A TUI and agent skill to self-host: try apps on your own machine
I built self-host.fyi to help people move to self-hosted apps. You can use its CLI/TUI directly, or use an agent skill if you'd rather explain what you want than learn another interface. There are 90+ Apps in the Catalog.
The skill guides the agent through inspecting the machine, explaining a plan, asking for approval, applying it and verifying the result. App-specific Setup lives in the tool rather than relying on the agent to invent it: supported accounts, generated passwords, API keys and Links between Apps, with Docker Compose underneath.
A practical starting point is trying Immich on a suitable old laptop as an alternative to Google Photos, or Nextcloud for files. You can try them before deciding whether to continue a subscription for data you own.
Some steps remain manual. The skill doesn't remove hardware requirements, maintenance or backups.
Source: ajnart/self-host
Overview: self-host.fyi
To try the workflow: install the CLI using the instructions in the repo, load the self-host skill, then ask something like "Help me set up Immich on this machine so I can try hosting my own photos." The skill starts by reading `self-host skill`; it does not grant approval by itself.
Skill source: github.com/ajnart/self-host/blob/main/skills/self…
AI helped me develop the project and prepare this post. The screenshots show the interface and Setup in progress, not a completed agent run.
9 points · 1 comment
A TUI and agent skill to self-host: try apps on your own machine
I built self-host.fyi to help people move to self-hosted apps without repeating all the initial configuration by hand.
You could use an old laptop as a photo server with Immich, an alternative to Google Photos. Or try Nextcloud for your files. You still need suitable hardware, storage and backups, but you don't need to turn every app you want to try into a new weekend project.
It's a CLI with a terminal interface. If you'd rather not interact with that yourself, there's a skill your coding agent can use to operate the same tool. The guide tells it to inspect the machine, explain its plan and get your approval before making changes.
You can start with a prompt like: "Help me set up Immich on this machine so I can try hosting my own photos." That starts a conversation and an approved plan, not a promise that every App works without your input. The idea is to try the software before deciding whether to keep paying a monthly subscription to store your own data.
The useful bit isn't generating another Compose file. For supported Apps, it also handles initial accounts, generated passwords, API keys and connections between Apps. Docker Compose stays underneath, and some steps still need a person.
I originally needed this for testing Homarr integrations, then worked on making it useful to other people. It's open source under Apache-2.0.
self-host.fyi
ajnart/self-host
4 points · 2 comments
A TUI to get into self-hosting
Last year I built Docker Compose Maker in October 2025. It was a super simple website to help you get a fully working docker compose to get started homelabbing.
Now, one year later I am presenting to you: self-host.fyi, the evolution of DCM.
Self-host is a complete re-write and addition to DCM, it is a simple binary that works for linux, mac, wsl2 & agent skill that aims to get people into self-hosting.
You pick which services you want through a TUI catalog, and it handles not just deploying every containers but also the setup of accounts, API keys & linking apps together.
It's just Docker compose underneath. All your config files and your docker setup is inspectable docker compose files. Think of it like a helper for docker compose for new users, some kind of TUI to manage containers, it's like Dokploy, Portainer or CasaOS but directly inside of your terminal.
The most important change is that it will link apps together. It is able to setup Sonarr for you and set Qbittorrent as the download client automatically, by creating an admin account in Qbittorrent and putting its API key into Sonarr directly. The passwords are automatically generated by default and can be manually defined.
You can have a fully running self-hosted setup going with one command, it comes with a fully-configured dashboard to access all your services from if you want to.
For example: I had never tried Mealie but in ~20 seconds of using the TUI it was able to set it up with a random password and connect it to my dashboard. I tried Mealie and figured I won't find the time to log it, it's not for me. With shift + A I selected it and removed it. That's it, less than 5 minutes.
If you've already got your dream homelab running and perfectly tuned, this isn't for you. It is more geared towards people who are looking into getting into self-hosting or who'd want to try out an app in an easy way.
Right now we support 93 self-hosted apps and hopefully that covers most people's use cases.
