TRMNL: Blog

Featured Community Plugin - RetroWall

2026-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

This post is part of a series, featuring the incredible work of plugin authors who grow the TRMNL plugin ecosystem with every contribution. The TRMNL team has individually selected these plugins and authors to be featured.

RetroWall

Community member JetSharkLambo (Discord: jetsharklambo) created the RetroWall plugin; here are their words on how it was created.

Why did you want this plugin to exist?

My wife likes to get me surprises every now and then, but was always tipping it off by asking me what I was playing. I made Retrowall to share with folks what I'm playing without them having to ask! Now you can just take a look at my TRMNL and see a collage my most recently played games.

Why were you the person to make it?

I'm a huge retro gamer and retroachievements has motivated me to play and replay a lot of classics just for these incentives. Likewise, this plugin has me playing a lot of my faves just so the collage looks perfect around gift-giving season!

Were you inspired by any other recipes or plugin creators?

Big fan of jvdmeij's Paperboy, it really shows you that art is the relevant info that people want sometimes so you need to put it front and center.

How did you balance look vs functionality?

The look was certainly more important for this plugin. We have so many options to alter the look for this reason. For functionality, we just had to make sure the number 1 game rendered somewhere near the center of the grid so that each look you designed was functional.

What was your process for creating the plugin?

It's actually a very simple plugin. Claude code made the first draft in minutes and then we added a ton of customization features on top of that so that each user could have a unique view even if they played the same games. Did some testing to remove some options that were more likely to break your view than enhance it and it was done!

Did you learn anything that you want to apply to future or past recipes?

Design wise: don't waste words on stories that can be told entirely with images. Not every story can be told with images only, but if it can, that's the most efficient way to tell the story.

Is there a tip you would give to a new plugin developer?

Use the visual editor! It shows you all views at the same time so you can diagnose issues that are persisting across multiple views, its great!

What is your favorite plugin that someone else created and why?

Advanced RSS is the first plugin that brought the promise of TRMNL to life. It has dramatically reduced the amount of times I pull out my phone and scroll. I simply walk past my TRMNL when I'm in the kitchen, glance at the latest pull from the RSS's I follow, and rest easy knowing that nothing new has happened since I last checked!

Introducing the Model Builder

2026-07-14T00:00:00+00:00

our BYOD (build your own device) effort is working. over 4,000 licenses now power 100s of hardware combinations.

the first bottleneck in making this possible was embedded software. Raspberry Pis and Android tablets can't run our firmware, and Kindles need their own jailbreak. with the community's help and simple APIs this has since been resolved.

which exposed the 2nd bottleneck: device model specs.

to support a piece of hardware, someone from our team had to look up its screen capabilities, size, and other technical factors, then add it to our database and re-deploy the Models API.

TRMNL engineer Ikraam made this process a lot nicer with a CLI tool:

============================================================
TRMNL Device Model Addition Script
============================================================

Enter device specifications:
  The keyname is a unique snake_case identifier used internally.
  Convention: manufacturer_model 

Keyname: <insert>

but still, it's 2026. who wants to deploy a server to deploy a new feature?

introducing Custom Devices

starting today, anyone with a BYOD license may visit the Device settings > Model picker, set their model to Custom Device, then provide the same details which previously required a server deployment.

DIY model specifications

you also gain access to device agnostic Presentation features including color palettes, font families, image rotation, and screen orientation.

Presentation settings

next steps

we hope this deploy-free option makes it easier + faster to try new hardware, without our permission.

for more information about Device Models generally, read the docs.

