Fieldmouse Works

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Fieldmouse Works builds open-source software for ecosystems that are expensive, restrictive, or difficult to leave. You should be able to run the software, understand how it behaves, move your data, and keep operating on your own terms.

Built and maintained by Peter Permenter. The current focus is upgrade paths for old Linux machines and self-hosted software for emergency communications.

Upgrade a 2007 server to today, one release at a time, along a path someone already proved works.

• A map, not a magic upgrader. Small, reviewed fixes for the places where a plain release upgrade breaks, pinned into release-to-release routes. The machine's own package manager stays in charge.
• Five routes so far: Debian 4.0 etch (2007) to Debian 13, Ubuntu 14.04 to 26.04, and CentOS 5, 7 and 8 to AlmaLinux 10, crossing yum to dnf and the /usr merge.
• Every route carries evidence: replays from scratch on test machines, with every health check green. Kernels, bootloaders and real reboots are tested separately in VMs.
• No model at upgrade time. A static Rust client (in progress) will snapshot before each hop and roll back if a check fails. When a hop breaks, a scrubbed gap report the user reviews feeds the next fix.

Status: early; the fix format may still change. MIT OR Apache-2.0.
Repository · Spec · Contributing

Self-hosted training records for emergency communications centers, with agency-owned data.

• The training record, end to end. Versioned programs, Daily Observation Reports, weekly summaries, task signoffs, and trainee histories, with assignment-scoped access.
• Records you can defend. Finalized records are immutable; corrections create amendments or successor versions. Acknowledgments, retention policies, and holds are built in.
• Data you can take with you. Verifiable record exports, trainee packets, and a complete installation export that carries everything except credentials.
• Small enough to run yourself. One executable and one data directory, installed with one command. Upgrades take a validated backup before any database migration.

Status: pre-alpha, v0.3.0, for development and evaluation only; never use real personnel data. AGPL-3.0-only.
Repository · Install guide · Roadmap · Contributing

• Operate on your own terms. Self-hosting, understandable deployments, and freedom from permanent vendor dependence are design priorities.
• Make state and recovery explicit. Inspectable behavior, durable records, useful exports, and reproducible recovery matter as much as the happy path.
• Keep the claims honest. Implemented features, experiments, and future plans stay clearly separated. Each project's README and status documents describe its actual readiness.

Start with the README and contribution guide of the project that interests you. Reproducible bug reports, documentation corrections, and feedback grounded in real workflows are welcome.

• wend: a gap report from a real upgrade that broke is the most useful contribution. Fixes come in as pull requests that CI replays.
• Consolebook: use invented examples. Never submit real personnel records or operational data.

A small creature willing to take on something much larger than itself. That is a useful model for the work here: understand the closed system, then build the open door.

_{fieldmouseworks.com (source) · peter@fieldmouseworks.com · Peter's games and runtime research live on his personal profile.}