I've spent extra time to make sure that the SDK the tool uses is super easy to work with so that anyone who knows how to program in Go can suggest additions, there's also a feature to add unsupported apps without coding.
Anyway, curious what you all think!
website : self-host.fyi
repo : ajnart/self-host
small presentation video: self-host.fyi
I want to make it clear, I am not suggesting that an advanced user uses this CLI. If you have a fully working setup your are proud of you do not need this tool. Think of it like simpler TUI version of Portainer, you can use it to quickly add and try out an app and it'll give you a fully setup version of that app. Or a way to let one of your friend try self-hosting an app you're telling them about, without needing to explain to them how they communicate together. They can simply try using Immich on their machine.
Then they can decide for themselves if it's worth it to go down the rabbit hole of self-hosting and spend their following weekends refactoring and adding a new container to their stack and debugging until 2am.
Use it to peak the interest in that friend and invite them to try self-hosting, it will allow them to easily setup *arr + jellyfin & seerr in 5 minutes, then they might try sailing the seas instead of spending a monthly fortune on rented media they don't own to companies who'd betray them in an instant.
With the recent Sony Playstation bullshit I want to get more and more people to into self-hosting to actually own their data and I feel that a simpler way to get a fully working setup would fit into the space, as an upgrade to DCM.
AI disclaimer :
Designed the SDK by hand and identified all the features it would need and built it. Then I worked on support for the "main" *Arr apps + seerr / jellyfin. Once it was done I decided to extend the catalog to support apps beyond the apps I use. I used agents to research and setup some of the 90+ apps it supports and parallelize the work, both on Linux, Mac, WSL2, ARM & x86, then I had to verify that they all worked and got set-up properly. It would've taken me months of work to make every app support "by hand", especially because most tools don't really have an API. Self-host supports tools that don't have an API, it just mimics the requests used to create accounts and other actions inside of the app for you with your desired credentials, kind of like a playwright script but much faster.
The SDK's code is easy to read and to work with, so it should be pretty straight forward to add new entries to the catalog if you know basic Go. LLMs also helped me create installation scripts for homebrew, debian, arch / omarchy, ... as well as test them in VMs & generate the illustrations & the showreel video. Post fully written by me ofc
24 points · 1 comment
A TUI to get into self-hosting
Last year I built Docker Compose Maker, It was a super simple website to help you get a fully working docker compose file to get started homelabbing.
Now, one year later I am presenting to you: self-host.fyi, the "v2" of DCM.
I've been contributing to Homarr almost weekly for almost 5 years. Recently I'm preparing to support Sonarr v5 beta and needed to ensure that nothing broke, as well as adding automated tests every week to check that every Homarr integration still works properly with the latest breaking changes from the 91 integrations it supports. We used to mock integrations results so basically the users complaints were the test suite.
For that purpose I made a tool that sets-up these apps in a headless environment and connects them to Homarr. I now run a script weekly on my own homelab that sets-up every one of the 91 integrations with the :latest image and pings me if something broke. I adapted it into a tool that I thought newcomers to self-hosting could enjoy.
Self-host is a complete re-write and addition to DCM / compose.ajnart.dev, it is a simple binary that works for linux, mac, wsl2 & agent skill that aims to get people into self-hosting.
It's just Docker compose underneath. You pick which services you want through a TUI catalog, and it handles not just deploying every containers but also the setup of accounts, API keys & linking apps together.
All your config files and your docker setup is inspectable docker compose files. Think of it like a helper for docker compose for new users, some kind of TUI to manage containers, it's like Dokploy, Portainer or CasaOS but directly inside of your terminal.
The most important change is that it will link apps together. It is able to setup Sonarr for you and set Qbittorrent as the download client automatically, by creating an admin account in Qbittorrent and putting its API key into Sonarr directly. The passwords are automatically generated by default and can be manually defined.
You can have a fully running self-hosted setup going with one command, it comes with a fully-configured dashboard to access all your services from if you want to.
If you've already got your dream homelab running and perfectly tuned, this isn't for you. It is more geared towards people who are looking into getting into self-hosting or who'd want to try out an app in an easy way.
