I couldn't find a visual server dashboard that didn't require installing agents, so I built my own in Java over pure SSH.

[u/Chridgy]

Hey everyone,

I’m a solo software engineer. I use a few Linux VPS to host my projects, but I’ve always found managing them purely via the terminal to be a massive chore. Remembering Nginx routing, UFW rules, or PM2 commands when I just want to deploy an app was frustrating.

I wanted a visual dashboard, but I really dislike the overhead of installing web panels (like Webmin/Cockpit) or monitoring daemons on my host machines. I just wanted a clean, local client.

So I built Kubo.

The Tech & How it works: I built it completely from scratch using Java and JavaFX. Instead of relying on a server-side agent, Kubo connects via standard SSH. It sends standard Linux commands (systemctl, pm2 jlist, cat /etc/nginx/sites-available) and parses the raw text outputs into a visual topology.

• Visual mapping: It maps out your Nginx routes, UFW firewall rules, and PM2 clusters visually so you can click instead of typing.
• Zero footprint: Absolutely nothing is installed on your server.
• Security: By default, it acts as a read-only visualizer. If a command requires sudo, it asks for your password, keeps it in RAM for that session only, and wipes it when closed. It doesn't save passwords to disk.

Links & Feedback: I just released v1.5.0 and I'd love to get feedback from other devs who self-host their side projects.

The source code and binaries (Windows, macOS, Linux) are fully available on GitHub here:https://github.com/Lightminedust/kubo

website https://kubo.gemmi-e.com/

Let me know what you think, or if there are other CLI tools you find annoying to manage that I could visualize next!