The Hold Catalogue — Systemically Foolish

A colour wheel for climbing holds. Every family organised by grip type, size, and interaction mode. The pedagogical scaffolding setters should have had from day one.

Edges, crimps, slopers, pinches, pockets, jugs, volumes, textures

Hand AND foot interaction notes on every hold — because the categories are artificial

Equity flags built in throughout

Use as training reference or instructional tool for new setters

Open Taxonomy →

Layer 2 · Inventory

Hold Catalogue

Digital inventory of every hold your gym owns. Upload a photo, input metadata, and that hold exists in your searchable library. The hold library is what makes everything else non-trivial.

Photo upload — drag and drop

Structured metadata: family, size, texture, manufacturer, foot use, equity flag

CC BY-NC-SA attribution per photo — your credit, community's resource

Filterable by hold type or equity flag

Gym Protocol tab — AI-assisted batch cataloguing instructions

Open Catalogue →

Layer 3 · Proposals

Route Engine

Input your wall geometry. Select the holds you actually own. The engine proposes novel route concepts using your real inventory — sequenced, graded, equity-analysed. Break out of ruts.

Wall geometry: height, width, angle, bolt spacing, bolt size

Filters by grade range, movement style, foot complexity, volume usage

Generates named route proposals with full hold sequences

Live equity score per proposal — flags before the route goes up

Export individual routes as text files

Open Engine →

Layer 4 · Builder

Route Builder

Visual drag-and-drop route planning on a to-scale wall canvas with your actual bolt grid. Place specific holds at specific bolt positions before anyone touches a drill.

To-scale bolt grid from your wall dimensions — accurate overhang geometry

Three independent colour layers: hold colour · route marker (tape/card) · setter intent

Setter intent: primary hand · foot · dual use · volume · smear zone · match hold

Live equity tracking as you place holds

Export: layout sheet · hold pull list · JSON save file

Works for both colour-coordinated gyms and tape/card gyms

Open Builder →

On Equity

Built in. Not bolted on.

The Problem

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.

Wide pinches test hand span, not pinch strength. Volume stands amplify height advantage. Knee bars and heel hooks have leg-length variables. Compression problems have shoulder-width variables. These aren't incidental — they're systematic, and most setters don't track them.

Every tool in this suite flags equity concerns before a route goes up. The flag doesn't mean don't use the hold. It means set with intention.

What Gets Flagged

⚑ Wide pinch — hand span dependent, not strength dependent

⚑ Volume stand — height amplifier, advantages taller climbers

⚑ Heel hook / knee bar — leg length variable

⚑ Compression / dihedral — shoulder width variable

⚑ Reachy moves encoded as "hard" — reach, not climbing

The hand-hold / foot-hold distinction is also flagged as the pedagogical scaffolding it is. At higher grades that boundary evaporates. The tools track setter intent — not artificial category assignment.

License

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — Read this before you build on it

Attribution

Credit required:
"Ryan Johns / Systemically Foolish, foolish.systems"

Must be visible to end users — in a footer, about page, or documentation. Cannot be removed.

Non-Commercial

Permitted: Gyms using this internally, free distribution to setter communities, internal reference use.

Not permitted: Bundling into a paid product, selling access, SaaS feature inclusion.

The test: is money changing hands because of this tool?

Share Alike

Modifications must carry the same license.

No patents. No proprietary forks. No withholding improvements.

Everyone works together to make it better. The community stays protected.

      Full license implications — including specific scenarios for each deployment option, what triggers Share-Alike, and how to obtain a commercial license — are documented in docs/hold-catalogue-setup-guide.docx, Section 6.
    