StackPilot

A self-hosted Docker Compose manager for power users and homelab enthusiasts — as intuitive as Dockge, as capable as Portainer for Compose workflows.

Status: Phase 1 (Core) + Phase 2 (Volumes & GPU) + Phase 3 (Quality of Life) + Phase 4 (Operations) + Phase 5 (Multi-host) + Phase 6 (Backup destinations) + Phase 7 (Scheduled backups) + Phase 8 (Remote-stack backups)

• Phase 9 (Networks) + Phase 10 (iGPU passthrough) + Phase 11 (Remote UX & network attach) + Phase 12 (File browser) + Phase 13 (Multi-host networks & images) + Phase 14 (Multi-host file browser) + Phase 15 (Dashboard stack resource usage) + Phase 16 (Volumes page, multi-host) + Phase 17 (Multi-host dashboard) + Phase 18 (Image prune) + Phase 19 (Compose validate & diff) + Phase 20 (Container management) + Phase 21 (Container terminal) + Phase 22 (Auto-update) + Phase 23 (Secrets & configs) + Phase 24 (Design System v2) complete.

Upgrading to 0.47.0 — nothing to do

Three pieces of state moved out of process memory and into the database, and the live-stats endpoint got a cache. No configuration changes, no migration steps; the new tables are created on first start.

• Stacks can only run one compose operation at a time. A second start / update / down on a busy stack answers 409 instead of racing the first one over the same containers. Auto-update skips a stack you are already deploying and picks it up next cycle.
• GET /api/stacks/stats is cached for four seconds. It sampled every running container on every call, and the dashboard and the stacks list both poll it every five seconds — two open tabs on a 40-container host meant a sustained ~16 daemon calls a second.
• The update cache and the login rate limiter persist. Both used to reset on restart; the rate limiter also used to multiply by the worker count, so neither behaved as documented with --workers set.

Upgrading to 0.46.0 — everyone is signed out once

Sessions now hold their access token in memory and the refresh token in an httpOnly cookie, so the upgrade signs everybody out exactly once. Sign back in and it behaves as before, including staying signed in across restarts.

What changed and why:

• Tokens can be revoked. Each account carries a token_version that every token is minted with and every request checks. Resetting a password, changing a role or disabling an account now bumps it, which cuts off the tokens that account already holds — previously a password reset was cosmetic and whoever had the old refresh token kept full access for up to 30 days.
• The refresh token left localStorage. It is an httpOnly cookie (SameSite=Lax, scoped to /api/auth), so a successful XSS can act inside the open page but cannot walk off with 30 days of access. The cookie is marked Secure only when the request arrived over HTTPS, so a plain-HTTP homelab keeps working. Any refresh token left in localStorage by an older build is deleted on first load.
• "Sign out everywhere" in the user menu revokes every token the account holds, on every device. Plain "Sign out" only ends the session on that device.
• WebSockets re-check the database. Log streams and the container terminal read the role from the live user instead of the token's claim, so a demotion or a disabled account takes effect immediately — the terminal is root-equivalent on the host.

Scripted clients that cannot hold a cookie can still get the refresh token in the response body with ?in_body=true on login and refresh.

Upgrading to 0.44.0 / 0.45.0 — two defaults changed

0.44.0 closes a privilege-escalation hole and tightens two defaults. Both changes can affect an existing install:

1. The user role loses read access to secrets. The file browser (page and /api/files/*), the host-path picker, the audit log, GET /api/stacks/{id}/export, a stack's .env and the template detail route (0.45.0 — "save stack as template" snapshots the stack's real .env) are now admin-only. The template listing stays open. Previously any logged-in account could download stackpilot.db, every .env and every .secrets/* file — and none of it was audit-logged. If you gave someone a user account so they could look at stacks, they still can; they just no longer get the credentials. Nothing changes for admins.
2. / is no longer a default browse root. The new default is /mnt,/media,/srv,/opt,/home. A / entry makes the sandbox allow every path, which is why it is gone — if you relied on it, set ALLOWED_BROWSE_ROOTS explicitly in your .env. StackPilot's own DATA_DIR is refused either way.

Two things also get fixed without any action on your part: the backend now runs uvicorn with --proxy-headers, so the login rate limit works per client IP instead of globally and the audit log records real IPs; and backup-destination credentials are encrypted at rest, with existing rows migrated on first start. That encryption is keyed off SECRET_KEY, which is now persisted to ${DATA_DIR}/secret_key when you have not set one — so restarts no longer log everyone out. If you have never set SECRET_KEY, do not delete that file; it is what your saved destination credentials are encrypted with.

