Blikka

Blikka is an open-source SaaS for running photo events. Used by Stockholm Fotomaraton it handles more than 10000 photo uploads in the matter of a couple hours each year. Also powering Sthlm By Camera every week and will soon be used my one of the largest camera makers for one of their events. Handles mass submission uploads in a intuitive flow. Admins get real-time overview of their event in the dashboard and jury members get a customer rating interface to review all their submissions.

What you can do with Blikka

• Run participant uploads: mobile-first flow with device selection, class selection, and live upload progress.
• Validate submissions: automated + manual validation (file rules, EXIF parsing, and per-marathon configuration).
• Admin dashboard: configure classes, topics/prompts, rules, device groups, sponsors, and review submissions.
• Jury review: token-based invite links for jurors to review/score.
• Public voting: token-based voting viewer with controlled access.
• Exports: generate contact sheets and downloadable ZIPs of submissions.

How it works (high level)

• Web app: apps/web is a Next.js App Router app (React + Tailwind + Radix UI) that serves:
  • participant + staff + admin UIs (routed under /(marathon)/...)
  • invite/token UIs for jury and voting
  • a built-in tRPC API at apps/web/src/app/api/trpc/[trpc]/route.ts
  • auth routes at apps/web/src/app/api/auth/[...all]/route.ts using better-auth
• API layer: packages/api holds the tRPC router + services used by the web app.
• Database: Postgres via Drizzle ORM and Effect SQL (packages/db).
• Media pipeline on AWS (SST):
  • uploads land in S3
  • S3 events enqueue work to SQS
  • workers generate thumbnails, contact sheets, run validations, and produce ZIP exports
  • a bus/queues coordinate processing (see sst.config.ts)

Repo layout

• apps/web: primary web app (Next.js)
• packages/*: shared libraries (auth, db, api, validation, image manipulation, s3, redis/kv-store, pubsub, email, telemetry)
• tasks/*: background workers (upload processing, validation, contact sheet generation, zip workers/downloaders)
• sst.config.ts: AWS infrastructure (S3 + queues + tasks) using SST

Getting started (local development)

Prerequisites

• Node.js (>= 20)
• Bun (repo package manager; see package.json)
• AWS credentials (SST runs against your AWS account)
• A Postgres database (local or managed)
• Upstash Redis (used for state/coordination)

Setup

1. Install dependencies

bun install

2. Create an environment file

cp .env.example .env

3. Start SST (queues/workers/infrastructure)

bun dev:sst

4. Start the web app

bun dev:web

The web app runs on http://localhost:3002.

Environment variables

Blikka expects configuration for auth, database, Redis, and external services. See .env.example for the canonical list (derived from sst.config.ts).

Scripts

• bun dev:sst: run SST dev (AWS-backed local dev for infra + workers). ZipHandlerTask runs locally under Tasks in the multiplexer. Zip export uses ECS — set AWS_CLUSTER, AWS_REGION, AWS_SUBNETS, and ZIP_DOWNLOADER_TASK_DEFINITION in .env.
• bun dev:web: run the Next.js app locally (port 3002)
• bun format: format with Prettier
• bun test: run unit tests (Vitest)

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome.

• Keep changes focused and well-scoped
• Prefer bun format before opening a PR
• Add/update tests where it makes sense

License

This project is licensed under the AGPL-3.0 for non-commercial use.