Built a CardDAV contacts server that works with DAVx5

filtrate439

Built a CardDAV contacts server that works with DAVx5 — does this make sense for anyone?

Hey — I was using Nextcloud just to sync contacts and it felt like overkill. So I built a dedicated CardDAV server designed to work with DAVx5 on GrapheneOS.

Features:

Full CardDAV sync (RFC 6352)
Works with DAVx5 out of the box
Contact sharing between users
Self-hostable with Docker Compose + SQLite
Or use the hosted version at https://contacts.scc.im

Just a simple, privacy-respecting way to sync contacts without Google or running a full Nextcloud instance.

Also, huge thanks to the GrapheneOS team for the amazing work on the OS. It's what motivated me to build proper self-hosted alternatives for everyday things like contacts.

Is this something that would be useful to you? What's missing from the contact sync options you've tried? Would love to hear ideas or feedback.

Johnnyloans

filtrate439

Hey dude cool project.

This is surely made with AI.
I wouldn't trust it with anything security-wise. Dangerous to advertise this if it is vibecoded.

Edit:
Didnt see Claude mentioned at first. Kudos for being a bit transparent.

littlerack

filtrate439 does this make sense for anyone

0 sense, if to drop negative estimates. Raficale is just fine and even magnitudes better as it has strong community behind.

littlerack

filtrate439 Is this something that would be useful to you?

Nope

littlerack

filtrate439 What's missing

Trust

littlerack

Johnnyloans Hey dude cool project.

Joined an hour ago. Shit project

DohnJoe

littlerack Joined an hour ago. Shit project

We understand you don't like it.
A lot of people in here would not accept vibecoding projects (me included), but come on.
The very least you can do is trying to avoid bad manners.

I see you somewhat "made an effort" to give @filtrate439 a feedback, especially about trust, but if you don't spend at least two words on why something might be bad, it is worthless.

Also, there were a point in time when also you "Joined an hour ago", I hope it was not a valid reason to mistreat people then as it is not today.

filtrate439

Hi @littlerack
Thank for checking it, yes it's vibe coded, you see the commits on the open source repo, I've done it in free time with some (many) tokens :)
It was something I have built for myself, then keep going with vibe coding to see where it can bring, like a test to see what happens building something from scratch starting from the RFC with the use of CC.
I really want to have something that is simpler than hosting a full nextcloud for handling contacts but still have some web interface.
Asking here if for someone can be useful, seem not...
I can also open everything if there's request or someone wants to iterate it more.
For my purposes it's already working enough, I have my contacts backed up...

Thanks

Eirikr70

filtrate439 Hi, you won't find much enthusiasm here. This forum is populated with people who care about computer security. And although AI can help in building a secure app, vibe-coding is something people (including myself) associate with poor quality of the code, hence poor security, especially for a web-exposed app.

SovereignCopper

filtrate439 I really want to have something that is simpler than hosting a full nextcloud for handling contacts but still have some web interface.

Like https://bewcloud.com
Or https://github.com/DioCrafts/OxiCloud

filtrate439

Hi @Eirikr70 ,
Thank you for your response, understood and understandable.
I do not have the resources (and wish) of building it without vibe coding (I see the DAV protocol a bit boring :) ), I just wanted a way to handle my contacts in Grapheneos without relying Nextcloud or Google (I have Proton but they are not integrated with the OS), so I built it.
Now I'm trying just to understand if other have got the same needs.

DohnJoe

filtrate439

Personally I wouldn't trust AI code, but that might be my biases holding me back.
That said, it's nice to see some efforts going this direction, enabling users to escape big techs.

Just remember that sometimes big techs might be better than no security, tho.

filtrate439 I just wanted a way to handle my contacts in Grapheneos without relying Nextcloud or Google

If you didn't try already, you can have a look on radicale, which is a server that focuses in CardDav and CalDav only :)

gos_user_1

filtrate439 You should note you used AI to develop this clearly in your post, you didn't really build it, AI built it for you.

A web facing application which could itself host sensitive data is prbably the worst candidate for AI code generation.

mmobder

DohnJoe Though I wouldn't say it this exact way, if someone is not checking what's available (Radicale is 1:1), vibe-codes without understanding the environment ("dav is boring"), what is the expected quality of the solution?

mmobder

filtrate439 what's the point if there is already a Radicale and Baikal? Why to invent the wheel?

DohnJoe

mmobder what is the expected quality of the solution?

Do not get me wrong, I completely agree.
Lack of trust, poor quality and low expectations are in order, for both AI and lack of research.

You were able to express the same concept without being rude and I don't think it was hard to do.

I will just skip a very long post about "From great power...", but at least allow me to say that we can tell people their job is wrong (and possibly why) even without mortify them.

filtrate439

Hi all,
And want to thank you all for the responses.

Why I'm not using radicale: just to be clear, not because I think I can create something better by myself, same for Baikal (that I have known from @mmobder 🙏).
The main missing point from them is that they lack a web interface for contacts, while on Google I was using contacts.google.com interface a lot for managing my contacts from the desktop, having them synched with my phone.
Now from what I've seen something that does just that (without other features) does not exist. Maybe oxi is the nearest one but it has a warning ⚠️ near Android Dav (I've not gone deep but this has stopped me on going with it).
One of my ideas was to build a web interface around radicale but he authors clearly writes that no interface will be built for it, so for me it means that the authors have already thinked about it and it's not a good idea.

Next idea was: what if I just take the RFC of DAV protocol and ask CC to build first a client to test it and then a server that use the client to test it fully (I've chosen ROR because I know it). And then this project is born, now I have the interface and my phone synched with it.
I've come here to have other points of view. This project already works for me.
(For example I do not need Calendar because I'm on Proton and is already handled well for what I need)

Thanks @DohnJoe for your words, I can't say I was not upset about the wording before your writing, but ok my main concern here is to get feedbacks.

Thanks all

mmobder

filtrate439 authors clearly writes that no interface will be built for it, so for me it means that the authors have already thinked about it and it's not a good idea.

Because it is out of defined scope of the project. That's what responsible people do - they estimate, how much efforts they can spend on their open-source baby and have to focus, so it doesn't turn into abandonware.

SovereignCopper

You're right, I'm sorry. My statements were based off of the feature lists (and having tried bewCloud a long while ago). Having tried both (bewCloud and OxiCloud), it's just not worth using them for calendar/contacts. While OxiCloud has an impressive user interface for files, it does not have one for calendar/contacts, just CalDAV/CardDAV support (and issues with DAVx5).

bewCloud basically just seems to runs Radicale and while exposing calendars and contacts in the UI, it's so minimal that it's basically useless imho.

I should have done better research. My apologies.

Oggyo

@filtrate439
Let me share my opinion.
I haven't tried your solution yet, and sorry but I don't plan to do it. Here is why. My point of view, of course:

If I'm looking to a paid cloud solution I will go the well know E2EE EteSync. The same or better price and yes, it has "interface for contacts", etc. already mentioned in your solution.
Instead, I choose the self-hosting path with Baikal. I sync it between Baikal server/storage, my phone, and Thunderbird installed on my laptop where I can edit and manage my contacts and calendars. This completes the gap of no "interface for contacts". Also it acts as a second copy for fast recovery.
The setup works very well for me, I was able to quickly adapt myself around some limitations and keep improving it for my needs (e.g. VPN to my home-lab). I don't see why I should replace it anytime soon.

So, at the end, is't all about the trust as already mentioned above.