GoKawiilSolo developer releases open-source self-hosted dead man's switch
A one-person web studio owner in regional New South Wales has built and released Death Plan Switch, a free, MIT-licensed, self-hosted tool that emails users weekly and, if they stop responding, first checks with a designated next of kin before alerting other contacts such as business partners or clients. The developer says the tool was created to fill a gap in his own succession plan after documenting his business's logins and passwords but lacking a mechanism to detect his own incapacitation or death and notify the right people in order.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The tool addresses a narrow but real risk for independent contractors and small business owners whose clients, domains and infrastructure may depend entirely on one person's knowledge, with no automatic process to alert others if that person becomes unreachable. By requiring an active button press rather than a link open, and routing alerts through a trusted next of kin first, the design aims to reduce false alarms while still ensuring urgent cases reach the right people quickly. Its open-source, self-hosted nature could appeal to developers wary of trusting such sensitive continuity planning to a third-party service.
- Death Plan Switch is a free, MIT-licensed, self-hosted dead man's switch built by a solo web developer.
- It sends weekly check-in emails requiring a button press, then alerts a next of kin before notifying other contacts if the user goes silent.
- The creator has been testing it on himself for a week and is inviting other solo business owners to trial it and give feedback.
Source: deathplanswitch.com, 2026-10-20
Published there as: “Show HN: Death Plan Switch, a self-hosted dead man's switch for solo devs”
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