Set up your makerspace

This guide walks a Space Manager (or the platform superadmin) through turning a freshly created makerspace into one your community can use. Everything here happens in the staff console; you do not need a terminal unless a step says so.

If Space Works is not installed yet, start with the one-line install and first run. The installer creates your first makerspace and its admin account.

Where things live

A Space Works deployment has three faces. Bookmark the ones you use.

Surface	Address	Who uses it
Public site	`/m/<slug>` (or `/` on a makerspace’s own domain)	Your community: browse, borrow, book, register
Staff console	`/admin` (or `/m/<slug>/admin`)	Staff, with tabs shown according to their role
Control plane	`/control/` on the backend	The platform superadmin only; never exposed on the public website

The staff console groups its tabs under Operate, Inventory, Machines, Events, Bookings, Members, Insights, Organizations and Admin. You only see the tabs your role allows and your installed modules provide, so two staff members can see quite different menus.

Create another makerspace

One deployment can host many makerspaces, each with its own inventory, staff, public address and settings. Only a superadmin can create one.

To create a makerspace:

In the staff console, open Admin → Users and choose Create makerspace.
Identity: enter the name, a four-character public code (letters and digits) and a slug. The slug becomes the public address /m/<slug>; the public code works as a short alternative identifier.
Profile and hours (optional): override the timezone, default currency and opening hours.
Modules and pack (optional): choose module families, or apply a saved space pack profile. Core modules are always installed and dependencies are added for you.
First staff (optional): enter an email and pick Space Manager, Inventory Manager or Machine Manager to invite the first staff member.
Review, then create the makerspace.

Work through the setup checklist

A new makerspace’s Dashboard shows a “Set up” checklist. Progress comes from your actual records, so an item ticks itself off once you have done the work. The steps are:

Step	Where you do it
Set the profile and location	Admin → Settings
Set opening hours	Admin → Settings (Location & hours)
Add your first item	Inventory → Inventory
Invite staff	Admin → Users
Choose modules	Admin → Modules (superadmin)

Staff who lack access to a step see “ask an administrator” beside it. Dismissing the checklist is remembered on that browser only.

Name, slug and public address

Under Admin → Settings → Branding:

Registered name is the official name of the makerspace. It is used across the app and as the public wordmark when there is no logo or public display name.
Public display name overrides what visitors see, if you want something shorter or friendlier.

The slug in /m/<slug> is set when the makerspace is created. If you want the makerspace on its own domain, use the Custom domain section of Settings; once a domain is set you can also hide the makerspace from the central directory. DNS and certificates are an operator task, covered in Domains and TLS. On managed hosting, a Request a subdomain section appears instead.

Branding

Also under Settings → Branding:

Logo and Cover image (wide banner) for the public site.
Public and member colours: a primary fill colour and a link colour seed, applied to the public and member pages.

Location and opening hours

The Location & hours section holds the makerspace’s IANA timezone, address and weekly opening hours (with exceptions). The timezone matters more than it looks: loan due dates, reminders, report months and quiet hours are all calculated in the makerspace’s local time.

Public site and catalogue

Three switches decide what the public sees. All are in Settings → General.

Setting	Effect
Publish public site	Controls directory visibility, embed keys and public machine pages
Public home	Which page `/m/<slug>` opens on: Automatic, Inventory, Events, Bookings, Machines or Membership. If the chosen area is switched off, an available one is used
Show public inventory	Shows or hides the public catalogue. Turning it off deletes nothing

Further down Settings, Public stats page and Public borrower names control the optional statistics page at /m/<slug>/stats. How much of each item’s stock the public sees is set per item; see Inventory and QR codes.

Modules and features

Modules are whole capabilities (events, bookings, machines and so on). Only a superadmin installs or uninstalls them, from Admin → Modules. Uninstalling hides the surfaces and keeps every row of data.

Features are narrower switches inside a module, such as loan renewals, kiosk stations or event promo codes. A Space Manager turns them on and off under Settings → Feature settings. A feature stays inert while its parent module is off; the settings page says “Module disabled by the platform administrator” in that case.

The Modules guide lists every module, what it adds and its default.

Loan policy defaults

If your makerspace lends hardware, set its loan rules in Settings → General → Loan policy. Saving this form for the first time also turns on the loan reminder schedule.

Field	Default	Meaning
Loan period in days	7	How long a loan runs when issued
Renewal mode	Off	Automatic within policy lets loans be renewed within the limits below
Maximum renewals	1	Renewals allowed per loan
Renewal length in days	7	How far each renewal extends the due date
Maximum active loans	0 (unlimited)	Loans one borrower may hold at once
Maximum outstanding items	0 (unlimited)	Items one borrower may hold at once
Reminder offsets in hours	`0`	Borrower reminders relative to the due time: negative is before, `0` is at due, positive is overdue. Empty turns reminders off
Escalate to staff after days overdue	0 (off)	Alerts staff when a loan is this many days overdue

Renewals and borrow limits also need the Loan renewals and Borrow limits features switched on. Products and categories can override the loan period and renewal cap; see Loans.

Two more lending settings live elsewhere in Settings:

Borrow request access chooses who may submit a borrow request: anyone with an account, or anyone without an account. While the Membership module is installed this is fixed to active members only.
Loan deposits and late fees (deposit mode, deposit amount, late fee per day, late fee cap and grace days) sit with the payment settings. They are recorded as money owed even if you take no online payments.

Invite your staff

You need the manage_makerspace action (Space Managers have it) to add staff.

To invite a staff member:

Open Admin → Users.
In Staff invitations, enter their email and choose a role.
Choose Invite staff. They receive a single-use link; you can also copy the invitation link, resend it or revoke it.

You can also create an account directly with a username and password, which is useful for a shared front-desk login you hand out yourself. Pick roles with care: see Roles and permissions for what each one can do and how to build a narrow front-desk role.

Alerts: Telegram, chat and email

Space Works sends alerts to your team; it never takes decisions from chat. Requests are always accepted or rejected in the staff console.

Telegram: a superadmin enters the Telegram group chat ID and Telegram bot token under Admin → API access → Integration settings. The token is stored encrypted and never shown again.
Slack, Mattermost and Discord: paste incoming-webhook URLs under Settings → Chat webhooks.
Email: enter your SMTP details under Settings → Email (SMTP).
Who hears what: under Settings → Notification channels you choose which alerts go to which channel, who receives each one, and extra “rooms” narrowed to a machine or category.

Each channel is also a module, so it must be installed for the makerspace. Integration health in Settings shows whether email, Telegram and the background worker are working. For the deployment-side setup see Notifications and Email.

Setup checklist

Use this list for a new makerspace: