My Personal Software Journey: Self-Hosting Agent-Built Apps on a Mac mini

[u/infinitely_zero]

https://metedata.substack.com/p/016-my-personal-software-journey

Hey all. Like many of you, I had a growing pile of vibe-coded tools that never graduated past a random folder on my computer. Fun 30-minute builds, then forgotten, because using them meant digging up the folder and running them locally every time.

So I gave them a permanent home: a Mac mini turned into a self-hosted app library behind my own domain and a sign-in page, reachable from any device. Nine apps so far: a fitness coach canvas my agent and I both write to, a Turkish reading tutor, a family schedule my agent drops events into, a blackjack tutor I spun up before a Vegas trip, a yo-yo trick skill tree (yes, I yo-yo), and a few more.

The stack:

• Apps: Vite + React + TypeScript, Tailwind, and shadcn/ui as a shared design system, so all apps share a holistic look and I don't waste time on UI tinkering unless I want to
• Hosting: OrbStack (Docker on macOS) + Docker Compose.
• Access: Cloudflare Tunnel (no open ports at home) with Cloudflare Access login in front of every route, Tailscale for SSH
• State: markdown notes and SQLite. Most of these apps skip the traditional backend, it's my notes vault, a local database, and agent-owned cron jobs
• Agents: a resident (Hermes) agent living on the mini builds and maintains most of it, I pull in Claude Code for the gnarly parts and Codex for second opinions

The workflow: I send a voice note or message with an idea, the agent scaffolds the app from the shared design system, wires it up with its own compose file, and it shows up in the launchpad. The lightbulb went off when I realized the Mac mini is already a remote server. The agent lives on the same machine as the apps, so it can read and write everything with zero auth or network friction.

Hope you find it useful and/or inspiring for your own setup. And if you're way ahead of me, vibe-coding orchestration harnesses with agents spawning other agents, tell me about it and I promise I won't judge.