What works today (Phase 1)

• File-first stacks — every stack is a plain compose.yaml (+ optional .env) on disk. The DB only stores metadata; nothing is locked in.
• Auth — JWT access/refresh tokens, bcrypt hashing, admin/user roles, and a first-launch setup wizard that creates the initial admin account. The access token is held in memory; the refresh token is an httpOnly cookie. Every token carries the account's token_version, so a password reset, role change or disable revokes the tokens that account already holds — on every device.
• Stack lifecycle — create, edit, clone, delete, and up / down / start / stop / restart / pull / update via docker compose.
• Live status — running / partial / stopped / error / updating, computed from Docker container labels.
• One operation per stack — a lifecycle call takes a lock (a row, so it holds across workers and across a restart) and a second one gets 409 while it is held; auto-update skips a stack somebody is already deploying. Locks carry an expiry, so a worker killed mid-deploy does not strand a stack.
• Real-time logs — streamed over WebSocket, color-coded per service.
• Live deploy console — deploying from the editor streams compose up output (image pulls, container creation) over a WebSocket in real time instead of a blind spinner; the deploy keeps running server-side if the modal is closed. Works for remote stacks too — the central app proxies the agent's deploy stream through to the browser. Compose runs with --progress json, so the console shows a real progress bar (download bytes per layer, weighted by layer size, then container create/start) plus a per-image bar; the raw output is kept below it and updates one line per layer instead of scrolling past.
• Inline update progress (0.42.0) — hitting Update on a stack streams compose pull && up -d over /ws/update/{stack_id} and folds it into a progress bar inside that stack's row (same --progress json weighting as the deploy console: "Pulling images · 3/7 layers · 88 MB / 190 MB"). Several stacks can update at once — busy state and progress are tracked per stack, so the rows advance independently. The REST POST /api/stacks/{id}/update stays for non-interactive callers and as the fallback when no token is available.
• Monaco editor — YAML editing with an .env tab and a docker run → compose converter.
• Dashboard — system resource bar, stack grid with quick actions, and a recent-activity audit feed.
• Auto-discovery — stacks created outside the UI (any folder under the stacks dir containing a compose file) are picked up automatically.
• Dark / light theme.

Phase 2 — Volumes & GPU

• Volume Wizard in the editor (right-hand helper panel): Bind / Named / NFS / SMB-CIFS / tmpfs, with a sandboxed host path browser for bind mounts and a live YAML preview. NFS/SMB driver_opts are generated for you.
• GPU assignment per service: auto-detects NVIDIA (nvidia-smi) and AMD/Intel (/dev/dri + sysfs), injects the right YAML (NVIDIA deploy.reservations, or /dev/dri passthrough + render/video groups + LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=iHD for Intel).
• Device passthrough: lists host USB / serial-TTY / DRI nodes, add per service, plus a guarded privileged toggle.
• All wizard edits are merged into the compose YAML server-side (robust, validated) and returned to the editor for review before saving.

GPU/device detection needs host visibility. The bundled compose bind-mounts /dev:/dev:ro; NVIDIA additionally requires the NVIDIA container runtime on the host.

Phase 3 — Quality of Life

• Env editor: table mode with sensitive-value masking (PASS/SECRET/KEY/… auto-detected) + raw mode, plus PUID/PGID/TZ quick-insert.
• Image update checker: background task compares the local manifest digest with the registry (Docker Hub / ghcr / lscr / private v2 with token auth); update badges on the Images page + an "updates available" banner on the dashboard. Results are cached in the database, so a restart shows the badges immediately instead of blanking them until the next sweep — and does not re-announce updates it already notified about.
• Port conflict detector: pre-deploy check against host-bound ports (/proc/net/tcp[6]) and running container bindings, with a confirm dialog.
• Resource limits: CPU/memory sliders in the editor → deploy.resources.limits.
• Template library: each template is a ready-to-run stack folder in git (backend/templates/<slug>/ — compose.yaml + .env.example + template.json, plus any extra config the app needs, e.g. prometheus.yml or a Caddyfile). 83 bundled homelab apps across media, *arr automation, networking, reverse proxies, VPN, SSO, monitoring, dashboards, files/backup, notes and wikis, home automation, dev tooling, databases, local AI and more — searchable and filterable by tag on the Templates page. "Pull" copies the whole folder into a new stack (.env.example → .env) which you then edit and deploy. Save any stack back as a custom template (stored under ${DATA_DIR}/templates/). Add your own by dropping a folder into the templates dir.
• Healthcheck status surfaced per container in the stack overview.

