000 on the Pi): the app is then at https://<machine>.<tailnet>.ts.net, for your Tailscale devices only. Add it to the home screen from that address; it works at home and away.

Using it

• Parent lock: once a PIN is set, every device starts locked: events, tasks, jars, photos, lists and the calendar can be looked at, and kids can still tick tasks, put stars in jars, redeem (and undo it), upload photos and add or tick list items. Adding, changing or deleting anything else needs the lock in the left bar (or Settings) and the master PIN. It locks itself again after 5 minutes without a touch, or when the screen saver starts; Keep this device unlocked is for a parent's own phone. The server checks it too, so a locked device can't change those things any other way.

• Month / Week: switch views at the top left. ‹ › move by a month or a week.

• Lists: the Lists page in the left bar (address ends in #lists) shows your iCloud Reminders (see "Connect Reminders"). Each list's items are shown in its color; tap the dot by a list's name to pick another. Drag an item by its ⋮⋮ to put it in order of importance (the color and order are kept on the wall; Reminders on the phones keeps its own order). Tap the spot before an item to give it an icon (search or Show more for every icon); it's added to the start of the item's name in Reminders, so phones show it too. Common groceries get a suggested icon (shown lighter until picked), and items added on the wall get theirs straight away. Renaming needs the Mac sync (REMINDERS_MAC=1); the phone Shortcut doesn't rename yet.

• Time and weather: under the month: the clock, the sky, the temperature now, and today's high and low, for the home address in Settings. Weather comes from Open-Meteo (free, no key); the address is found on a map once, through the US Census geocoder.

• Daily cards: in Week view, beside the weather: a dad joke (tap for the answer, from icanhazdadjoke.com) and a quote of the day (ZenQuotes). They're fetched once a day and kept; grim jokes are skipped (it's a family wall).

• Day: tap any day to see it in a panel on the right. Close it with ×.

• Round + buttons: Calendar, Tasks, Rewards and Photos each have one at the bottom right (add an event, a task, a reward jar, or upload photos). A task or jar started there has no one picked yet; each kid's task card has its own + Add a task.

• Add: the round + at the bottom right of the calendar (it starts on the day open in the day panel, else today), or tap a day, then + Add event in the day panel.

• Who: an event can be for any number of people: tap each person in Who (tap again to remove), or Everyone for no one in particular. Shared events get a bar split into each person's color.

• People: tap a name at the top to show only their events (including ones they share) (or Everyone for events not for anyone in particular). Tap it again to show all. Each name fills with that person's color as they finish today's tasks.

• Tasks: the Tasks page (left bar; Calendar goes back; its address ends in #tasks, so a refresh or a bookmark opens it) shows a card for each kid with today's tasks, each with an optional icon, grouped into Morning, Anytime and Evening. Categories: Daily (always required, the default), Chores (required or an extra, your choice) and Bonus (always an extra). Required tasks fill the kid's bar and name button; extras earn the ★ stars you set, which go in the kid's bucket (the card shows stars to spend; they're spent on the Rewards page). Tap the square left of a task's name to give it an icon. Days: every day, weekdays, weekends, chosen weekdays, or One time: due by a date (Today, Tomorrow, End of week, or any day), it's on the list every day until it's done (shown ticked that day) or its date ends, then it's gone; it's tagged Today only or By Sat. History on a card shows a week of ticks per task or a month calendar (tap a day to see and fix it). Edit tasks: drag ⋮⋮ to reorder within a part of the day, ✎ to change a task, 🗑 to delete (it asks to confirm first). An extra's stars can't be un-ticked once they're in a jar.

• Hooray! When a kid ticks the last of today's required tasks (extras and Bonus don't count; never just from a refresh; unticking takes it back, so a real finish after an accidental tick still cheers, but not twice within two minutes), or fills a reward jar, the screen fills with confetti and a big "Hooray, Sam!" (with what it's for) for a few seconds (tap to close); Android phones buzz too.

• Rewards: the Rewards page (gift in the left bar, #rewards) is where kids spend their stars on reward jars that parents set up (the round +; ✎ beside a jar's name changes it). Each kid has a card with their bucket (stars earned from extras, not yet spent) and their jars.

