Charnik

A free, self-hostable, standalone D&D 5e (2014) + 5.5e (2024) character tracking system — not just a generator. Three roles in one app: build & level-up, play tracking (HP, slots, resources, conditions, concentration, rests, optional XP), and a compendium browser over all loaded content. Built so non-technical users own and edit their data as plain CSV.

Desktop app: Tauri v2 + SvelteKit (static SPA, TypeScript). No HTTP server — runs standalone in the system webview.

See docs/plan.md for the authoritative spec and roadmap.

Writing your own content? Effects — the author's guide is the effects column explained in plain language, with every effect kind and the formula language, as a page you can read in a browser. Its source is docs/guide/effects.md, and the normative spec lives in docs/internals/effects.md.

Install

Grab the latest build from the Releases page: the *-setup.exe installer on Windows, the .AppImage or the .deb on Linux. macOS isn't packaged yet — build from source (see below) in the meantime.

Prefer the .exe (NSIS) installer. If Releases also list an .msi, pick the *-setup.exe instead — it installs per-user without admin rights and gets auto-updates. The .msi is a system-wide package that needs admin and doesn't auto-update.

The installer isn't code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen shows an "unknown publisher" warning: choose More info → Run anyway. Once installed, Charnik checks for updates on launch — when a new version is out, an Update button appears in the top bar; click it to update and restart.

Develop

⚠ You need TWO repositories

The SRD content is a separate repo — that is what lets rules data be corrected and published without shipping a new app build. Clone them side by side; that layout needs no configuration:

git clone https://github.com/FernDragonborn/charnik.git
git clone https://github.com/FernDragonborn/charnik-content-srd.git

A different location goes in charnik.dev.json ({ "contentRepo": "…" }, gitignored) or the CHARNIK_CONTENT environment variable — not charnik.config.json, which is the app's runtime config in your data folder and has nothing to do with the checkout. Without the content, pnpm dev / pnpm build stop with the clone command rather than starting an app with no rules in it. The build vendors the CSVs into the app, so a release still ships them. Content fixes are commits in the CONTENT repo.

Requires Node 22 + pnpm. The TS side runs without Rust; the Tauri desktop build also needs Rust + platform toolchain (MSVC C++ Build Tools + WebView2 on Windows; webkit2gtk on Linux).

pnpm install
pnpm dev          # Vite dev server (web preview)
pnpm tauri dev    # desktop app (needs Rust toolchain)
pnpm test         # Vitest
pnpm lint
pnpm tauri build  # package the desktop app (unsigned — no signing key needed)

pnpm tauri build produces a working, unsigned installer — no signing key required, so anyone can build from source. Only official releases are signed (the updater's .sig files + latest.json are added by CI via src-tauri/tauri.release.conf.json, which needs the private key); local unsigned builds simply don't auto-update.

Privacy

Charnik has no account, no telemetry and no analytics. Your characters and content stay in folders on your disk, and deleting the app leaves them there. The desktop app goes online for two things, both to GitHub: at launch it asks GitHub's release endpoint whether a newer version exists, and once a day it asks the repositories of your content packs what changed — which Settings ▸ Content updates can turn off. GitHub sees each request as it sees any visit: your IP address and the request itself. The "Found a bug?" button builds a diagnostics bundle on your machine; nothing leaves it unless you attach it yourself. The web demo keeps everything in your browser.

Licensing

Charnik separates code, bundled data, and user content — see COPYING.md for the full picture.

• Code → MIT. Take it, change it, ship it — just keep the copyright notice. (AGPL-3.0-or-later up to 0.5.0: we don't want to oblige you to make your code public, though sharing it back is welcome. Those releases stay available under AGPL.)
• Bundled data → CC-BY-4.0. Rules data derives from the WotC SRD 5.1 and SRD 5.2.1 and lives in its own repo, charnik-content-srd, with the licence and attribution beside it. Charnik ships SRD-only — add non-SRD material yourself into homebrew CSVs.
• Your homebrew → yours. Content you add stays author-owned; each source carries its own license + attribution. The app relicenses nothing.