5.2 KiB
Nightjar
Local-first mycology assistant. Cultivation tracking, strain and species library, fruiting journal — no cloud required.
Part of the Circuit Forge LLC menagerie — AI for the tasks the system made hard on purpose.
Status: Backlog — not yet started. See the roadmap for priority order.
What it does
Nightjar tracks your mushroom cultivation from spawn to harvest: batch logging, fruiting condition records, strain genealogy, species identification from photos, and LLM-assisted troubleshooting when a flush goes sideways.
The European nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus) hunts entirely in the dark, navigating by sound and shadow to find what others miss. Fungi grow in the dark too — in substrate, in logs, in the hidden mycelial network that precedes every flush. Nightjar is the tool that helps you pay attention to what is happening in there.
Why it is hard
Mycology cultivation fails from poor record-keeping:
- Contamination sources are invisible until they bloom; without logs, patterns do not emerge
- Strain genealogy degrades when clones are passed between growers without documentation
- Fruiting conditions (temperature, humidity, CO2, light cycle) interact in ways that require historical data to tune
- Field identification is high-stakes: the difference between edible and toxic species is not always visually obvious to newer foragers
Core pipeline
Register strain or species (name, source, substrate, inoculation date)
→ Log environmental conditions (temp, humidity, CO2 level)
→ Record milestones (colonization, pinning, flush dates)
→ Photo log each flush → Human confirms harvest
→ LLM-assisted troubleshooting (describe symptoms or upload photo)
→ Build multi-batch history and yield statistics
→ Field foraging mode: photo ID with confidence score and safety notes
Feature areas
- Strain registry: species, variety, source, inoculation substrate, generation tracking for clones
- Batch log: timeline from inoculation to harvest; yield weight per flush
- Condition tracker: temperature, relative humidity, CO2 ppm, fresh air exchange schedule
- Fruiting journal: photo log with timestamps; pin counts; flush notes
- Troubleshooting: photo upload or symptom description; visual model suggests contamination type, deficiency, or environmental cause
- Field ID mode: identify foraged specimens from photos with confidence score and explicit safety warnings
- Offline-first: all data stays local; no account required for core use
Privacy · Safety · Accessibility
Privacy: All cultivation records and photos stay on your device. Cloud sync (Paid tier) is opt-in and end-to-end encrypted.
Safety: Field identification is a starting point only, never a final answer. Every ID result includes explicit safety warnings. Nightjar will never present a field identification as confirmed edibility. When in doubt, the app says so in plain language.
Accessibility: Latin binomials always paired with common names. Photo capture supports multiple input modes. Interface designed for low-light viewing (you are often checking logs in a grow tent).
Tiers
| Tier | What you get |
|---|---|
| Free | Strain registry, batch log, condition tracker, fruiting journal, local LLM troubleshooting |
| Paid | Cloud sync and photo backup, community strain library, enhanced field ID model |
| Premium | Fine-tuned visual model for your specific substrate and conditions, multi-site grow room support |
Get involved
Nightjar is pre-development. The best thing you can do right now is open an issue with:
- Your cultivation setup (agar work, bulk grows, monotubs, logs, outdoor beds, etc.)
- Data you currently track in spreadsheets or paper logs that you wish was easier
- Field foraging workflows you want supported
- Safety features you think are essential before this ships
Early issues shape what gets built first. Star the repo to follow progress.
Product code
License key format: CFG-NTJR-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
Tech notes
- Built on the shared circuitforge-core scaffold
- Visual model: local vision LLM for contamination diagnosis and field specimen identification
- Species database: integration with MycoPortal and iNaturalist taxonomy
- Data format: SQLite local store, JSON export for portability
- Sensor integration (Paid): optional read from temperature and humidity sensors via local API
License
Business Source License 1.1 — free for personal non-commercial self-hosting. Converts to MIT after four years. Commercial use requires a paid license.