  • Use stars: tap a jar to place a star by it (a star flies from the bucket into the jar), − to take one back, then Done asks to confirm. Once in a jar, stars can't come out. Kids can't spend more than they have.
  • Jars can be for several kids: their stars filled together, or each putting in the full amount. With no deadline, a jar empties after it's redeemed and fills again. With a deadline, it's one time only.
  • Earned: a full jar moves here (with a Hooray), tagged with who earned it, until a parent taps Redeem.
  • Redeemed: everything redeemed, by month, with the date and time; Undo takes back a tap made by mistake.
  • Missed: a jar not redeemed by its deadline. Each kid moves their stars back to their bucket or into another jar; once it's empty, a parent Adds it back (with a new deadline or none) or Removes it.
  • Stars not yet redeemed go back to the kids when a jar is deleted, made smaller, or a kid is taken off it. Take back (parents only: it asks for the master PIN) moves some of a kid's stars out of a jar into their bucket.

• Photos: the Photos page (left bar, #photos) is the family album. Upload photos takes several at once (drag them in, or choose them in Finder; you can also drop photos anywhere on the page); each is shrunk to wall size in the browser first (iPhone photos included). Videos upload the same way (iPhone .mov or .mp4). The server converts each to a 1080p H.264 .mp4 with no sound, keeping the first 45 seconds (it shows "Preparing video…" until then); in the album they have ▶ and their length. The screen saver and the photo card under the week play them muted, each for its full length. Converting uses ffmpeg from the ffmpeg-static package (nothing to install on the machine); if npm install says its install script wasn't run, allow it once with npm install-scripts approve ffmpeg-static. Photos in the screen saver have a ✓. Select starts with those selected; tap photos to change it, then Save selection. Tap a photo to see it full size (or delete it). Photos are stored in data/photos (not in git). To upload from phones, the server has to be reachable on your Wi-Fi (HOST=0.0.0.0). Untick Add them to the screen saver in the upload pop-up to keep a batch out of it.

• Screen saver: after 15 minutes without a touch, the wall shows the album full screen, shuffled, with the time and weather in a corner (not while a pop-up is open; "time to leave" alerts still show on top). Swipe for the next or previous photo; the small pause icon (top right) holds the current one and shows ‹ › to step through (arrow keys and Space on a keyboard). Tap anywhere else to close. In Settings: on or off, how long before it starts, how long each photo stays up (20 seconds by default), the transition (a mix, crossfade, slow zoom and pan, slide, zoom, blur or flip), and night hours when the photos are dimmed and change more slowly (10 PM to 6 AM by default); the same settings open from Screen saver settings on the Photos page, with Play it now.

• Edit or delete: tap an event. Delete asks twice, and you get 10 seconds to undo.

• iCloud events: tap one, then Edit event to change its title, time or address, or delete it. The change shows at once (marked ↻ until it's sent) and goes to iCloud after the 10-second Undo, then to your phones. For a repeating event, Save and Delete ask whether it's this day only or every day (every day can rename it, change its address, or move every day's time; all-day changes to a whole series are made on the phone). An event that's in two calendars (shown once) is changed or deleted in both. If iCloud can't be reached, changes wait and are retried with every sync. If the same detail was changed on another device meanwhile, the wall asks which version to keep (Keep mine or Use iCloud's); changes to other details on the phone are kept either way.

• Family: in Settings (the gear at the bottom of the left bar), rename people and change their color at any time. Adding and removing people is hidden for now (CAN_ADD_OR_REMOVE in web/src/components/MembersPanel.tsx). Colors only change this display. Removing a person keeps their events, shown in gray.

• Text size: in Settings, adjust for the screen (15.6" vs 21.5").

How it's built

Part	Where	Notes
API + storage	server/	Fastify, better-sqlite3. Schema and migrations in server/db.ts.
People	server/people.ts	Who each synced event series is for: manual picks, then Claude (claude-opus-5-5, structured output) for the rest.
Sync	server/sync.ts, server/providers/	Pulls each calendar's events in a date window and replaces the stored copy. iCloud over CalDAV (caldav.ts); ical.ts expands repeating events with ical.js.
UI	web/src/	React 19 + Vite, CSS modules. App.tsx is the shell; screens live in components/.
Server data	web/src/lib/queries.ts	TanStack Query hooks: fetching, 60 s refresh, and cache updates after edits. No Redux; add it only if client-only state grows.
Tests	server/*.test.ts	npm test

Checks: npm test and npm run check (TypeScript for server and UI).

The server listens on localhost only. HOST=0.0.0.0 npm start makes it reachable from phones on your Wi-Fi; set the family PIN first.