Phase 4 — Operations

• Self-update (0.32.0): the top-bar version badge checks the registry for a newer StackPilot release on page load (GET /api/system/update, anonymous v2 token flow, 10 min cache) and shows an amber update pill. One click (POST /api/system/update, admin) spawns a detached helper container that runs docker compose pull && up -d on StackPilot's own compose project (resolved from its container labels) — the helper survives the backend being recreated; the UI polls /api/health and reloads when the new version answers. Installs not managed by compose get a clear "update manually" error instead.
• Backup & restore: per-stack .tar.gz backups covering the whole stack — the stack folder, every bind-mounted data directory (./config, /mnt/appdata/…) and every named volume. Bind sources and volumes are read through a throwaway helper container, i.e. by host path, so data that StackPilot itself cannot see is captured too (that is the case whenever STACKS_HOST_DIR differs from the container's STACKS_DIR — compose then creates the data directories at the container path on the host, and a naive backup would only find the compose file). The Backup dialog shows the full inventory with sizes and lets you pick what goes in; NFS/CIFS-backed volumes are unchecked by default because they live on a NAS and restoring one would overwrite the share. Restore puts bind folders back at their host paths and preserves permissions, ownership and symlinks (PUID/PGID-based images such as the *arr suite need this), with optional rename and overwrite/conflict detection.
• Notification webhooks: ntfy, Discord, Slack, Gotify, or generic JSON, each subscribed to chosen events (image update available, stack start/stop/error, pull failed). Managed in Settings → Notifications; env NOTIFY_WEBHOOKS still supported for generic endpoints.
• Settings page: tune the update-check interval, manage webhooks, and manage users (create/disable/delete, promote/demote, with last-admin safeguards).
• Audit log page (admin): searchable, paginated view of all recorded actions.
• Mobile-responsive layout: off-canvas sidebar + adaptive spacing.

Phase 5 — Multi-host

• Remote agents: deploy stackpilot-agent (same image, different CMD) on any host — it needs only the Docker socket and a shared AGENT_TOKEN, and exposes a slim, token-guarded stack/system API (no UI, no DB).
• Central management: add hosts under Settings → Remote hosts (name, agent URL, token) with a live connectivity dot. The Stacks page groups stacks by host ("This host" + one section per agent); remote stacks have their own detail view with full lifecycle (start/stop/restart/pull/update/down), live logs, and compose/.env editing — all proxied to the agent.

Phase 6 — Backup destinations

• Off-box backups: define SFTP, S3-compatible (MinIO, Backblaze B2, AWS S3, …) or NFS share (0.33.0) destinations under Settings → Backup destinations (with a Test button; secrets are masked in API responses). NFS needs no privileges in the StackPilot container: the Docker daemon mounts the export as a named volume (stackpilot-nfs-dest-<id>, recreated when the config changes) and file I/O runs through throwaway helper containers.
• Push & restore: the stack Backup dialog can push straight to a destination instead of downloading; the Restore dialog can browse a destination's backups and restore (volumes included) directly from it. Remote backups can also be deleted from the UI.

Phase 7 — Scheduled backups

• Recurring backups: schedule a stack to back up to a destination hourly, daily, or weekly (UTC) under Settings → Scheduled backups. A background scheduler runs due jobs every minute and records last/next run + status.
• Retention: keep the newest N backups per stack on the destination; older ones are pruned automatically.
• Run now for an on-demand run, plus a backup_failed notification event wired into the webhook system.

Phase 8 — Remote-stack backups

• Back up agent stacks: the agent exposes its own backup/restore endpoints, and the main app streams a remote stack's backup through to a destination (credentials stay central — agents never see them). Remote stack detail has a Backup button; each host section on the Stacks page has a Restore button.
• Schedule remote stacks: a backup schedule can target a remote host; backups are namespaced per host (backup-<host>-<stack>-…) so retention never prunes across hosts sharing a destination.

Phase 9 — Networks

• Network management: the Networks page lists Docker networks (driver, scope, subnet, attached containers / in-use, owning stack), with create (bridge / macvlan / ipvlan / overlay, optional subnet+gateway, internal/attachable), delete (default networks protected; in-use guarded by Docker), and prune unused.
• Stack delete: local stacks can now be deleted from the UI (stack detail and the stack card), with a confirm dialog and an optional "keep files on disk".

Phase 10 — iGPU passthrough

• Render/video group detection: for a passed-through Intel/AMD iGPU, StackPilot reads the host group ownership of the /dev/dri nodes (render node → render GID, paired card node → video GID) and injects them as numeric group_add entries (e.g. group_add: ["991", "44"]). Group names rarely resolve inside images, so the numeric GID is what actually grants access. The GPU selector shows the detected GIDs; removal cleans them (and LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME).

