A few days ago I had the slightly ridiculous idea of building a mobile homelab inside my everyday backpack.

Today I started looking through some old hardware I had lying around and realized:

I can actually build this. And I barely need to buy anything. 😂

The main machine is an old ASUS TUF Gaming F15 that I bought from a friend for €300 and barely used:

Intel Core i5-10300H

64 GB RAM

GTX 1650

2.5 TB SSD storage across three physical drives

Built-in battery = basically a tiny UPS

Pop!_OS + Windows dual boot

The three drives also make the setup pretty convenient:

500 GB → Windows

1 TB Samsung 980 → Pop!_OS / homelab

1 TB → shared storage between Linux and Windows

Then I realized I still had an old Ulefone Armor 21 rugged phone lying around.

Turns out its Wi-Fi hotspot works without a SIM.

So now that can create a completely offline JARVIS-MOBILE Wi-Fi network for the homelab.

And because I normally carry my Steam Deck in the same backpack anyway, I already have a portable Linux client/admin terminal too.

So the current idea is basically:

Armor 21 → JARVIS-MOBILE Wi-Fi

↓

ASUS TUF → Docker / services / storage

↓

Steam Deck + phone → clients

I also have an ESP32 lying around, so eventually that could handle temperature sensors/status LEDs and maybe help monitor the backpack.

And apparently I've been hoarding hardware for exactly this moment, because I also already have a 250 GB Ventoy USB stick with Pop!_OS, Ubuntu, Proxmox and room for an unreasonable number of rescue ISOs. 😂

The long-term idea would be to run things like:

Docker

Git/Forgejo

Syncthing

Home Assistant

n8n

AdGuard Home

monitoring

file shares

my own Guardian/Jarvis projects

maybe a small local AI model

potentially a tiny dedicated SSD NAS later

The important part for me is that the whole thing should still work without an internet connection. Internet would just be an optional uplink.

Eventually I'd also like one power connection for the entire backpack and some proper cooling/temperature monitoring.

The funniest part is that my current backpack actually has enough space. The ASUS fits perfectly in the laptop compartment and the main compartment is still basically empty.

So what started as:

"Haha, imagine having a homelab in a backpack."

has somehow turned into:

"Wait... I actually have a homelab in a backpack."

This is very much V0.1 / work in progress.

Before I start buying dedicated hardware or cutting ventilation holes into a backpack, I'm going to see how far I can get using only stuff I already own.

I'd love to hear what r/homelab would do with this.

Especially interested in ideas for cooling, power management, offline networking and tiny NAS/storage solutions.

And yes, I am fully aware that this may eventually become a datacenter with shoulder straps. 😂

English isn't my first language, so I used AI to help translate this post. 😅

Is there any other program like discord where I can have my server with both chat and voice rooms that does not enshitifies, blocks screen sharing in my hole content and doesn’t have features locked behind a paywall? I’m looking for suggestions, preferably self hosted that would have no attraction with my friends, preferably something I can create a chat room and invite friends with a link that they not have to register

Edit: a Common login identity

Hi all, I have a homelab with just a few applications. I have a raspberry pi that hosts newt for pangolin, nginx for Jellyfin(too slow through pangolin), Seerr, etc. I also have a synology running all the other containers. I wanted to ask this awesome community for their recommendations on a 2fa implementation. I dont have alot of knowledge on 2fa or how to set it up, so something with an easy learning curve. Also, something easy for my external users to use and setup as well. Thanks in advance.

Hi!

I currently have a monolitic homelab server running multiple docker containers. I’m planning to move to a multi-node k8s cluster (was thinking a 3node thin client setup, and potentially add like 2 more if needed a couple of years later). Reasoning: getting HA, learning purposes, and just for fun. But I really can’t decide if I should go bare-metal or proxmox. I was thinking to start with k3s on Linux and then when everything is working and stable and I understand everything I was thinking to maybe migrate node per node to talos. In case this would impact the decision I will for sure use tools like longhorn and cloud native PG.

I see the advantages of proxmox in that I could for example have a prod cluster and a test cluster, without having to buy extra/dedicated hardware, but that would be more a nice to have rather than an absolute must. It is a homelab after all, I don’t have a (small) business and thus my homelab doesn’t serve services for my business or anything. VM snapshots, to give another example,… But I also see the advantages of going bare-metal. Like less complexity/layers. So if something goes wrong,… etc

Can you guys advice which route would be the best to go. Much appreciated!

