Printbuddy

One modern self-hosted dashboard for your 3D printer fleet.

Manage Bambu Lab, Klipper, and Prusa printers from one clean interface.

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Demo login: admin / printbuddy

Quick Start · Providers · Home Assistant · Screenshots · Printbuddy STL · Development

[!WARNING] This repository is still under active development

Printbuddy is not ready for public production use yet. Features may be incomplete, unstable, or subject to breaking changes without notice.

Use it for testing, development, and tinkering only.

You can check the current status of different features in the projects tab

What is Printbuddy?

Printbuddy is a modern, self-hosted dashboard with a broader goal:

A single, modern, self-hosted dashboard for managing different 3D printer ecosystems.

Printbuddy uses a provider-based architecture for multiple printer platforms.

Current state:

• Initial fork setup on dev
• Bambu Lab support from the original foundation ✅
• Prusa support added via PrusaLink ✅(Prusa Connect not tested)
• Klipper (open fimrware) support being added ⌛ (not officially supported yet)
• Provider architecture in progress ⌛

Features

Current and planned goals include:

• Multi-printer dashboard
• Bambu Lab printer support
• Klipper printer support through Moonraker
• Prusa-compatible environments
• Self-hosted deployment
• Docker-based setup
• Modern web UI

Screenshots

Printbuddy Mascot / STL

Printbuddy also has its own little mascot.

Print your own Printbuddy

Download your Printbuddy here:

• MakerWorld: https://makerworld.com/de/models/2894134-your-printbuddy#profileId-3234154
• Printables: https://www.printables.com/model/1746692-your-printbuddy

Repository workflow

Development happens on the dev branch first.

1. Commit and push work to dev.
2. Test from dev.
3. Merge approved changes into main.
4. Release from main.

dev  -> active development
main -> stable releases

Docker quick start

For the first test deployment, build directly from the dev branch:

git clone -b dev https://github.com/vmhomelab/Printbuddy.git
cd Printbuddy
docker compose up -d --build

Open Printbuddy in your browser:

http://<docker-host-ip>:8000

Linux host networking

On Linux, the compose file uses:

network_mode: host

This helps with Bambu discovery, camera access, and virtual-printer ports.

Docker Desktop

On Docker Desktop, remove:

network_mode: host

Then enable the commented ports: block in the compose file instead.

Printer provider direction

Printbuddy introduces a provider boundary so printer-specific integrations can evolve without hard-coding every workflow to Bambu MQTT/FTP.

Planned providers:

The first implementation step adds the provider and printer metadata to allow printers to be added.

Bambu remains the default provider for backwards compatibility.

Home Assistant

Printbuddy can be used with Home Assistant in two ways:

• Home Assistant add-on: run Printbuddy directly inside Home Assistant with Ingress, persistent add-on storage, and LAN printer access through host networking. Repository: vmhomelab/printbuddy-ha-addon
• Home Assistant custom integration: connect Home Assistant to an existing Printbuddy instance and expose configured printers as Home Assistant devices and telemetry entities. Repository: vmhomelab/ha-printbuddy-integration

Wiki pages:

• Printbuddy Home Assistant Add-on
• Printbuddy Home Assistant Integration

Development setup

Backend

python3 -m venv venv
./venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt -r requirements-dev.txt

ruff check backend/
ruff format --check backend/

cd backend
../venv/bin/python -m pytest tests/ --tb=short

Frontend

cd frontend

npm ci
npm run lint
npx tsc --noEmit
npm run test:run
npm run build

Project status

Printbuddy is currently focused on:

• Cleaning up the project structure
• Adding provider metadata
• Preparing Klipper and Prusa support
• Keeping existing Bambu functionality working during the transition

Contributing

Contributions are welcome once the project structure becomes more stable.

For now, the best way to contribute is:

1. Open an issue with your idea or bug report.
2. Target pull requests against dev.
3. Keep changes focused and easy to review.
4. Test both backend and frontend before opening a pull request.

Attribution and license

Printbuddy keeps the upstream AGPL-3.0 license.

Historical upstream documentation and changelog entries are retained only where needed for license and release-history context.

Star History

Printbuddy
Your tiny helper for keeping the printer chaos under control.