Right now we support 93 self-hosted apps and hopefully that covers most people's use cases.
I've spent extra time to make sure that the SDK the tool uses is super easy to work with so that anyone who knows how to program in Go can suggest additions, there's also a feature to add unsupported apps without coding
website : self-host.fyi
repo : ajnart/self-host
small presentation video: self-host.fyi
44 points · 81 comments
A TUI called self-host - you'll never guess what it does
I've been maintaining Homarr for 5 years and got frustrated writing Docker compose files to test homarr integrations all the time with new updates, so I built Docker Compose Maker (compose.ajnart.dev) in October 2025. It was a super simple website to help you get a fully working docker compose to get started homelabbing.
Now one year later I am presenting to you: self-host.fyi, the evolution of DCM.
Self-host is a complete re-write and addition to DCM, it is a simple binary that works for linux, mac, wsl2 & agent skill that aims to get people into self-hosting.
You pick which services you want through a TUI catalog, it handles not just deploying every containers but also the setup of accounts, API keys & linking apps together.
Think of it linking apps like this: sonarr <--links to--> qbittorrent , it will pull the necessary credentials and check the connection on both ends.
You can now have a fully featured and opinionated homelab setup going with one command, it comes with a fully-configured Homarr dashboard setup to access all your services from if you want it to. At the end of the setup you don't even need to open sonarr to configure it, it's already ready for you to use through Seerr, Prowlarr, Homarr, ...
Obviously, if you've already got your dream homelab running and perfectly tuned, this probably won't change much for you. But if you're finding yourself changing and tweaking your setup every time you add an app to your stack I think it will fit you.
Right now we support 93 self-hosted apps and hopefully that includes the one you're thinking it probably doesn't include.
If it doesn't include it out of the box, I've made sure that the SDK the tool uses is super easy to use so that anyone can suggest additions, there's also a feature to control unsupported apps.
Anyway, curious what you all think!
If you are lazy to install it, there is a cool demo you can play with on the website
website : self-host.fyi
repo : ajnart/self-host
small presentation video: self-host.fyi
22 points · 2 comments
Mentions
A TUI and agent skill to self-host: try apps on your own machine I built self-host.fyi to help people move to self-hosted apps. You can use its CLI/TUI directly, or use an agent skill if you'd rather explain what you want than learn another interface. There are 90+ Apps in the Catalog. The skill guides the agent through inspecting the machine, explaining a plan, asking for approval, applying it and verifying the result. App-specific Setup lives in the tool rather than relying on the agent to invent it: supported accounts, generated passwords, API keys and Links between Apps, with Docker Compose underneath. A practical starting point is trying Immich on a suitable old laptop as an alternative to Google Photos, or Nextcloud for files. You can try them before deciding whether to continue a subscription for data you own. Some steps remain manual. The skill doesn't remove hardware requirements, maintenance or backups. Source: ajnart/self-host Overview: self-host.fyi To try the workflow: install the CLI using the instructions in the repo, load the self-host skill, then ask something like "Help me set up Immich on this machine so I can try hosting my own photos." The skill starts by reading `self-host skill`; it does not grant approval by itself. Skill source: github.com/ajnart/self-host/blob/main/skills/self… AI helped me develop the project and prepare this post. The screenshots show the interface and Setup in progress, not a completed agent run.
