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Family Hub Documentation

The Central Command Station for Modern Household Organization & Smart Home Control

🚀 Live Production Platform

Family Hub is deployed live in production at family.intellidwell.net. It is designed to run seamlessly both as an interactive wall-mounted touchscreen kiosk (e.g., in a kitchen or hallway) and as a responsive mobile web application for parents on the go.

Product Vision & Core Purpose

Managing a modern family often feels like juggling disjointed tools: one parent checks Apple Calendar, another uses Google Calendar at work, soccer games arrive via team links, chores are scribbled on dry-erase boards, and kids' behavioral charts are taped to the refrigerator.

Family Hub by Intellidwell unifies everything into a single, high-contrast digital command station that anyone in the family can understand at a glance:

📅 Unified Multi-Calendar

Merges Google Calendar, Apple iCloud, Microsoft Outlook, and youth sports/school iCal feeds into one harmonized schedule with color-coded badges and automatic 15-minute background synchronization.

⭐ 50-Day Motivation Charts

Gamified routine and chore habit-building charts for each child with rewarding milestone sound effects, celebration confetti, and side-by-side progress views.

📋 Family To-Do & Chores

Assign tasks directly to specific family members with interactive avatar chips. Optionally synchronizes bidirectionally with Home Assistant's shopping list.

🏡 Smart Home & Presence

Instant one-tap control of front/back door deadbolts, porch and patio lights, dual thermostats, and real-time parent GPS presence status (Home/Away).

Multi-User Household Boundary & Accounts

Family Hub is engineered with strict multi-tenant household boundaries. When you sign up, an isolated household environment is created. All family members within that household share the exact same schedule, sticker charts, to-do lists, and bulletin board notes, while keeping their personal login credentials secure.

💡 How Spouses & Co-Parents Share the Dashboard

You do not need to share a single master password! When adding or editing a family member (e.g. "Mom"), enter her email address. When she visits family.intellidwell.net and registers with that email address, the system automatically links her account to your shared household. Both parents log in with their own passwords and see the exact same synchronized dashboard in real time.

1. Primary Account Creation

The primary user signs up at https://family.intellidwell.net/register. A new Household record is initialized with default dashboard settings.

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2. Adding Family Members & Email Linking

Open Settings ➔ Family Members. Add each parent and child, assigning a custom avatar, color, and role. For adult members who need login access, enter their email address in the Member drawer.

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3. Instant Multi-Device Synchronization

Any device logged in under that household (the wall kiosk tablet, smartphones, laptops) reads from the shared household database. Sticker completions and chore checkoffs sync instantly across all screens.

System Architecture

Family Hub is built using a modern, lightweight Python and Flask application server backed by an encrypted SQLite database engine, high-speed icalendar parsing workers, and local Home Assistant REST integrations:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                       FAMILY HUB WEB & KIOSK CLIENTS                        │
│   • Kitchen Wall Tablet (Fully Kiosk Browser)  • Parents' Mobile Phones     │
└──────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
                                       │ HTTPS / WebSockets / JSON
                                       ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                          NGINX REVERSE PROXY                                │
│   • SSL Termination (Let's Encrypt)  • Static Asset Cache  • Port 443       │
└──────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
                                       │ Reverse Proxy (Unix Socket / 127.0.0.1)
                                       ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    GUNICORN WSGI + FLASK APP SERVER                         │
│  ┌────────────────────────┐  ┌────────────────────────┐  ┌────────────────┐ │
│  │ Household Auth & RBAC  │  │ Calendar Sync Service  │  │ Home Assistant │ │
│  │ (Multi-User Sessions)  │  │ (15m Async Background) │  │ Service (REST) │ │
│  └───────────┬────────────┘  └───────────┬────────────┘  └───────┬────────┘ │
└──────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────┘
               │                           │                       │
               ▼                           ▼                       ▼
  ┌────────────────────────┐  ┌────────────────────────┐  ┌────────────────┐
  │ SQLite Database        │  │ Local ICS Cache Files  │  │ Home Assistant │
  │ (/data/family_hub.db)  │  │ (/data/cache_*.ics)    │  │ (Local IoT)    │
  │ • Households & Users   │  │ • Google Secret iCal   │  │ • Smart Locks  │
  │ • Family Members       │  │ • Apple iCloud Webcal  │  │ • Porch Lights │
  │ • Sticker Progress     │  │ • Outlook 365 ICS      │  │ • Thermostats  │
  │ • To-Dos & Messages    │  │ • Sports/School Feeds  │  │ • Presence GPS │
  └────────────────────────┘  └────────────────────────┘  └────────────────┘

Quick Start Checklist

Follow these 5 steps to get your household fully operational:

1

Create Your Household Account

Navigate to family.intellidwell.net/register, enter your email and a strong password, and click Create Account.

2

Set Up Your Family Members

Click the Settings (⚙️) icon on the top right, scroll to Family Members, and add each family member with their name, role (Parent or Child), custom color, and fun avatar emoji.

3

Subscribe to Your Calendars

In Settings, open Calendar Feeds. Add your Google Calendar secret iCal URL, Apple iCloud shared calendar link, or Outlook webcal URL. Choose distinct colors for each feed.

4

(Optional) Connect Home Assistant

Toggle on Home Assistant Integration and provide your local instance URL and Long-Lived Access Token to control door locks, lighting, and view parent presence status.

5

Mount & Configure the Wall Kiosk

Install Fully Kiosk Browser on an Android tablet (such as an Amazon Fire HD 10 or Galaxy Tab), set the start URL to https://family.intellidwell.net, and enable motion detection wake.

Technical Specifications

Parameter	Implementation / Specification
Production URL	`https://family.intellidwell.net`
Hosting Infrastructure	NelsonServer Linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (x86_64)
Backend Framework	Python 3.12, Flask, Flask-SQLAlchemy, Werkzeug Security
WSGI Server	Gunicorn daemon managed via systemd (`family.service`)
Calendar Parsing Engine	`icalendar` with `recurring_ical_events` RRULE expansion
Background Sync Engine	Automated daemon polling every 15 minutes + on-demand refresh triggers
Supported iCal Formats	RFC 5545 iCalendar (.ics), `webcal://` URLs, Google Secret Address, iCloud CalDAV
Smart Home Protocols	Home Assistant REST API (Bearers with Long-Lived Access Tokens)
Client Compatibility	Chromium 100+, Mobile Safari (iOS 15+), Fully Kiosk Browser for Android

Documentation Chapters

Explore the complete guides and technical references for Family Hub:

1. Calendar Feeds & Integration ➔

Step-by-step guides for Google iCal Secret URLs, Apple iCloud webcal links, Outlook 365, school/sports leagues, colors, and 15-minute background sync.

2. Daily Routines & Features ➔

Family members configuration, custom emoji avatars, 50-day sticker motivation chart with audio & confetti, shared to-do lists, and bulletin board.

3. Smart Home & Wall Kiosk ➔

Connecting Home Assistant for smart door locks, lights, thermostats, parent GPS presence, tablet mounting, and Fully Kiosk Browser setup.