Build Your Own Scheduling Tools

Build me a free, self-hosted booking calendar to replace Calendly.

What it does. Visitors come to a web page, see a list of open dates and times, pick one, fill out a short form, and submit. On submit, the slot is instantly claimed, the booker gets a branded confirmation email and a calendar invite, and I get an admin notification.

My setup. I have a Google account at [scheduling@yourdomain.com], and its calendar is the one bookings should read from and write to. I have web hosting at [host name] where I can upload static files, or I need you to recommend a free option. I want to host it at [book.yourdomain.com].

The booking flows I need. [Describe each one — for example, one public flow for prospective clients and one private flow, shared by link only, for existing clients. Say how long each meeting runs.]

Architecture I want (keep it free, no subscriptions). The frontend is static HTML, CSS, and JS that I upload to my host. The backend is a Google Apps Script Web App that runs as my calendar's Google account and does the calendar read and write. Availability is controlled by pre-creating recurring calendar events titled exactly [Meeting Name] - OPEN. The script lists those as open slots, and on booking it rewrites the title to claim the slot and adds the booker as a guest.

Availability, the other way. Instead of one recurring event per slot, offer me the option of one recurring daily block titled [Meeting Name] - OPEN that the script slices into start times. Use a fixed step, and pick a step that goes evenly into the meeting length plus the buffer so bookings pack without odd gaps. In that design a booking becomes its own event and the block is left alone; the busy check hides the taken time. Explain the trade-off and let me choose.

Page shape. [Pick one: a flat list of upcoming times, or a month calendar where I click a day, see its times, then fill in the form. If you are not sure, ask me.]

Booking rules I want. [Pick what applies — a minimum notice window such as 24 hours, a buffer around every booking such as 15 minutes, a cap on bookings per day, and how far ahead people can book. Put each one in a named constant at the top of the script so I can change it later.]

Details the script must get right.

• Enable the Calendar Advanced Service with the identifier exactly Calendar, and set the project time zone in Project Settings. Every date in every email comes from that setting.
• Take a script lock on every claim, so two visitors cannot take the same slot.
• Enforce every booking rule twice: once when listing slots and again at the moment of booking. A tab left open for an hour can otherwise book past the daily cap.
• Free/busy must fail closed. If any blocking calendar cannot be read, show no times at all rather than risk a double booking.
• List events with singleEvents: true and loop on nextPageToken. Without both, recurring series never expand and a busy calendar gets cut off.
• Only timed events with a title block time. All-day and untitled events do not, unless I say otherwise. Include the script's own calendar in the free/busy list, or blocking time on that account does nothing.
• Claim a recurring instance in two steps: first break the single date out as its own exception, then add the guest in a second patch. One combined patch puts the guest on every occurrence.
• Pass conferenceDataVersion: 1 whenever you create or remove a Meet link.
• On claim, append to the event description. Never overwrite it; I put join links there.

Testing. Add a LIVE constant, false by default, that suppresses all guest emails until I flip it to true for go-live. Add a testSetup() function I can run from the editor that checks calendar access, counts my OPEN blocks, and lists the next few bookable start times.

Build me the HTML pages, the shared CSS and JS, the complete Apps Script .gs file, and a DEPLOY.md with setup instructions. Show me how to deploy the Apps Script Web App and wire its /exec URL into the frontend. Use my colors and fonts — [paste your brand specs, or write "ask me"]. Ask me any clarifying questions before you start.

Build me a free, self-hosted group scheduling poll to replace Doodle.

What it does. I propose a handful of possible meeting times and get back one share link. Anyone with that link votes on each time — works, works if needed, or no — with their name and email. A results grid shows who chose what. I also get a private organizer link. When I pick the winning time from that link, the script creates a calendar event with a video link and sends the invite to every person who voted.

My setup. I have a Google account at [scheduling@yourdomain.com] whose calendar this uses and whose address sends the mail. I have static hosting at [host name]. I want the poll pages at [book.yourdomain.com/poll/].

Architecture I want (keep it free, no subscriptions). The frontend is static HTML, CSS, and JS. The backend is a Google Apps Script Web App that runs as that Google account. A Google Sheet is the database — the script creates it on first use and remembers its id in Script Properties, with one tab for polls and one for votes. Every poll gets a random public id and a separate secret organizer token. The actions I need are poll-create, poll (read), poll-vote, and poll-finalize. On finalize, the script writes the calendar event, attaches a video link, and invites every voter. A time that already carries its own join link keeps it and never gets an auto-generated room. If the video service fails, fall back to a Google Meet link so the group is never left without a room.

Guardrails I want.

• Creating a poll requires a passphrase stored as a Script Property, so nobody but me can open polls on my domain. Voting needs only the poll link. Never link the create page publicly.
• Between 2 and 15 candidate times per poll, future times only.
• Maximum 100 voters, one vote per email address — a repeat email replaces that person's earlier answer rather than adding a second row.
• Voter email addresses are never shown to the group. The results grid shows names only.
• Take a script lock on every vote and every finalize, so two submissions arriving together cannot cross.
• Storage must tolerate new columns. Read cells through a helper that treats a missing cell as empty, and backfill the header row on load, so polls created before I extend the sheet still open.

Features I want beyond the free tier of Doodle. [Keep the ones you want.] A voting deadline, after which votes are refused and I get a nudge to pick a time. An invitee email list — send the invitation at creation, then one automatic reminder to people who have not voted, in the final stretch before the deadline. A "who hasn't voted yet" view that only I can see. Hidden polls, where voters see the totals but only I see the names. An email to me each time someone votes. A check that flags any proposed time that collides with something already on my calendar, before I send the poll out.

Reminders and deadline nudges run from a pollReminders() function on an hourly time-driven trigger. Tell me to install that trigger in DEPLOY.md. Give each poll a flags column so every reminder goes out exactly once.

Optional extras. [Keep the ones you want, or delete this block.]

• An edit page, gated by the organizer token, where I can change the title, note, length, deadline, invitees, privacy and the times while the poll is open.
• When times change on edit, carry each existing answer across by its time value, never by position in the list. A new time starts at "no"; a removed time drops out.
• A switch on the edit page, off by default, to tell everyone who already answered. Fixing a typo should not email thirty people. When it is on, the email shows the new list. It says that answers on times that did not change are kept, and that a time that moved or is new counts as a no until they answer it. People only need to act if the new list no longer works for them.
• A platform label and an organizer-supplied join link on each time, shown on the vote page, the results, the event and the emails.
• Time zone conversion: I enter times in my zone, and every voter sees the times in their own.
• When re-syncing guests onto the event, read the event first, keep any guest who is not a voter, preserve RSVPs, and set guestsCanInviteOthers to true, so guests I add from the calendar survive.
• Sign-up mode: each time is a session with a set number of places, one claim per person, and a session that fills closes itself.
• In sign-up mode the claim is the booking. The person goes straight onto that session's calendar event, and switching sessions frees the old place.

Build me the vote and results page, the poll creation page, the complete Apps Script .gs file, and a DEPLOY.md with setup instructions. Use my colors and fonts — [paste your brand specs, or write "ask me"]. Ask me any clarifying questions before you start.