SYSTEMICALLY FOOLISH — foolish.systems A FREE SOLUTION ROUTESETTERS ANONYMOUS NEVER ASKED FOR
Community Hold Database · Open Source · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
THE
HOLD
Catalogue
"Know what you have before you set what you know."
© CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — FREE FOREVER
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01
Photograph your holds. Tag them to the taxonomy. One photo, two minutes. You're building a queryable inventory of everything your gym owns — not just what you remember grabbing last session.
02
Flag the equity problems. Wide pinches. Knee bars. Reachy moves encoded as "hard." The catalogue tracks hold types that advantage specific body sizes. Set intentionally, not accidentally.
03
Share freely. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Use this anywhere. Modify it. Distribute it. Build on it. Just credit it. The sport improves when setters have better tools and nobody's gatekeeping them.
Filter:
Gym Hold
Cataloguing Protocol
A step-by-step process for building your gym's hold database using AI assistance. No tech background required.
01
Audit Your Hold Room
Pull everything out. Group by rough type — edges together, jugs together, volumes separate. You don't need to be precise yet. You're building awareness of what exists, not cataloguing yet.

Time: 30–60 min for a full gym hold room.
02
Photograph Systematically
One photo per hold or per identical set. Consistent lighting. Neutral background (chalk tray works). Show the hold from its primary climbing orientation — how it sits on the wall.

Name files: gym-holdtype-size-001.jpg

Don't overthink it. Good enough beats perfect.
03
AI Classification Pass
Paste your photos into an AI assistant (Claude works well) with this prompt:

"Classify this climbing hold: hold type, size category, estimated grip positions, foot use potential, equity considerations. Return as structured data."

AI handles bulk classification in seconds.
04
Setter Review Pass
A human setter reviews AI classifications. You know your holds — the AI doesn't know that your "jug" has a terrible heel hook lip or that the slopers have been repainted twice.

Add setter notes. Flag equity issues. This is your institutional knowledge, not the AI's.
05
Enter into Catalogue
Submit holds to The Hold Catalogue using the submission form on each card. Your photo, your notes, your gym credit — CC BY attributed.

Your inventory is now searchable, filterable, and available to every setter at your gym.
06
Route Proposal Integration
Once your catalogue is populated, the Route Proposal Tool (Layer 3 — coming) reads your inventory + your wall geometry and proposes novel route concepts you haven't tried.

No more reaching for the same 40 holds. Your entire inventory, finally visible.
AI Prompt Templates
HOLD CLASSIFICATION PROMPT
"Look at this climbing hold image. Classify it with: (1) Hold family [edge/crimp/sloper/pinch/pocket/jug/volume], (2) Size [micro/small/medium/large/macro], (3) Likely grip positions, (4) Foot use potential [none/toe/heel/smear], (5) Equity flags [hand-size/height/arm-span/none], (6) One-line setter note. Return as JSON."
BATCH INVENTORY PROMPT
"I'm going to share photos of [N] holds from our gym's inventory. For each one, give me a classification record. After all photos: identify any gaps in our hold inventory (types we seem to be missing), and flag any equity risks in our collection overall."
About &
License
What this is, who made it, and what you're allowed to do with it (everything).
What This Is
The Hold Catalogue is an open-source hold taxonomy, community image library, and (soon) AI route proposal system built by Systemically Foolish and released free to the setting community.

It was built because routesetters deserve better tools, the sport is better when knowledge is shared, and gatekeeping is boring.

The taxonomy wheel, this catalogue, and the forthcoming route proposal tool are all free. They always will be. No premium tier. No paywall. No pitch.
License — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
All original content in this tool is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

You are free to: share, copy, distribute, adapt, build upon, use commercially or non-commercially.

Under one condition: give credit. "Hold Catalogue by Systemically Foolish, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, foolish.systems" is sufficient.

Community-submitted photos carry their own CC BY attribution from the submitter. Always credit the photographer.
The Equity Commitment
Every hold type in this catalogue carries equity metadata — how it interacts with hand size, height, arm span, and leg length.

The setting community has a reach-bias problem. Routes that are "hard" because of height requirements aren't testing climbing — they're testing bodies. The 5'1" climber who sends V12 shouldn't fail your route because you set for your own proportions.

This tool flags it. What you do with the flag is up to you.
Contributing
Submit hold photos using the form on any catalogue card. Your photo, your name, your gym — CC BY attributed in perpetuity.

Corrections, additions, and taxonomy disputes welcome. This is a living document. The saltiest feedback is usually the most useful.

Contact: foolish.systems
Community: Routesetters Anonymous (Facebook)