Practical PHP, Laravel, devops, and AI-assisted workflow notes from Md Zia Uddin.
I wanted a Word-like editor on my own hostname, not another hosted doc tab. EdenText came up as one nginx container. The library lives in that browser's localStorage, so a tar of /opt/edentext backs up compose, not the letters. Loopback 8080, pin v0.14.0, HTTPS, export .odt — that is the lab path.
Nov 9, 2026 · 12 min read
I wanted one dashboard for apt and dnf across the VPS fleet, not another HTTP checker. PatchMon came up on Docker. CORS_ORIGIN defaults to localhost:3000, so HTTPS is a CORS brick. Server URL lives in Postgres, not .env — leave it localhost and agents never enroll. Loopback 3000, pin 2.1.6, expand DATABASE_URL — that is the lab path.
Nov 2, 2026 · 18 min read
I wanted a map and a rack canvas for the boxes I already run, not a third startpage. Homelable came up on Docker. The compose file hard-sets CORS_ORIGINS to localhost:3000 and ignores .env, so HTTPS is a CORS brick. nmap from a VPS bridge never sees home-LAN MACs. Loopback 3000, pin 3.6.0, public origin in the compose block — that is the lab path.
Oct 26, 2026 · 9 min read
I wanted a browser file manager after the original File Browser archive, not another Nextcloud. Quantum came up on Docker. A file bind for a missing config.yaml became a directory and the container never started. Host paths in sources left the UI empty. Loopback 8080, directory mount, /folder inside the container — that is the lab path.
Oct 19, 2026 · 9 min read
I wanted a browser UI for Headscale instead of another evening of docker exec. Headplane came up on Docker. cookie_secure defaults true, so http://IP:3000 never kept a session. Official Docker docs still pin Headscale 0.26.0, which 0.7.x dropped — /version 404s and the UI keeps retrying. Loopback 3000, Headscale 0.29.3, /admin behind Caddy — that is the lab path.
Oct 12, 2026 · 15 min read
I wanted browser tag edits on the same VPS as Jellyfin, not another media server. Tagr came up on Docker. Official compose comments the /music binds and ships AUTH_SECRET as change-me. A scan with zero tracks is the missing mount. AUTH_URL left as your-domain.com sent logout to the wrong host. Loopback 3000, real bind, persisted /data — that is the lab path.
Oct 5, 2026 · 9 min read
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I wanted one directory for Nextcloud and Grafana without standing up OpenLDAP. lldap came up on Docker. Official compose comments out 3890; I uncommented it and put the directory on the public internet. Skip JWT, key seed, and /data and the admin password is still password. Loopback UI plus Docker-network LDAP is what is running in the lab now.
Sep 28, 2026 · 9 min read
I wanted a self-hosted BaaS with Postgres instead of another Firebase bill. Appwrite 2.0’s installer came up on :20080. localhost was the VPS, not my laptop, and a 2 GB droplet OOM’d before Console IV loaded. Wizard hostname matching Traefik Host, 4 GB RAM plus swap, then close 20080 — that is the lab path.
Sep 14, 2026 · 12 min read
I wanted merge, OCR, and compress off a hosted PDF site. Stirling came up on Docker. The compose I copied set SECURITY_ENABLELOGIN=false on a public 8080, and ultra-lite would have dropped login anyway. Login on, bind localhost, Nginx in front — that is what is running in the lab now.
Sep 7, 2026 · 9 min read
I wanted a photo instance I actually own. Pixelfed is Laravel 12, and the homepage never tells you that Composer will OOM a 1GB VPS or that feeds stay empty until Horizon is a systemd service. Redis, Intervention Image, and Flysystem are the packages that decide whether the box is useful.
Sep 1, 2026 · 12 min read
I wanted runbooks off Notion. Wiki.js came up on Docker, then login died because DB_PASS did not match POSTGRES_PASSWORD, and search stayed empty until pg_trgm was actually in play. After that, HTTPS and a dump script were the boring parts.
Aug 31, 2026 · 7 min read
I wanted host metrics on a private VPS without a SaaS bill. Grafana came up on HTTPS; Save & test on the Prometheus data source failed until I used http://prometheus:9090 on the Compose network, not localhost. After that, node_exporter targets showed UP.
Aug 28, 2026 · 4 min read