Install it

Roughly half an hour, and most of that is Docker pulling an image while you do something else.

BankruptcyClinic is a package for docassemble, the open-source guided-interview platform. So there are two things to install: a docassemble server, and this package on top of it.

Where to find it


Source	github.com/amsclark/docassemble-BankruptcyClinic
Package name	`docassemble.BankruptcyClinic`
Entry interview	`docassemble.BankruptcyClinic:data/questions/voluntary-petition.yml`
License	AGPL-3.0-or-later
Bugs and requests	GitHub issues

Before you put real client data in it. Everything below stands up a test server with a default password on plain HTTP. That is fine for kicking the tires and wrong for a live case. Read running it for real before anyone files anything.

Standing it up

1 Check you have what you need

Docker, and about 6 GB of free disk. Node 18 or newer only if you intend to run the test suite. Nothing else — docassemble brings its own Python, database, and web server inside the image.

2 Start a docassemble server

docker run -d --name docassemble -p 8080:80 --stop-timeout 600 \
  -e DA_ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@admin.com \
  -e DA_ADMIN_PASSWORD=password \
  -e DAHOSTNAME=localhost \
  jhpyle/docassemble

First start takes three to five minutes while it initialises the database and background services. Watch it finish with docker logs -f docassemble, then open http://localhost:8080 and sign in with the email and password above.

3 Install the package

In the docassemble web interface, go to the menu at top right and choose Package Management, then Add an existing package. Pick GitHub as the source and give it:

https://github.com/amsclark/docassemble-BankruptcyClinic

Press Update. Installation logs stream into the page; it takes a couple of minutes and ends with the server restarting itself.

If your server has no outbound internet — an air-gapped container, for example — clone the repository somewhere with a network, then use deploy.sh in the repository root instead. It zips the package, copies it into the container, installs it with --no-build-isolation so pip does not try to fetch a build environment, and restarts uwsgi:

git clone https://github.com/amsclark/docassemble-BankruptcyClinic.git
cd docassemble-BankruptcyClinic
bash deploy.sh

4 Open the interview

http://localhost:8080/interview?i=docassemble.BankruptcyClinic:data/questions/voluntary-petition.yml

That link is the whole product. Bookmark it, or add it to your server’s dispatch list in the docassemble configuration so it gets a short URL:

dispatch:
  bankruptcy: docassemble.BankruptcyClinic:data/questions/voluntary-petition.yml

Then it answers at http://localhost:8080/start/bankruptcy.

5 Prove it works before you trust it

Run one throwaway petition end to end — pick Nebraska or South Dakota, invent a debtor, add a house with a mortgage and a car with a loan, and download the packet at the end. If Schedule A/B, Schedule C, Schedule D and Form 108 all describe the same car, the install is good.

To run the automated suite against your own server instead:

npm install
npx playwright install chromium
npm run test:smoke        # server health
npm run test:scenarios    # five full personas, start to PDF

Keeping it current

Court forms get revised, and the US Trustee Program refreshes its median-income tables roughly twice a year. Both change what a correct petition looks like.

To take an update, open Package Management, find docassemble.BankruptcyClinic, and press Update. It pulls the current version from GitHub and restarts. Watch the releases page or the commit history to know when something changed and why.

If tracking that is not a job anyone at your organisation wants, it can be mine.

Running it for real

The quickstart above is a test rig. A server holding client financial data needs more:

HTTPS with a real certificate, and a real hostname in DAHOSTNAME. docassemble can get a Let’s Encrypt certificate for itself, or sit behind your reverse proxy.
Passwords that are not password, and accounts per person rather than a shared login, so the audit trail means something.
Backups you have restored at least once. Interview answers live in the docassemble database and its storage volume; a backup you have never tested is a rumour.
Persistent storage. Mount a volume or configure S3/Azure backup, or a container rebuild loses in-progress interviews.
A retention decision. Chapter 7 answers are among the most sensitive data a client will ever hand you. Decide how long you keep completed interviews, and delete on schedule.

docassemble’s own installation documentation covers the server side of all of this in detail. The configuration reference covers authentication, including LDAP and Google or Microsoft sign-in.

What the licence asks of you

BankruptcyClinic is under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 or later. You may run it, read it, change it, and share it, for any purpose, without paying anyone. Most people who install it owe nothing beyond leaving the notices alone.

The AGPL differs from the ordinary GPL in one way, and it is the way that matters for a web application: running a modified version as a network service counts as distributing it. Normally you only owe source to people you hand a copy of the software to. Under the AGPL you also owe it to people who merely use your server.

What you are doing	What you owe
Running it as shipped, for your own clinic or firm	Nothing. Keep the notices in place
Preparing petitions with it, including for paying clients	Nothing. Charging for your legal work is not distributing software
Changing it for yourself and never letting outsiders use that server	Nothing
Changing it and letting clients or the public use it over a network	Offer those users your modified source
Handing the modified package to another organisation	Ship it under the AGPL, source included

The interview already carries the mechanism for the network case: an About this software item in the menu on every screen, which names the licence and links to the source. If you modify the package, keep that item working and repoint it at your own repository. Deleting it does not remove the obligation, it just leaves you out of compliance.

Two things the licence does not do. It does not reach your other software: a separate system that merely talks to this one over an API is not a derivative work. And it does not touch the petitions themselves. Documents this interview produces are your client’s, with no licence conditions of any kind.

If you use a third-party host. The obligation follows whoever operates the service. If you are running an unmodified package on someone else’s infrastructure, nothing changes. If you had that host customise it for you, the modified source has to be available to the people using the site. Settle that in writing before they start work, not after.

This is a plain-language summary to help you decide, not legal advice, and the licence text governs. If the AGPL blocks something you need, get in touch rather than quietly working around it.

When it does not work

The interview URL 404s. The package installed but the server did not reload. Restart it: docker exec docassemble supervisorctl restart uwsgi.

Package Management fails to fetch from GitHub. The container has no outbound DNS or network. Use the deploy.sh route in step 3.

The server is unreachable right after docker run. It is still initialising. First boot genuinely takes three to five minutes; docker logs -f docassemble tells you when it is ready.

A question asks for something the client cannot answer, or a screen repeats. That is a bug worth reporting, not a thing to work around — the interview flow is meant to be deterministic. Open an issue with the state, filing status, and the screen you were on.