Crater coworking evaluation stub

This is an incomplete evaluation stub, not an implementation guide.

Verified snapshot

Crater is a self-hosted invoicing app for small businesses, classified OSI-approved under the Attribution Assurance License (AAL). The catalog marks maturity as legacy and warns that project activity may be slow. It holds invoices, clients, expenses, personal data, and payment-related data.

Sources reviewed 2026-07-17: homepage, repository, and documentation.

Evaluation questions

Is the project health acceptable for production financial records?
Does the license and installed package fit the operator’s use?
Do invoices, clients, expenses, and PDFs export completely?
Who provides security updates and recovery if upstream slows further?

Smallest experiment

Generate five synthetic invoices and PDF exports on staging. Have finance review them and assess project maintenance before any member or production data.

Risks

Legacy/project-maintenance risk
Sensitive invoice/client/payment data
Accounting, export, and security-update fit are unverified

TODO before a full guide

Re-verify repository activity, releases, and license
Validate accounting/localization requirements
Test complete backup, export, and clean restore
Document a replacement and financial-record retention plan