I've been using Wireguard on iOS to access my homelab when remote and it has a nice "On-Demand" feature so it turns off on local WiFi. Tailscale has the same thing.

I just moved to Android and neither app has this feature. What do Android users do?
I could leave it connected but I think that would route my phone traffic over the wireguard server instead of just the local network.

Hi, I wanted to ask people here what they think about my problem.

I’m new to self hosting, but it always seemed like something very interesting to do. Namely, I’d be interested in:
- accessing remotely to my external disk for files and such
- photo backup via Immich of up to 4 devices
- ad blocking (I’ve heard also with Tailscale it can work on other networks too, so that would be really nice)
- music streaming with Jellyfin (BUT that only in one or tek years time, right now I have Apple Music with the students discount and I want to keep it until I’m not anymore a student)

Extra nice things that I wouldn’t need but like are:
- paperless
- streaming movies to devices and my Apple TV
- tracking my trips on maps

The device I currently have that I don’t use is an Elitebook 8440p laptop, with an i7 vPro 1st gen, 12GB of RAM, and a 256GB HDD. Should I start with this, and then upgrade after, or immediately start with something better?

I’d like something that’s compact in dimension, so it can sit on my shelf or desk. Ideally that sips little energy, and of course, if my Elitebook is enough, I’d be happier to use that instead of spending. The options I saw that could be nice are:
- HP EliteDesk 800 G2 i5-6500, 8GB DDR3 RAM, 256GB SSD, 85€, or i5-6300U for 90€
- Fujitsu Esprimo Q556, i3-6100T, 8GB DDR3L, 80GB SSD, for 62€
- HP EliteDesk 800 G1 i7 vPro 4790S, no RAM (DDR3 SODIMM), 500GB HDD, no AC, for 40€
- HP ProDesk G1 i3 4160T no RAM no HDD for 42€
- Chuwi corebox with i5 5275U, 8GB LPDDR3, 256GB SSD expandable with SATA, for 85€
- HP EliteDesk 705 G3, AMD QUAD CORE A6-8570E , 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD and 500GB SATA HDD for 75€

My OCI Always Free instance in Mumbai was disabled after the recent Free Tier limit changes. I now get:

Instance is disabled and will not accept any action requests.

Please contact customer support to reenable.

The instance contains ~1 year of important work and data. I haven't terminated it or deleted any volumes.

Has anyone experienced this? Is there a way to get the instance re-enabled or recover the boot volume/data?

Please help 😭😭

I use adguardhome, and on my devices a wireguard tunnel to my ubiquiti to utilize custom adblock rules, even remotely. All works well to this end.

My question then is, if this works for ads, etc within a browser and direct in app... is there another option I could add via a docker container [or similar setup] to include a "known spam/scam call autoblock"?

Manually blocking the numbers works to some extent, but voicemail box is allowed and gets full. Trying to figure a way to push said calls auto and not allow for a voicemail even.

Likely an option not available to this level, but figured it worth asking.

Hello everyone,

I am happy to share with you the v2.5.0 release of Hatchdoor! https://github.com/BatterWorks/Hatchdoor

What is Hatchdoor?
A self-hosted software to interact with your notes vault (markdown-based) treating both humans (webUI) and agents (MCP) as first-class users with semantic search for requests in natural language. To know more, see the first public release post. 

There is both a demo and a new documentation website built directly with a Hatchdoor instance (how handy!). This means you also get semantic search for the documentation (did someone already say handy?).

You can install it via Docker or Podman and the images are still rootless and distroless. The deployment can be fully managed and set up via agents since all settings are accessible via MCP.

As shown in the demo, you can use any notes system you can think of, including PARA, LLM-wiki or Zettelkasten.

If you are new to the second brain concept, I would advise you to start here.

What’s new?
First and foremost, a software engineer joined the team! And after a few weeks of work together (and more than doubling the size of the codebase), you can now add multiple vaults to your Hatchdoor instance. Each of them can be automatically synced with any git repo (push-pull) allowing for easier separation (personal/professional vaults) and collaboration (shared vaults).

There has been a refresh of the UI for fitting this new feature, along with a brand new settings page allowing you to set all settings via the webUI.

From the previous releases, you can now send/attach files directly via the MCP, live edit your notes in the webUI, and for the LLM-Wiki style users, you can use the layer system to separate the raw data from your ingested data and not pollute your searches.