Introducing Fluid Mashups

2026-07-13T00:00:00+00:00

one of my hobbies is announcing features requested before we launched the company.

the year was Summer 2024. Claude was just your crazy uncle and Kickstarter still had clout. our campaign attracted 1,000+ early adopters with compelling questions:

what if i want to share my work?
is it possible to remove the screen flicker?
can i see fun stuff only after work hours?
what if i want to split screen the display?

the final boss battle -- dynamic screen-splitting -- required flexible and responsive design elements. so we spent the last 3 years building a design system.

and these 8 static layouts have been good to us.

but it's time for something new: say hello to fluid mashups.

what are fluid mashups?

rather than conform plugins to Procrustean, 25-50% sections of your screen, you may now combine up to 322 different layouts on a 9-slot grid.

want a dashboard that's 2/3rd weather, 1/3rd upcoming appointments? no problem.

how about a central calendar, surrounded by photos and dates?

anything is possible with the new fluid mashup builder, available exclusively on TRMNL X and X-sized devices like reMarkable, Kobo Aura One, Boox Nova Air C, and Seeed E1003.

learn more

to see this in action, check out our latest Behind the Screens video where we build this:

to play with an early demo (no account required), go here.

Meta Portal is now TRMNL

2026-07-09T00:00:00+00:00

Meta ended support for 1,000,000+ of their "Portal" devices, a modified Android tablet designed for video calls through Messenger and WhatsApp.

thankfully they announced support for Android Debug Bridge, which lets owners build and share apps, unlocking value from the underlying hardware.

in TRMNL tradition we picked up a used Portal for just $19 (+ shipping) on eBay and made it a personal dashboard. shout out to community member JackR for the suggestion and assistance.

how it works

Meta Portals run Android
the TRMNL community, specifically Hossain Khan, maintains a TRMNL Android app
you can install these apps on a Meta Portal with a USB-C cable, no coding required

get started

the guide below should take no more than 10 minutes.

step 1 - buy a Portal

any model / generation will work, in this post we'll showcase a Gen2, 10" display. if you get something else we may need to adjust the available device models, just send us a live chat or email support@trmnl.com.

step 2 - set up the Portal

go through the normal onboarding, connecting WiFi and logging into either a Facebook or WhatsApp account. you cannot access Settings unless you log into a social network (i know, i know...).

if your device does not arrive in "setup mode," it's easy to perform a factory reset.

step 3 - enable Android Debug Bridge

from your Portal's home screen, navigate to the Apps tab, then tap the Settings icon, scroll to the Debug section, and tap again to Enable ADB.

you will likely be asked to provide your 4-digit pin from Step 1.

step 4 - connect the Portal to your computer

plug a USB-C cable into your Meta Portal. i spent 10 minutes finding my port on the Gen2 -- it's behind the speaker. each Portal is different.

credit: r/FacebookPortal

you should see a prompt on your Portal, asking you to "Allow USB debugging." tap to allow. if you don't see this prompt, or it disappears, or you accidentally hit cancel, just turn off your Meta Portal (disconnect power), remove the USB-C cable, and plug it back in + try again from Step 3.

step 5 - install Android Platform Tools

if you're on a Mac and you regularly write code, you may have Homebrew installed, in which case you can brew install --cask android-platform-tools .

if you're not on Mac, or you do not use Homebrew, download the dev tools here under Downloads:
https://developer.android.com/tools/releases/platform-tools

this is a relatively small (16mb) zip file. double click to expand it on your computer and you should see a short list of executable files inside:

step 6 - download the TRMNL android app

TRMNL has a couple Android apps developed by community member Hossain Khan. one is for turning a tablet into a device, the other is for managing multiple devices. we want the first app called TRMNL Display.

download the latest release's "APK" file, which is a bundle of the TRMNL Display application, here:
https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-android/releases

at the time of writing i'm downloading the file called "trmnl-v2.11.0.apk" from the v2.11.0 release.

TRMNL Display - APK file

step 7 - install TRMNL on Meta Portal

it's time to open up a terminal (console) on your computer. if you're on Mac, hit cmd+space and search for "terminal," then hit enter.

if you installed the Android Platform Tools via Homebrew...

navigate to wherever you downloaded the APK file (e.g. cd ~/Downloads)
run adb install trmnl-v2.11.0.apk

if you installed the Android Platform Tools by downloading the zip file...

navigate to wherever you un-zipped the "platform-tools" folder (see picture in Step 5)
copy or move the trmnl-v2.11.0.apk file you downloaded to the same folder
open your terminal/console and navigate to that folder (containing APK + executable files)
run ./adb install trmnl-v2.11.0.apk

you should see output like this:

Ryans-Mac-mini:Downloads ryanckulp$ adb install trmnl-v2.11.0.apk 
Performing Streamed Install
Success

see Troubleshooting below if you don't get a success message.

when the installation succeeds, your Meta Portal will go black for a brief moment, then blink back on. from the Apps tab you should see TRMNL installed.

