Self-hosting

#Overview

The github.com/glassmkr/crucible repository ships a docker-compose.yml that runs three services: the dashboard, Postgres 16 (accounts, servers, alert state), and ClickHouse 24 (telemetry history). Database migrations apply automatically on boot. The compose file sets GLASSMKR_SELF_HOSTED=1, which removes every gate: no plans, no node limits, no billing. The programmatic API is on, and the AI analysis hook turns on as soon as you set LLM_API_URL. The MCP server ships in the box but is off by default: its OAuth server refuses a non-HTTPS origin in production, so it needs TLS in front plus a few environment variables. The flow has been exercised on the hosted origin, not yet on a self-hosted one. The self-hosting guide lists them.

#Prerequisites

• Docker with the compose plugin (or a Postgres 16 + ClickHouse 24 you operate yourself; the app is configured entirely by environment variables).
• 2 GB RAM is comfortable for a small fleet; ClickHouse is the hungriest part.
• Linux hosts to monitor, with Node 22.19.0+ for the npm agent install (the binary install needs no Node at all).
• Headroom on the monitored hosts for the agent itself. On a 12-disk Supermicro running Rocky 9.8 we measured about 180 MB resident in steady state, with a transient peak near 875 MB during collection. The peak is brief and the agent settles back, but it is real: size a small VPS for the peak, not the average, or the kernel may kill the agent on its first collection. Hosts with more disks and sensors to enumerate will sit higher.

#Quickstart

git clone https://github.com/glassmkr/glassmkr.git
cd glassmkr
cp env.selfhost.example .env
./scripts/selfhost-setup.sh     # generates the secrets
docker compose up -d

Then open http://localhost:3000, register the first account, and you are on the dashboard.

Migrations run automatically: ClickHouse's on every up (they are idempotent), Postgres's from the dashboard container before the app starts (tracked, so only new ones apply).

#Pointing an agent at your dashboard

Create the server in your dashboard (or via POST /api/v1/servers with a write key from Settings); it returns the per-server gmk_cru_live_... key once. Then on the server, one command installs the agent and points it at YOUR dashboard:

curl -fsSL https://glassmkr.com/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- \
  --api-key "gmk_cru_live_..." \
  --ingest-url "http://your-dashboard-host:3000/api/v1/ingest"

The URL must be the full /api/v1/ingest endpoint (a bare base URL also works; the agent appends the path and says so). The installer allowlists exactly that origin for the agent's endpoint policy, which is what makes an http or private-network dashboard address work; https endpoints on public DNS need nothing extra.

If you install the npm package yourself instead, the same two flags on glassmkr-crucible init do the same thing (plus --allow-endpoint-origin <origin> for http/private endpoints; run glassmkr-crucible init --help for the full surface).

The agent stores the URL in /etc/glassmkr/crucible.yaml, so the flags are only needed at init time. Snapshots arrive roughly every five minutes; the first one appears on the dashboard within one cycle.

#AI analysis (optional)

Set LLM_API_URL in .env to any OpenAI-compatible endpoint and LLM_MODEL to the model name. Local Ollama works:

LLM_API_URL=http://host.docker.internal:11434/v1
LLM_MODEL=llama3.1:8b

Leave it empty and the analyze button reports that AI analysis is not configured; everything else is unaffected.

#Upgrading

git pull
./scripts/selfhost-setup.sh
docker compose build dashboard
docker compose up -d

Run the setup script on every upgrade. It is idempotent and never changes a value you already have, so usually it just prints "already set" and does nothing. It matters on the upgrade where a release needs a secret your .env predates: without it, docker compose refuses to parse.

New migrations apply on boot, the ClickHouse set idempotently and the Postgres set tracked. Read the changelog before major version jumps.

#Backups

State lives in the two Docker volumes: pgdata (accounts, servers, alert state, keys) and chdata (telemetry history). Snapshot both. Postgres is the one you cannot afford to lose; telemetry history is rebuildable by time.

#Self-hosted vs hosted

Same codebase. The hosted instance at app.glassmkr.com is the maintained reference deployment and live demo; self-hosted is the same thing on your hardware with every gate removed by the GLASSMKR_SELF_HOSTED flag. If you ever move between them, agents re-point with one init and the API is identical.