Every homelab is different: goals, budget, time, and experience vary. Treat this documentation as a set of patterns you can adapt, not a one-size-fits-all blueprint.
Principles
- Keep it simple: prefer boring, well-supported solutions over clever ones.
- Declare everything: everything in my homelab should be declared as code IaC or documented.
- Automate what repeats: if I do something twice, it should become a script, template, or documented runbook.
- Document the “why”: decisions and tradeoffs matter as much as the final configuration.
- Secure by default: least privilege, segmented networks where it helps, and secrets kept out of the repo.
- Recoverability first: backups and restore paths are more important than adding new services.
What these docs are (and aren’t)
These pages are a reference and resource center, not a complete “build a homelab from scratch” guide.- If you’re new, I’ll link to beginner-friendly resources (official docs, blogs, guides).
- If you’re experienced, the goal is to keep pages concise, actionable, and focused on decisions, configs, and runbooks.