TRMNL display on Meta Portal

tap to open the app, then set it up as a regular TRMNL or BYOD device (free trial, then $50 lifetime license), pending your preferences.

you may also point your Meta Portal to a self-hosted server for a completely free experience. simply select BYOS from the TRMNL app home screen and follow along the instructions.

step 8 - enjoy

there's no reason 1 million Meta Portals need to visit a landfill. for $0-50 you can bring it back to life with TRMNL.

Art of the Day + Meta Portal

(full color also supported, just change your Presentation from the device settings tab)

troubleshooting

while installing the TRMNL Display Android app, if you get a failure message, it's possible you didn't yet enable the Debug tools. additionally, any time you restart a Portal the ADB debugger is disabled. repeat Step 4 to be sure.

to confirm your device is detected by your computer, run adb devices (or ./adb devices if using the zip folder contents) to confirm it appears:

Ryans-Mac-mini:Downloads ryanckulp$ adb devices
List of devices attached
819LCM01Z0944N04 device

to go back to your Meta Portal's home screen or use other apps, swipe "up" from the bottom, then tap the power off button. this will not actually turn off your Portal, it will just shut down the TRMNL Display app.

Turn off TRMNL Display

Creator Fund - June 2026

2026-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

for more context see the Creator Fund announcement.

our 9th payout recognizes community contributions between June 3, 2026 and July 5, 2026.

this month also introduces an improvement: "uninstall reason" feedback is now available inside your Analytics dashboard.

source of funds

each payout period, a portion of developer-specific revenue goes directly to creators.

source	revenue	share	amount
Stripe Developer Edition TRMNL+ Shopify Developer Edition Clarity Kit (X) Clarity Kit (OG) BYOD	$6,180 $555 $199.67 $12,822.56 $15,044.11 $11,692.49	15% 80% 15% 10% 10% 15%	$927 $444 $29.95 $1,282.26 $1,504.41 $1,753.87
	$46,493.83		$5,941.49

source

revenue

share

amount

Stripe

Developer Edition
TRMNL+

Shopify

Developer Edition
Clarity Kit (X)
Clarity Kit (OG)
BYOD

$6,180
$555

$199.67
$12,822.56
$15,044.11
$11,692.49

15%
80%

15%
10%
10%
15%

$927
$444

$29.95
$1,282.26
$1,504.41
$1,753.87

$46,493.83

$5,941.49

by the numbers

total payout: $5,941.49
plugin author share: $4,159.04 (70% of base total)
strategic contributors share: $1,782.45 (30% of base total)

plugin author earnouts are calculated automatically by a collection of factors including a plugin's age (on live playlists), presence (by % dominance on playlists), and impressions (times displayed on device), relative to all other community plugins. there is a minimum threshold of 50 total connections (installs + forks) to qualify for monthly payouts.

strategic contributors are those who contribute to TRMNL open source projects. these earnouts are calculated with a mix of automation + human touch. relative to the funding available, below are allocations by category:

Firmware, 9%
3D Models, 0%
BYOS, 70%
Localizations, 4%
BYOD, 12%
Documentation/Resources, 0%
Tooling, 5%

note: these allocations change monthly based on contributions by category.

algorithm?

see the algorithm in action here. over time the above weights, revenue share percentages, and minimum thresholds may change.

candid feedback is welcome, email team@trmnl.com.

Featured Community Plugin - Read it Later

2026-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

This post is part of a series, featuring the incredible work of plugin authors who grow the TRMNL plugin ecosystem with every contribution. The TRMNL team has individually selected these plugins and authors to be featured.

