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Getting Started

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itsDNNS edited this page Apr 30, 2026 · 1 revision

Getting Started

Use this page when you are new to Tribu and want the shortest path from “what is this?” to a useful family setup.

What Tribu is for

Tribu is a shared home base for a household. It keeps the everyday planning loop in one place:

  • calendar events and family routines
  • tasks and responsibility
  • shopping lists
  • contacts and birthdays
  • reminders and notifications
  • quick capture and household activity
  • rewards, meal planning, recipes, gifts, and templates
  • self-hosted operation with optional phone sync, Home Assistant, and wall display mode

Fastest way to explore

  1. Open Tribu.
  2. Click Try demo on the login page.
  3. Walk through the dashboard, calendar, tasks, shopping, contacts, rewards, and settings.
  4. Decide whether you want to install it locally or on a server.

Demo mode uses local sample data and does not require a backend.

First install path

  1. Follow Self-Hosting and start the Docker Compose stack.
  2. Open the frontend URL.
  3. Register the first account. The first user becomes the family admin.
  4. Create or review the family name.
  5. Add at least one item in each core area:
    • one calendar event
    • one task
    • one shopping list item
    • one contact with a birthday
  6. Visit Settings and decide whether to enable:
    • phone sync
    • push notifications
    • Home Assistant
    • wall display mode
    • SSO
    • backups

First-week checklist

Day Suggested setup
Day 1 Add family members, core calendar events, recurring tasks, and shopping basics
Day 2 Import or add contacts and birthdays
Day 3 Set up phone sync if your family uses phone calendars or contacts
Day 4 Enable backups and test downloading one archive
Day 5 Pair a shared display if you have a kitchen tablet or hallway screen
Day 6 Connect Home Assistant if you want sensors or automations
Day 7 Review what actually helped and clean up unused modules

Recommended setup order

  1. Core household data: calendar, contacts, birthdays, tasks, shopping.
  2. Confidence: backups, update habit, reverse proxy, secure cookies.
  3. Convenience: phone sync, push notifications, quick capture.
  4. Shared visibility: wall display and dashboard layout.
  5. Integrations: Home Assistant and webhooks.
  6. Optional planning layers: rewards, meal planning, recipes, gifts, templates.

When to ask for help

Use Discussions Q&A for setup questions. Include:

  • how you installed Tribu
  • reverse proxy type, if any
  • whether the frontend and backend containers are running
  • what exact feature fails
  • logs with secrets redacted

Never paste tokens, passwords, private URLs, real family data, or screenshots containing credentials.

Related pages

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