[Note: Next.js Static Generation and Proxy Logic — The Physics Behind Homepage’s Instant Response]
0. Breaking the Topic: What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Dashboards?
February 12, 2026.
The winter sky in New York is clear, with temperatures hovering around 1.1°C (34°F). The air is crisp, reminiscent of the sobering chill inside a server room.
In this era of surplus computing power, our Homelabs have gradually evolved into chaotic digital metropolises. Plex is transcoding, Sonarr is scavenging, Home Assistant is listening… We need an entrance, a dashboard with a “God’s eye view.”
However, mainstream choices seem to have fallen into an “addition trap.”
Heimdall was once king, but its PHP rendering mechanism struggles once icon counts exceed 50; Homarr boasts a gorgeous drag-and-drop UI, but storing configurations in a database makes GitOps (version-controlled operations) exceptionally difficult.
The emergence of Homepage (gethomepage/homepage) is a counter-intuitive “subtraction revolution.” It rejects databases, rejects GUI editors, and even rejects runtime rendering. Using primitive YAML and modern Next.js, it attempts to refactor our definition of “fast.”
1. The Core: Static Violence and the Art of Proxying
Homepage’s technical foundation isn’t complex, but its assembly is full of engineering aesthetics. It isn’t just a webpage; it is a Next.js application running inside Docker, with a core philosophy summarized as: Build-time over Runtime.
1.1 The Laws of Physics in Static Generation (SSG)
Why does Homepage feel “instant”?
Because it cheats time.
Traditional dashboards (like Heimdall) start querying the database, stitching HTML, and returning it to the browser only when the user visits. Homepage, leveraging the SSG (Static Site Generation) feature of Next.js, “pre-compiles” the page the moment the container starts.
When you access Homepage, Nginx (or an internal server) throws a pure HTML file at you immediately. No database queries, no PHP interpreter startup, just light-speed I/O. This is why it runs as smoothly on the meager silicon of a Raspberry Pi Zero as it does on an i9 processor.
1.2 Docker Auto-Discovery: Sight Through Containers
Homepage’s killer feature is its utilization of the Docker Socket.
In configurations, we often see this line:
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
This is more than just a mount. Homepage’s backend establishes a Unix Socket pipeline to the Docker daemon. It listens to the container event stream in real-time, eliminating the need for you to modify the YAML file manually.
You only need to tag other containers (e.g., Jellyfin):
labels:
- "homepage.group=Media"
- "homepage.name=Jellyfin"
- "homepage.href=http://jellyfin:8096"
Homepage automatically captures this metadata and dynamically generates components. This Inversion of Control design delegates configuration authority from the dashboard down to the services themselves, perfectly aligning with the decoupling philosophy of microservices.
1.3 The Invisible Proxy: A Moat for API Keys
Most novices wonder: “Why do I need to put my Radarr API Key in Homepage? Can’t the browser request it directly?”
This is a fatal security misconception.
If the browser requests the Sonarr API directly, your API Key is exposed in the network requests (Network Tab), where any attacker with common sense can intercept it. Simultaneously, you would have to navigate through CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) hell.
Homepage designs a Middle Layer Proxy.
The frontend component only initiates requests to Homepage’s backend API. The Homepage backend then takes the API Key to request Sonarr, cleans the data, and returns only the information the frontend needs (such as “Download Speed: 5MB/s”).
The Key never leaves the server. This design not only solves CORS issues but also builds a solid defense line.
[Note: Proxy Layer Architecture — The frontend never touches third-party services directly; Homepage acts as the plenipotentiary ambassador]
2. The Clash: The Battle of Paths between Homarr and Homepage
In the geek world, there is no perfection, only trade-offs. When we put Homepage under the spotlight, its pros and cons are as clear as syntax highlighting.
2.1 Performance vs. Ease of Use
- Homarr (The Apple Way): Designed for “Users.” Drag, drop, click, WYSIWYG. Databases manage state; extremely convenient. The cost is heavier resource usage and slower First Contentful Paint.
- Homepage (The Unix Way): Designed for “Engineers.” You need to understand YAML indentation and Docker networking. In exchange, you get extreme cold-start speeds and almost zero idle CPU usage.
2.2 The Double-Edged Sword of Statelessness
Homepage is stateless. This means if you delete the container and run docker run again, as long as you mount the same config directory, it is exactly the same as before.
This is a massive boon for Disaster Recovery (DR). You only need to back up a few YAML files to instantly resurrect your console on another machine.
However, the cost is a lack of interactivity.
You cannot click “Add Bookmark” on the webpage because Homepage cannot (and does not want to) write back to YAML files. This “read-only” characteristic deters many ordinary users accustomed to GUI operations. But in the eyes of GitOps believers, this is a Feature, not a Bug—configuration changes happen via git commit, not mouse clicks.
2.3 When Should You Not Use Homepage?
- If your family members (non-techies) need to edit the dashboard.
- If you are allergic to YAML indentation or get a headache seeing a terminal.
- If you need a multi-user system (Homepage currently has no built-in user authentication, though it can be achieved via middleware like Authelia, which adds another technical barrier).
3. Vision: A Microcosm of ClickOps to GitOps
The popularity of Homepage is not just a victory for a tool, but a sign of the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) concept trickling down to the personal domain.
3.1 The Anchor of Value: The Return of Determinism
In an era full of SaaS, we are used to “uncertainty”—UIs change today, APIs change tomorrow.
Homepage represents a longing for determinism. By defining everything through files, we master the entire state of the system. This Config-as-Code pattern is spreading from Kubernetes clusters to our Raspberry Pis and NAS.
3.2 Trend Deduction
In the future, we may see more “Headless” tools like Homepage.
They will strip away UI rendering to focus on data aggregation. Perhaps the next generation of Homepage will combine directly with Kubernetes CRDs (Custom Resource Definitions), allowing the dashboard to become a native view of the cluster.
A blind spot we ignore is: The aging of edge computing devices. As we accumulate more old devices, software like Homepage, which is extremely restrained in its demand for computing power, will have a lifespan far exceeding those competitors based on Electron or heavy frameworks.
4. Outro: Resistance to Entropy
Night falls in New York, and the temperature continues to drop.
When we look at the green status indicators of various services instantly loaded by Homepage—Plex online, DNS normal, backup complete—it is a thrill of fighting against the “entropy increase” of the physical world.
Homepage is not the flashiest, but it is the most honest. It lies cold and silent in your Docker compose file like a Swiss Army knife—noiseless, but forever sharp.
A thought experiment for developers:
If one day your server room loses internet access, cannot pull images, and cannot access documentation, will your current dashboard system turn into an unloadable 404, or will it still serve as a static lighthouse, guiding you to the source of the failure?
Homepage gives us the answer.
References
- Next.js Architecture – SSG & Proxy
- Homepage vs Homarr Comparison
- GitHub Project: gethomepage/homepage
—— Lyra Celest @ Turbulence τ
