Set up equipment & reservations

Register your tools and machines, let members book time on them without double-booking, and optionally require a certification before a tool can be reserved. This recipe covers the manager side (the registry) and the member side (browsing and reserving).

Before you start

Managing the registry requires the equipment.manage permission. By default the board role holds it; a space can grant it to other roles under /customize. Reserving a tool needs no special permission, so any active member (status current, late, or unverified) can book from the catalog. Reserving is not one of the privileged, permission-gated actions, so it is available even to unverified members who are still pending approval.

If you plan to gate a tool behind a certification, create that certification first at /certifications so it appears in the requirement dropdown.

Register a piece of equipment

1. Go to /equipment/manage and choose New equipment.
2. Give it a Name (required, up to 200 characters, e.g. Laser Cutter #1).
3. Optionally fill in Description, Location, and Asset tag.
4. Set the operational status. New items default to Available.
5. Optionally pick a required certification (see below), then choose Add equipment.

The item appears immediately in the manager list and, once it is available, in the member-facing catalog at /equipment.

Equipment status

Status controls whether a tool can be booked at all. Only available equipment accepts reservations.

Status	Label	Reservable?
available	Available	Yes
maintenance	Under maintenance	No
retired	Retired	No

To take a machine offline temporarily, edit it and switch the status to Under maintenance; switch it back to Available when repairs are done. Use Retired for equipment that is permanently out of service.

Gate a tool behind a certification

To require that a member hold a certification before they can reserve or use a tool:

1. Edit the equipment (or set this while creating it) on /equipment/manage.
2. In the certification dropdown, choose Requires: <certification> instead of No required certification.
3. Save.

The certification must belong to your space or the save is rejected. Once set, members who do not hold an active certification see a Requires <name> badge on /equipment and the Reserve button is disabled for them. Members who hold it see a Certified: <name> badge and can book normally.

A revoked or expired certification does not count as active, so it will not satisfy the gate. An equipment.manage holder can override the certification gate, including booking on another member's behalf, but the override never bypasses an operational status block (a maintenance or retired tool still cannot be reserved).

Reserve a tool (member view)

1. From /equipment, find the tool and choose Reserve.
2. Pick a Starts and Ends time. The end must be after the start, and the start cannot be in the past.
3. Optionally add Notes, then choose Confirm reservation.

Members can review their own bookings on /me. A member can cancel their own reservation; an equipment.manage holder can cancel anyone's.

How overlaps are prevented

Two reservations for the same tool cannot overlap. Time windows are half-open, so a booking that ends exactly when the next one begins is allowed (they touch but do not conflict). Only active (reserved) reservations block a slot, cancelled and completed ones never do.

This is enforced two ways: the action checks for conflicts before inserting, and a database exclusion constraint (equipment_reservations_no_overlap) is the final arbiter, so two people booking the same slot at the same instant cannot both succeed. The losing request sees That time overlaps an existing reservation.

Edit, archive, or delete

On /equipment/manage each item offers:

• Reservations, view the booking list for that tool.
• Edit, change any field, including status and the required certification.
• Archive / Restore, archived items are hidden from the member catalog but keep their history. Use this instead of deleting once a tool has bookings.
• Delete, permanently removes the item. This is blocked if the tool has any reservations; archive it instead.