A TUI and agent skill to self-host: try apps on your own machine I built self-host.fyi to help people move to self-hosted apps without repeating all the initial configuration by hand. You could use an old laptop as a photo server with Immich, an alternative to Google Photos. Or try Nextcloud for your files. You still need suitable hardware, storage and backups, but you don't need to turn every app you want to try into a new weekend project. It's a CLI with a terminal interface. If you'd rather not interact with that yourself, there's a skill your coding agent can use to operate the same tool. The guide tells it to inspect the machine, explain its plan and get your approval before making changes. You can start with a prompt like: "Help me set up Immich on this machine so I can try hosting my own photos." That starts a conversation and an approved plan, not a promise that every App works without your input. The idea is to try the software before deciding whether to keep paying a monthly subscription to store your own data. The useful bit isn't generating another Compose file. For supported Apps, it also handles initial accounts, generated passwords, API keys and connections between Apps. Docker Compose stays underneath, and some steps still need a person. I originally needed this for testing Homarr integrations, then worked on making it useful to other people. It's open source under Apache-2.0. self-host.fyi ajnart/self-host
A TUI to get into self-hosting Last year I built Docker Compose Maker in October 2025. It was a super simple website to help you get a fully working docker compose to get started homelabbing. Now, one year later I am presenting to you: self-host.fyi, the evolution of DCM. Self-host is a complete re-write and addition to DCM, it is a simple binary that works for linux, mac, wsl2 & agent skill that aims to get people into self-hosting. You pick which services you want through a TUI catalog, and it handles not just deploying every containers but also the setup of accounts, API keys & linking apps together. It's just Docker compose underneath. All your config files and your docker setup is inspectable docker compose files. Think of it like a helper for docker compose for new users, some kind of TUI to manage containers, it's like Dokploy, Portainer or CasaOS but directly inside of your terminal. The most important change is that it will link apps together. It is able to setup Sonarr for you and set Qbittorrent as the download client automatically, by creating an admin account in Qbittorrent and putting its API key into Sonarr directly. The passwords are automatically generated by default and can be manually defined. You can have a fully running self-hosted setup going with one command, it comes with a fully-configured dashboard to access all your services from if you want to. For example: I had never tried Mealie but in ~20 seconds of using the TUI it was able to set it up with a random password and connect it to my dashboard. I tried Mealie and figured I won't find the time to log it, it's not for me. With shift + A I selected it and removed it. That's it, less than 5 minutes. If you've already got your dream homelab running and perfectly tuned, this isn't for you. It is more geared towards people who are looking into getting into self-hosting or who'd want to try out an app in an easy way. Right now we support 93 self-hosted apps and hopefully that covers most people's use cases. I've spent extra time to make sure that the SDK the tool uses is super easy to work with so that anyone who knows how to program in Go can suggest additions, there's also a feature to add unsupported apps without coding. Anyway, curious what you all think! website : self-host.fyi repo : ajnart/self-host small presentation video: self-host.fyi I want to make it clear, I am not suggesting that an advanced user uses this CLI. If you have a fully working setup your are proud of you do not need this tool. Think of it like simpler TUI version of Portainer, you can use it to quickly add and try out an app and it'll give you a fully setup version of that app. Or a way to let one of your friend try self-hosting an app you're telling them about, without needing to explain to them how they communicate together. They can simply try using Immich on their machine. Then they can decide for themselves if it's worth it to go down the rabbit hole of self-hosting and spend their following weekends refactoring and adding a new container to their stack and debugging until 2am. Use it to peak the interest in that friend and invite them to try self-hosting, it will allow them to easily setup *arr + jellyfin & seerr in 5 minutes, then they might try sailing the seas instead of spending a monthly fortune on rented media they don't own to companies who'd betray them in an instant. With the recent Sony Playstation bullshit I want to get more and more people to into self-hosting to actually own their data and I feel that a simpler way to get a fully working setup would fit into the space, as an upgrade to DCM. AI disclaimer : Designed the SDK by hand and identified all the features it would need and built it. Then I worked on support for the "main" *Arr apps + seerr / jellyfin. Once it was done I decided to extend the catalog to support apps beyond the apps I use. I used agents to research and setup some of the 90+ apps it supports and parallelize the work, both on Linux, Mac, WSL2, ARM & x86, then I had to verify that they all worked and got set-up properly. It would've taken me months of work to make every app support "by hand", especially because most tools don't really have an API. Self-host supports tools that don't have an API, it just mimics the requests used to create accounts and other actions inside of the app for you with your desired credentials, kind of like a playwright script but much faster. The SDK's code is easy to read and to work with, so it should be pretty straight forward to add new entries to the catalog if you know basic Go. LLMs also helped me create installation scripts for homebrew, debian, arch / omarchy, ... as well as test them in VMs & generate the illustrations & the showreel video. Post fully written by me ofc
