ScreenTinker

ScreenTinker is self-hosted digital signage software. Manage screens across multiple locations from one dashboard — built for retail, offices, lobbies, and any environment where you need centralized control over what's displayed on remote screens. Open source, multi-tenant, single-developer maintained with direct contact access.

Hosted version: screentinker.com — free tier available, no credit card required. Community: Discord

Features

• Playlists — first-class playlist objects: create, reorder, set per-item duration, share one playlist across multiple displays; draft/publish workflow with revert-to-published
• Device groups — organize displays into groups, assign a playlist to an entire group, send bulk commands (reboot, screen on/off, launch, update, shutdown), schedule content group-wide
• Multi-zone layouts — split screens into zones with drag-and-drop editor; 7 built-in templates (fullscreen, split, L-bar, PiP, grid)
• Video walls — combine multiple displays into one screen with bezel compensation, device rotation, and leader-based sync
• Remote control — live view, touch injection, key input, power on/off
• Scheduling — visual weekly calendar with recurrence rules (daily/weekly/monthly), priority-based conflict resolution, both device-level and group-level schedules (device-level overrides win over group-level), timezone support
• Widgets — clocks, weather, RSS tickers, text/HTML, webpages, social feeds, and Directory Board (scrolling lobby tenant/room/staff directories with dark/light themes, category management, and anti-burn-in motion)
• Kiosk mode — interactive touchscreen interfaces
• Proof-of-play — per-content and per-device analytics, hourly/daily breakdowns, CSV export for ad verification
• Device telemetry — battery, storage, RAM, CPU, WiFi signal strength, and uptime reported by Android players
• Offline resilience — both web and Android players keep displaying cached content during server or internet outages (Android ContentCache, web player Service Worker); state syncs when connectivity returns
• Mobile-responsive — full management dashboard and landing page work on phones and tablets
• Workspaces — multi-tenant data model: organizations contain workspaces, workspaces contain devices/content/playlists/schedules; users can be members of multiple workspaces and switch via a dropdown in the sidebar
• Member roles — six-level hierarchy (platform_admin / org_owner / org_admin / workspace_admin / workspace_editor / workspace_viewer) gated at every API route
• Alerts — email notifications via Microsoft Graph when devices go offline; built-in spam protection (2h dedup, 24h long-offline cutoff, sequential send pattern); per-user opt-out via Settings → Account
• White-label — custom branding, colors, logo, favicon, CSS, and domain
• Content management — folder organization, remote URL content (no upload needed), YouTube embeds, video duration detection via ffprobe, automatic thumbnail generation, Unicode-safe filenames (NFC normalization + UTF-8 multipart decoding)
• Export/Import — v2 format with playlists, device groups, schedules, and optional media bundling (ZIP); backward-compatible v1 import with automatic playlist migration
• Device authentication — per-device tokens for secure WebSocket connections; devices authenticate on every reconnect
• Account management — in-app password change, profile editing, email-based password reset
• Security — JWT auth, bcrypt hashing, parameterized SQL, rate-limited endpoints, per-user ownership checks on all resources, ongoing auth/IDOR/XSS audits
• Built-in billing — Stripe integration for SaaS subscriptions (optional)
• Auto-update — OTA updates pushed to devices automatically
• Activity log — full audit trail of user and system actions

Architecture

Multi-tenancy model

Three nested primitives:

organizations (billing + branding container)
   workspaces  (resource scope: devices, content, playlists, schedules, walls, layouts, widgets, groups)
      members (users with a role on that workspace)

Every resource (device, content row, playlist, schedule, etc.) carries a workspace_id. Every API route filters by it. Cross-workspace access requires switching workspaces via the sidebar dropdown — there are no magic role-based "see everything" bypasses on individual resource routes.

Role hierarchy

Six roles, top wins:

Role	Scope	Cap
platform_admin	every workspace in the system	full read/write (via acting-as on workspaces they're not a direct member of)
org_owner	one organization	billing + delete + admin within all workspaces in the org
org_admin	one organization	admin within all workspaces in the org (no billing)
workspace_admin	one workspace	manage members, rename, full read/write
workspace_editor	one workspace	create/edit content, devices, playlists, schedules; no member changes
workspace_viewer	one workspace	read-only

Workspace switcher

Users who are members of more than one workspace see a dropdown in the sidebar header. Switching mints a fresh JWT with the new current_workspace_id claim and reloads the page. Platform admins see every workspace in the system.

