Documents · the short version
Cartmark on one page
A self-hosted manager for the game library you already own. It knows what you have, where it came from, and whether it actually runs, because it switches every game on to find out.
The problem
A big collection quietly fills with games that don't work: a bad rip, a disc image missing a track, a title that needs firmware you don't have. None of it shows in a file listing. You find out on game night. Meanwhile your store libraries, subscriptions, free claims and bundle keys are spread over a dozen sites nobody keeps track of.
What Cartmark does about it
| Proves every game runs | Launches it on your real machines, reads the screen, records a video, and gives a verdict you can check by eye. |
| Knows what you own | Files on your server plus Steam, GOG, Epic, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo and Humble accounts, Game Pass and PlayStation Plus, for everyone in the house. |
| Keeps the paper trail | Every game traced to the purchase, giveaway, code or verified dump it came from, and a PC game checked against the store's own build. |
| Saves you money | Every store's price side by side, five years of history, an honest mark on every sale, whole-series totals, and every free game. |
| Earns Twitch Drops | Watches on the server, plans what can be finished in time, alerts you when a reward is ready. |
| Keeps your games | Downloads the games you own from GOG and Steam, checks them against the store's own checksums, scans them, sets them up to play on the TV and installs them on a PC. |
| Fills the gaps | Searches the indexers and download clients you configure yourself, and checks every arrival before it joins the library. It ships with no sources. |
| Looks after itself | Phone alerts, cards on the PC, a Needs attention list that says what to do, a Grafana dashboard, proven backups. |
| Makes room for more than one home | Every person and machine in a household with its own household admin; firmware and keys a member supplies reach only their household's machines, and a BIOS is admitted by its checksum, never its name. |
| Knows its machines, and who is playing | Each machine reports its hardware and its connection, with plain hints on what would make it faster; each has a player whose saves follow them, with every save version kept. |
Proof, from one real library
Why you can trust it with your collection
- Plans before it acts. Anything destructive shows exactly what would change first.
- Keeps what it replaces. A recycle bin, not a delete key.
- Upgrades are guaranteed. Any version to any later one, nothing lost, nothing to do by hand.
- The owner's decisions stay the owner's. One super admin; a household admin acts only within their own household.
- Every Windows download is virus-scanned before anything can run it.
- No telemetry. No stored store passwords. No spending.
- Yours. Runs on your own server in Docker. Free software, AGPL-3.0.
What you need
- A home server that runs Docker (it is developed on Unraid).
- Your game library on it.
- For boot testing: a Windows PC or a Batocera box. Each joins with a one-time code.
- Optional: your store accounts, Twitch, ntfy or Discord, Grafana, Tailscale, an Android handheld.
Coming next
In testing now: a new look for every page. After it: DLC and expansions on a game's page, patches kept with their game, a nightly watch for bit rot, artwork and video previews made from the boot tests themselves, one-click install from Unraid's Community Apps, and playing your library from a friend's house. The whole plan.
Cartmark manages files you already have and searches only sources you set up yourself. It does not host, distribute or supply game files, and store games are downloaded with your own account and licence. Names and images belong to their owners. Notice and removal requests.