Self-Hosted Web Apps

A monorepo of self-hosted web applications. KitchenHub, VehicleHub, and RetirementHub each ship a Node.js + Express REST API, a React + Vite SPA, PostgreSQL, and Docker-friendly layouts. PetHub is the same React + Vite and PostgreSQL pattern, but its API is Python + Flask (Gunicorn in the published backend image). MailHub is a separate multi-container mail stack (see MailHub README).

Preview

Screenshots use demo-style data. Click a thumbnail to open that hub’s README.

KitchenHub	VehicleHub	RetirementHub	PetHub

MailHub — SMTP, filtering, and IMAP/LMTP stack (no app UI screenshots in this repo).

Overview

Each app has its own API, UI, and database schema. They are intended to run on a Docker host with a reverse proxy and TLS in front (details are up to your environment).

Pre-built Docker images

Hub images are public on Docker Hub: derpmhichurp repositories. You can deploy with each service’s portainer-stack.yml without building locally.

Service	Backend image	Frontend image
KitchenHub	derpmhichurp/kitchenhub-backend	derpmhichurp/kitchenhub-frontend
VehicleHub	derpmhichurp/vehiclehub-backend	derpmhichurp/vehiclehub-frontend
RetirementHub	derpmhichurp/retirementhub-backend	derpmhichurp/retirementhub-frontend
PetHub	derpmhichurp/pethub-backend	derpmhichurp/pethub-frontend
MailHub	derpmhichurp/mailhub-postfix, mailhub-amavisd, mailhub-dovecot	—

docker pull derpmhichurp/kitchenhub-backend:latest
docker pull derpmhichurp/kitchenhub-frontend:latest

Tags follow the same convention as CI: latest (stable release on main), beta (pre-release from other branches), or a pinned semver (e.g. 1.2.3). See each hub’s DEPLOYMENT.md where present, or portainer-stack.yml + GitHub Actions at the repo root.

Services

• KitchenHub — Shopping lists with optional store layout ordering, recipes, and related data
• VehicleHub — Vehicle maintenance and service history
• RetirementHub — Retirement-oriented budgeting, savings limits, and projections
• MailHub — Multi-container mail stack (SMTP, filtering, IMAP/LMTP). Different layout than the other hubs
• PetHub — Pet activity tracking (ports backend 8120, frontend 8130)

Architecture (KitchenHub, VehicleHub, RetirementHub, PetHub)

• Backend: Node.js + Express (KitchenHub, VehicleHub, RetirementHub); Python + Flask (PetHub), with Gunicorn as the WSGI server in its Docker image
• Frontend: React + Vite for KitchenHub, VehicleHub, RetirementHub, and PetHub (often served by nginx in production)
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Deployment: Docker / Compose (see each service)

Port allocation (local dev)

Default ports are spaced to avoid clashes:

• KitchenHub: backend 8080, frontend 8081
• VehicleHub: backend 8090, frontend 8091
• RetirementHub: backend 8100, frontend 8110
• PetHub: backend 8120, frontend 8130
• Future services: continue the pattern (e.g. +10 per service)

Deployment (high level)

Typical setup:

1. Host — Linux with Docker (or similar) and persistent volumes for databases and app data
2. Database — PostgreSQL (container or external)
3. Edge — A reverse proxy terminating TLS and routing hostnames to the right containers (Caddy, nginx, Traefik, HAProxy, etc.)
4. DNS / certificates — Whatever you use for names and ACME (router, separate DNS, internal DNS, etc.)

Each service directory includes docker-compose.yml, optional portainer-stack.yml, env.example, and a README.md with concrete steps.

Local deploy (sketch)

1. cd <service>
2. cp env.example .env and set database (and other) variables
3. Apply database/schema.sql (and migrations if upgrading) with psql
4. Option A — pull pre-built images: deploy portainer-stack.yml with DOCKER_HUB_REGISTRY_USERNAME=derpmhichurp and IMAGE_TAG=latest (or a pinned version)
5. Option B — build locally: docker compose up -d --build
6. Point your proxy at the published ports and add DNS names as needed

Backends expose /api/health for readiness checks.

Project structure

.
├── common/              # Shared code
│   ├── database/
│   └── api/
├── kitchenhub/
├── vehiclehub/
├── retirementhub/
├── mailhub/
├── pethub/
└── README.md

Development

• KitchenHub README
• VehicleHub README
• RetirementHub README
• MailHub README
• PetHub README

Demo data

The repo includes reusable seed scripts for screenshot/demo environments:

• kitchenhub/database/demo-seed.sql
• vehiclehub/database/demo-seed.sql
• retirementhub/database/demo-seed.sql
• pethub/database/demo-seed.sql

Run these from the repo root to apply demo data to the hosted demo databases:

$env:PGPASSWORD="<db-password>"

docker run --rm -v "${PWD}:/workspace" -e PGPASSWORD="$env:PGPASSWORD" postgres:16 psql -h <db-host> -p 5432 -U <db-user> -d demo_kitchenhub -f /workspace/kitchenhub/database/demo-seed.sql
docker run --rm -v "${PWD}:/workspace" -e PGPASSWORD="$env:PGPASSWORD" postgres:16 psql -h <db-host> -p 5432 -U <db-user> -d demo_vehiclehub -f /workspace/vehiclehub/database/demo-seed.sql
docker run --rm -v "${PWD}:/workspace" -e PGPASSWORD="$env:PGPASSWORD" postgres:16 psql -h <db-host> -p 5432 -U <db-user> -d demo_retirementhub -f /workspace/retirementhub/database/demo-seed.sql
docker run --rm -v "${PWD}:/workspace" -e PGPASSWORD="$env:PGPASSWORD" postgres:16 psql -h <db-host> -p 5432 -U <db-user> -d demo_pethub -f /workspace/pethub/database/demo-seed.sql

Notes:

• The seed scripts are idempotent and safe to rerun.
• Apply each service schema once before seeding a fresh database:
  • kitchenhub/database/schema.sql
  • vehiclehub/database/schema.sql
  • retirementhub/database/schema.sql
  • pethub/database/schema.sql

Shared code

common/database/db-config.js — PostgreSQL pool
common/api/api-client.js — API client reference for frontends

Backends import from common via relative paths, for example:

const { createDbPool } = require('../../common/database/db-config');

Security notes

• Run services behind TLS at the edge; do not commit real .env files or secrets
• Restrict database access to application containers on internal networks
• For MailHub, keep credentials in env or mounted secrets, not in public docs

License

[Add your license here]