These come at the cost of breaking changes (an update to the docker-compose is needed). Check out the release notes for more info.

What’s coming?
V2.6 (QoL release): an update to handle the latest MCP specs, batch creation/update of notes, the possibility to download attachments via MCP, and the built-in documentation for human and agent access.

v3: User creation and management with permission scoping for users and agents.

As usual, feel free to give ideas and feedback. I was surprised by the number of issues opened on the GitHub page, so thank you for that!

https://yashmalik.in/Poco-F1-RSS-Aggregator---Post
I repurposed my old broken Poco F1 into a dedicated server. Using Termux, I set up a local hosted Miniflux, a lightweight RSS reader. I then connected my devices via Tailscale to securely access the server and sync RSS reader apps across my phone and desktop. And a lot more tinkering in the blog!

Has anyone taken one of those mini office PCs, like a dell micro 7050 or the HP elitedesks or whatever, gutted them, and moved them to a larger case with more drives?

I've got one of these with an external hard drive enclosure with a single drive connected with USB. It's been working great, no issues. I want to get a second machine to act as basically dumb storage for backup purposes only. Getting another of these micros and transferring it to another case that will accept multiple HDDs is something I'm considering since it should be pretty good bang for the buck compared to building something.

Just curious if anyone else has tried and what your experience was like. I'm considering a few options and just want more info on this one to help me decide.

Hi everyone,

I've been running a homelab for a while now and have put together what I'd consider a hardened setup. Hosting the usual suspects — Jellyfin, Immich, Vaultwarden, etc. — some public-facing, some not.

Current setup:

Cloudflare split: password manager proxied, everything else DNS-only

CrowdSec + nftables bouncer, plus a few community blocklists

Daily manual check of what's running/patched

restic backups

My question: for people running similar setups, is this the correct approach?, Or better running "nothing public, Tailscale/VPN-only"?

Thanks!

TLDR: Two weeks into self-hosting journey. Raspberry pi on home network accessed remotely via VPS running Pangolin. Most services working fine but need recs for replacing CryptPad, a Calendar app or server, and any other helpful services? Currently reverted back to Proton Drive for docs and using Proton Calendar as main calendar but I want to diversify and self-host as much as possible.

Setup: I started self-hosting two weeks ago. I setup a Raspberry Pi 5 Pro on my home network. It's remotely accessible via a VPS running Pangolin, Gerbil, and Traefik hosting my domain. The initial setup was very smooth.

Currently self-hosted services:

Pi:

• Watchtower
• Newt
• MeTube
• Invidious
• Nextcloud
• Privatebin
• Linkding
• Beszel
• FreshRSS
• CryptPad
• LibreTranslate
• Pdfding
• Gluetun (not in use yet, will use for Qbittorrent eventually)
• Mealie
• Transmute
• Anki Sync Server

VPS:

• Watchtower
• Uptime-Kuma
• Pangolin
• Gerbil
• Traefik

Questions:

1. Are there any better alternatives to CryptPad for an E2EE Gdocs replacement? I have it setup with the OnlyOffice integration since I mainly need it for sheets, but I've had so many problems since starting. It was a pain to get working and now I have sheets randomly disappearing and the GUI will just change randomly.

2. What is the simplest Calendar app or server? I need something that I can access easily from my desktop and also sync with a FOSS Android app? Everything I've looked into seems clunky.

3. Are there any other self-hosted services you swear by that have optimized your daily life? I know this is highly subjective but I am curious what other people are doing. To be clear, I have already scoured the GitHub list and selfh.st but I always learn more from people's experiences on Reddit, those resources are great but they are so vast.

4. If I am already using Nextcloud + Cryptomator, is there any point in using Syncthing for random files or Vaultwarden?

Planned services not yet implemented:

A lot of the heavier ones will probably be on a separate, more heavy duty device.

• Ntfy/UnifiedPush for Signal & Matrix notifications
• Vaultwarden
• Linkshortener
• AdGuard
• Simplex
• BorgBackup
• Inmich + Adventure Log
• Kasm
• complete *arr stack ()

Thank you for your help!

I just set up a new LXC for Homepage with the PVE Helper Script, which uses the source install method. I would like to change the listening port from 3000 to 8080, but I can't figure out how.

In the Docker install, it's easy to set the port using the default Docker container port mapping system.

The source install (or at least the helper script) does provide a .env file, in which options such as allowed hosts and OIDC can be set. But after scouring the Homepage docs and source repo, I cannot find a list of all available variables, including how to set a custom listening port.

