// home server, built for family life

I was manually copying photos off my phone with a cable...

Like a caveman. Drawers full of paper, documents scattered across emails, Google Drive and download folders. 20 years of automating things for businesses as a software engineer. I felt embarrassed. Then I bought a used Mac Studio by accident.

famstack is my answer. An open source stack for photos, documents, family memories, local AI and automated backups. Running on a Mac in our home. Private. No subscriptions. Nothing leaves the house.

Now we are recording voice messages from our kids as a kind of diary. I wish I had started six years earlier.

View on GitHub Follow the build
Terminal — famstack
~ git clone https://github.com/famstack-dev/famstack
~ cd famstack
~/famstack ./stack install
  ✓ Core · Messages · Photos · Docs · AI
Your family is live. Your Mac is an AI machine.
License Last commit

Your family life, captured
and working for you.

🏠
Kit — Document Filing
● online
📄 Digitize your paperwork
💬 Ask anything
🎙️ Capture family memories forever soon

This runs on a Mac in our house. Because tech should serve families too.

Read the full story →
// what's new: 0.4 release candidate

Your family's memory, on your Mac.

0.4 turns what your family keeps into a private wiki you can read, search and ask, and turns the voice messages and photos you share into a family diary. The first release candidate is out now.

Everything in one place

The family wiki

Documents, topics, people and the diary in one wiki on your own Mac, with a menu that follows what a family looks for. The original photo, PDF or recording sits behind every page.

From the memories room

The family diary

Voice messages, photos and notes posted to the memories room become a diary, one page per month, with the recording still attached. A reply in the chat corrects an entry.

Answers with sources

Ask your archive

"When does our car insurance renew?" gets an answer that names the documents it read, not a pile of search hits. One tap opens the document.

Your choice of machine

AI where you want it

Run the models on the Mac that runs famstack, or on a bigger machine in the house. One command switches between them.

Read the 0.4 announcement →
// follow the journey

Wanted a Jarvis.

Got a brain-amputated butler. Still briefs my family every morning and hasn't lost a single document. Real stories of excitement and pain building useful tech for our family.

Origin story

The €900 €1,200 NAS I Never Built

A 15-year-old Synology, a phone that was always full, and the lucky hesitation that saved me from building the wrong server.

Read →
The impulse buy

I Bought a Used Mac Studio to Run Local LLMs

A LinkedIn post, a Gemini chat, and an impulse buy. The Mac Studio arrived. Now what?

Read →
The reality check

Tried Running OpenClaw Locally on My Mac Studio

First thing I tried on the new machine. Two minutes per response, garbage output, and a $600 lesson about the Mac Mini trap.

Read →
// new here?

Start here.

Guide

You Bought a Mac Mini. Now What?

Local AI, automatic document filing, family photo backup, ad blocking, private chat. Everything your Mac can do for $3/month in electricity.

Read the guide →
// guides

What we learned, distilled.

Step-by-step guides from things we actually set up and run. No theory.

Guide

Prepare Your Mac as a Home Server

Hardware, settings, backups, networking. Everything before your first service.

Read guide →
Guide

Self-Hosted Photos with Immich

Replace Google Photos. Face recognition, family sharing, all on your own hardware.

Read guide →
Guide

Run Local AI with Ollama

Install Ollama, pick a model, have your first private AI conversation. No cloud.

Read guide →
// how it works

One Mac. Everything connected.

Your phone sends a message, Matrix routes it to your Mac, and nothing leaves your home.

Your Mac · Your Stack
via Matrix
📷
Photos
Immich
💬
Chat
Matrix
🤖
AI
Local LLM
📄
Documents
Paperless
🔒
Backups
Local
🗂️
Code
Forgejo
📱
Your Phone
remote control
Everything runs locally. Nothing leaves your home.

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