Kept

What is Kept about?

Kept provides a self‑hosted, open‑source system for cataloguing everything you own—rooms, shelves, boxes, and individual items—together with receipts, manuals, warranties, and usage history. The data never leaves your server unless you explicitly export it, and an integrated AI assistant can help populate and query the inventory.

How to use Kept?

1. Deploy: Run the provided compose.yaml with Docker Compose (or Helm on Kubernetes). The init service prompts for the public address, creates environment variables, and generates a setup code.
2. Initial setup: Open the address in a browser, enter the setup code, and create the first admin account.
3. Add items: Capture photos, scan QR‑coded labels, or type details manually. The AI (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Ollama, etc.) can suggest metadata.
4. Navigate: Use the 3D location map on desktop or the responsive mobile app to locate items, view histories, and generate reports.
5. Maintain: Nightly encrypted backups via Restic, restore options, and export/import CSV or Homebox formats.

Key features of Kept

• Hierarchical inventory: homes → rooms → shelves → boxes → items.
• Rich item data: photos, documents, tags, custom fields, quantity, value, loan tracking.
• AI‑assisted capture: automatic extraction of details from images via chosen AI provider.
• QR‑code labels: printable short‑ID labels for boxes; scanning opens the corresponding location.
• Multi‑user sharing with role‑based permissions, lending, kits, stocktakes, reminders.
• Moving‑house workflow with numbered boxes and van tracking.
• Vehicle/machine service logs and cost tracking.
• Integrated MCP server (/mcp) for conversational AI control.
• Backups: nightly Restic to local directory, S3 or SFTP; readable export files.
• Internationalisation: English, Arabic, French, German, Italian.
• Deployment options: Docker Compose, Helm chart for Kubernetes, optional Caddy‑managed HTTPS.

Use cases of Kept

• Home inventory: keep track of electronics, furniture, tools, and their warranties.
• Homelab asset management: document servers, networking gear, and peripherals.
• Moving preparation: label boxes, generate contents sheets, and monitor loading/unloading.
• Vehicle maintenance: log fuel, services, and running costs.
• Shared household: assign roles, lend items, and receive automated reminders.
• Business asset tracking: small offices can use the same self‑hosted solution without third‑party SaaS.

FAQ

• Does Kept collect telemetry? No. All data stays on your server; update checks are off by default.
• Can I run it without Docker? The stack is containerised, but you could rebuild the services from source (Node.js/React and PostgreSQL).
• Which AI providers are supported? OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, Groq, Ollama, or any OpenAI‑compatible endpoint.
• How are backups secured? Restic encrypts backups; you choose the destination (local, S3, SFTP).
• Is there a mobile app? The web app is PWA‑capable; it can be installed on iOS/Android and works offline.
• How do I enable HTTPS? Add the https profile in Docker Compose; Caddy will obtain a certificate for KEPT_DOMAIN.
• Can I integrate with Home Assistant? Yes, via the kept-homeassistant integration.
• What is the MCP endpoint used for? It lets conversational AI agents issue inventory commands; you interact through /mcp.

Homes, garages and storage units; the rooms, shelves and boxes inside them; the things inside those, with receipts, manuals, warranties and history. Self-hosted, on your own server or homelab. Nothing leaves it unless you turn it on: no telemetry, the update check off by default, the AI provider yours to choose.

Try it in your browser

Nothing to install, nothing saved.

• Try Kept: the whole app, with a sample household.
• Try the map: the 3D map, with a sample home.

A look around

The location map

Each location as a 3D map: floors, rooms, shelves and boxes, what's inside one tap away. Arranged by you, or laid out by Kept. Plan view, balconies and terraces, phones included (the map).

On a phone

Installs as an app. Capture, scan and search, offline too.

A thing

A short ID, where it is down to the box, its details, paperwork, value, loans and history.

Labels

A short ID and a QR code for every box. Label-printer rolls or office-printer sheets; scan one to open the box.

