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A dead man’s switch is only as trustworthy as its promise to still be running years from now. So the core of Lastward is open-source and self-hostable — what you set up doesn’t depend on any one company staying alive.

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The open-source core

The self-hostable server (lastward-core) is released under the AGPL-3.0 license — the same model trusted privacy tools like Bitwarden and Standard Notes use. You can read every line, run it yourself, and keep it running on your own terms.

What the core gives you

A standalone server you run with docker compose up: your switches, check-ins, the firing engine, and the recipient release page — all on infrastructure you control. It stays content-blind, exactly like the hosted service.

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Quick start

1

Get the core

Clone the repository and copy .env.example to .env:
2

Set your owner token

Generate a strong token (openssl rand -hex 32) and set OWNER_TOKEN — it’s how your app authenticates to your instance.
3

Run it

docker compose up starts PostgreSQL and the server, applies the database migrations, and begins the check-in sweep. Point your client at your instance’s URL and you’re live.

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Continuity guarantees

  • Export anytime. You can always download an encrypted bundle of your switches, so your setup is never trapped inside one service.
  • Published shutdown protocol. If the hosted service ever winds down, you get long advance notice, a final export, and a migration guide to self-hosting.
  • Honest limits. “It outlives any company” is only partly solvable — self-hosting is the real backstop, and we document that plainly rather than overclaiming.
The truly-public “make it public to the world” action is available only on self-hosted instances — the hosted service deliberately doesn’t publish content to the open web.