Self-Hosted Infrastructure Stack for Cost Control

Do this: Our VPS-heavy architecture is validated by this homelab trend, but we should selectively adopt only the tools that beat our current Express/cron and NextAuth setup—specifically Karakeep for research organization and Matomo for GDPR-compliant analytics.

Comparison to Current State

new value DIFFERENT ANGLE

Current:

New: New reel suggests specific self-hosted SSO (Authentik) for unifying authentication across AIAS, TFWW, and CloserSim dashboards, improving security and reducing separate credential management, which is a new security/infra consideration not detailed in the dashboard standard.

new value DIFFERENT ANGLE

Current:

New: The new reel introduces specific tools (Authentik for SSO, Karakeep for research) that could be integrated into an agent dashboard ecosystem, providing concrete technical solutions for user authentication and knowledge management that weren't specified in the abstract 'Agent OS' plan.

new value DIFFERENT ANGLE

Current:

New: This reel provides concrete self-hosted infrastructure components (e.g., Coolify for Docker, MeTube for archive management) that could underpin and manage the deployment and operation of AI agent workflows, adding a layer of practical infrastructure deployment not covered in the abstract workflow orchestration framework.

Similar to: Nellavio Dashboard Standard for New SaaS Tools (0% overlap)
Overlap: dashboard infrastructure, SaaS tools
Different enough to proceed.

Reduces SaaS subscription leakage (potentially $200-500/month in auth/analytics/storage tools) and improves data sovereignty for client information.

Deploy Karakeep for AI-tagged research archives and test Matomo for GDPR-compliant analytics to reduce SaaS costs and improve data sovereignty.

Business Applications

MEDIUM Internal tooling consolidation (general)

Deploy Authentik on VPS2 to provide unified OIDC/SAML auth across AIAS, TFWW, and CloserSim dashboards, eliminating separate credential databases and enabling MFA everywhere.

LOW Research workflow enhancement (general)

Self-host Karakeep instance and integrate with ReelBot's 'knowledge_base' task handler to auto-archive reel references with AI tagging instead of flat Markdown files.

LOW Analytics compliance (meta_ads)

Test Matomo on GnomeGuys as GA4 replacement to eliminate cookie consent requirements and reduce third-party scripts; monitor impact on Meta CAPI integration.

Implementation Levels

L1 -- Note it: Document the 16-tool self-hosted stack and reality-check assessments to avoid over-engineering our auth layer.
L2 -- Build it: Deploy Karakeep on VPS2 and integrate with ReelBot to replace flat Markdown research storage with AI-tagged bookmarks.
L3 -- Go deep: Implement Matomo on GnomeGuys as a GDPR-compliant GA4 replacement to test cookie-less analytics and reduced third-party scripts.

Tasks

0 selected

Rate this plan:

React Angle

Our take: Solid stack validation—we run similar infrastructure (VPS2 + Coolify) but recently ditched n8n for native Express cron jobs. Would add Authentik for SSO if we expand multi-tenant dashboards.

Repurpose Ideas

Carousel: 'Self-hosted stack that replaced $400/mo in SaaS' — show before/after costs for TFWW infrastructure (Coolify vs Vercel Pro, Supabase vs Firebase)
Reel: Screen recording of our Coolify dashboard showing the 15+ services we run on VPS2
Discord thread in LMI: 'Homelab setups for entrepreneurs' — share our actual docker-compose structure (sanitized) as educational content

Engagement Hook

Solid stack! We just decommissioned n8n in favor of Express cron jobs—found it more reliable for SMS automation. How's your n8n stability been?

