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🧭 Start Here

Blackcap Overview ✨ Blackcap Feature Catalog 🧱 Technology, Administration, and Reliability Installation First Run

🚀 Deploy Blackcap

Platform Stacks and Raspberry Pi Hardware Raspberry Pi Deployment Raspberry Pi Client Services GCP Deployment Packaged Blackcap deployment Application Updates Blackcap Release Notes Environment Variables and Secrets Reverse Proxy and TLS Background Jobs and Schedules

🛠️ Administer Blackcap

Organizations Users, Permissions, and Authentication Configuration Workspace Backups and Restore Database Administration Regression Testing Performance and Job Status Audit, Access Activity, and Logging GeoIP and Access Location Data Retention and Purge Support Chat Administration Support Requests API Tester and Postman Instance Reporting Microwave Pie licensing for Blackcap Microwave Pie licensing for Blackcap

🍽️ Use Recipes

Recipes and the Recipe Library Recipe Import and Discovery Recipe Editing and Cache Artifacts Recipe Sharing Social Recipe Import AI Recipe Image Generation

📅 Plan Meals

🛒 Use Shopping Lists

Shopping Lists and Shop a List External and Household Shopping 🧩 Chrome Extension Shop With

🧺 Manage Kitchen Inventory

🧺 Kitchen Inventory

🖥️ Use Displays

Displays and Connections Assigning and Scheduling Display Content Remote Pi Client E-Ink Rendering Menu Refresh and Rendering Noun Project Footer Images

🧑‍🍳 Cook with Let’s Cook

🧑‍🍳 Let’s Cook 🧑‍🍳 Let’s Cook Controls and Timers

🤖 Use and Administer AI

🤖 AI in Blackcap 🤖 AI Providers and Connections 🤖 AI Seeds and Usage Support Chat

🧩 Use the Chrome Extension

🧩 Blackcap Chrome Extension 🧩 Chrome Extension Recipe Capture 🧩 Chrome Extension Shop With 🧩 Chrome Extension Release and Privacy

🎮 Play Games

🎮 Games and Trivia

🔌 Integrations

Email Integration Cloud Storage Integrations Voice Assistants Shop With Integrations Authentication Providers

⚙️ Develop Blackcap

Application Architecture Database Service and Data Access SQLite and PostgreSQL Database Migrations Background Job Architecture Testing API Architecture Security and Organization Scoping UI, Icons, and Documentation Assets Blackcap-Safe Emoji Support Chat Architecture Extending Support Chat Support Chat Model Benchmark Documentation Standards Terminology

⚠️ Troubleshoot Blackcap

⚠️ Troubleshooting Licensing Troubleshooting Deployment Troubleshooting Display Troubleshooting Recipe Import Troubleshooting 🤖 AI Troubleshooting Backup Troubleshooting Database Troubleshooting Diagnostic Organization Clones Support Chat

Installation

Audience: Deployment Administrator Related: Raspberry Pi · Gcp · Environment And Secrets · First Run

Use the repository deployment scripts for a new installation. They install the required operating-system packages, create or update the Python virtual environment, prepare /etc/blackcap/blackcap.env, initialize configuration, install systemd units, run idempotent database migrations, and configure scheduled operations.

Use tools/deploy_pi.sh for a Raspberry Pi server and tools/deploy_gcp.sh for a GCP application host. Review the target-specific guide before running a script. Never commit the generated environment file or provider credentials.

Licensing trust material

Production Blackcap distributions include the Microwave Pie public Ed25519 verification keys in inky_admin/licensing/trusted_public_keys.json. Public verification keys are trust roots, not secrets, so they are intentionally shipped with the repository and follow the same deployment path as Blackcap itself. A normal Pi or GCP installation does not require a per-host signing-key secret.

Never place the Microwave Pie private signing key, Microwave Pie credential-encryption key, INSTANCE_SECRET_PEPPER, SMTP credentials, or customer License Keys in the Blackcap repository or host configuration. BLACKCAP_LICENSE_PUBLIC_KEYS_JSON is an optional additive/override mechanism for controlled development or trust transitions, not a required production secret.

Raspberry Pi

cd /home/pi/Blackcap-Pi
sudo ./tools/deploy_pi.sh

The script prompts for the service user, public URL, menu schedule, local e-ink role, remote Let’s Cook watcher, package installation, stunnel, and Gunicorn proxy behavior.

GCP

cd /opt/Blackcap
sudo ./tools/deploy_gcp.sh

The script prompts for the Cloud SQL connection, PostgreSQL credentials, private-IP use, public hostname, Nginx/HTTPS setup, certificate automation, schedules, and remote Let’s Cook watcher.

Manual verification

sudo systemctl status inky_admin.service --no-pager
sudo journalctl -u inky_admin.service -n 100 --no-pager

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