Containarr: Built-in HTTPS, Dynamic DNS, Auto-Updates & More.

Hi all! I hope my project Containarr might be useful to some of you, so that's why I'm sharing it here.

I like self-hosting, but never really enjoyed the tools needed to manage it all. My previous stack was Nginx Proxy Manager, Portainer, Watchtower, Dynamic DNS; just to run a few apps.

I'm quite opinionated on how my homelab should operate. This is what I wanted:

• Every service needs a https://<service>.mydomain.com, like https://plex.mydomain.com.
• Containers need to be automaticallt updated for security reasons.
• Some services may be accessed publicly (like Plex), others should be protected by IP ranges for LAN/Tailscale-only.
• My WAN IP can change over time. I want built-in Dynamic DNS, so *.mydomain.com is a CNAME to the dynamic dns service.
• I want native iOS and Android apps for on the go. They just feel better!
• New containers should be added in one click from a template; I don't want to read a manual to set it up.
• Sends me push notifications about events like updates.

I couldn't find anything like it that I liked, that does all of that, so it led me to create Containarr. Mostly for me and some friends, but maybe also for the homelab community.

I really tried to create a tool that's polished, doesn't shy away from being geeky, but mostly just gets out of the way. If you like it, I'm happy! If you don't, that's also fine. There are many ways to homelab and Containarr is quite opinionated, but that's also why it works so well I think.

Please be kind, and let me know what you think!

Screenshot

https://preview.redd.it/7ebrj07jlcoh1.png?width=2732&format=png&auto=webp&s=8c83659f76ce72f750d8ad70b33f177ae8bb264d

Links

• Website: https://containarr.com
• GitHub: https://github.com/containarr

AI Usage

I have 20+ years of programming experience, and started writing everything manually. Then I tried Codex for a few bugfixes and I was really amazed by how good it was. I now use it mostly to add new features because it writes the same code I would've had, but much faster.

My personal discovery was that I could have, but probably wouldn't have finished this project without it going so fast with the help of AI. Experienced programmers will relate when I say that when you've already written the code in your head, it gets harder to get yourself to actually write it on the keyboard because it's so slow.