Phase 11 — Remote UX & network attach

• Live remote logs: remote-stack logs now stream over a WebSocket proxied through the central app to the agent (/ws/agent-logs/{agent}/{stack}), instead of polling — same live viewer as local stacks.
• Deploy to a remote host from the UI: the New Stack editor and the template dialog gained a host selector. Pick an online agent and the stack is created (and optionally started) on that host; you land on its remote detail page.
• Network attach/detach: each network row on the Networks page expands to an inspect view listing connected containers, with admin controls to disconnect a container or connect any container on the host (POST /api/networks/{id}/connect / /disconnect).

Phase 24 — Design System v2 (analytics-style UI)

• New shell: the sidebar is gone — a fixed 60px top bar carries a pill navigation (active route = dark pill), the logo mark, a version badge, a remote-host online indicator, theme toggle and an avatar menu. Narrow screens get an off-canvas drawer.
• Design tokens (frontend/src/styles/tokens.css): one CSS-variable set for surfaces, borders, text tiers, brand colours, radii and type scales, with class-based dark-mode overrides. Existing Tailwind aliases (bg/card/accent) are remapped onto the tokens so all pages reskin consistently. Typeface: Schibsted Grotesk (bundled, offline-friendly).
• Stack Health funnel — the dashboard centrepiece. Five stages (discovered → running → healthy → updated → auto-managed) from GET /api/dashboard/funnel (30 s server cache, ?refresh=true to bust; the last stage — API key monitored — counts stacks with an enabled auto-update policy). SVG waterfall with alternating gradient / diagonal-hatch bars, value chips and hover conversion/drop-off tooltips.
• Summary widgets from GET /api/dashboard/summary: compose-containers card with per-host breakdown (agents report a compose-only count) and an "Insights" chip (healthy-rate %), a 30-day uptime line chart (sampled every 5 min into DATA_DIR/uptime.jsonl, charted as daily averages), and an ops contribution grid from audit-log activity with the peak weekday. A 30/7-day range selector slices both series client-side.
• Explore prompt bar under the funnel: typed queries or /running, /stopped, /attention tags deep-link to the Stacks page, which now honours ?q= and ?filter= (plus a new status-filter select).

Phase 23 — Secrets & configs (compose file-based)

• A Secrets tab on the stack detail page manages per-stack Docker secrets and configs: create one by name + content, list them (name, kind, size — content is never returned by the API), and delete. Content is write-only: once saved it is cleared from the form and cannot be read back.
• Files are stored inside the stack's own directory (<stack_dir>/.secrets/<name> / .configs/<name>, dir 0700 / file 0600) and referenced from the compose file with a relative file: path, so the Docker daemon reads them with no HOST_ROOT_PREFIX dependency — exactly as if dropped next to compose.yaml.
• Attach/detach wires a stored secret/config into a chosen service: secrets appear at /run/secrets/<name>, configs mount at a target path you specify. The compose file is rewritten in place (top-level secrets:/configs: defs are pruned when no service still uses them); redeploy the stack to apply.
• Admin-only (secrets are sensitive); every write/delete/attach/detach is audited (secret.*). Works for remote stacks too — the agent stores the files on its own host (/agent/stacks/{id}/secrets/*, proxied via /api/agents/{id}/stacks/{id}/secrets/*). Names are validated against path traversal (single component, no .., no leading dot); content capped at 1 MiB.

Phase 22 — Auto-update (Watchtower-style)

• A per-stack Auto-update policy (on the stack Overview tab): when the background image-update check finds a newer registry digest for one of the stack's images, the stack is either pulled + redeployed or merely flagged ("notify only"), with a Check now button for an on-demand run.
• Runs inside the existing image-update-check cycle (reuses the freshly-computed digest cache, no extra registry calls). Only running stacks are auto-redeployed — a stopped stack is never silently started ("skipped").
• New stack_auto_updated notification event. Works for remote stacks too (policy stored centrally; the agent answers /agent/stacks/{id}/updates and performs the redeploy). Last run + status (updated / up-to-date / update-available / skipped / error) are shown inline.

Phase 21 — Container terminal (web exec)

• An interactive terminal into any running, compose-managed container, opened from the terminal button on its container card (stack Overview tab). Streams an exec session over WebSocket into xterm.js — pick /bin/sh, /bin/bash, or /bin/ash; full TTY with resize.
• Admin-only (exec is root-equivalent): a non-admin token is rejected at the WebSocket handshake (4403). Only containers with the com.docker.compose.project label can be reached.
• Works for remote stacks too: the same terminal proxies through /ws/agent-exec/{agent_id}/{container_id} to the agent's new /agent/ws/exec/{container_id} (bidirectional — keystrokes in, output out).

