README.md

June 8, 2026 · View on GitHub

Equip

A free, open-source learning management system built for Bible schools, church ministries, and nonprofit educational programs.

Live demo · Roadmap · Contributing · Support · Changelog

Screenshots

_{Sign in (light)}	_{Sign in (dark)}
_{Account creation — student / teacher role picker}	_{Mobile (390px)}

Live at equipbible.com. Teacher and admin views (gradebook, course editor, analytics) are behind sign-in — create a free account to explore.

Hundreds of small Bible schools, home churches, and missionary training programs around the world still manage courses on paper, WhatsApp, or spreadsheets. Commercial LMS platforms are expensive, overkill, or require technical expertise that volunteer-run organizations simply don't have.

Equip is designed to change that:

Free forever — MIT-licensed, no paywalls, no "premium" tiers.
Simple to deploy — one-click Vercel deploy with a free Supabase database. No Docker, no servers to manage.
Built for small scale — optimized for 20-100 students, not enterprise pricing models.
Contributor-friendly — clear docs, conventional commits, issue templates, and a welcoming community.

Features

Area	What you get
Course authoring	Courses, modules, chapters, rich content blocks (TipTap editor with images, YouTube, callouts, audio)
Assessments	Multiple-choice, true/false, short-answer, and essay quizzes with attempt limits and teacher grading
Assignments	Student submissions, grading queue, automatic chapter completion
Progress tracking	Per-chapter progress, module/course completion, enrollment management
Certificates	Auto-generated certificates with teacher approval flow
Teacher tools	Gradebook, analytics dashboard, cohort management, calendar, announcements
Admin tools	User management, bulk operations, CSV export, course cloning, soft delete
Design	Editorial aesthetic, dark/light theme, responsive (360px+), HSL semantic tokens
Bilingual content (RU↔EN)	Auto-translation of all teacher-authored text via Gemini, stored per (entity, field, locale) in the `content_versions` table; canonical KJV / Synodal substitution for Bible quotes; symmetric — author writes in their language, students read in theirs; off-the-request-path via a cron-driven worker queue so publishing stays instant even on 100-block courses
Security	RLS on every table, server-side HTML sanitization, CORS lockdown, audit pipeline, typed error envelope (`{code, message, context}`) for structured client + Sentry handling

Tech stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 18, TypeScript, Vite, Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui, TipTap, Radix
Backend	Python 3.12, FastAPI, SQLAlchemy 2, Pydantic 2
Database	PostgreSQL (Supabase) with Row Level Security
Auth	Supabase Auth (Google OAuth + email/password)
Storage	Supabase Storage (avatars, course assets, materials)
Deploy	Vercel (static frontend + Python serverless backend)
CI/CD	GitHub Actions (lint, typecheck, test, audit) + Dependabot

Quick start

Prerequisites

Node.js 22.x (.nvmrc pins 22.18.0), npm >= 10
Python 3.12
A free Supabase project (or just run backend tests with SQLite — no Supabase needed)

1. Clone and install

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/equip.git
cd equip

# Frontend
cd frontend && npm ci && cd ..

# Backend
cd backend && pip install -r requirements.txt && cd ..

2. Configure environment

cp frontend/.env.example frontend/.env.local   # fill in VITE_* vars
cp backend/.env.example  backend/.env           # fill in Supabase creds

See each .env.example for a description of every variable.

