GitHub - grantstephens/gather: Self-hosted community calendar. Submit, moderate, and share local events. Go + Preact, single binary, no external dependencies.

A self-hosted community calendar. Collect, moderate, and share local events with your community.

Built with Go (PocketBase) and Preact. Single binary, no external dependencies.

Live example: perthshire.events

Features

• Event submission with optional moderation workflow
• Role-based access control (user / editor / admin)
• Recurring events with per-occurrence cancellation (RRULE)
• ActivityPub federation — follow your calendar from Mastodon and other Fediverse apps
• RSS and iCal feeds (global, per-tag, per-venue, per-event)
• Location-based events with OpenStreetMap — no Google Maps
• Proximity search ("events near me")
• Real-time updates via SSE subscriptions
• Editorial Picks — curated weekly roundups with home page teaser
• Custom pages (About, FAQ, Code of Conduct) with Markdown support
• OAuth2 social login (configurable via PocketBase)
• API keys for external integrations
• Branded HTML email notifications for moderators
• Rate limiting on auth and submission endpoints
• Custom branding (name, subtitle, favicon, custom CSS, head code)
• Dark / light theme with system preference detection
• Single binary deployment with embedded frontend

Self-Hosting

Docker Compose (recommended)

Create a docker-compose.yml:

services:
  gather:
    image: ghcr.io/grantstephens/gather:latest
    container_name: gather
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8090:8090"
    volumes:
      - gather_data:/app/pb_data
    environment:
      - PB_ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@example.com
      - PB_ADMIN_PASSWORD=changeme
      - BASE_URL=https://your-domain.com
      - TZ=UTC

volumes:
  gather_data:

Your instance will be available at http://localhost:8090.

Docker Run

docker run -d \
  --name gather \
  -p 8090:8090 \
  -v gather-data:/app/pb_data \
  -e PB_ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@example.com \
  -e PB_ADMIN_PASSWORD=changeme \
  -e BASE_URL=https://your-domain.com \
  -e TZ=UTC \
  ghcr.io/grantstephens/gather:latest

Build from Source

Requires Go 1.25+, Node.js 18+, and libwebp-dev.

git clone https://github.com/grantstephens/gather.git
cd gather
make build       # builds frontend + Go binary
./gather serve   # starts on :8090

Configuration

First-Time Setup

Gather has two separate account systems (this is a PocketBase limitation):

• PocketBase superuser — manages the database at /_/. Created from the PB_ADMIN_EMAIL / PB_ADMIN_PASSWORD env vars.
• App user — logs into the frontend at /login. You'll need to register a separate account and then promote it to admin via the PocketBase dashboard (/_/ > Collections > users > edit the record > set role to admin).

Once you have a frontend admin account:

1. Log in at /login
2. Go to Admin > Settings to configure:
   • Site name and subtitle
   • Favicon (auto-converted to WebP)
   • SEO description for search engines and social previews
   • Moderation settings (anonymous submissions, require approval)
   • ActivityPub federation toggle
   • OAuth2 social login providers
   • Custom CSS and tracking/head code

Environment Variables

Reverse Proxy

Gather runs on port 8090. Put it behind nginx, Caddy, or similar for HTTPS.

Example Caddy config:

your-domain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8090
}

Backups

PocketBase has built-in automated backups enabled by default. All data also lives in the pb_data directory (or Docker volume) — back up this directory to preserve your database and uploaded files.

Feeds

Your instance automatically provides:

• RSS at /feed.rss (all events), /feed/tag/{tagname} (by tag)
• iCal at /feed.ics (all events), /ics/tag/{tagname} (by tag), /ics/event/{id} (single event)
• ActivityPub actor at /ap/actor (when federation is enabled)

Custom Pages

Create static pages (About, FAQ, Code of Conduct, etc.) from the Admin > Pages tab. Pages can appear in the navigation bar, footer, or both, and support Markdown content.

PocketBase Admin

The PocketBase admin dashboard is available at /_/ for direct database access, collection management, log viewing, and backup management.

License

Licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. If you run a modified version as a network service, you must publish your source changes.