Tools

FireShift

Builds the watch schedule for the Burning Man Perimeter Department. Shift leads rate every watch shift, an optimizer builds a fair, fully covered schedule, and admins review, publish and share it.

Used to build the 2026 schedule. Its sibling app, Perimeter Supervisor, runs the shifts themselves.

Open FireShift (sign-in required)

How it works

  1. 1
    Set up the year. The event window is worked out from Labor Day, and the grid of dates and shift types (Grave, Morning, Noon, Swing) is generated.
  2. 2
    Roster the leads. Each lead, by playa name, with their shift obligations and the dates they're on contract.
  3. 3
    Collect preferences. Every lead rates every shift from 0 (not available) to 3 (preferred).
  4. 4
    Generate. The optimizer fills every slot while honoring availability, slot counts and shift limits, avoids choppy on-off-on stretches, and maximizes how well the schedule fits everyone's preferences.
  5. 5
    Review and publish. Compare candidate schedules, reassign by hand, then publish one.
  6. 6
    Share it. A published view each lead can filter to their own shifts, CSV and calendar exports, and reports on coverage, fit, preference completion and hard-to-fill shifts.

Draft schedules kept in Google Sheets can be imported, so the department's existing workflow carries over.

Tech stack

Next.js
Web app
TypeScript
Scheduling engine
Supabase
Database and sign-in
Vercel
Hosting

Why this exists

The Perimeter Department, part of Gate, Perimeter & Exodus, keeps watch around Black Rock City around the clock. Building that rotation by hand in a spreadsheet is slow, and keeping it fair to everyone is hard. FireShift turns everyone's preferences into a schedule the leads can trust, then gets it into their hands.