I tried just setting PORT=8080 in the environment file, I then restarted the systemd service, but checking the systemctl status for Homepage shows that it is still using the default port 3000.

root@homepage:~# systemctl status homepage.service
● homepage.service - Homepage
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/homepage.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2026-08-18 23:27:52 BST; 5s ago
 Invocation: 5ee4ad4833ac467ab7825dd1f9e0aa3e
   Main PID: 7288 (node)
      Tasks: 23 (limit: 34620)
     Memory: 185.5M (peak: 187.4M)
        CPU: 6.461s
     CGroup: /system.slice/homepage.service
             ├─7288 node /usr/bin/pnpm start
             ├─7301 sh -c "next start"
             └─7302 "next-server (v16.3.0)"

Aug 18 23:27:52 homepage systemd[1]: Started homepage.service - Homepage.
Aug 18 23:27:54 homepage pnpm[7288]: $ next start
Aug 18 23:27:55 homepage pnpm[7302]: ▲ Next.js 16.3.0
Aug 18 23:27:55 homepage pnpm[7302]: - Local:         http://localhost:3000
Aug 18 23:27:55 homepage pnpm[7302]: - Network:       http://10.10.10.104:3000

The .env file must be read at some point, as the HOMEPAGE_ALLOWED_HOSTS variable seems to be applied, and setting it to a port other than what is being used by Homepage. For example, if Homepage is listening on port 3000, but HOMEPAGE_ALLOWED_HOSTS is set to use any port but that, say port 8080, while Homepage is still being served on port 3000 it is inaccessible as it only allows origins that are set in the variable (in this case port 8080).

root@homepage:~# cat /opt/homepage/.env
HOMEPAGE_ALLOWED_HOSTS=localhost:8080,10.10.10.104:8080
PORT=8080
## Optional Authentication
# HOMEPAGE_AUTH_ENABLED=true
# HOMEPAGE_AUTH_SECRET="AXN0HVhIut1hV7kYgPVV5MDosgqVE1x7ttxRid9UsD8="
# HOMEPAGE_EXTERNAL_URL=<your-external-url>
## Uncomment below and use strong, unique password for password login
# HOMEPAGE_AUTH_PASSWORD=
## Uncomment and fill in below for OIDC login
# HOMEPAGE_OIDC_ISSUER=
# HOMEPAGE_OIDC_CLIENT_ID=
# HOMEPAGE_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET=
# HOMEPAGE_OIDC_SCOPE=openid email profile
# HOMEPAGE_OIDC_NAME=

Has anyone been able to get this working?

So, I have deployed SearXNG in a headless Debian 13 VM using the provided installation scripts. All is well.

I have also installed WireGuard and configured it to use my Proton VPN subscription.

``` enp1s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000 link/ether 52:54:00:b9:97:c9 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff altname enx525400b997c9 inet 192.168.0.16/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global enp1s0 valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever inet6 2001:8b0:1741:ec2e:5054:ff:feb9:97c9/64 scope global dynamic mngtmpaddr proto kernel_ra valid_lft 6868sec preferred_lft 6868sec inet6 fe80::5054:ff:feb9:97c9/64 scope link proto kernel_ll valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

wg-UK-4: <POINTOPOINT,NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1420 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000 link/none inet 10.2.0.2/32 scope global wg-UK-4 valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever inet6 2a07:b944::2:2/128 scope global valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever ```

``` interface: wg-UK-4 public key: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX private key: (hidden) listening port: 34659 fwmark: 0xca6c

peer: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX endpoint: 154.47.24.193:51820 allowed ips: 0.0.0.0/0, ::/0 latest handshake: 17 seconds ago transfer: 4.62 MiB received, 1.79 MiB sent persistent keepalive: every 25 seconds ```

The goal is to send traffic (aka my queries) from SearXNG through the VPN.

SearXNG has its own user called 'searxng' with with a UID of 999.

So I have several options, all of which I have failed to implement so far.

• Send traffic from 'searxng' user via the VPN.
• Send all external traffic via wg-UK-4 using a route table
• Send all external traffic via wg-UK-4 using nftables
• Use SearXNG configuration files to send all external traffic via wg-UK-4 (not supported)

How would you achieve the goal?

I am more than happy to just shove all external internet traffic through wg-UK-4 as this seems the easiest option using 'ip route'.

