CARTO stamps an "API KEY REQUIRED" watermark onto every basemap tile fetched without a key since 26.08.2026, and both CartoDB presets plus the built-in fallback are CARTO. The key is free and needs no account, so add it as a setting rather than dropping the provider. carto_api_key sits next to mapbox_access_token: per user in Settings/Map, instance-wide under Admin/User Defaults, encrypted at rest, injected from CARTO_API_KEY on managed instances. Unlike Mapbox it never switches the map provider, since a raster key says nothing about the renderer. The key is appended as ?key= at render time instead of being stored in the template, so a saved URL stays portable and survives a rotation. That is also what reaches the four maps that pinned CARTO and ignored the user's tile setting: atlas, collections, the public trip share and the public journey. The two share pages read it from their token-gated payload, the same way baseCurrency already travels. Also lifts the release notice above page chrome. Its overlay sat at z-index 50, under the Vacay mode toolbar at 61, so the dialog was neither on top nor modal. Adds a six-step layer scale to index.css and moves the three notice shells onto it. Closes #2054 Closes #2052
A self-hosted, real-time collaborative travel planner — with maps, budgets, packing lists, a journal, and AI built in.
What you get
See all features
Most of what follows is an addon an admin switches on or off. Lists, Costs, Documents, Collab, Vacay and Atlas ship on; Journey, Collections, MCP, AI Parsing and AirTrail ship off and are marked below.
🧭 Planning
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🧳 Bookings and money
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👥 Collaboration
📔 Journal, Atlas and Vacay
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🧩 Plugins
🤖 AI and MCP
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📱 Mobile and offline
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⚙️ Admin, accounts and security
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AI usage
We use LLM-assisted coding tools across parts of this codebase. Nothing ships that a maintainer has not read and understood: every change goes through a pull request, is reviewed and tested, and has a human who can answer for it. "The AI wrote that" is not an answer any of us would accept from ourselves.
See How we use AI in TREK for the details.
Get started in 30 seconds
ENCRYPTION_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32) docker run -d -p 3000:3000 \
-e ENCRYPTION_KEY=$ENCRYPTION_KEY \
-v ./data:/app/data -v ./uploads:/app/uploads mauriceboe/trek
Open http://localhost:3000. On first boot TREK seeds an admin account — if you set ADMIN_EMAIL/ADMIN_PASSWORD those are used, otherwise the credentials are printed to the container log (docker logs trek).
Tech stack
Real-time sync via WebSocket (ws). Backend on NestJS 11. State with Zustand. Auth via JWT + OAuth 2.1 + OIDC + Passkeys (WebAuthn) + TOTP MFA. Weather via Open-Meteo (no key required). Maps with Leaflet and Mapbox GL.
Docker Compose (production)
The repository ships a ready-to-use docker-compose.yml
with secure defaults and every option documented inline. Download it, then:
docker compose up -d
See Install with Docker Compose for the full walkthrough.
Helm (Kubernetes)
helm repo add trek https://chart.liketrek.com
helm repo update
helm install trek trek/trek
See charts/README.md for values.
Install as App (PWA)
TREK works as a Progressive Web App — no App Store needed.
- Open TREK in the browser (HTTPS required)
- iOS: Share ▸ Add to Home Screen
- Android: Menu ▸ Install app (or Add to Home Screen)
TREK then launches fullscreen with its own icon, just like a native app.
Updating
See Updating — Docker Compose, Docker run, Helm, Portainer, Unraid and Proxmox, plus the encryption-key note.
Reverse Proxy
For production, put TREK behind a TLS-terminating reverse proxy. TREK uses WebSockets for real-time sync, so the proxy must support WebSocket upgrades on /ws.
If you use the MCP addon, the proxy must also pass the Mcp-Session-Id header through in both directions on /mcp — Nginx and Caddy do this by default, but a proxy that strips it makes every tool call open a new session instead of reusing one. See the Reverse Proxy wiki page for details.
Nginx
server {
listen 80;
server_name trek.yourdomain.com;
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}
server {
listen 443 ssl http2;
server_name trek.yourdomain.com;
ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/privkey.pem;
# 500 MB covers backup-restore uploads (capped at 500 MB server-side).
client_max_body_size 500m;
location / {
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
}
location /ws {
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_read_timeout 86400;
}
# Only needed if you use the MCP addon. Responses are Server-Sent Events,
# so buffering must be off or tool results arrive late.
location /mcp {
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
proxy_buffering off;
proxy_read_timeout 3600s;
}
}
Caddy
trek.yourdomain.com {
reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}
Caddy handles TLS and WebSockets automatically.
Environment variables
Every variable, its default and what it does: see Environment Variables.
Star History
Data sources
The Atlas map's country and sub-national (province/county) boundaries come from geoBoundaries (Runfola et al., 2020), licensed CC BY 4.0. See NOTICE.md for full third-party attributions.
License
TREK is AGPL v3. Self-host freely for personal or internal company use. If you modify and offer TREK as a network service to third parties, your modifications must be open-sourced under the same licence.



