What is this? How do I use it?

This is Grevillea, a free & open-source web-app for quickly sharing events, currently hosted on via Github Pages.

To make an event, just open a new page, fill out the form, copy a link, and send it to friends! They can save the event to their calendars, or take a screenshot :))

Grevillea is designed to be independent of any social media platform, while maximising privacy.

Can I trust these event details?

It's as trustworthy as the person/page who sent it to you. Anyone can easily make a fake event, or edit the details of an existing event before forwarding it. Make sure you trust the person who sent you this event.

Does Grevillea store my data?

No. The event details are stored in the link; you don't need an account or anything else. This site doesn't even have a database; there's no data to store! Nor are there cookies, tracking, ads, or anything else.

Note: This means the links can be quite long! Grevillea is designed to keep the links as short as possible, but you should keep your event description brief too. This is also why you can't upload your own images (though you can provide a URL instead), why the theme selection works the way it does, and so on -- it's all designed to keep the links as short as possible.

Does GitHub store my data?

Yes. This instance of Grevillea is currently hosted on Github Pages, and GitHub keeps a log of the IP addresses who access any Github Pages site. Please consult GitHub's policies for details.

Do calendar apps store my data?

Yes. Once someone adds the event to their calendar, the event data will be stored in their calendar software.

Could the event-organiser's website store my data?

Yes. When an event is published with a custom image, this image is loaded by your browser from a website specified by the event organiser. This website will receive your IP address, and may be able to detect what browser and/or device you're using (nerdy details: it can see this data by inspecting the user-agent string in the HTTP GET request, but it can't use cookies or other more advanced tracking technologies).

TL;DR -- it's safer than opening a random website, but still make sure you trust whoever's given you a mysterious link.

How can I make my link shorter? Why did someone send me a link in Chinese?

When sharing an event, you can share either a 'plaintext' or 'condensed' link. Both contain exactly the same event details.

The condensed link uses a wider range of Unicode characters (and zip compression) in order to fit all the event details into as few characters as possible. Unicode has lots of Chinese and Asian characters, so the link looks Chinese! It's almost guaranteed to be nonsense to a Chinese reader though.

Depending on what platform you're using, either of the two links might work better. For example, Instagram stories had a 245 character limit in January 2026 (but as of July 2026 it seems to be a little unpredictable depending on Unicode characters); some platforms might only allow ASCII links (not Unicode characters); and so on.

You're also welcome to paste the link into a URL shortener on another site (depending on the site, you may need to make an account/etc first).

How do I select a background image and font?

You can use a random pre-made background image, or host one on your own website and then paste the URL :)

Either way, choose a theme from the dropdown. Depending on which theme you choose, different fonts and background images will be available. These are both randomly selected based on two 'seed' values. Hit the 'change background' or 'change font' buttons to choose new seeds until you find a combination you like!

Background images are handmade by real people (no AI). We plan to add new themes, images and fonts in the future (you're welcome to get in touch and help out!). The initial seed is today's date, and every time you hit 'change background', it'll move back one day into the past. When we add new images and fonts, they'll only appear for future seed dates -- so your existing events will keep looking the same :)

How do I cancel an event, reschedule an event, or send people other updates?

Once you've sent an event to people, then that's it -- you can't make any updates within Grevillea. However, you can send updates to people the same way you sent the event to them in the first place. For example, if you sent an event in a group chat, server, mailing list, etc then you can send updates in the same group chat, server, mailing list, etc.

This is a bit of a different philosophy from usual, and may take some getting used to -- the event details (handled by Grevillea) and event distribution/communication (handled by you) are entirely separate.

The usual 'add to calendar' buttons are missing right now, what's going on?

The buttons to add an event to your calendar only appear when the event has a valid start date, end date, and/or title (if only some of these are present, only some of the buttons will appear).

Can I use this site to share community/not-for-profit events?

Yes! Please go ahead

What about commercial/for-profit events?

Yes! Go ahead

What about sharing private events with friends & family?

Yes! Go ahead, just be mindful that anyone could forward the link to new people

Can I copy the code and run this site on my own domain?

Yes, please do! Grevillea is designed to run on lots of independent websites, so please do make your own copy :) It's a static single-page website with no server-side logic, so it should be easy to host it elsewhere. You're welcome to translate it to other languages too.

This software (Grevillea) is released under the GNU Affero General Public License. Grevillea is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Grevillea is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

Someone sent me a dodgy event on this site. Can I hold this site liable?

No. By analogy, consider an event organised by mailing physical invitations. Invitations are written on paper, distributed, potentially showcased in public, and then read by recipients, who might use some reading glasses. This website performs the function of the paper and reading glasses, i.e. it is the medium on which the event is written, and the means by which it is read. This website is not responsible for authorship, distribution, storage, publication or any other endorsement of any event; these responsibilities fall upon the individuals, organisations, or platforms who author, distribute, store, publish, or otherwise endorse each event link.