{"slug": "trmnl", "name": "TRMNL", "category": "selfhosted", "category_name": "Self-hosted and home server", "description": "", "recommenders": 6, "commenters": 9, "warners": 1, "score": 4.853, "rising": -0.64, "first": "2025-12-02", "latest": "2026-09-16", "why": "I bought a TRMNL display and set up a simple template to do the same", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 3, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I bought a TRMNL display and set up a simple template to do the same", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "trmnl.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://trmnl.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["TRMNL"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 795536496, "item_id": 49721031, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49721031", "by": "staub", "date": "2026-09-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you can likely setup BYOD with TRMNL", "excerpt": "Any easy way to get started on your own version of this without needing a mic would be to pull birds seen nearby using the eBird API and pairing scientific names. Won't be as accurate as a backyard mic, but will give you a direction to start. Also if you have old e-ink device laying around, you can likely setup BYOD with TRMNL (or just buy one https://trmnl.com/) and send the bird images as a private plugin", "context": "", "use_case": "E-ink dashboard display", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: An e-ink frame that hears birds and draws them as 1800s illustrations"}, {"id": 765789584, "item_id": 47861849, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47861849", "by": "michaelbuckbee", "date": "2026-04-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Maybe check out TRMNL, they've got a Home Assistant plugin.", "excerpt": "Maybe check out TRMNL, they've got a Home Assistant plugin.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero"}, {"id": 754370002, "item_id": 47148125, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47148125", "by": "rga5321", "date": "2026-02-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I bought a TRMNL display and set up a simple template to do the same", "excerpt": "In case anyone wants Todoist + Gcal events on the kindle, I coded a simple web app for that some years ago: https://github.com/rga5321/productivity-dashboard I am not using it anymore as I bought a TRMNL display and set up a simple template to do the same, but it worked well for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Hacking an old Kindle to display bus arrival times"}, {"id": 754048096, "item_id": 47128006, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47128006", "by": "ryanckulp", "date": "2026-02-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you can point a higher def Kindle to TMRNL", "excerpt": "you can point a higher def Kindle to TMRNL, either our closed source web app or free to an open source server. https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-kindle https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-koreader", "context": "", "use_case": "e-paper dashboard", "switched_from": "", "story": "I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard"}, {"id": 753890928, "item_id": 47118183, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47118183", "by": "bpmct", "date": "2026-02-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "there are some great projects on the XDA Forums and GitHub", "excerpt": "Not that I'm aware of, but there are some great projects on the XDA Forums and GitHub I was able to reference in order to make basic apps for Android 2.1. e.g: https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-nook-simple-touch", "context": "", "use_case": "Nook e-paper app", "switched_from": "", "story": "I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 783969616, "item_id": 48998101, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48998101", "by": "ninju", "date": "2026-07-21", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I was trapped with no easy way to learn more about you guys", "excerpt": "Small suggestion on page navigation... I was not familiar with at TRMNL was and from the link I went to there was no way to get to the \"home page\" of the product (https://trmnl.com) I did not see anything in the footer section and clicking on the logo on top only sent me to Help home. I was trapped with no easy way to learn more about you guys", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Agent \u2013 TRMNL"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["e-ink dashboard display", "e-ink display", "e-paper dashboard", "nook e-paper app", "family e-paper dashboard"], "compared": [{"slug": "claude-code", "name": "Claude Code", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "esphome", "name": "ESPHome", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 783961488, "item_id": 48997593, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48997593", "by": "ryanckulp", "date": "2026-07-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "we can only estimate token <> cost in our cloud agent", "excerpt": "we can only estimate token <> cost in our cloud agent, but we also OSS'd the skills and in those cases the cost is ~$0 (part of one's LLM subscription): https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-agent-skills the agent also has a model switcher, and the estimate you quoted is based on Haiku when we launched.", "context": "", "use_case": "E-ink display platform", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Agent \u2013 TRMNL"}, {"id": 763145184, "item_id": 47696574, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47696574", "by": "isghoor", "date": "2026-04-08", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I built the koreader plugin", "excerpt": "Jailbreak and repurpose as an e-paper dashboard? I have two kindles used this way. https://github.com/usetrmnl/terminus https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-koreader (I built the koreader plugin)", "context": "", "use_case": "E-paper dashboard display", "switched_from": "", "story": "Amazon rewards loyal Kindle devotees by closing the book on old e-readers"}, {"id": 754048544, "item_id": 47128034, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47128034", "by": "ryanckulp", "date": "2026-02-23", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "we call it Developer Edition, i think this is functionality the same.", "excerpt": "we call it Developer Edition, i think this is functionality the same. https://trmnl.com/blog/developer-edition", "context": "", "use_case": "developer access for e-paper dashboards", "switched_from": "", "story": "I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard"}, {"id": 753841376, "item_id": 47115086, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47115086", "by": "ryanckulp", "date": "2026-02-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "check out trmnl .com for smaller / less expensive options and self hosted options", "excerpt": "OP's Timeframe looks rad, but yes on the pricy side. check out trmnl .com for smaller / less expensive options and self hosted options. (disclaimer: i'm on the team)", "context": "", "use_case": "E-paper dashboard display", "switched_from": "", "story": "I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard"}, {"id": 737936912, "item_id": 