EOL DR is a crowd-sourced checklist and planning guide that helps technology professionals document their digital assets and accounts so that non-technical family members can manage them after the person's death or incapacity.
The project addresses a practical but emotionally difficult problem: when a tech-savvy person dies unexpectedly, their spouse or family members are often left unable to access critical services, pay bills, or maintain essential home infrastructure like wifi and DHCP servers. The approach is straightforward—a comprehensive checklist that prompts users to document their digital life, including cloud accounts, home lab equipment, bill payment methods, passwords, and instructions for shutting down or transferring services. The checklist exists in both markdown and Word document formats, with the Word version automatically regenerated when the markdown is updated via GitHub Actions.
This tool suits any technology professional who wants to spare their family the burden of figuring out their digital estate. It is particularly valuable for those who run home labs, manage cloud infrastructure, or are the sole person handling household technology and finances. The checklist approach means you work through it at your own pace and store the completed document somewhere secure, such as a fireproof safe or with a trusted family member or attorney.
The project maintains an open contribution model where community members submit improvements and additions via pull requests. Development is driven by practical suggestions from technology professionals who recognize gaps in the original checklist. The tool has established a clear contribution process documented in a separate file, indicating an intention to sustain community input over time.
