Caldera
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Free and open source / GitHub + Obsidian

The social network for GitHub and Obsidian.

Your repos become a living city. Your vault becomes a living profile. Meet people by what they build and what they write.

GitHub takes about 30 seconds and needs no install. Obsidian runs on your device, and nothing leaves your vault unless you choose it. See a live profile · Browse people

A Caldera city: districts are projects, buildings are repos, lit windows are this week's commits A real city, live. Districts are projects, buildings are repos. Walk in →
Every Caldera member's city on one map The worldEvery member's city, one map.Neighborhoods are people, highways are friendships. Fly to anyone, walk into their city, open their repos.Explore the world →

How it works

Two doors, one network.

Come in with GitHub

  • Your repos become a city. Districts are projects, buildings are repos, and lit windows are this week's commits.
  • Watch your sites live. Add one line to a site and its visitors parachute into your city as they arrive.
  • See your AI agents work. Coding agents show up as drones over the repo they are working in.
  • Meet people. Add friends, join a group, and get a daily summary by email.

No install. Your page rebuilds from GitHub every 6 hours.

Sign up with GitHub

Come in with Obsidian

  • A living profile. Built on your device from your vault and refreshed every day: a journal, an activity score, streaks and topics.
  • Your story. A timeline, projects with live links and your AI usage, written by your AI from your vault.
  • Private sharing. Send any note to a friend, end-to-end encrypted. It lands in their vault as a normal note.
  • Help each other. Post asks and offers, and give gravity to the people who show up for you.

Free on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android.

Install for Obsidian

It is one network. A GitHub sign-up can move into an Obsidian vault any time and keep its page. Add your GitHub link in Obsidian and you get a city too.

01

A city that is alive

The sky follows the time of day. New visitors to your sites drop in by parachute, signups light up the city, and padlocked buildings keep private repos private. Pop it out into a small window and watch it all day. Walk a city.

02

People, friends and groups

Find people by what they build and write in People. Add friends, see who is new this week, and start a group at caldera.social/g/name to see everyone's cities side by side.

03

A living profile

A page that updates itself: a daily journal you can flip through, an activity score, streaks, topics, and the notes you choose to share. Bring data from your calendar, email, git and AI tools.

04

Your AI work, visible

Tokens by model and provider, read from your Claude Code and Codex logs, and your coding agents flying over the repos they are working in. The clearest sign of how you build with AI.

05

Asks, offers and gravity

Post what you could use help with and what you can help with. Put a bounty of help credits on an ask. No likes, no downvotes: give gravity to people who helped you. It fades over a month, so recent help counts most.

06

Open protocol

Everything is signed. With Obsidian, your identity is a key that lives in your vault, not a password. The code is open: self-host your page or run your own hub.

Make your page great

The pages people share do more than list a job title. Each of these takes one prompt pasted into your AI agent, and none of it shows anything private.

See every feature and how to turn it on →

Private by default

Get started

Pick your door.

With GitHub: one click

  1. Sign in with GitHub.
  2. Caldera builds your page and your city from your public repos.
  3. Edit your name, headline, links and photo on your account page, and add private repos if you want them.

Brand-new, empty GitHub accounts wait a few days before they can sign up. That keeps bots out.

Sign up with GitHub

With Obsidian: one paste, your AI does the rest

Caldera is in Obsidian's community plugins: open it in Obsidian or see the listing. Or paste one prompt into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any AI agent that can edit files on your computer. New to Obsidian? That's fine: the prompt installs Obsidian (free) and sets up your first vault, too.

  1. 1
    Copy the promptOne click, below.
  2. 2
    Paste it into your agentIt installs Obsidian if you need it, then Caldera, connects your calendar, email, AI and code activity, and schedules one routine that keeps your page fresh.
  3. 3
    Open Obsidian, pick a handleYour profile publishes and opens in your browser. Your key never passes through the AI.
caldera-setup.md
  • Installs Obsidian if needed
  • Installs the plugin
  • Writes a daily journal entry
  • Connects every activity source
  • Builds your GitHub city
  • Safe to paste again
  • Privacy rules override everything
  • Never touches your key

Already installed? In Obsidian, run Caldera: Copy the AI setup prompt for a version pre-filled with your vault path, handle and topics.

