Homelab Ops & Credential Dashboard

Outcomes

Context

Not every secret store needs enterprise SaaS — some need ownership and simplicity.

Challenge

Small ops footprints accumulate apps, URLs, and credentials across notes and browsers. Teams needed a private inventory with encrypted secret storage and a simple UI.

Approach

We built a React/Vite dashboard and Express API on SQLite with bcrypt auth and encrypted credential records, packaged with Docker, Nginx, and supervisord for single-host deployment.

Architecture

Vite React UI, Express API, SQLite, encrypted credential fields, Docker + Nginx reverse proxy.

Scope

• —App registry
• —Credential CRUD
• —Auth
• —Encrypted at-rest secrets
• —Docker packaging

Constraints

• —Single-node threat model
• —Must remain understandable to maintainers
• —Backup/restore of SQLite matters

Solution highlights

• —Encryption key handled as explicit ops material
• —Tiny API surface for inventory + secrets
• —UI optimized for frequent lookup, not enterprise IAM theater

Technologies

Results

• —Central app inventory for a homelab/small ops footprint
• —Encrypted credential storage behind authenticated UI
• —Single-host Docker deployment path
• —Low-ops stack appropriate for private use

Lessons learned

• —Internal tools should optimize for restore drills.
• —Encryption without key ops is cosplay.
• —Small dashboards beat scattered notes for app inventories.