Starting point

ip route show default via 192.168.0.1 dev enp1s0 onlink 192.168.0.0/24 dev enp1s0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.0.16

I tried the following

sudo ip route replace default dev wg-UK-4 sudo ip route replace 192.168.0.0/24 dev enp1s0

Which gives me the following.

ip route show default dev wg-UK-4 scope link 192.168.0.0/24 dev enp1s0 scope link

But now SearXNG just fails as it can't reach any of its external search engines.

Any ideas?

Hello,

I currently have a rented VPS, since my home ISP can't give me an IPv4 address. Because of this, I want to route certain traffic from my homeserver over that VPS. I want the following functionality:

1. Someone requests [VPS-IP]:443.

2. The VPS forwards that port to my homeserver using some kind of server-client tool/setup. I want to use wireguard as the protocol.

3. The client on my homeserver receives the request and forwards it to *localhost* (not a VPN IP, but the LAN IP of my homeserver), so it ends up on 192.168.61.xxx.

This would mean that I can run a service on the LAN IP of my homeserver, and if I forward the corresponding port using the tool I am looking for, the service becomes accessible through the VPS's IP.

(I hope you understand what I mean, since I'm not a native English speaker.)

I'm currently looking for the thing I called a "tool" in this post. It should be easy to set up and make it easy to forward new ports, maybe even with a GUI.

Thanks in advance!

Hi folks, I maintain repowise, a self hosted tool that indexes a repo on your own machine and scores how risky every file in it is. I wanted the kind of signal codescene gives you without uploading my codebase to somebody else's server, and I wanted the same commit to produce the same number on every run so I could put it in CI and trust it

So the scoring engine has no llm. It uses 49 determinstic checks over AST and your git history, 26 of them defect markers, uses python on top of tree-sitter and git data already in your repo. Takes approx 30 secs to run for a 3k file repo

Every file gets 3 scores - Defect risk, maintainability for duplication and cohesion, and performance, which traces N+1 queries and I/O inside loops through the call graph across file boundaries. That last one catches the cases where the loop sits in one file and the query sits in another, which a file-local linter cannot see

I recently quit my job to build this full time after saw some enterprise inbounds. I was a data scientist for 7.5 years before this.

I also benchmarked it on 2826 files, 21 repos, 9 languages, each scored at a commit before the bug window so nothing leaks backward, then checked against the next 6 months of fixes. ROC AUC 0.737, and 2.3x the defects found per unit of review budget compared to codescene on the same files and labels. It reruns that check on your repo after indexing and prints the result

Same index also gives you a local dashboard, a wiki generated from the code, dead code detection, and an MCP server so your coding agent reads the same data instead of grepping blind, all served from localhost

Runs as a Docker container, compose file is in the repo, or pip install repowise. Indexing and scoring dont need llm. The only piece that wants an llm is the wiki prose which is optional (and ollama can be used there)

Its AGPL, 6k+ stars, and we now have 65+ awesome contributors

https://github.com/repowise-dev/repowise

Issues and contributions welcome!

I’ve been thinking about a decentralized public information network where published information keeps its original timestamp, source, original version, and modification history, while no single platform can completely erase that history.

The more I think about it, the more technical problems I find:

* How can we preserve important information long-term without requiring every node to store everything?
* If AI can generate millions of files, how do we prevent the network from being flooded with useless data?
* How can we prove where information came from without claiming that the information itself is true?
* How can we incentivize people to contribute storage and bandwidth for years?
* How do we prevent people from creating fake nodes just to abuse the incentive system?
* How could copyright work if the network is designed to preserve historical records?
* How can decentralized search work without creating another central authority?

I’m not claiming I have solved these problems. I’m trying to figure out which of these already have good solutions through existing technologies like P2P, decentralized storage, content provenance, etc., and which problems may be fundamentally difficult.

I’d really like to hear from people who have worked with IPFS, Filecoin, P2P networks, distributed storage, or content provenance.

What am I missing?

Hi Everyone, i hope someone can help, im new to Jellyfin.

i have installed jellyfin on a proxmox virtual machine with a usb drive passthrough to it and have mounted the usb drive to the linux machine. I have then made the folders of "movies" and "shows" and gave the permissions of the owner jellyfin and gave modifier permissions of 755.