Read it Later

Community member Brian Seidman created the Read it Later plugin; here are their words on how it was created.

Why did you want this plugin to exist?

I’m continually collecting articles to read. Lately I’ve been trying to convince myself that it’s OK if the number of articles I’ve saved to read is more than the number of articles I ever *will* read, but the unread count in my read-it-later app still bothers me. (Used to be Pocket; I bounced around for a while but landed on Instapaper because it syncs with Kobo.) My TRMNL Read It Later plugin started as something just for me. I use Shortcuts on iOS heavily, and I had the “Get Random Article” Instapaper action for Shortcuts sending an article from my queue to display on my TRMNL with a QR code to open the article on the web. This was an attempt to nudge myself toward reading and clearing articles from my queue by surfacing them on my TRMNL.

Why were you the person to make it?

The Shortcuts basis for Read It Later was already there, and then when I began testing the TRMNL Companion iOS app and its own Shortcuts integration, I saw the opportunity to expand the plugin for a wider audience. Everyone can relate to finding an article online and wanting to save it for later, and having your TRMNL remind you of an article seemed a great use case.My Instapaper shortcut was using the Article object in Shortcuts, which is also presented by sharing any URL from iOS via the Share Sheet, so there were lots of possibilities — the shortcut could be used to send any web article to your TRMNL. It could also be easily integrated with any read-it-later-type service with a Shortcuts action or API to surface saved articles.

Were you inspired by any other recipes or plugin creators?

I was working on the plugin around the time that there were a lot of discussions online about the TRMNL v2 framework and designing for the TRMNL X. My Myers-Briggs Type plugin put the code to generate content into the plugin’s “shared" area, but a lot of the HTML was duplicated between the different layouts, just using different classes. Maybe that's the more straightforward way to go, but I was interested in using the shared layout for all of the HTML code and then the `render` function with variables in each of the layouts to specify CSS classes.User Excuseme's Trending Recipes plugin was an inspiration for that approach, and also Mario from TRMNL opened my eyes to the idea of showing/hiding information based on the layout size — so the full layout has the summary but the quadrant layout just has the title and QR code, for example. I try to make my plugins look good on every screen, all the layouts and orientations on the OG and the X.

How did you balance look vs functionality?

Shortcuts’ Article object will reliably extract the article’s title and URL, but when I was designing the plugin, that felt sparse on the screen, especially for the TRMNL X. I wanted to include an article summary, but unfortunately Shortcuts only offers the article body, and it doesn’t extract that reliably. I ended up using iOS’ built-in AI layer to generate a custom article summary before sending the information to the plugin. One interesting technical problem with Shortcuts and Apple Intelligence: There’s a “Use Model” prompt action, but sometimes this would fail and end the shortcut depending on how well Shortcuts could interpret the article body. There’s also a “Summarize” action to return AI summaries, but sometimes these were so short that the plugin still felt empty. The solution was to have “Summarize” do the first pass on the summary and then to send the summary to “Use Model” to expand or reduce as needed. Using both of those together, I haven’t had the problems that came from using one or the other alone.I set the shortcut so that by default it doesn’t repeat the article title or summary to the user. When I’m using the shortcut to send a random article to TRMNL, this adds a bit of whimsy — the article and summary can be a surprise (and the summary may not be totally accurate, sometimes with funny results). In my GitHub repository (https://github.com/brianseidman/trmnl-read-it-later) I offer directions for modifying these options, but it made a nice package by default — article title, article summary, the QR code, and a few other details.

What, if any, challenges did you face while creating it?

I may have made the Read It Later code too complicated, using a lot of Liquid logic to determine the TRMNL's size and orientation and then applying CSS classes accordingly. For the new plugin I’m working on now, I’m leaning more on CSS cascade, using CSS classes that differ depending on which `screen` class is present at the top. Some additional class prefixes would help me out immensely — not just portrait: and lg:, but vertical, portrait:vertical, lg:vertical, and etc.

