A spare MacBook as a home server

How I turned a spare MacBook into the most useful infrastructure I own: how I reach it with no public address, the background jobs that run my week, the media stack and what I deleted, one dashboard that makes it usable, and the local model, monitoring, and backups that let me trust it.

Why my home server runs on a spare MacBook

Running a MacBook home server on spare Apple Silicon? See how Tailscale, Caddy, and OrbStack power 25 self-hosted services with no public IP.

How I reach a home server with no public address

No public IP? Use Tailscale, a wildcard DNS-01 certificate, and Caddy to reach a home server with real hostnames and TLS from anywhere.

Running background jobs on macOS with launchd

macOS launchd background jobs explained: plist scheduling, Full Disk Access pitfalls, silent TCC revocation, and the fix for jobs that stop working after redeploy.

Building a self-hosted media stack (and what I deleted)

qBittorrent auth loops, IPv6 fixes, and FlareSolverr wiring for a self-hosted media stack with Jellyfin, Sonarr, Radarr, and Prowlarr on Docker.

Making a home server usable with one dashboard

Tired of remembering ports and logging into services? Set up a home server dashboard with Glance, Caddy static file serving, and Home Assistant in one tab.

Trusting a home server: a local model, monitoring, and backups

Keep sensitive data off third-party APIs: run a local LLM with LM Studio, monitor with Gatus and Uptime Kuma, and back up nightly via rsync on your home server.