Auto-migration on boot

Schema migrations run automatically the first time the server starts after a git pull. Self-hosters never need to run a manual migration command. On detecting a pre-multi-tenancy database, the server takes a timestamped snapshot (server/db/remote_display.pre-migration-<timestamp>.db), runs the Phase 1 migration (creates organizations / workspaces / workspace_members tables, backfills workspace_id on every resource, one auto-created Default workspace per existing user), then continues startup. If the migration fails the server prints the restore command and exits.

Data flow

• Android / web players → device-namespace WebSocket → server. Authenticated per-device with a long-lived device token. Each device joins a room keyed on its device_id.
• Admin dashboard → dashboard-namespace WebSocket → server. Authenticated with the user's JWT. Each socket joins one room per accessible workspace so outbound events (device status, screenshots, playback progress) only reach dashboards that should see them.
• Admin REST → /api/* HTTPS → Express → SQLite. Everything scoped by workspace_id from JWT current_workspace_id claim.
• Email → Microsoft Graph sendMail via client-credentials OAuth flow. In-memory token cache. Sequential send pattern through alert backlogs to respect Graph's per-app concurrency limits.

Supported Platforms

Android TV, Fire TV, Raspberry Pi, Windows, ChromeOS, LG webOS, Samsung Tizen, and any device with a web browser.

Self-Hosting

Requirements

• Node.js 20.6+ (the npm scripts use the built-in --env-file-if-exists flag, added in 20.6)
• Linux, macOS, or Windows
• SQLite (bundled via better-sqlite3; no separate install needed — npm install handles the native bindings)

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/screentinker/screentinker.git
cd screentinker/server
npm install
SELF_HOSTED=true npm start

The server starts on port 3001 (HTTP). If SSL certificates are present in server/certs/, it starts on port 3443 (HTTPS) with automatic HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect. Open the URL shown in the startup banner. The first registered user gets full access with all features unlocked.

Schema migrations run automatically on first boot — no manual migration commands at any point in the lifecycle.

npm start is preferred over node server.js directly because the script invokes Node with --env-file-if-exists=.env so a server/.env file (gitignored) is loaded automatically for local dev.

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
PORT	HTTP port	3001
HTTPS_PORT	HTTPS port (used when SSL certs are present)	3443
NODE_ENV	Runtime env (production enables Express production optimizations + stricter error handling)	(none)
SELF_HOSTED	First user gets all features unlocked	false
DISABLE_REGISTRATION	Block new account creation (including OAuth auto-signup). First-user setup on an empty DB is still allowed.	false
DISABLE_HOMEPAGE	Redirect / to /app instead of serving the marketing landing page. For internal-only self-hosted deployments.	false
APP_URL	Your public URL (used for Stripe callbacks and invite-accept URLs in emailed invites)	(none)
JWT_SECRET	JWT signing key (auto-generated if not set)	(auto)
SSL_CERT	Path to SSL certificate	server/certs/cert.pem
SSL_KEY	Path to SSL private key	server/certs/key.pem
PING_INTERVAL	Socket.IO Engine.IO ping interval (ms). Raise for slow TV WebKits that miss pongs under decode load.	30000
PING_TIMEOUT	Socket.IO Engine.IO pong wait (ms). Lower = faster dead-socket detection; higher = more forgiving of laggy clients.	30000
HEARTBEAT_INTERVAL	App-level offline-checker frequency (ms). How often the server sweeps the device list looking for stale heartbeats.	10000
HEARTBEAT_TIMEOUT	How long without an app-level heartbeat (ms) before marking a device offline. Raise for slow/jittery networks.	45000
COMMAND_QUEUE_TTL_MS	How long the server holds commands and playlist-updates for a device that's offline at emit time (ms). Flushed in order on reconnect within this window; dropped past TTL.	30000

Optional Integrations

All integrations are optional. The app works fully without any of them.

AI Content Design (local or cloud)

The Content Designer can turn a prompt into a finished sign — layout + copy from an LLM, and optional background/foreground imagery from an image model. Each workspace brings its own OpenAI-compatible endpoints (cloud, or fully local and free via Ollama + stable-diffusion.cpp). See docs/local-ai-setup.md.

Stripe (Billing)

If you want to charge your users, plug in your own Stripe keys. Without them, all features are free for all users.