Did you learn anything you want to apply to future recipes?

Working with the TRMNL framework on new plugins has challenged me to organize my CSS in different ways. I'm trying to build reusable components especially with the flex class that can be dropped in and modified just by changing the column or row orientation. I’m still iterating on what my default approach is to building TRMNL plugins.

Is there a tip you would give to a new plugin developer?

I think it’s useful to think of plugin components in terms of blocks or sections. Two sections that are side by side in a landscape layout can be stacked in a portrait layout. Also, again, think about entire sections with extra, nonessential details that can be shown on the TRMNL X but hidden on the TRMNL OG. Designing for the different layouts gets a lot simpler when it’s just a matter of showing and hiding elements.

Featured Community Plugin - Home Assistant Entity Cards

2026-06-16T00:00:00+00:00

This post is part of a series, featuring the incredible work of plugin authors who grow the TRMNL plugin ecosystem with every contribution. The TRMNL team has individually selected these plugins and authors to be featured.

Home Assistant Entity Cards

Community member Jef-NL (Discord: TheBoomNL) created the Home Assistant Entity Cards plugin; here are their words on how it was created.

Why did you want this plugin to exist?

Usually when I am working or watching something, one of my PC screens has my home assistant dashboard open. I made 1 custom view with statistics like: current ETF values, Temperature in different rooms, Time at work, Over hours for the week and so on. It is data that is really nice to see and to do something with if for instance my work hours are too much for the week, but it doesn't change soo much and it doesn't have to take up one of my PC screens. So I really wanted it to be something to just have on the wall.

Were you inspired by any other recipes or plugin creators?

Not really, I wanted to make it look and feel the same as the home assistant entity cards. And browsing through the TRMNL Framework page I came across a fun way to play with the grids.

How did you balance look vs functionality?

It needed to look clean. Main focus was the values it shows, so that was the thing put most visible, the icon and layout option are more there to make it look nice.

What, if any, challenges did you face while creating it?

I made the initial logic and display in the shared part of the markup editor, but this did not work for all screen layouts. I had to ask for some help and tips in discord, but after playing with it I figured out the order of loading the shared and the views, and with some help from the DOM on how to make sure the order was correct.

Did you learn anything you want to apply to future recipes?

I learned about the construction order of the shared code compared to the views. With this, running a function that is defined on a view is not possible without wrapping the shared code in:

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => {}

This is something I will probably use more often to reduce duplicate code and allow for defining view specific functions.

Is there a tip you would give to a new plugin developer?

I am pretty new to this as well, don't even have a physical TRMNL yet. But my tip would be, even in this time of AI, read the documentation 😅 Liquid is something not just TRMNL specific and it's quite strong, would have used it more if I had read more about it before building this.

What is your favorite plugin that someone else created and why?

I came across the HVV Transit recipe. This is such a useful one to have. My first thought was to build something like this as this would be a must have for rainy mornings when I want to get to the office and want to know what busses and trains show up when.

What could have made building the recipe easier and faster?

Combine the framework, liquid and general help documentation in a single browsable webpage. I now had to have 3 different pages open to find what I was looking for. And I kept forgetting that it was called the framework, so I had to Google "TRMNL developer docs", that did not give a link to the docs directly but to the main page, from there to developer, docs and in there somewhere there was the link to the Framework help page 🤣. I wasn't so efficient in building this recipe but it was fun.

Model X Progress Report

2026-06-12T00:00:00+00:00

We introduced X on July 30, 2025. We began assembly + fulfillment on March 18, 2026.

To see your live spot in the order queue, go here:
https://trmnl.com/order-tracker

Here's our per-warehouse queue as of July 16:

For detailed updates over time, see below.

When will I receive my TRMNL X?

Live in USA, Canada, India, Mexico, or Australia?

Your TRMNL will ship from our USA warehouse. Due to lost freight this warehouse has experienced intermittent inventory outages, see ”May” section for details, resolved in June.

Live in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, etc?

