Homer — Static Server Dashboard with YAML Configuration

What it is

Homer is a lightweight, fully static server dashboard that organizes all your self-hosted services on a single page. It requires no database, no backend runtime, and no API connections. You edit a YAML configuration file, and Homer renders a clean, customizable dashboard in the browser.

Homer is built for homelab enthusiasts and sysadmins who run multiple self-hosted services and want a central start page. It is a static HTML/JS application served by any web server or Docker container.

How it saves time or tokens

Without a dashboard, accessing self-hosted services means bookmarking dozens of URLs with different ports. Homer consolidates them into a single page with optional health checks that show service status at a glance. Adding a new service takes one YAML block, not a database migration or config reload. The entire dashboard loads as static files with no server-side rendering overhead.

How to use

1. Run Homer with Docker, mounting a volume for the assets directory.
2. Edit assets/config.yml to define your services and groups.
3. Open http://localhost:8080 to see your dashboard.

docker run -d --name homer \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v /path/to/assets:/www/assets \
  b4bz/homer:latest

Example

A config.yml defining two service groups:

title: 'My Homelab'
subtitle: 'Service Dashboard'
columns: 3

services:
  - name: 'Media'
    items:
      - name: 'Jellyfin'
        url: 'http://192.168.1.10:8096'
        logo: 'assets/icons/jellyfin.png'
        subtitle: 'Media server'
      - name: 'Sonarr'
        url: 'http://192.168.1.10:8989'
        subtitle: 'TV show manager'

  - name: 'Infrastructure'
    items:
      - name: 'Portainer'
        url: 'http://192.168.1.10:9000'
        subtitle: 'Docker management'
      - name: 'Pi-hole'
        url: 'http://192.168.1.10:80/admin'
        subtitle: 'DNS ad blocker'

Related on TokRepo

• AI Tools for Self-Hosted — More self-hosted alternatives for common infrastructure
• AI Tools for Monitoring — Monitoring and observability tools for homelab setups

Common pitfalls

• YAML indentation errors break the entire dashboard with no helpful error message. Validate your config with a YAML linter before reloading.
• Health checks hit each service URL on every page load. If a service is slow, it delays the whole dashboard render. Disable health checks for slow services.
• Custom icons must be placed in the assets directory mounted into the container. Paths are relative to /www/assets/, not the host filesystem.