The digital family calendar for screens you already own
DinkyDash turns any TV, tablet, or Raspberry Pi into a shared family calendar — with a chore chart, birthday countdowns, and a daily brief written fresh every morning by AI. No $300 frame. No subscription.
Prefer zero setup? Join the hosted-version waitlist →
Library books are due today — Lily's got this!
Library books are due today!
Do the math
Prices checked July 2026. Skylight and Hearth are lovely products — you just might not need new hardware.
Bring your own screen
DinkyDash is a web page your family's calendar lives on. Anything with a browser becomes the family command center.
An old tablet
The retired iPad or Fire tablet in the drawer becomes a kitchen calendar in ten minutes.
Any TV
Open the dashboard in the TV browser or cast it. Great for the living room wall.
A spare monitor
Prop it on the counter, point a browser at your dashboard URL, done.
No two days look the same
New week, new adventures! Here's what's happening today.
Saturday! Soccer, sunshine, and zero school runs.
One screen answers everyone's questions
"What's today?" "Whose turn is it?" "How many days until my birthday?" — the wall knows.
Your calendar, on the wall
Syncs with Google Calendar (or any calendar with an iCal link), so the whole family sees the day at a glance.
Chore chart built in
Chores rotate between kids automatically every day. The screen says whose turn it is, so you don't have to.
Countdowns kids check daily
Birthdays, holidays, vacations. Ages update themselves. No more answering "how many days until…" on repeat.
A daily brief written by AI
Every morning Claude writes a fresh greeting, fun fact, and family challenge based on your actual day. Never the same twice.
Private by design
Your family's details live in one config file on your own device — not on someone else's cloud.
No subscription
MIT-licensed and free forever. The AI costs pennies a day with your own API key.
How it works
Describe your family once
Names, birthdays, pets, chores, special dates, and your calendar link go in one simple config file.
AI writes tomorrow's dashboard overnight
Every morning at 6am, DinkyDash reads your calendar and has Claude write a complete, personalized dashboard for the day.
Point any screen at it
TV, tablet, Raspberry Pi, spare monitor — anything with a browser. It refreshes itself all day.
Questions families ask
What screens can I use?
Anything with a web browser: an old iPad or Android tablet, a smart TV, a Raspberry Pi with a touchscreen, a spare monitor, or a laptop on the counter. The dashboard is designed to be glanceable from across the room.
Is it really free?
Yes — DinkyDash is open source (MIT license). You run it yourself and bring your own Anthropic API key; a day's dashboard costs a few cents in AI usage. There is no subscription and nothing to unlock.
Do I need to be technical to set it up?
Today, a little — if you're comfortable copying commands into a terminal, the setup guide takes about an afternoon. A hosted version with zero setup is in the works — join the waitlist.
Does it work with Google Calendar?
Yes. DinkyDash reads any calendar that publishes an iCal link — Google Calendar, Apple iCloud Calendar, and Outlook all do. You can filter events to just the family members you choose.
How is this different from a Skylight or Hearth?
Skylight and Hearth sell you a dedicated touchscreen ($299–$699) with an optional or required subscription. DinkyDash is just the software — free, open source, and running on a screen you already own. It also does something they don't: an AI-written daily brief personalized to your family. See the full comparison.
Put your family's day on the wall this weekend
Free and open source. Set it up in an afternoon and there's a fresh dashboard waiting every morning.
Or join the hosted-version waitlist and skip the setup entirely.