Prefer to install by hand?

1 · Get the plugin

  1. No Obsidian yet? Download it free from obsidian.md, open it, and choose Create new vault.
  2. Or download caldera-latest.zip.
  3. In your vault, open the hidden folder .obsidian/plugins/ and create a folder named caldera. On a Mac, Cmd+Shift+. shows hidden folders in Finder.
  4. Unzip into it: you should see main.js, manifest.json and styles.css.
  5. Restart Obsidian, then Settings → Community plugins → turn on Caldera.

Easier: Settings → Community plugins → Browse → search Caldera, or open it in Obsidian.

2 · Set it up

  1. Restart Obsidian. The Welcome to Caldera window asks for your name and a handle, publishes your page and opens it in your browser.
  2. Save your recovery key when it offers (Settings → Caldera → Export recovery key any time).
  3. Change anything later in the note Caldera/profile.md; see the Guide.
  4. Open the flame icon panel to add friends and give gravity.

After setup · any time

Paste it again to make it richer

The same prompt is safe to paste again. It checks what is already set up, connects any source it missed (calendar, email, AI usage, code, documents, GitHub city), drafts your page text for your OK, and upgrades your routine after a Caldera update. In Obsidian, My view shows which sources feed your page, with a one-click copy: Caldera: Copy the AI setup prompt.

Or do it by hand: what each convention does
Add thisTo get
caldera: public in a note's propertiesThe note listed on your profile (title and first paragraph)
caldera_headline, caldera_focus, caldera_wins in a daily note named YYYY-MM-DDThat day's journal entry
Caldera/activity.jsonDaily counts from outside tools (meetings, emails sent, commits, AI sessions) for your score
Command: Share this note with a friendAn encrypted copy in their vault, under Caldera/Inbox/
Commands: Post an ask / Post an offerThe help exchange on your profile and the hub

Publishing from a server or a scheduled job: the Caldera CLI in the repository (packages/cli, caldera publish --vault /path/to/vault) uses the same settings and identity.

Questions

Do I need Obsidian?

No. Sign up with GitHub and you get a page and a city with nothing to install. You can move into Obsidian later and keep your page.

What does Caldera read from my GitHub?

Your profile (name, bio, avatar, links), your public repos, their languages and weekly commit counts, and your public activity. Private repos only if you install the Caldera GitHub app on the repos you choose. It has read-only access to repository metadata, so it can count activity but cannot open your files. Visitors see private repos only as padlocked buildings, with no names.

I use Obsidian. Do I need it already?

No. Obsidian is a free notes app (obsidian.md) for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android. The install prompt checks for it, installs it if you say yes, and creates your first vault (a folder of notes). Your page starts simple and fills in as you write.

Is it free?

Yes. Your page, your city, the plugin and friends are free and open source. Optional paid features (like a hosted AI journal and custom domains) may come later.

Who can see my notes?

Only what you publish. Your vault is read on your device; Caldera publishes the sections you switch on and notes you mark caldera: public. Notes you share with a friend are encrypted so only that friend can read them.

What are help credits?

Points you earn by helping people with their asks. Everyone starts with 100. They have no cash value and can't be bought or sold.

Does it work on mobile?

Yes, the plugin runs on Obsidian desktop and mobile.

Can I host it myself?

Yes. Use Export profile to a vault folder to get a static site for any host, or run your own hub. The protocol is open.

How do I delete my profile?

GitHub sign-up: on your account page, choose Delete my Caldera profile; your page is erased and Caldera's access to your GitHub is revoked. Obsidian: run Caldera: Delete my profile from the hub. Your page, friendships, asks, offers, gravity and credits on the hub are erased. Your vault is never touched.

What if I lose my device?

Your identity is a key in your vault's plugin settings. Export the recovery key when you set up, and import it on a new device.