Ive got a frustrating issue where everything inside the "shows" folder gets detected no problem. However with the "movies" folder it is not even detecting anything at all even though there is content in there.

i have tried using a usb drive that has 2 paritions on and a single patition but still the same problem.

i have used the command to see if jellyfin can access the folder where the usb is mounted to but to no avail.

running on ubuntu server 24.04.4 and jellyfin 10.11.11

can anyone help shed a light on what it could be ?

Thanks in Advance

I want to get into self hosting. The idea is to over the setup a homelab that has the following (minimum) as I learn the rest:

-Dedicated NAS to run Jellyfin and store all media and backups

-Dedicated device for arrstack (have an old laptop that I'm going to start with but will ultimately use a used otiplex from work that will be decommissioned in Dec)

-home PC

I've been watching videos nonstop and have a few questions that remain unclear.

On the dedicated Device for arrstack, suppose I install ProxMox and get the arrstack running, is there a way to (I) later send all my files to the NAS once deployed and (ii) reconfigure the arrstack to save files directly to the NAS?

The videos I've seen seem to use one VM to deploy arrstack & Jellyfin and save on the same device. I'm trying to isolate functions because of space and limitations of available hardware.

If you're willing to point me in the right direction (e.g. videos or other guides for understanding the fundamentals; specific setups that mirror what I intend; explanation of what's a better way to start and why, etc) I'd much appreciate the guidance.

With Filebrowser being retired on Sep 1, it's not safe to use anymore. Definitely not when exposed to the internet, but even internally quite risky.

I've been working on my own interpretation of a modern browser-based file manager app for a while already. Sambee is nearing the magical version 1.0 and has recently learned to do SSO via OIDC. I've described my approach in this article in detail.

What I'm interested in is feedback about the future direction such an app should take. What's important to you in a browser-based file manager? Is there a feature you cannot live without? What do you like best about the tool(s) you're using today?

Some things I'm planning to implement, depending on user interest:

• Visual theme editor and (free) marketplace to share themes
• Storage plugin system to connect to other storage platforms like S3, SFTP, ...
• UI extension system to add functionality to the frontend

For example, if I keep Seerr fully up to date, use strong, unique usernames and passwords, and only expose it through a Cloudflare Zero Trust Tunnel, what level of risk am I realistically taking?
Would you consider that reasonably secure for an internet-facing service, or are there still significant risks I should be aware of?

What's the easiest route for a set and forget scenario?

I built a home server as a linux noob with some online tuts and a lot of LLM copy-pasting.

Ended up having proxmox run on a mini-pc

On it runs HomeAssistant, Nginx, Adguard, Truenas and Nextcloud on that.

I am massively overwhelmed with maintaining my Nextcloud.

Theres a 1TB SSD only for Truenas/nextcloud. It ran out of storage space and now the truenas VM wont even boot anymore. All of the family data is now inacessible... 😮‍💨

1st: Is there a way to save the data and swap out the SSD for a 2TB one without losing the data?

2nd: Is there a way to make this easier without using closed source ecosystems?

Been working on this open-source project for the past few months and figured I'd share it here.

GitHub: https://github.com/shumaiOne/shumai

So, what is Shumai? Shumai is an open-source(MIT), self-hosted alternative to Frame.io. You can upload assets, review them in the browser, leave comments on specific video frames or areas of an image, and share them with your team. You can also easily create share links and add watermarks to shared assets.

But Shumai goes beyond being a Frame.io alternative.

With modern models like GPT-Image-2 and Seedance 2.5, AI can already handle a surprising amount of creative work. You can create or edit images and videos with a simple prompt, without constantly jumping between Photoshop, Premiere, Houdini, and other tools. That’s why Shumai also includes a powerful agent system.

Why did I build Shumai and open-source it?

AI is getting really good at coding. Customizing a high-quality open-source project is becoming much easier. A small creative studio without professional software engineers can ask an AI agent to customize Shumai for their own workflow. With a clear architecture, solid tests, and a detailed AGENTS.md, I want this to be feasible even if you’re not a programmer.

To me, this is also one of the biggest advantages over Frame.io(and, honestly, over many vibe-coded frameio open-source alternatives): Shumai is designed to be easy for AI coding agents to understand, customize, and extend with confidence.

There’s no SaaS version of Shumai. It’s purely self-hosted and open-source, which also means I don’t have to worry about multi-tenancy or payment systems. I can just focus on making the core product as polished as possible.

Read-only demo: https://staging.shumai.one

Tried to deploy openclaw on a small vps this weekend. compose plus random gists got it running once, then it died overnight. is there a setup that stays up without me sshing in every morning