Your TRMNL will ship from our Berlin warehouse. Due to Customs issues and supplier theft, this warehouse experienced intermittent inventory outages and did not receive magnets until May 21. As of June 5 the Berlin warehouse has been shipping all colors and combinations. See chronological updates below for more details.

Tech Specs

Highlights below, or see everything here.

10.3" 1872x1404 EPD resolution with 16 shades of gray
Dust and basic waterproofing with a hacker-friendly enclosure
ESP32-S3 with 16MB of flash and 8MB of PSRAM as a core processor with fallback 2.4GHz WiFi
5GHz WiFi support via ESP32-C5 as a modem (external antenna)
Support up to 2x 6000mAh 3.8V LiPo batteries with automatic detection
Battery gas gauge from TI for battery SOC/SOH/capacity tracking
Bosch accelerometer for portrait/landscape orientation
Gesture touch-bar based on Azotech IC
Magnetic pogo pin-based mount for charging and accessories (Coming 2026)
OTG support with 5V 2A output

Dimensions

These values may change as we scale production. last updated December 15, 2025.

X enclosure dimensions (mm)

Weight (device only, no attachments)

1 battery - 362 grams
2 batteries - 448 grams

August 2025

Multiple boards and controllers support touch gestures, battery charging, and 5ghz WiFi
The circular area interfaces with a waterproof "puck" shaped charging connector, and several test points on the motherboard's bottom will let us build a QA jig for our warehouse
Prior to release we'll prototypes to your favorite creators for first-look reviews

September 2025

PCB preview

We ordered 50x more prototypes with stronger magnets so devices can attach directly to a surface (e.g. refrigerator) without mounts
Dual band WiFi will be powered by the ESP32-C5 and we've benchmarked faster speeds + better range with custom modem firmware
Orders with the Battery Upgrade (or Clarity Kit) will now enjoy 10,000mAh versus the announced 7,000mAh variant
Our "charging puck" (name TBD) now has a universal connector for kickstands and other peripheral accessories that will debut in 2026
The same firmware that runs all OG + BYOD devices has been extended and is already running my own X prototype, preview here

October 2025

Grayscale testing with a GOAT

The first batch of screens arrived at our USA warehouse, more en route to our Berlin warehouse
Gesture bar + charging pucks are in small batch production
Received and approved packaging samples. Model X packaging will be more premium and protective than OG packaging.
Consolidating WiFi antennas (2.4 + 5gh) to a single component
Added 3 angle options (degrees) to the kickstand
[Work in progress] battery options may grow another 20% to 6000/12000mAh variants pending more testing

November 2025

Full assembly (3D printed parts, not final)

Fully functional prototype (3D printed case, non-branded silicone pads)

Prototype running latest (public) firmware release

Added extra reset buttons to S3 and C5 MCUs for hacker friendliness, board design is final
Batteries are in production and we can confirm the improved 6k / 12kmAh sizing (announced size: 5k / 7k)
Enclosure injection molds are in production, purchase order placed for thousands of cases in different colors
Magnet deliveries from Chinese factories have been delayed due to recent Critical Mineral Export Bans

December 2025

Battery production complete, shipping to our warehouses next week
EC licenses underway at testing facilities
Packaging in mass production
Magnets in mass production
[New] OTG functionality - power other devices from your TRMNL's charging puck

January 2026

From my desk to yours, a video update.

February 2026

From our warehouse to your desk, a video update.

March 2026

From my desk to yours, a video update.

If you prefer not to watch the video, in summary we're shipping single-battery devices only from our USA warehouse because our magnet supplier ripped us off and sent thousands of weak magnets, following multiple sample shipments with the correct (strong) magnets.

As of Wednesday, March 18:

Berlin warehouse has all 3 types of PCBs
Berlin warehouse should receive device enclosures in 1-2 weeks
USA warehouse has everything and has begun assembly + fulfillment

To check your place in the queue go here:
https://trmnl.com/order-tracker

If you already have a TRMNL, install the Order Tracker plugin to stay up to date:
https://trmnl.com/recipes/260817

How can I estimate the time it will take to receive mine?

