Catalogue existing material
Photograph equipment and review its structured fields. Existing identifiers can be retained as SKU or serial data.
All use cases
Open Inventory for Club and lending group
Make lending understandable when responsibilities rotate.
Open Inventory supports equipment catalogues, reservations, checkouts, locations, and public read-only views. It is not membership-management software; it focuses on the physical items a club or lending group operates.
MIT licenseSelf-hostedNative iOS app
Capture path
Take a photo · review the draft · save the record
Operational problem
Less reconstruction, more traceable state.
Volunteers change, equipment moves between events, and knowledge about incomplete kits can live with one person. A useful system must make the next checkout quick while preserving enough history for maintainers to resolve problems.
- Publish selected equipment records without exposing administrative data
- Record reservation, issue, return, and current responsibility
- Give members, volunteers, and administrators distinct permissions
Real web app capture · demo data
A workflow at the point of use
From a physical object to a usable record.
Capture starts with a camera or an existing code. Structured fields and deeper workflows are added without hiding the transaction being made.
Describe storage
Assign each record to a room, cabinet, shelf, or kit so the return destination is visible.
Scan at handover
Open the record from its label and confirm the reservation, checkout, or return with the actual person present.
Review exceptions
Use history, status, and stock counts to find missing items or incomplete kits without rewriting earlier events.
Relevant capabilities
The data model behind this use case.
These capabilities are part of the same MIT-licensed application. Open Inventory does not split them into closed industry editions.
Public equipment catalogue
Expose a deliberately selected read-only view for members or borrowers while keeping management routes protected.
Reservations and returns
Store reservation, assignment, checkout, return, and cancellation as explicit workflow records.
Scannable labels
Use QR or barcode labels to resolve the correct item before changing its state.
Volunteer-friendly roles
Separate catalogue access, lending operations, record maintenance, and full administration.
Units or quantities
Track an individual camera kit separately while keeping identical tables or consumables as quantity stock.
Demand and purchasing
Use low-stock information and open purchase orders to make replenishment visible to the next maintainer.
Native iOS app
SwiftUI · included in the repository
Scan equipment during setup and teardown.
The native iPhone app talks to the club's own instance. It supports camera capture, code recognition, search, and authenticated stock or assignment operations.
- Resolve equipment from a label during handover
- Capture damage or missing accessories with photos
- Resume locally persisted upload jobs after poor connectivity
Camera and scanner operations run on a physical iPhone
Read the iOS implementation notesOpen source is part of the operating model
Maintainable when the next volunteer takes over.
MIT-licensed code, versioned migrations, Docker deployment files, and a documented API reduce dependence on one vendor or one volunteer's spreadsheet. The operator still owns maintenance, backups, and access policy.
MIT-licensed source
Docker setup with PostgreSQL
Checked-in OpenAPI 3.1 contract
Native iOS source included
Run it on your infrastructure
Start with one reviewed record.
Start the Docker stack, photograph one real object, and inspect the resulting fields and media before choosing a wider rollout.