EverShelf: An Open-Source, Self-Hosted Smart Pantry Manager with AI to Stop Food Waste

EverShelf Project — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:50:52 +0000

Hi DEV community! 👋

I wanted to introduce EverShelf, a self-hosted, MIT-licensed smart pantry manager I’ve been building to tackle food waste at home.

We recently crossed 147+ stars and 14 forks on GitHub, and I'd love to share the tech behind it, gather feedback from fellow developers, and invite new contributors!

💡 The Problem

We’ve all experienced it: buying groceries, tucking them away in cupboards, and forgetting about them until they expire and end up in the trash.

Most consumer pantry apps are closed-source, full of subscription paywalls, or rely on proprietary cloud platforms. I wanted something modern, self-hosted, offline-capable, and privacy-respecting.

🛠️ Tech Stack & Architecture

Core: PHP 8+ backend, modular architecture with SQLite (WAL mode).
Frontend: Clean, responsive Single Page Application (PWA) with offline-queue support.
Deployment: Simple docker-compose setup and an official versioned Unraid template.
AI Engine: Pluggable AI integration supporting Google Gemini, OpenAI, or locally hosted Llama instances.
Integrations: Native Home Assistant support, ntfy/JSON push webhooks, and ICS/WebCal calendar feeds.

✨ Key Features

📷 Barcode Scanning & Receipt OCR: Fast mobile camera scanning and instant item identification.
🤖 Zero-Waste AI Recipes: Suggests meals using only ingredients currently available in your pantry, keeping expiries in mind.
🛒 Smart Shopping Lists: Calculates anti-waste quantities, deducts existing stock automatically, with optional sync to Bring!.
📅 Calendar Feed: Subscribe to your pantry’s expiry dates directly inside Google or Apple Calendar.
📱 Android Kiosk Mode: A dedicated kiosk APK with scale support for wall-mounted kitchen tablets.

🔗 Try It & Explore

GitHub Repository (MIT): github.com/dadaloop82/EverShelf
Live Interactive Demo: evershelf.site/demo/?lang=en
Official Website: evershelf.site/?lang=en

🏆 Community Contest!

We are currently running an official community contest on GitHub! You can read all the instructions, participate, and help shape the project here:
👉 EverShelf Discussion #299