1. Create a Stripe account
2. Create products/prices for each plan in the Stripe dashboard
3. Set up a webhook endpoint pointing to https://yourdomain.com/api/stripe/webhook with these events:
   • checkout.session.completed
   • customer.subscription.updated
   • customer.subscription.deleted
   • invoice.payment_failed
4. Update the plans table in the SQLite DB with your Stripe price IDs:

   UPDATE plans SET stripe_price_monthly = 'price_xxx', stripe_price_yearly = 'price_yyy' WHERE id = 'starter';
   

5. Set the environment variables:

Variable	Description
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY	Your Stripe secret key (sk_live_... or sk_test_...)
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET	Webhook signing secret (whsec_...)
APP_URL	Your public URL (e.g. https://signage.yourcompany.com)

The default plans are: Free (2 devices), Starter (8 devices), Pro (25 devices), and Enterprise (unlimited). Edit the plans table to change pricing, limits, or add/remove tiers. In self-hosted mode, the first user gets Enterprise automatically.

Google OAuth

Let users sign in with Google.

1. Create a project in Google Cloud Console
2. Enable the Google Identity API
3. Create OAuth 2.0 credentials (web application)
4. Add https://yourdomain.com as an authorized origin

Variable	Description
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID	Your Google OAuth client ID

Microsoft OAuth

Let users sign in with Microsoft/Azure AD.

1. Register an app in Azure Portal
2. Add a web redirect URI: https://yourdomain.com
3. Note the Application (client) ID

Variable	Description
MICROSOFT_CLIENT_ID	Your Azure AD application client ID
MICROSOFT_TENANT_ID	Tenant ID (common for multi-tenant)

Email Alerts (Microsoft Graph)

Send email notifications when devices go offline. Backed by Microsoft Graph Mail.Send via the client-credentials flow.

Variable	Description
GRAPH_TENANT_ID	Microsoft Azure AD tenant ID
GRAPH_CLIENT_ID	Azure AD app registration client ID
GRAPH_CLIENT_SECRET	Azure AD app registration client secret
GRAPH_SENDER_EMAIL	Mailbox to send from (must be a valid mailbox or alias in the tenant)
GRAPH_SENDER_NAME	Display name shown in the email From field (defaults to ScreenTinker)

Azure AD app setup:

1. Register a new app in Azure AD (single-tenant)
2. Under API permissions, add an Application permission: Microsoft Graph → Mail.Send
3. Click Grant admin consent for the tenant
4. Under Certificates & secrets, generate a new Client secret and capture the value (it is only shown once)
5. Capture the Directory (tenant) ID and Application (client) ID from the Overview page
6. Set the five env vars above in your deployment (systemd unit, .env file, etc.)

Local dev fallback: if any of GRAPH_TENANT_ID, GRAPH_CLIENT_ID, GRAPH_CLIENT_SECRET, or GRAPH_SENDER_EMAIL is unset, sendEmail() short-circuits and logs [EMAIL] not configured - would send to ... to stdout instead of calling Graph. The app keeps running normally; only delivery is suppressed. This means a minimal local-dev install with no M365 access works fine — email-triggering features (device-offline alerts, future invite emails) just won't deliver anything externally.

Dev safety allow-list:

Variable	Description
GRAPH_DEV_RESTRICT_TO	Comma-separated allow-list of recipient emails. When set, sends to addresses not in the list are suppressed (logged but never posted to Graph).

Use this in local dev when running against a fresh production database clone to prevent accidental emails to real users. Leave it unset in production so emails flow to everyone normally.

Alert spam protections (also live, no configuration needed):

• 2-hour dedup window per (alert-type, target-id) pair — the same device won't trigger repeated alerts within two hours
• 24-hour long-offline cutoff — devices that have been offline for more than 24 hours stop generating alerts (the user already knows or the device is abandoned; further alerts are noise)
• Sequential send pattern through the offline-alert backlog — avoids Graph's per-app concurrent-send throttling (HTTP 429 ApplicationThrottled)
• Per-user opt-out via the email_alerts toggle in Settings → Account; respects user preference before any Graph call

Production Deployment

For production, put the app behind a reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy, etc.) with SSL:

# Create a dedicated user
sudo useradd -r -s /bin/false screentinker

# Copy the app
sudo cp -r . /opt/screentinker
sudo chown -R screentinker:screentinker /opt/screentinker

# Install dependencies
cd /opt/screentinker/server && npm install --production

# Create a systemd service
sudo cat > /etc/systemd/system/screentinker.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=ScreenTinker
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=screentinker
WorkingDirectory=/opt/screentinker/server
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node server.js
Restart=always
Environment=PORT=3001
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
Environment=SELF_HOSTED=true
# Lock down an internal / provisioned-only instance (all accounts created by your
# team). DISABLE_REGISTRATION closes self-service signup — first-user setup on an
# empty DB is still allowed, and the login page hides its "Create account" button
# to match. DISABLE_HOMEPAGE sends `/` straight to the app instead of the
# marketing landing page.
# Environment=DISABLE_REGISTRATION=true
# Environment=DISABLE_HOMEPAGE=true
# Environment=APP_URL=https://signage.yourcompany.com
# Environment=STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_live_...
# Environment=STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_...
# Email alerts via Microsoft Graph - see Email Alerts section above for setup
# Environment=GRAPH_TENANT_ID=...
# Environment=GRAPH_CLIENT_ID=...
# Environment=GRAPH_CLIENT_SECRET=...
# Environment=GRAPH_SENDER_EMAIL=support@yourcompany.com
# Environment=GRAPH_SENDER_NAME=Your Brand

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

sudo systemctl enable --now screentinker

Nginx Example

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name signage.yourcompany.com;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name signage.yourcompany.com;

    ssl_certificate /path/to/cert.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /path/to/key.pem;

    client_max_body_size 500M;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3001;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_read_timeout 86400;
    }
}

Updating

To update a running instance to the latest version:

cd /opt/screentinker

# Upgrade to the latest tagged release. Backs up the db (a .backup snapshot under
# ./backups), checks out the tag, runs npm ci --omit=dev, restarts the service,
# and reports the running version.
scripts/upgrade.sh

# ...or pin a specific release:
scripts/upgrade.sh v1.8.0

Set SERVICE_NAME if your systemd unit is not named screentinker.

If you deployed without git, initialize it once so upgrade.sh can resolve tags:

cd /opt/screentinker
git init
git remote add origin https://github.com/screentinker/screentinker.git
git fetch origin --tags
git checkout -f main
cd server && npm install --production
sudo systemctl restart screentinker

Track bleeding edge (main) instead of tagged releases - newest code, less tested:

cd /opt/screentinker && git checkout main && git pull origin main
cd server && npm install --production && sudo systemctl restart screentinker

Your database, uploads, and configuration are preserved — only code files are updated.

Schema migrations run automatically. No manual migration commands at any point. On detecting a database that hasn't been through Phase 1 multi-tenancy migration yet, the server takes a timestamped snapshot first (server/db/remote_display.pre-migration-<timestamp>.db) and only continues startup once migration commits cleanly. If migration fails, the server logs the snapshot's path and exits — restore it with cp and investigate before retrying.

Backups

The SQLite database is at server/db/remote_display.db and uploaded content is in server/uploads/. For a one-off DB copy (safe while the server runs):

sqlite3 server/db/remote_display.db ".backup /path/to/backup.db"

Recommended: nightly automated backups via scripts/backup.sh. It takes an atomic DB snapshot plus a hard-linked, point-in-time copy of your content (durable images/videos; ephemeral per-device screenshots are excluded), with daily + monthly retention and an error log. Add a cron entry:

# as root (or your service user) — adjust the path to your install
0 3 * * * /opt/screentinker/scripts/backup.sh

Override defaults with env vars if your layout differs: SCREENTINKER_DIR (default /opt/screentinker), BACKUP_DIR, DB, UPLOADS, DAILY_KEEP (7), MONTHLY_KEEP (12), DB_KEEP_DAYS (30). Backups land in $BACKUP_DIR (remote_display-<ts>.db, content-latest/, content-<ts>/, content-monthly-<YYYYMM>/) and each run appends to $BACKUP_DIR/backup.log.

Admin Recovery

Locked out? Run this on the server to get a temporary admin token (1 hour):

node scripts/reset-admin.js

Building the Android APK

The Android player app is in the android/ directory. To build it:

cd android

# Set your keystore credentials (or generate a new keystore)
export KEYSTORE_PASSWORD=your_password
export KEY_ALIAS=your_alias
export KEY_PASSWORD=your_password

# Build the APK
./gradlew assembleDebug

The APK will be at android/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk. Copy it to server/ as ScreenTinker.apk to serve it from /download/apk:

cp android/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk ScreenTinker.apk

To generate a new signing keystore:

keytool -genkey -v -keystore android/release-key.jks -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000 -alias your_alias

Requirements: Java 17+, Android SDK (API 34).

