evig

Intelligenz, für alle bezahlbar — gute, langlebige Technik, kuratiert statt Ramsch.

evig makes genuinely good computing affordable to everyone — curated, decent hardware people actually want to use, not junk refurb. Founded 2026. This repository is the platform that runs it: a storefront, a community marketplace, repair & IT-help, workshops, an AI-assisted intake pipeline, and an in-house AI assistant.

What this platform does

Surface	Who it serves	What it does
Storefront	The public	Sells refurbished hardware (evig-certified) to fund operations
P2P Marketplace	Community	Lets members buy / sell / give away tech between each other
IT-Hilfe	People who need help	Matches help requests with volunteer technicians; in-person + remote
Workshops	Community	Repair Café sessions, Linux installs, digital-skills classes — paid + free
Erfassung pipeline	Staff	AI-assisted intake → triage → photo → publish for donated hardware
Member services	Members	Member directory, donation history, voting on association decisions (no tax-deductible donation receipts while the Verein is in formation)
HIRN AI	Staff	In-house knowledge / action assistant; cascades through Groq / OpenRouter / Ollama

How evig funds this platform

evig is a non-profit association in formation, run on a market/quality model where affordable pricing is the product, not a subsidy. The economic model is deliberately mixed so no single source carries the whole organization:

1. Storefront revenue — curated, decent hardware sold at affordable prices. Margin funds operations.
2. Service revenue — paid workshops, repair services, IT-Hilfe billable to companies that can pay (kept affordable for individuals).
3. Donations — direct BTC donations and in-kind hardware donations.
4. Membership — yearly membership fees.
5. Grants & partnerships — selective collaborations with aligned organizations.

The platform is the operational backbone for all five. It is open-source (MIT) so other circular-economy organizations can adopt it directly — there's no extractive layer in between.

Architecture

The application is a single Next.js 16 app with App Router for both pages and API routes. In production, data lives in self-hosted PostgreSQL 17 on the Hetzner box, accessed through Drizzle ORM via DATABASE_URL. Authentication uses NextAuth v5 (Auth.js) with the @auth/pg-adapter, sharing the same connection pool as the app. Search is powered by Meilisearch. Payments go through Payrexx (Swiss-based, ZKB/Twint/card). Email goes through Resend when RESEND_API_KEY is set, Listmonk when LISTMONK_ENABLED=true, and SMTP (Nodemailer) otherwise (src/config/email.ts). Product/listing images are stored in Cloudflare R2 (S3-compatible).

TABLE_NAMES as Single Source of Truth

src/config/database.ts defines every table name as a constant. Every database query references TABLE_NAMES -- never a hardcoded string. The constants are organized into logical groups:

User & Auth | Inventory | Messaging | Services | Workshops | Locations
Applications | Payments | Reviews | Documents | IT-Hilfe | HIRN AI
Staff | Tasks | Content | Activity Stream | Meeting Protocols
P2P Marketplace | Organizational Numbers

Related SSOT exports live alongside: APPOINTMENT_ROLES, REVIEW_TARGET_TYPES, CONVERSATION_TYPES, SERVICE_CATEGORIES, FEATURED_SERVICE_SLUGS.

Adding a new domain means adding constants to one file. If a table name is wrong, it's wrong in one place.

Permission System

Three tiers, zero ambiguity:

Users  -->  Staff (is_staff, granted by a super admin)  -->  Super Admins (DB flag + owner floor)

• is_staff boolean + staff_permissions text array on the users table
• Staff status is never derived from the e-mail domain. Anyone may register; is_staff is granted explicitly (PATCH /api/admin/users/[id]/permissions or the HR hire flow). isStaffEmail is cosmetic only — it picks a welcome-email template. Super admins come from users.is_super_admin, with SUPER_ADMIN_EMAILS as a bootstrap floor so the org cannot lock itself out.
• Sensitive sections (finance, users, settings, …) require an explicit permission — is_staff alone grants none of them, so money and admin routes must check the section, never the staff flag.

Content Approval Flow

draft --> pending --> approved / rejected

Stored in user_content_submissions. Nothing goes live without review.

HIRN AI

In-house AI knowledge management system with an action cockpit and executor. Handles organizational intelligence -- not a chatbot wrapper.

Development Standards

These are enforced, not suggested:

• Logger -- import { logger } from '@/lib/logger'. Never console.log.
• TABLE_NAMES -- never hardcoded table strings. Import from src/config/database.ts.
• Parameterized queries -- never string concatenation. No exceptions.
• Swiss German -- user-facing text uses ss (not ß), proper ä/ö/ü (never ae/oe/ue). pnpm run lint:umlauts catches violations.

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Framework	Next.js 16 (App Router), React 19, TypeScript 6, Tailwind 4
Database	PostgreSQL (prod: Hetzner self-hosted; dev: Docker 5433), Drizzle ORM
Auth	NextAuth v5 (Auth.js) + @auth/pg-adapter (shares the app DATABASE_URL pool)
Search	Meilisearch
Payments	Payrexx (Swiss-based; ZKB / Twint / card)
Email	Resend (preferred), Listmonk (opt-in), SMTP via Nodemailer (fallback) — src/config/email.ts
Storage	Cloudflare R2 (S3-compatible) for product/listing images
Rate limiting	Redis
AI	HIRN (in-house provider stack: Groq → OpenRouter → Ollama cascade)
Testing	Vitest (7,500+ tests), Playwright (E2E)
CI/CD	GitHub Actions → self-hosted Hetzner deploy (systemd evig-app)

