Open-source software for makerspaces

Your makerspace.
In working order.

Keep track of your tools and parts, manage borrowing,
and give everything in your space a place.

Get started View on GitHub

Free to use. Self-hosted. Yours to build on.

Space Works / Inventory Concept preview · sample data

Inventory

Your shared toolkit
Parts, tools, materials. All right here.
ItemLocationStock
Arduino UnoARD–001 · ElectronicsA–0312 available
Raspberry Pi 4RPI–004 · ElectronicsA–042 left
BreadboardBRD–001 · ComponentsB–0124 available

01 / A little order goes a long way

Find it.
Use it. Make something.

From breadboards to big machines, keep the things you share organized—and get back to what you came to make.

01

Everything has a home.

Catalogue parts and tools. Organize boxes, shelves and rooms.

02

Sharing stays simple.

Follow requests, handovers and returns in one place.

03

Keep the ideas moving.

Spend less time finding things and more time making them.

Deployed at

1,000+members using Space Works

02 / Shared tools. Clear handovers.

Out into the world.
Back where it belongs.

A tool can change hands without losing its story. Requests, scans, photos and return notes stay together in one record.

Scan the box. Capture the handover. Keep the receipt.

Example loan record

Loan 2391 · Drill 07

Borrower A. Okafor
  1. #18340
    Requested

    Signed-in member, public catalogue

    Mon 10:14
    A. Okafor
  2. #18352
    Accepted

    Decided at the desk console

    Mon 11:30
    R. Iyer
  3. #18371
    Issued
    BOX 3B No scan, no handover.QR scan and photo on file
    Mon 14:02
    J. Mendes
  4. #18455
    Returned

    “Chuck sticks a little.” Photo and note on file

    Fri 17:41
    J. Mendes
Closed Fri 17:41. Four rows, added in order and never edited.

03 / Your space. Your setup.

Start with what you need.
Make room to grow.

Lend tools, run a whole makerspace, host events or take bookings: it’s the same install, and what you leave out simply isn’t there.

Areas
Terminal preview 
$ curl -fsSL \
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SpaceWorks-HQ/SpaceWorks/main/install.sh \
    | bash
Deployment summary
  Areas: inventory,machines,events,membership,reports; edition: makerspace

On a Linux server, as a user with sudo. The installer asks every question first and changes nothing until you confirm. Read install.sh

Add to any box

Personal accounts, backup, notifications and email are always on. Any area can be switched later in settings.

04 / Room for the whole space

All the pieces.
One place.

Staff console, member area, public pages and a front-desk kiosk, with every module below in the same install. Native iOS and Android apps for members are on the way.

Inventory & lending
  • Public catalogue what you lend, with honest availability
  • Requests review, accept and track every loan
  • Front-desk handover hand out and take back at the counter
  • Evidence issue and return photos, kept private
  • QR codes and scanner boxes, tools and single units
  • Asset units drill #3, not just “one drill”
  • Containers boxes inside shelves inside rooms
  • Stock transfers between rooms and between spaces
  • Stocktake counts, gaps and discipline
  • Bulk import and QR label batches
  • Procurement the to-buy list and its receipts
  • Connected devices printers and label printers on your network
Machines
  • Machine registry every machine and who may use it
  • Certifications training records, gating and reminders
  • Service queue members ask, staff run the job
  • 3D printing print jobs, materials and intake
  • Maintenance schedules, meters and a calendar feed
Events
  • Events free, invite-only or paid
  • Tickets and promo codes
  • QR check-in at the door, even offline
Bookings
  • Rooms and resources with buffers and cutoffs
  • Recurring slots and calendar feeds
Members and accounts
  • Personal accounts one per person, always on: sign up with a password, Google, Apple or a phone number
  • Member area each person’s own loans, returns, fees and notices
  • Membership join requests, vouching, plans and renewals
  • Mobile apps native iOS and Android In development
Money
  • Charges and receipts fees, deposits and late fees, always tracked
  • Online payments Stripe or Razorpay checkout
Reports and analytics
  • A report for every module loans, inventory, machines, events, bookings and more
  • Finance charges, payments and reconciliation
  • Membership analytics cohorts, retention, MRR and ARR
  • Saved views, schedules and exports CSV and Excel, delivered on time
Alerts
  • Notifications and email with quiet hours and digests
  • Chat alerts Telegram, Slack, Discord and Mattermost
  • Signed webhooks to your own systems
Running it
  • Many spaces, one server each fully separate
  • Roles you define per space, action by action
  • Audit log append-only, for every change
  • Backups archives you hold the keys to
  • Updates from GitHub releases, with a backup first

Every module, what it adds and what happens without it

05 / One system, every screen

One server.
Everywhere you make.

The same records follow you from the front desk to the staff console to a member’s phone. Every app talks to the server you run, so your data stays yours.

Live

The server

One Docker install runs the API, database, storage and background jobs, for one space or many.

Source
Live

Staff console

Requests, handovers, stock, machines, events and reports, updating the moment they change.

Live

Member area and public pages

Browse the catalogue, request a tool, book a room, and see your own loans and fees.

Live

Front-desk kiosk

A counter screen for the busy moments: scan the box, take the photo, hand it over.

In development

iOS app

Native SwiftUI for iPhone, on iOS 17 and later. Point it at your own server.

Follow along
In development

Android app

Native Kotlin and Compose for phones and tablets, on Android 8 and later.

Follow along

Also part of it: the docs, the design system every app draws from, and an open REST API with signed webhooks for your own tools.

06 / The foundations are covered

Made to run.
Built to stay yours.

These come with every install, whichever areas you turn on.

Encrypted, signed backups

Full-platform backups where each space is sealed to its own keys, the whole archive is signed, and restore checks the signature before it decrypts anything. Offsite copies are verified and re-read every 30 days.

Safe updates

Updates come from GitHub releases. A backup is taken first, and the old version comes back if the new one fails its health check.

Move a space between servers

Export one makerspace with its records, photos and money, and import it on another server.

Private by design

Personal data is encrypted per space, integration secrets are encrypted at rest, and the audit log, evidence photos and QR scans can’t be edited.

Events, fully run

Series, approvals and waitlists, QR check-in with an offline roster and PIN stations, feedback, attendance certificates, badges and calendar feeds.

3D printing

Public print requests, printers and spools, filament tracking, slicer estimates and an optional charge at collection.

Live console, one search box

Queues, loans and check-ins update the moment they change, and every list has search that forgives typos.

Sign in your way

Password, Google, Apple, phone and SMS code, or your own identity provider: Keycloak, Authentik, Azure AD, Okta.

Roles you define

Editable roles per space over a fixed set of actions, four ready-made defaults, and a separate control plane for the server owner.

Maker profiles

Opt-in profiles with projects and interests, and a member directory that lists only the people who chose to be listed.

Organizations and many spaces

Run many makerspaces on one server, each fully separate, and link them under a network, university or chain with one event catalogue.

Runs small, runs watched

A single-box mode for one small server, request IDs through every log, and a Prometheus endpoint for queues, deliveries and storage.