Death Plan Switch Provides Self-Hosted Continuity Automation for Solo Developers
A solo web developer released Death Plan Switch, an open-source PHP dead man's switch designed to alert family and backup engineers if an operator becomes unresponsive. The system requires interactive check-ins to prevent false alarms from email scanners.
Why it matters
You can self-host an emergency business continuity switch in minutes to ensure clients and backup engineers receive recovery keys if you become incapacitated.
TL;DR
- 01Automate emergency client handoffs with a staged check-in workflow before infrastructure access is lost.
- 02Interactive button confirmations prevent corporate email link scanners from creating false active signals.
- 03The application stores instructions rather than raw credentials, pointing contacts toward offline encrypted vaults.
Key facts
- Software License
- MIT License
- Runtime Requirement
- PHP 8.1 or newer
- First Warning Stage
- Hour 24
- Next of Kin Check
- Hour 72
- Contact Escalation
- Hour 144
The Bus-Factor Problem for Solo Founders
Independent consultants and solo vibe coders maintain mission-critical infrastructure for dozens of clients. Death Plan Switch was created by an independent Australian web studio owner who stored all master credentials in a single encrypted archive held by a backup developer and an attorney, but lacked an automated trigger to signal when to open it.
Staged Notification Timeline
The software operates on a deterministic schedule measured from the weekly ping email:
- Hour 24: Sends a reminder email to both configured primary email addresses.
- Hour 72: Alerts next-of-kin with a verification link asking if everything is alright, avoiding false panic among clients over long weekends.
- Hour 144: If no confirmation is received, designated emergency contacts receive pre-written instructions specifying where encrypted records are stored and who holds the decryption keys.
Opening the email or following the link does not reset the timer; the recipient must explicitly press the confirmation button on the web page to bypass anti-virus email scanners that automatically inspect URLs.
Self-Hosted Architecture
The utility is open-source under the MIT license and runs on minimal infrastructure. It requires a standard web server with PHP 8.1 or newer (Apache or Nginx), external SMTP credentials, and an external cron runner executing every 15 minutes. It must be hosted separately from the client infrastructure it protects to avoid single points of failure.
Try it in 2 minutes
# Example crontab entry triggering the check-in scheduler every 15 minutes
*/15 * * * * curl -s https://switch.example.com/cron > /dev/null 2>&1bash
✓ When to use
- When you are a solo consultant, contractor, or founder managing single points of administrative failure.
- When clients depend on private servers and credentials that would become unrecoverable without manual intervention.
✕ When NOT to use
- When operating within an established engineering company that already has centralized enterprise IAM and succession policies.
- When looking for an encrypted secrets vault (the software deliberately stores routing instructions, not raw passwords).
What to do today
- Deploy a dedicated micro-instance on a distinct cloud provider to host your operational dead man's switch.
- Draft an encrypted operational manual detailing your production DNS, hosting, and root account locations for your legal proxy.
What the community says
“The Switch works by pressing a button on a page. The Switch emails the link, so pressing the button confirms everything is okay! An automatic keep alive would keep pinging if you're dead.”
“> independent web developers Hmmm... the market is kinda narrow. But more importantly, say I self-hosted this service, then, I have to answering emails for the rest of my life telling a program I'm still alive.”