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22.13+ (CI and deploy run Node 24)
• A PostgreSQL database — local Docker via pnpm run services:up (port 5433)
• Optional: Meilisearch, Redis, Resend or Listmonk for full feature coverage

Setup

git clone https://github.com/bitbaum/evig.git
cd evig
cp .env.example .env.local    # fill in DATABASE_URL, AUTH_SECRET, payment keys, etc.
pnpm install
pnpm run db:migrate
pnpm run dev                    # Next.js on :3000

Environment Variables

At minimum, configure:

• DATABASE_URL -- PostgreSQL connection string (postgresql://postgres:postgres@localhost:5433/revampit_cms for local Docker; prod uses Hetzner — see .env.selfhost.local.example)
• AUTH_SECRET -- 32+ char random string for NextAuth JWT signing
• PAYREXX_INSTANCE / PAYREXX_API_SECRET / PAYREXX_WEBHOOK_SECRET -- payment integration
• RESEND_API_KEY (or Listmonk / SMTP settings) -- email delivery
• MEILISEARCH_URL / MEILISEARCH_KEY -- search

See .env.example for the full list.

Testing

7,500+ tests across 500+ Vitest suites, plus a Playwright E2E layer.

Category	Coverage
API routes	Notifications, admin, IT-Hilfe
Business logic	Protocols, payments, currency, tax compliance, HIRN AI
Auth	Password handling, permissions, rate limiter
Data processing	Bulk extraction, file parsing, CSV export/import
Validation	Schema tests
E2E (Playwright)	Auth smoke, marketplace, IT-Hilfe, security

pnpm test              # run all Vitest tests
pnpm run test:e2e      # run Playwright E2E suite

CI Pipeline

Defined in .github/workflows/ci.yml:

1. Code Quality -- pnpm run verify (lint, umlauts, typecheck, tests, build) on every pull request; on a squash merge to main (subject ends in (#N)) only pnpm run verify:main (the same checks without tests and build, about 3 minutes)
2. Auth Smoke Test and Dual-Persona Inventory Smoke -- Playwright against production, when the test secrets are set
3. Migration Drift Check -- replays every migration from zero
4. Unit Tests -- Vitest, PR only
5. Dependency Security Audit

Merge → live. One full proof per change, on the pull request. On main, a PR merge runs the fast gate and skips the E2E journeys and the production smokes the PR already ran; a main push without (#N) runs everything. Re-running the full bundle on main for a PR merge is a regression. Main runs are grouped per commit, so merges never queue behind each other.

On merge to main, the .github/workflows/deploy-selfhost.yml workflow lints, type-checks, builds the Next standalone bundle, rsyncs it to the Hetzner box, and restarts the systemd evig-app service (with a page-render rollback gate). Vercel is not used for production.

Project Structure

src/
  app/              # Next.js App Router (pages + API routes)
    [locale]/       # Public site (next-intl, de/fr/en/it/es/ja/ko/ru)
    admin/          # Staff admin surface
    api/            # API route handlers
  components/       # React components (UI only, no business logic)
  config/
    database.ts     # TABLE_NAMES SSOT
    org.ts          # Org-wide data SSOT (name, address, email, hours)
  lib/
    auth/           # NextAuth v5 wiring, permissions, staff detection
    services/       # Business logic (no HTTP, no UI)
    email/          # Templates and delivery
    it-hilfe/       # IT-Hilfe domain (notifications, matching, offers)
    payments/       # Payrexx integration
    logger.ts       # Structured logging
  hooks/            # Data fetching (SWR), state management
  db/schema/        # Drizzle schemas
scripts/
  db/migrations/    # Sequential SQL migrations (072 ADD COLUMN token_version, etc.)
src/**/__tests__/   # Vitest suites (co-located with the code)
tests/              # Playwright E2E tests

Contributing

1. Fork and create a feature branch
2. Follow the development standards (TABLE_NAMES, logger, parameterized queries, Swiss German rules)
3. Run pnpm test and pnpm run lint:umlauts before pushing
4. Open a PR against main -- CI will validate code quality and tests

Take it

Bitbaum is a platform for the new economy and for creation: building, engineering and researching. It's a community of builders, creators and researchers, and of the people who support them. We work as engineers in the loop: agents do much of the typing, and people own the judgement.

This code is MIT-licensed so that you can take it. Use it, fork it, rebrand it, sell it, or lift a single file. Make it yours and keep improving it the way you like. You don't need to ask, book a call or sign a CLA. Just keep the LICENSE with your copy.

npx degit bitbaum/evig my-evig   # a clean copy without our git history
cd my-evig && pnpm install

• Needs: Postgres (pnpm run services:up starts one in Docker) and .env.example.
• Make it yours: the name, colours and contact details start in src/config/org.ts.
• Shared pieces: the @bitbaum/* kits install from public npm or public GitHub, so you need no tokens or private registry.

More to take: orangecat.ch/steal and github.com/bitbaum.

Want to build it with us? Show us how you think

Copying code is free. What stays scarce once agents and robots write most of it is seeing the whole system. Pick one of these, in this repo, and open an issue or a pull request:

1. Find the second source of truth. Find a fact this code defines in two places. Show how the copies will drift, and say where the one copy should live.
2. Find the silent failure. Pick a promise this system makes. Find where it fails while every check stays green, and propose the check that would catch it.
3. Find where the human belongs. Point to a step where an agent acts alone but a person should decide, or the reverse, and say why.

A short, correct answer beats a long one, and so does an answer that admits what it doesn't know.

---

evig -- Intelligenz, für alle bezahlbar -- evig.orangecat.ch