Device Setup

1. Register at your ScreenTinker instance
2. Go to Displays and click Add Display
3. Install the ScreenTinker app on your device:
   • Android TV / tablets: Download the APK from your instance (/download/apk) or build it from source (see above)
   • Raspberry Pi: curl -sSL https://your-instance/scripts/raspberry-pi-setup.sh | bash
   • Windows: Run the setup script from scripts/windows-setup.bat
   • Samsung Tizen TV / signage: point the TV's URL Launcher (or browser) at https://your-instance/player - no signing needed. For an installed native app, see tizen/README.md
   • Any browser: Open https://your-instance/player in kiosk/fullscreen mode
4. Enter the pairing code shown on the device

Troubleshooting a player (stuck on "Connecting to server", re-pointing a device to a different server, or connecting adb over Wi-Fi): see docs/android-troubleshooting.md.

For Developers

Working on ScreenTinker itself:

git clone https://github.com/screentinker/screentinker.git
cd screentinker/server
npm install
npm start          # starts in dev with --env-file-if-exists=.env
# or:
npm run dev        # same as start, plus --watch for auto-restart

.env file (gitignored): create server/.env for local configuration. Anything documented in the env var tables above works. Common starting set:

SELF_HOSTED=true
APP_URL=https://localhost:3443
# Optional: Microsoft Graph email config for testing real delivery
# GRAPH_TENANT_ID=...
# GRAPH_CLIENT_ID=...
# GRAPH_CLIENT_SECRET=...
# GRAPH_SENDER_EMAIL=you@yourcompany.com
# Optional: dev safety - only let these recipient emails through to Graph
# GRAPH_DEV_RESTRICT_TO=you@yourcompany.com,colleague@yourcompany.com

No M365 access? That's fine. With GRAPH_* env vars unset, sendEmail() short-circuits and logs [EMAIL] not configured - would send to ... to stdout. Everything else runs normally; only outbound email is suppressed. Useful for backend work that touches the email path without setting up an Azure app.

Running against a fresh prod DB clone? Set GRAPH_DEV_RESTRICT_TO=your-email@example.com to keep accidental sends from reaching real users in the cloned database. Sends to anyone outside the list are logged but never posted to Graph.

Reporting issues: GitHub Issues for bugs and feature requests, or drop into Discord for quick questions and feedback.

Contributions welcome. Fork → branch → PR. There are no formal style guides yet beyond what you can pick up from reading the existing code. Tests aren't required but smoke-test against your local server before opening a PR.

Project Structure

server/           Node.js/Express backend
  config.js       Configuration and environment variables
  server.js       Main entry point
  db/             SQLite database, schema, and migrations
  routes/         API route handlers (devices, playlists, groups, schedules, etc.)
  middleware/     Auth (JWT + device tokens), rate limiting, file upload, sanitization
  services/       Background services (heartbeat, scheduler, alerts, activity logging)
  ws/             WebSocket handlers (device namespace + dashboard namespace)
  player/         Web-based display player
frontend/         Static SPA dashboard
  js/views/       View components (dashboard, playlists, groups, schedules, etc.)
  js/utils.js     Shared utilities (HTML escaping)
  css/            Stylesheets
  legal/          Terms, privacy, licenses
android/          Android TV/tablet player app (Kotlin, ExoPlayer)
scripts/          Device setup scripts + admin recovery

Tech Stack

• Backend: Node.js 20.6+, Express, Socket.IO, SQLite (better-sqlite3)
• Frontend: Vanilla JS SPA (no framework, no build step), ES modules, Service Worker for offline support
• Android: Kotlin, ExoPlayer, Socket.IO client
• Auth: JWT with bcrypt, Google/Microsoft OAuth (optional)
• Email: Microsoft Graph via @azure/msal-node client-credentials (optional)
• Payments: Stripe (optional)
• Data model: multi-tenant — organizations contain workspaces contain resources; six-level role hierarchy gated server-side at every API route

Support

ScreenTinker is built and maintained by one developer. If the project is useful to you and you want to support continued development:

• Star the repo on GitHub
• Open issues with feedback or bug reports
• Drop into the Discord and say hi
• Contribute back if you've extended something useful

GitHub Sponsors integration is planned. Direct contact: dan@bytetinker.net or via Discord.

License

MIT