3. Start development

# Terminal 1 — API
cd backend && uvicorn app.main:app --reload     # http://localhost:8000

# Terminal 2 — SPA
cd frontend && npm run dev                      # http://localhost:5173

4. Run tests

cd backend  && python -m pytest tests/    # 1400+ tests (SQLite in-memory)
cd frontend && npm run test:run           # Vitest + jsdom
cd frontend && npm run i18n:check         # bilingual locale parity (en.json ↔ ru.json)

Project structure

backend/            Python FastAPI application
  app/
    api/v1/         Route modules
    core/           Config, database, auth helpers
    models/         SQLAlchemy ORM models
    schemas/        Pydantic request/response schemas
    services/       Business logic
  tests/            pytest suite

frontend/           React SPA (Vite + TypeScript)
  src/
    components/     UI components (shadcn/ui + custom)
    pages/          Route-level pages
    services/       API client + Supabase helpers
    context/        React contexts (auth, theme)

supabase/
  migrations/       SQL migration files (production schema source of truth)

.github/
  workflows/        CI pipelines
  ISSUE_TEMPLATE/   Bug report and feature request forms

Contributing

We welcome contributions of all sizes — from typo fixes to new features.

Read CONTRIBUTING.md for setup and workflow details.
Check open issues — look for the good first issue label if you're new.
See the ROADMAP for bigger-picture direction.

We especially welcome:

Nonprofit Bible schools sharing their real-world needs
Designers improving the student/teacher experience
Translators reviewing and refining the AI-translated content (the platform is already RU↔EN bilingual; human review of the canonical Bible-school terminology is what would push quality from "good" to "great")
QA testers finding and reporting bugs

For nonprofits

If you're a Bible school, ministry, or educational nonprofit considering this platform:

It's free. MIT license means you can use, modify, and deploy it with zero cost.
No vendor lock-in. Host it yourself or use the free tiers of Vercel + Supabase.
You don't need a developer on staff. Follow the quick start above, or open a discussion and the community will help.
Your feedback shapes the product. Open a feature request — the roadmap is driven by real ministry needs.

How Equip compares

There are great LMS options out there. Equip exists in a specific gap they don't fill well: a small Bible school or ministry that wants something modern, free, and Bible-aware without standing up a full LAMP server or paying per student.

	Equip	Moodle	Google Classroom	Canvas LMS
License / cost	MIT, free	GPL, free	Free	Per-user fees
Self-hosted	One-click Vercel + Supabase free tier	LAMP server you maintain	SaaS only	SaaS only
Setup effort	Minutes	Hours to days	None	None
UI	Modern, theme-aware (light + dark)	Functional, dated	Modern	Modern
Scripture handling	KJV / Synodal substitution, paraphrase guard	None	None	None
Bilingual content	Auto RU↔EN via Gemini, cached	Manual i18n	None	Manual i18n
Code customization	TypeScript + Python	PHP plugins	Closed source	Closed source
Best fit	Small ministries, 20–100 students	Universities, 1000+ students	K–12 in Google Workspace	Enterprise with budget

Pick Moodle if you have IT staff and need every feature ever shipped. Pick Canvas if budget isn't a constraint. Pick Google Classroom if your students already live in Google Workspace and you don't need certificates or real assessments. Pick Equip if you want a small, modern, scripture-aware platform you can deploy in an afternoon.

Documentation

Audience	Document
Contributors	CONTRIBUTING.md — setup, workflow, conventions
Designers / UI work	docs/DESIGN.md — aesthetic, tokens, motion, banned patterns
Component reuse	docs/COMPONENTS.md — the patterns library (`<Badge>`, `<StatCard>`, `<EmptyState>`, …)
Translators / i18n work	docs/I18N.md — bilingual workflow, locale files, key parity
Architecture	docs/adr/ — Architecture Decision Records
Cross-cutting UI calls	docs/UI-DECISIONS.md — frozen UI decisions log
Running in production	docs/OBSERVABILITY.md — monitoring, log forwarding, incident debugging
Dashboards / metrics	docs/datadog/ — Datadog dashboard + monitor JSON specs
Security disclosure	SECURITY.md

Community

GitHub Discussions — questions, ideas, show & tell
Issue tracker — bug reports and feature requests
Support — how to get help, response times, the right channel for each kind of question
Changelog — what's new in each release
Security policy — how to report vulnerabilities

License

MIT — free for personal, educational, and commercial use.