46121057, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46121057", "by": "ryanckulp", "date": "2025-12-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "in theory our OSS lib would do the trick", "excerpt": "cheers, im on the TRMNL team. looks like reMarkable runs linux so in theory our OSS lib would do the trick: https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-display which can then point to one of several OSS server clients we offer: https://docs.usetrmnl.com/go/diy/byos#implementations", "context": "", "use_case": "e-ink dashboard display", "switched_from": "", "story": "Hacking on the ReMarkable 2"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47113728", "title": "I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996236", "title": "AI Agent \u2013 TRMNL", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46099997", "title": "Hacking on the ReMarkable 2", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49711544", "title": "Show HN: An e-ink frame that hears birds and draws them as 1800s illustrations", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47822978", "title": "Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47690049", "title": "Amazon rewards loyal Kindle devotees by closing the book on old e-readers", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 2}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 795536496, "item_id": 49721031, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49721031", "by": "staub", "date": "2026-09-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you can likely setup BYOD with TRMNL", "excerpt": "Any easy way to get started on your own version of this without needing a mic would be to pull birds seen nearby using the eBird API and pairing scientific names. Won't be as accurate as a backyard mic, but will give you a direction to start. Also if you have old e-ink device laying around, you can likely setup BYOD with TRMNL (or just buy one https://trmnl.com/) and send the bird images as a private plugin", "context": "", "use_case": "E-ink dashboard display", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: An e-ink frame that hears birds and draws them as 1800s illustrations"}, {"id": 783986418, "item_id": 48999151, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48999151", "by": "gerogerke", "date": "2026-07-21", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Have you looked at OpenDisplay? I have recently been playing with 4 color shelf displays from supermarkets. I have one showing max UV in my bathroom and whether I should wear sunscreen. Any Bluetooth proxy can write ODL/OEPL data to the device. There is a designer (https://schlomo.github.io/odl-drawcustom-designer/).", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Agent \u2013 TRMNL"}, {"id": 783973732, "item_id": 48998358, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48998358", "by": "joshstrange", "date": "2026-07-21", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I also have a TRMNL", "excerpt": "I've been buying (2 so far) Seeed Studio reTerminal e-ink screens, flashing them with ESPHome, then using Claude Code to write backends to render out whatever I want to put on the screens (a la TRMNL, I also have a TRMNL). Being able to \"speak\" into existence what I want is pretty freaking awesome. Note: Yes, I know what I'm about to say could be done using TRMNL (as part of it) I was able to set it up so that it rot", "context": "", "use_case": "e-ink display", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Agent \u2013 TRMNL"}, {"id": 783969616, "item_id": 48998101, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48998101", "by": "ninju", "date": "2026-07-21", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I was trapped with no easy way to learn more about you guys", "excerpt": "Small suggestion on page navigation... I was not familiar with at TRMNL was and from the link I went to there was no way to get to the \"home page\" of the product (https://trmnl.com) I did not see anything in the footer section and clicking on the logo on top only sent me to Help home. I was trapped with no easy way to learn more about you guys", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Agent \u2013 TRMNL"}, {"id": 765789584, "item_id": 47861849, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47861849", "by": "michaelbuckbee", "date": "2026-04-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Maybe check out TRMNL, they've got a Home Assistant plugin.", "excerpt": "Maybe check out TRMNL, they've got a Home Assistant plugin.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero"}, {"id": 754370002, "item_id": 47148125, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47148125", "by": "rga5321", "date": "2026-02-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I bought a TRMNL display and set up a simple template to do the same", "excerpt": "In case anyone wants Todoist + Gcal events on the kindle, I coded a simple web app for that some years ago: https://github.com/rga5321/productivity-dashboard I am not using it anymore as I bought a TRMNL display and set up a simple template to do the same, but it worked well for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Hacking an old Kindle to display bus arrival times"}, {"id": 754048096, "item_id": 47128006, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47128006", "by": "ryanckulp", "date": "2026-02-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you can point a higher def Kindle to TMRNL", "excerpt": "you can point a higher def Kindle to TMRNL, either our closed source web app or free to an open source server. https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-kindle https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-koreader", "context": "", "use_case": "e-paper dashboard", "switched_from": "", "story": "I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard"}, {"id": 753890928, "item_id": 47118183, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47118183", "by": "bpmct", "date": "2026-02-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "there are some great projects on the XDA Forums and GitHub", "excerpt": "Not that I'm aware of, but there are some great projects on the XDA Forums and GitHub I was able to reference in order to make basic apps for Android 2.1. e.g: https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-nook-simple-touch", "context": "", "use_case": "Nook e-paper app", "switched_from": "", "story": "I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard"}, {"id": 753838560, "item_id": 47114910, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47114910", "by": "phailhaus", "date": "2026-02-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love TRMNL for this exact type of usecase!", "excerpt": "I love TRMNL for this exact type of usecase! Only ~$150, and you can self-host if you want.", "context": "", "use_case": "Family e-paper dashboard", "switched_from": "", "story": "I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard"}, {"id": 737932368, "item_id": 46120773, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46120773", "by": "pseufaux", "date": "2025-12-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Have you seen these? https://usetrmnl.com/developers", "excerpt": "Have you seen these? https://usetrmnl.com/developers I was thinking about picking one up and giving it a shot.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Hacking on the ReMarkable 2"}]}