A TUI to get into self-hosting Last year I built Docker Compose Maker, It was a super simple website to help you get a fully working docker compose file to get started homelabbing. Now, one year later I am presenting to you: self-host.fyi, the "v2" of DCM. I've been contributing to Homarr almost weekly for almost 5 years. Recently I'm preparing to support Sonarr v5 beta and needed to ensure that nothing broke, as well as adding automated tests every week to check that every Homarr integration still works properly with the latest breaking changes from the 91 integrations it supports. We used to mock integrations results so basically the users complaints were the test suite. For that purpose I made a tool that sets-up these apps in a headless environment and connects them to Homarr. I now run a script weekly on my own homelab that sets-up every one of the 91 integrations with the :latest image and pings me if something broke. I adapted it into a tool that I thought newcomers to self-hosting could enjoy. Self-host is a complete re-write and addition to DCM / compose.ajnart.dev, it is a simple binary that works for linux, mac, wsl2 & agent skill that aims to get people into self-hosting. It's just Docker compose underneath. You pick which services you want through a TUI catalog, and it handles not just deploying every containers but also the setup of accounts, API keys & linking apps together. All your config files and your docker setup is inspectable docker compose files. Think of it like a helper for docker compose for new users, some kind of TUI to manage containers, it's like Dokploy, Portainer or CasaOS but directly inside of your terminal. The most important change is that it will link apps together. It is able to setup Sonarr for you and set Qbittorrent as the download client automatically, by creating an admin account in Qbittorrent and putting its API key into Sonarr directly. The passwords are automatically generated by default and can be manually defined. You can have a fully running self-hosted setup going with one command, it comes with a fully-configured dashboard to access all your services from if you want to. If you've already got your dream homelab running and perfectly tuned, this isn't for you. It is more geared towards people who are looking into getting into self-hosting or who'd want to try out an app in an easy way. Right now we support 93 self-hosted apps and hopefully that covers most people's use cases. I've spent extra time to make sure that the SDK the tool uses is super easy to work with so that anyone who knows how to program in Go can suggest additions, there's also a feature to add unsupported apps without coding website : self-host.fyi repo : ajnart/self-host small presentation video: self-host.fyi
A TUI called self-host - you'll never guess what it does I've been maintaining Homarr for 5 years and got frustrated writing Docker compose files to test homarr integrations all the time with new updates, so I built Docker Compose Maker (compose.ajnart.dev) in October 2025. It was a super simple website to help you get a fully working docker compose to get started homelabbing. Now one year later I am presenting to you: self-host.fyi, the evolution of DCM. Self-host is a complete re-write and addition to DCM, it is a simple binary that works for linux, mac, wsl2 & agent skill that aims to get people into self-hosting. You pick which services you want through a TUI catalog, it handles not just deploying every containers but also the setup of accounts, API keys & linking apps together. Think of it linking apps like this: sonarr <--links to--> qbittorrent , it will pull the necessary credentials and check the connection on both ends. You can now have a fully featured and opinionated homelab setup going with one command, it comes with a fully-configured Homarr dashboard setup to access all your services from if you want it to. At the end of the setup you don't even need to open sonarr to configure it, it's already ready for you to use through Seerr, Prowlarr, Homarr, ... Obviously, if you've already got your dream homelab running and perfectly tuned, this probably won't change much for you. But if you're finding yourself changing and tweaking your setup every time you add an app to your stack I think it will fit you. Right now we support 93 self-hosted apps and hopefully that includes the one you're thinking it probably doesn't include. If it doesn't include it out of the box, I've made sure that the SDK the tool uses is super easy to use so that anyone can suggest additions, there's also a feature to control unsupported apps. Anyway, curious what you all think! If you are lazy to install it, there is a cool demo you can play with on the website website : self-host.fyi repo : ajnart/self-host small presentation video: self-host.fyi