Devices will be shipped in the order they were purchased and we intend to scale to 100s of fulfillments per day, as we have done for past releases and back-in-stock periods.

Our 2x warehouses have trained 15+ individuals to flash, assemble, and ship devices. We do not outsource to 3rd party logistics companies. You can learn more about our end to end philosophy and technology here and here.

April 2026

See a live demonstration of strong, N52 grade magnets on various refrigerator surfaces in this video update.

On April 26, N52 magnets arrived at our USA warehouse and assembly/fulfillment pace will increase dramatically beginning Monday, April 27.

On April 27, white + gray cases arrived at our Berlin warehouse and they are building half-assemblies (docks, kickstands) as they await N52 magnets.

May 2026

Between May 2-6th the USA warehouse was out of stock of charging docks for several colors due to a supplier mistake. To mitigate we assembled devices of all colors, but only fulfilled in-stock (charging dock) orders, some of which may sequentially be behind yours.

May 7 - black and sage charging docks arrived, allowing us to mostly ship in sequential order. This ensures the highest throughput overall, as punishing later orders with in-stock colors does not increase the speed of out-of-stock colors arriving.

May 19 - USA warehouse is still awaiting white + gray docks and cannot ship those colors, despite having the other parts. They were lost in transit and a new batch is on the way.

May 21 - Berlin, Germany warehouse received a batch of N52 magnets. They are now shipping black, sage, clear.

May 27 - Berlin, Germany warehouse received white u-mounts and is now able to ship white devices.

May 29 - USA warehouse received missing white charging docks and is finally shipping white devices.

May 31 - USA warehouse ran out of Clear enclosures and sage wall mounts. Black running very low. New shipment (full refresh) expected within a week.

June 2026

June 1 - USA warehouse received missing gray charging docks (sent/lost by UPS on April 7).

June 4 - Berlin, Germany warehouse received gray enclosures.

June 5 - Berlin, Germany warehouse received wood enclosures. Berlin is now able to ship all colors.

June 9 - USA warehouse only has inventory to ship white and gray X devices. More of every color arrive Thursday, June 11.

June 11 - USA warehouse received more inventory of every color and is fully in stock, shipping all X combinations.

June 21 - USA warehouse ran out of clear enclosures; affected customers have been emailed the option to change colors and not experience further delays.

June 24 - USA ran out of sage docks + kickstands, as FedEx lost this package (1 of 42 in our latest freight shipment) in May and is still looking for it. An extra set of components has been ordered (via air express) from our injection mold supplier.

Sage components lost by FedEx

June 29 - Berlin, Germany warehouse ran out of branded packaging. A rush order is en route. The team is still assembling devices to minimize delays.

July 2026

July 3 - USA warehouse received missing Sage docks + kickstands, along with Clear cases. Clear kickstands + docks are still en rout, but the remaining 300+ on-hold Sage orders will be shipped by end of Monday, July 6.

July 7 - Berlin, Germany warehouse received X packaging. Foam should arrive within 24 hours and then shipping will resume.

July 13 - Berlin, Germany warehouse continues experiencing delays in receiving X packaging foam. As of today, 3 of 5 pallets have arrived at BER airport and are still processing through Customs. They have been stuck elsewhere in Europe for 7 days.

July 15 - Berlin, Germany warehouse finally received packaging foam and is resuming shipments of assembled devices.

Die-cut packing foam

Featuring Plugins for the Black-White-Red-Yellow (BWRY) TRMNL

2026-06-11T00:00:00+00:00

Our BWRY partial color e-ink dashboard (Black, White, Red, Yellow) is a newcomer in our lineup, and in our shop we already demonstrate how well it handles skin tones for photos of people and pets. This carries over to a variety of other plugins that pop with a splash of color because they are already image heavy.

