A Modern, Real-Time Restaurant Management System Built with TanStack Start





If you’ve ever worked in a restaurant, you know the chaos of the dinner rush. The kitchen is shouting, servers are sprinting, and the last thing anyone needs is software that lags or crashes.

Most Point of Sale (POS) systems today are clunky, expensive, and run on outdated technology. I wanted to change that.

I am excited to introduce TanStack POS, a complete open-source restaurant operations platform designed for speed, reliability, and real-time synchronization.

"Transform your restaurant operations with a lightning-fast, real-time Point of Sale system built on cutting-edge web technologies."

✨ Why I Built TanStack POS

Running a restaurant is hard; your software shouldn't make it harder. I built TanStack POS to solve the specific pain points of modern service:

  • 🚀 Blazing fast: Sub-second order entry, instant kitchen updates.
  • 📱 Works everywhere: Desktop, tablet, or TV displays.
  • 🔄 Real-time sync: Everyone sees the same data, instantly.
  • 🎯 Role-optimized: Each staff member gets exactly what they need.

🖼️ See It In Action

We designed three distinct interfaces to handle different aspects of the restaurant workflow.

1. The Manager Dashboard

For admins and managers, this view offers comprehensive insights into sales, active orders, and staff performance.

Dashboard Admin Interface
Comprehensive insights into sales and staff performance

2. The Server Interface (POS)

Speed meets simplicity. This features an intuitive product grid, one-tap ordering, and table management.

Dashboard Server Interface
Intuitive product grid with one-tap ordering

3. The Kitchen Display System (KDS)

Built for the line. This replaces paper tickets with a digital queue that tracks item-level status and alerts chefs with audio notifications.

Dashboard Kitchen Interface
Real-time order queue with item-level tracking

🛠️ The Tech Stack

For the developers out there, TanStack POS isn't just a utility; it's a showcase of the latest web technologies working in harmony. Here is the modern, production-ready stack powering the app:

  • Frontend: TanStack Start (Full-stack React framework), React 19, Tailwind CSS v4
  • State Management: TanStack Query (Smart caching & real-time sync)
  • Routing: TanStack Router (Type-safe routing)
  • Backend: tRPC (End-to-end type safety)
  • Database: PostgreSQL 15 with Drizzle ORM
  • Infrastructure: Docker Compose

🚀 Get Started in 60 Seconds

Want to try it out? If you have Docker installed, you can get this running on your local machine in less than a minute.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/tan-pos.git
cd tan-pos

# Start everything with Docker
docker-compose up -d

# Or if you prefer npm
npm install
npm run dev

Once running, head over to http://localhost:3000.

Demo Credentials:

  • Admin: user: admin / pass: admin123
  • Manager: user: manager1 / pass: admin123
  • Kitchen: user: kitchen1 / pass: admin123

🤝 Contributing & Support

This is an open-source project licensed under the MIT License. You can use it, modify it, or ship it for your own clients.

If you find this project useful, I’d love your support!

  1. ⭐ Star the Repo on GitHub to help others discover it.
  2. 🐛 Report Bugs in the issues tab.
  3. ☕ Buy me a coffee to fuel the late-night coding sessions.

Built with ❤️ for restaurants that refuse to settle for outdated software.

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