Homelable

Homelable is a self-hosted infrastructure visualization solution. It provides a network scanning feature to accelerate the identification of machines and services deployed on your local infrastructure.

Homelable also offers a healthcheck system (WIP) through multiple methods (ping/TCP, /health API, etc.) to get a global overview of online/offline services.

You can also select some pre-built design styles, or personalize each device in your diagram.

If you just like the design, you can only run the frontend and export your design as PNG.

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Screenshots

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Installation

Docker, Proxmox LXC, build from source, configuration, and development setup are all covered in INSTALLATION.md.

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Network Scanner

The scanner runs nmap -sV --open on your configured CIDR ranges and populates a Pending Devices queue. From the sidebar you can then approve (adds a node to the canvas), hide, or ignore each discovered device.

Triggering a scan

To save you time when mapping your infrastructure, Homlable can scan your network and report all the services it detects. It can also identify them, saving you even more time. Click Scan Network in the sidebar. The Scan History tab opens automatically and refreshes every 3 seconds until the scan completes.

macOS / root privileges

Some nmap scan types (SYN scan, OS detection) require root. If the scan fails with a permissions error, run it manually with sudo using the included script:

cd backend
sudo python ../scripts/run_scan.py 192.168.1.0/24

# Multiple ranges:
sudo python ../scripts/run_scan.py 192.168.1.0/24 10.0.0.0/24

Results are written directly to the database and appear as Pending Devices in the UI without restarting the backend.

On Linux the backend process itself can be given the NET_RAW capability instead of running as root:

sudo setcap cap_net_raw+ep $(which nmap)

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Node Check Methods

Homelable continuously monitors your nodes and displays their live status (online / offline / unknown) directly on the canvas. Each node can be configured with an independent check method suited to the service it runs.

Method	Description
ping	ICMP ping
http	GET request, success if status < 500
https	GET with TLS verify
tcp	TCP connect (target: host:port)
ssh	TCP connect to port 22
prometheus	GET /metrics
health	GET /health

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Live View (read-only public canvas)

Live View lets you share a read-only snapshot of your canvas with anyone on your network — no login required. It is disabled by default.

Activation

Add LIVEVIEW_KEY to your .env:

LIVEVIEW_KEY=your-secret-key

Then restart the backend:

docker compose restart backend

Usage

Use this URL to view your canvas:

http:///view?key=your-secret-key

The page shows your canvas in pan/zoom-only mode — no editing, no credentials needed. Clicking a node that has an IP opens it in a new tab.

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MCP Server (AI Integration) (optional)

Homelable can exposes a Model Context Protocol server so any MCP-compatible AI client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Open WebUI…) can read your homelab topology and act on it.

What the AI can do

	Action
Read	List all nodes, edges, full canvas, pending devices, scan history
Write	Add / update / delete nodes and edges, trigger a network scan, approve or hide discovered devices

Setup

1. Add the keys to your .env:

# Authenticates AI clients (Claude Code, etc.) → MCP server
MCP_API_KEY=mcp_sk_changeme

# Authenticates MCP server → backend (internal Docker network only, never exposed)
MCP_SERVICE_KEY=svc_changeme

# Generate both with:
# python3 -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(32))"

No plain-text passwords involved — AUTH_PASSWORD_HASH is only used for the web UI login.

2. Start the MCP service:

docker compose up -d mcp
# MCP server is now listening on http://<your-homelab-ip>:8001

3. Configure your AI client:

Claude Code — run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add --transport sse homelable http://<your-homelab-ip>:8001/mcp \
  --header "X-API-Key: mcp_sk_yourkey"

Or add it manually to ~/.claude.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "homelable": {
      "type": "sse",
      "url": "http://<your-homelab-ip>:8001/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "X-API-Key": "mcp_sk_yourkey"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop — edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "homelable": {
      "type": "sse",
      "url": "http://<your-homelab-ip>:8001/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "X-API-Key": "mcp_sk_yourkey"
      }
    }
  }
}

Example prompts

• "What nodes are currently offline?"
• "Add a new LXC container named pihole at 192.168.1.5, connected to my switch."
• "Trigger a network scan on 192.168.1.0/24 and show me the pending devices."
• "Show me the full canvas topology."

Security

• The MCP server is not intended to be exposed to the internet — keep port 8001 firewalled to your LAN.
• Rotate the key any time by updating MCP_API_KEY in .env and restarting: docker compose restart mcp.
• The MCP server communicates with the backend over the internal Docker network — the backend API is never directly exposed to MCP clients.

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