What This Video Covers

Carter Keel (carter.keel.me) - Tech/Homelab content creator sharing personal infrastructure stack ('Nerdrotic' hat visible in frame)

Hook: Direct listicle format: 'Every app on my current home lab with a brief description'

Matomo used for website analytics (Google Analytics alternative)
GeneX Proxy Manager handles TLS/SSL certificates
Jellyfin serves as media streaming server (Plex alternative)
Audiobookshelf for audiobook hosting
Image hosting solution for photos
Karakeep (shown on-screen as 'bookmark everything app') for website hoarding/archiving
Termix for SSH access
MeTube (shown on-screen as GitHub repo alexta69/metube) for YouTube video downloading via yt-dlp
Veltios for blog post management
N8N for workflow automation (noted: we decommissioned ours March 2026)
HomeLab Hub (shown on-screen) for infrastructure visualization and mapping
HomeR as UI dashboard
Authentik (shown on-screen) for single sign-on (SSO) replacing Azure/Entra ID
Proxmox for virtual machine management
TrueNAS for network-attached storage
Dockhand for Docker container orchestration/management

“Every app on my current home lab with a brief description”

“I use all these self-hosted tools and services almost every single day”

Key Insights

Authentik (authentik.io) shown as production-ready SSO replacement: 1M+ installations, integrates with AWS/GitHub/Slack/Okta. We could unify AIAS, TFWW dashboard, and CloserSim under single sign-on instead of separate NextAuth/Credentials setups.
Karakeep (karakeep.app) is a 'bookmark everything' app with AI tagging and full-text search. Could replace Notion/Evernote for ReelBot research storage and create automatic knowledge base categorization.
Matomo offers GDPR-compliant analytics without cookie consent banners (under some jurisdictions). Potential replacement for GA4 on GnomeGuys to avoid Google's data processing and improve page speed.
HomeLab Hub (github.com/al-varo-99/homelab-hub) provides network visualization using Cytoscape.js (Svelte frontend). Could adapt for client-facing infrastructure diagrams or internal VPS2 topology documentation.
MeTube (alexta69/metube) provides Web GUI for yt-dlp with playlist support. While we shouldn't use for commercial content scraping, useful for archiving our own Instagram Reels for analysis (fair use).
Dockhand mentioned for Docker management - we already have Coolify providing this UI, confirming our current stack choice aligns with homelab best practices.
TrueNAS shown for storage - we use Supabase/Postgres primarily but could consider TrueNAS Scale for large media assets (CloserSim video analysis storage) if Supabase storage costs scale poorly.

Analysis Notes

What it is: A catalog of open-source self-hosted alternatives to commercial SaaS products (Plex, Google Analytics, Pocket, Zapier, LastPass/Azure AD) running on Docker/VPS infrastructure.

How it helps us: Validates our decision to decommission n8n and use native Express/Supabase (reducing moving parts). Surfaces Authentik as potential unified auth layer for AIAS + TFWW + CloserSim dashboards. Karakeep could enhance ReelBot's research storage with auto-tagging.

Limitations: Most tools are for personal media consumption (Jellyfin, Audiobookshelf) or infrastructure we already have covered (Proxmox → Coolify, Dockhand → Coolify). MeTube video downloading has legal/ToS concerns for commercial use.

Who should see this: DevOps/VPS admin (Dylan) for infrastructure decisions; ReelBot agent for research tooling integration

Reality Check

🤔 [PLAUSIBLE] "Authentik is a drop-in replacement for Azure/Entra ID" — Authentik supports OIDC/SAML/LDAP and 1M+ installs. However, enterprise SSO migrations require audit trails and backup auth methods we don't currently need. Overkill for 3-person team unless client-facing.
Instead: Continue with NextAuth/Supabase Auth for now; switch to Authentik only if we white-label dashboards for external agencies

⚠️ [QUESTIONABLE] "Self-hosting N8N for automations (listed in stack)" — Creator includes n8n but we decommissioned ours in March 2026 for Express/cron jobs due to reliability issues and 500MB RAM waste. Self-hosting n8n requires maintenance overhead that native code eliminates.
Instead: Our current Express + node-cron architecture (documented in AIAS status) is more stable and debuggable than n8n for our specific SMS/voice workflows

Cost Breakdown →

Step	Prompt	Completion	Cost
analysis	14,629	3,124	$0.0135
similarity	1,585	600	$0.0006
plan	11,409	6,368	$0.0191
Total			$0.0332

Self-Hosted Infrastructure Stack for Cost Control

Comparison to Current State

Business Applications

Implementation Levels

Tasks

Social Media Play

What This Video Covers

Key Insights

Analysis Notes

Reality Check

Cost Breakdown →