Project Graveyard

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Give unfinished projects a dignified ending.

Project Graveyard is a completely offline desktop memorial for abandoned software projects. It scans only folders you explicitly select, identifies projects that have gone quiet, and lets you document a funeral, cause of death, and epitaph. A project can always be revived later.

Highlights

• Detects Git, Node.js, Python, Rust, Go, Maven/Gradle, CMake, and Composer projects.
• Supports recursive folder scans and adding one project directory directly.
• Runs read-only scans in the background with progress, cancellation, and per-project error recovery.
• Shows birth time, last activity, dormant days, size, TODO/FIXME count, Git state, and last commit.
• Filters by status, year, technology, size, and dormant duration.
• Provides a Three.js cemetery and a detailed project inventory view.
• Includes a full-screen Showcase Mode for README captures, demo GIFs, and launch posts.
• Gives alive, sleeping, and buried projects distinct silhouettes and scene decorations.
• Arranges active, dormant, and deceased projects in separate rows, with up to five graves per row.
• Includes day/night themes and instant Chinese/English UI switching.
• Turns funerals into a themed death-certificate flow with live tombstone previews and localized epitaph ideas.
• Keeps first-run controls simple, with filters and scan tuning available under Advanced Controls.
• Supports revival, archive moves, and safe moves to the system recycle bin.
• Exports the cemetery as PNG and generates annual reports.
• Includes 15 demo projects for screenshots and product tours without touching real folders.

Download

Windows 10/11

Download the latest Windows build from GitHub Releases. Windows users should choose the newest versioned x64 installer, for example:

Project-Graveyard-0.1.1-x64.exe

Changes merged into main are not automatically published as a desktop release. A matching v* tag, such as v0.1.1, is required to publish a new installer.

Run from source

To run from source:

git clone https://github.com/zhouder/Project-Graveyard.git
cd Project-Graveyard
npm ci
npm run dev

Node.js 22 LTS and Git are recommended. Projects without Git history can still be scanned.

How It Works

1. Choose Scan folder to recursively discover supported projects, or Add one project for a single directory.
2. Wait for the read-only background scan, or cancel it at any time.
3. Adjust the dormant threshold and filters.
4. Open a dormant project and choose Hold funeral.
5. Confirm or edit the death time, then enter a cause and epitaph.
6. Open the archive later to revive, archive, or move the project to the recycle bin.

Scanning never marks a project as deceased automatically. Death always requires explicit user confirmation.

Adding a scan source appends to existing sources. Rescanning refreshes the current index without removing funeral, revival, or migration history.

Date Rules

• Birth time prefers the first Git commit.
• Without Git history, the earliest creation time of a project marker such as package.json, pyproject.toml, or Cargo.toml is used.
• Last activity uses the later value of meaningful file modification time and the latest Git commit.
• The funeral suggests the last activity time as the death time, precise to the minute.
• The user must confirm or edit the death time, and it cannot precede the last activity.
• Lifespan is calculated from birth time to confirmed death time.

Privacy and Safety

Project Graveyard has no account, server, telemetry, analytics, domain dependency, or AI API.

• Paths, filenames, code, epitaphs, and statistics never leave the device.
• Scan roots can only be granted through the native folder picker.
• Scans ignore .git, node_modules, dist, build, target, venv, caches, and IDE folders.
• Scanning never modifies project files.
• Local state is stored in an atomic JSON file at %APPDATA%\project-graveyard\graveyard.json on Windows.
• A funeral changes local metadata only; it does not move or delete files.
• Archive and recycle-bin operations require clear confirmation.
• Recycle-bin failure never falls back to permanent deletion.

Important projects should still be protected with Git or another backup system.

Web and Desktop Builds

The React renderer can run in a browser for the full 3D demo:

npm run web:dev

The browser build cannot reliably inspect arbitrary local Git repositories, move folders, or call the system recycle bin. The Electron desktop build is required for those capabilities.

Development

npm install          # Install dependencies
npm run dev          # Vite + Electron development mode
npm run web:dev      # Browser-only demo
npm run web:build    # Build the browser renderer
npm test             # Run Vitest tests
npm run test:watch   # Run tests in watch mode
npm run lint         # Run ESLint with zero warnings
npm run typecheck    # Check renderer and Electron types
npm run build        # Build production files

Main directories:

electron/            Electron main process, preload, scanner, and local storage
src/                 React UI, Three.js cemetery, domain logic, and demo data
public/assets/       Offline visual assets
docs/                Product screenshots
.github/workflows/   GitHub release automation

Package and Release

Build the Windows NSIS installer:

npm run dist:win

Artifacts are written to release/. Pushing a v* tag that matches the version in package.json triggers the official GitHub Release build. The workflow runs tests, lint, build, and Windows packaging before attaching the versioned installer to the Release.

The workflow can also be run manually from main. Manual runs upload a temporary Actions artifact for verification and do not create or replace a GitHub Release.

git tag v0.1.1
git push origin v0.1.1

See the release checklist before publishing.

Electron and Chromium account for most of the installer size. A substantially smaller installer would require a runtime migration such as Tauri with WebView2.

License

MIT