Since the screen refresh is longer and requires more flashes per color, the best plugins for your BWRY display are ones that need less frequent refresh rates or are out of constant line-of-sight. Luckily, the built-in hook-hold makes it easy to place this unit on the wall with just a nail, or use the kickstand to decorate a shelf. So we've compiled a sample of plugins that use the strength of this device to deliver more information because of the use of color.

Imagery Plugins

Spotify Dashboard

The Spotify Dashboard brings to the forefront the art that musical artists integrate into their brand. If you are venturing out to listen to new music, the plugin gives you a better sense of what and who these artists are that have caught your lyrical attention.

RetroWall

Video games have been around for half a lifetime now, and new generations are exploring this rich history along with the nostalgia driven gamers. The RetroWall brings the game art to life, powered by a community of fellow retro gamers. Since most people don't experience these games through their box art anymore, this provides a timeline of art styles, all based on your own explorations.

Comic Library

We are constantly surprised at how popular simple levity is for plugins. TRMNL devices serve not only as an ambient display of actionable information, but an ePaper joy delivery system. At the end of a long day, smiling or laughing at a comic strip you love can make a big difference in how you feel the rest of the night. That's what the Comic Library provides, with 100's of comics available in multiple languages.

Weather & Calendar Plugins

We have a wide variety of weather plugins, but this particular weather plugin was custom build for the BWRY device by a community member. Using subtle color hints to identify sunlight and risk factors, like high rain or high UV. This makes looking at the weather an alert, without the notification sound and on your terms.

Of course, sometimes you just want to know what to wear today, and that's what this plugin provides. Color is used to quickly mark what is ignorable, without withholding the information.

This simple e-ink calendar dashboard trades density for clarity. With highlighting for holidays based on your selected country/state, every family member benefits from this glanceable display.

Stocks

Our final plugin builds on the TRMNL created Stocks plugin and redesigns it with the BWRY in-mind: Stock portfolio.

Using our data merge strategy and a feature of our recipe form fields to easily map one to the other, the red color meets you at your expectations, highlighting when the value has dropped, a common style choice when viewing financial markets.

And there ends our tour of some BWRY plugins! If you are checking out a recipe, don't forget to click PREVIEW and change the preview page to the B/W/R/Y TRMNL to see if color is integrated into it.

Creator Fund - May 2026

2026-06-03T00:00:00+00:00

for more context see the Creator Fund announcement.

our 8th payout recognizes community contributions between May 7, 2026 and June 2, 2026.

this month also introduces a couple improvements:

earnings are now visible inside your Analytics dashboard
we increased the BYOD revenue share from 10% → 15%

source of funds

each payout period, a portion of developer-specific revenue goes directly to creators.

source	revenue	share	amount
Stripe Developer Edition TRMNL+ Shopify Developer Edition Clarity Kit (X) Clarity Kit (OG) BYOD	$2,900 $421 $1,383.44 $10,933.42 $13,649.27 $13,257.63	15% 80% 15% 10% 10% 15%	$435 $336.80 $207.52 $1,093.34 $1,364.93 $1,988.64
	$42,544.76		$5,426.23

source

revenue

share

amount

Stripe

Developer Edition
TRMNL+

Shopify

Developer Edition
Clarity Kit (X)
Clarity Kit (OG)
BYOD

$2,900
$421

$1,383.44
$10,933.42
$13,649.27
$13,257.63

15%
80%

15%
10%
10%
15%

$435
$336.80

$207.52
$1,093.34
$1,364.93
$1,988.64

$42,544.76

$5,426.23

by the numbers

total payout: $5,426.23
plugin author share: $3,798.36 (70% of base total)
strategic contributors share: $1,627.87 (30% of base total)

Firmware, 0%
3D Models, 0%
BYOS, 84%
Localizations, 2%
BYOD, 0%
Documentation/Resources, 0%
Tooling, 14%

note that these allocations change monthly based on contributions by category.

algorithm?

over time the above weights, revenue share percentages, and minimum thresholds may change. reporting will become more transparent. our goal is an open sourced algorithm and self-service calculations with daily (or faster) resolution.

candid feedback is welcome, email team@trmnl.com.