What it does

• Inventory. Locations, places, boxes and things, with photos, documents, tags, custom fields, quantities, saved views, search, an archive for what you no longer use and a trash you can restore from.
• Capture. Photograph a thing, a receipt, a label or a whole room, online or offline; your AI provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenRouter, Groq, or an OpenAI-compatible server such as Ollama) suggests the details and you confirm them. Without one, you type them.
• Labels and scanning. Print label sheets with a short ID and a QR code; scan one to open the box it is on. Scan sessions count a shelf, pack a box or move a pile in one go.
• The household. Shared locations with roles, lending, kits that go out and come back as one, stocktakes, schedules, warranties, paperwork and an insurance report; reminders in the app, by mail, by push and in a calendar feed.
• Moving house. Numbered boxes, a label and a contents sheet for each, tracked in the van, unpacked by scanning (moving).
• Vehicles and machines. Readings, services, fuel and running costs.
• AI assistant and MCP server. Ask in plain words; changes wait for your OK. Claude and other AI agents connect at /mcp (how).
• Backups you can read. Nightly restic backups to a directory, S3 or SFTP, each with a copy that opens in a browser without Kept; imports from Homebox (a past import can be repaired) and CSV, full exports.
• Your own network or HTTPS. Works over plain http at home; an export with secret values needs HTTPS.
• Five languages: English, Arabic (right to left), French, German and Italian.

Quick start: host it

Docker with Compose v2, on a machine with at least 2 GB of RAM and 2 CPU cores (what it needs).

mkdir kept && cd kept
curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/keptinventory/kept/v1.13.0/compose.yaml
docker compose run --rm init
docker compose up -d

1. compose.yaml: the whole stack in one file; no clone, no passwords to make.
2. init: asks the address you'll open Kept at (a name such as http://kept.home.arpa:8080 beats an IP address: printed labels carry it), writes .env and shows the setup code.
3. Start: the database, a one-shot bootstrap that makes the database logins and their passwords, the one-shot migrate, then Kept on port 8080 (KEPT_HTTP_PORT changes it).
4. First run: open the address, enter the setup code, create the first account. It becomes the instance admin. Then keep the keys off this server: docker compose exec kept kept admin recovery-kit prints them.

The camera, installing the app, push and location need HTTPS: docker compose --profile https up -d adds Caddy with a certificate for KEPT_DOMAIN, from the Caddyfile in docker/caddy/ (HTTPS). Every step in full: the install guide.

• Kubernetes: the Helm chart, oci://ghcr.io/keptinventory/charts/kept, signed and published with each release (install on Kubernetes).
• Verify the image: cosign verify --key cosign.pub <image>:<version>, with cosign.pub from this repository (verifying a release).
• Backups: nightly, encrypted, to a directory, S3 or SFTP (backups).

Works with

• Home Assistant: the kept-homeassistant integration, a HACS custom repository (setup).
• Paperless-ngx: receipts, manuals and warranty cards linked to things (setup).
• The rest: integrations.

What's next

• 1.14.0, mid-December (milestone): graph view · move rooms on the map · full-screen photos · Select → Trash · vehicle services you can open · label-maker tape · two new shapes · a 2 GB machine
• Later: mobile and desktop apps · scan a room into the 3D map · storage furniture templates · a Home Assistant app

Full roadmap → · 👍 the themes you want most.

Links

Documentation	keptinventory.info
Install	Docker Compose, HTTPS, Kubernetes (Helm chart in charts/kept), configuration
API	HTTP API reference, generated from the OpenAPI document
MCP	Connect an AI client
Roadmap	Now, next and later
Questions and ideas	Discussions
Chat	Discord
Contributing	CONTRIBUTING.md: a discussion or an issue first for anything larger than a fix; sign the CLA once
Security	SECURITY.md: report privately, never in a public issue
Changelog	CHANGELOG.md

Licence

Kept is free software under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 (LICENSE), and every feature ships in it: nothing is held back. If you run a modified Kept for other people, you must offer them its source. The image carries the third-party notices of everything inside it, served at /notices.txt.