A private family history, shared with the people who help keep it.
More than one family per child, partnerships that end and begin again, and dates kept exactly as the record gives them. Choose a kind of link to trace it.
A child can have more than one parental family, and every link says what kind it is.
A focus-centred family view kept in the address, so Back and shared links restore it.
Pages for people, partnerships, places and sources, built around the evidence.
Several people can work on one tree without stepping on each other.
Bring a tree from other software and take it with you again.
Beside the flat family view, four 3D views. Each can show the whole tree and trace several lines at once.
An overview to turn and explore: one ring for each generation, the youngest at the top and the oldest at the bottom, with lines up to the children.
A glass ball with the family inside it. Height is the calendar, the oldest at the top; the wider a generation, the nearer its people sit to the glass.
Each person is a ribbon of descent. A couple’s ribbons meet at a glowing knot, and their children’s ribbons branch out from it like a river delta.
A star cluster. Partners circle each other as a pair of stars, and their children circle the pair.
Epoch is one SvelteKit application, in a single repository on GitHub. Clone it, run it on your own machine with a sample tree, then decide whether to install it.
tdack/epoch on GitHubgit clone https://github.com/tdack/epoch.gitcd epochnpm installcp .dev.vars.example .dev.varsnpm run db:migrate:localnpm run devThe app opens at localhost:5173, signed in as a local developer. With it
running, npm run seed loads a fictional sample tree.
One command creates everything Epoch needs, deploys it and checks the result. It signs in through your browser, so there is no API token to make.
Node 24, a Cloudflare account on a paid Workers plan, a Zero Trust organisation with an identity provider, and a workers.dev subdomain or a domain on Cloudflare.
Read-only: it shows what would be created or changed, and touches nothing.
./setup --planCreates the database, storage bucket, queue, Worker, address and sign-in page, deploys, checks the result and records you as the install owner. It asks only what it cannot find out itself.
./setupImport a GEDCOM file or start a tree, then invite relatives from the tree's Members page, each with their own role.
./setup doctor | Reports anything that has drifted from what setup created |
|---|---|
./setup allow <email> | Lets someone through the sign-in page setup created |
npm run deploy | Builds, applies any new migrations and deploys a new version |
./setup teardown | Deletes only what this install created |
Setup never creates your account, plan, Zero Trust organisation or domain, and never edits
an Access policy it did not create. Every flag is in ./setup --help and the README.
Epoch runs on your own Cloudflare account, which needs a paid Workers plan. Cloudflare bills you for that directly. There is no Epoch subscription.
Only the people you let in. Cloudflare Access handles sign-in, and Epoch then admits only the install owner, members of a tree and people with an open invitation. Anyone else who signs in is told to ask the owner for an invitation, and nothing is stored about them.
Inside a tree, each person has a role, and living people are hidden from anyone without the right to see them. Tree managers set that per tree.
A tree you can browse without signing in. Editing, invitations and GEDCOM import need an install of your own.
Yes, as a GEDCOM file, which most family-tree programs and sites can export. Epoch validates the file and shows a preview before anything is written, and offers to merge duplicate families it finds.
Anything in the file that Epoch does not show yet is kept, and written back out when you export.
The first save wins and the second is refused with an explanation, so nobody’s work is overwritten silently. Every change also shows an Undo, which reverts your own latest change and says why if someone has changed the same records since.
No. Setup can give you a workers.dev address, or use one custom domain that is already active on your Cloudflare account.
Export the whole tree as GEDCOM 5.5.1 or 7.0 at any time. If you stop using Epoch, ./setup teardown deletes only what setup created.
Record pages, lists and the family view have phone layouts. The 3D views are best on a larger screen.
Epoch is inspired by the capabilities of webtrees, not its screens or code. It is a separate application, written for Cloudflare, and exchanges data with other software through GEDCOM.
Epoch is young and under active development. Known gaps and planned work, such as printable reports, timelines and maps, are listed in the backlog. Export your tree as GEDCOM regularly, whatever software you use.