Phase 20 — Container management

• The stack Overview tab now renders each service as an expandable container card instead of a static row. Expanding it fetches a curated single-container inspect view (image, state + exit code, restart count, started-at, networks, mounts, and environment) via GET /api/containers/{id}.
• Admins get per-container start / stop / restart buttons directly on the card (POST /api/containers/{id}/{action}), so a single misbehaving service can be bounced without touching the rest of the stack.
• Works for remote stacks too — the same card is used on the remote stack detail page, proxied through /api/agents/{id}/containers/* to the agent's new /agent/containers/* endpoints.
• Only containers carrying the com.docker.compose.project label are exposed, so this never becomes a generic "control any container on the host" backdoor.

Phase 19 — Compose validate & diff

• The editor can validate a compose file (docker compose config) before deploying and show a diff against the currently deployed definition, so you can see exactly what a re-deploy will change.

Phase 18 — Image prune

• Prune images (dangling, or all unused) from the Images page, on the local host and on each agent.

Phase 17 — Multi-host dashboard

• The dashboard now shows, per host (local + each registered agent, online dot / offline notice), a resource overview bar (CPU cores, memory used/total, disk used/total, Docker volumes total, containers, Docker version) and a stacks-with-usage table with CPU/memory meters and inline start/stop/restart. The volumes total reuses the cached /volumes/sizes lookup (docker system df), polled gently (~60s).
• New agent endpoint /agent/stacks/stats (proxied at /api/agents/{id}/stacks/stats); /agent/system now also reports cpu_cores, mem_total, mem_used, and disk_total/disk_used (disk of the host volume backing the stacks dir) so the remote resource bar and meters have a host reference.

Phase 16 — Volumes page (multi-host)

• New Volumes page (sidebar) with per-host sections (local + each online agent, like Networks/Images). Lists Docker volumes with driver, owning stack, in-use containers and mountpoint.
• Admin actions: delete a volume (with an in-use warning + force option) and Prune unused; an Only unused filter. New agent endpoints /agent/volumes (list/delete/prune), proxied at /api/agents/{id}/volumes/*.
• Volume sizes are loaded on demand via a Compute sizes button (runs docker system df, which walks volume contents and can take a few seconds); results are cached ~60s. Endpoint GET /api/volumes/sizes (+ per-agent).
• The Volume Wizard in the stack editor (bind/named/NFS/SMB/tmpfs YAML generation) is unchanged — the new page is for managing/cleaning up volumes.

Phase 15 — Dashboard stack resource usage

• The dashboard now lists stacks in a table (status, services) with live CPU and memory usage per stack, sampled from docker stats and aggregated by compose project.
• When a stack has deploy.resources.limits assigned, the bar fills toward that limit and shows usage vs the limit (e.g. 0.42 / 1 cores, 310 MB / 512 MB); otherwise it shows absolute usage against the host total. Inline start/stop/ restart actions per row for admins. New endpoint GET /api/stacks/stats.

Phase 14 — Multi-host file browser

• The Files page now has a host switcher. When agents are registered, a Host dropdown at the top switches the whole browser between the local host and any online agent; switching resets the path and clipboard.
• All file operations (browse, view/edit, create, rename, copy/move, delete, upload files & folders, download) work against the selected agent, sandboxed by that agent's ALLOWED_BROWSE_ROOTS/HOST_ROOT_PREFIX.
• New agent endpoints /agent/files/*, proxied at /api/agents/{id}/files/*.

Phase 13 — Multi-host networks & images

• Networks and Images are now per-host. Both pages render a section for the local host plus one for every registered agent (online dot included), exactly like the Stacks page. Each agent section talks to that host's Docker daemon.
• Remote network management: list, inspect, create, delete, prune, and connect/disconnect containers on an agent host — including a Prune unused button, which resolves the common "all predefined address pools have been fully subnetted" deploy error without SSH.
• Remote images: list image tags (with using-stacks) and run on-demand update checks per host.
• New agent endpoints /agent/networks/* and /agent/images/*, proxied through the central app at /api/agents/{id}/networks/* and /api/agents/{id}/images/*.

Phase 12 — File browser

• Files page (sidebar): a full host filesystem browser with breadcrumb navigation, clickable browse-root chips, an Up control, and a show/hide hidden-files toggle. Listings show size, permissions and modified time.
• View & edit: clicking a text file opens it in a Monaco editor (with syntax highlighting picked from the extension). Binary and oversized files are detected and offered as a download instead. Admins can edit and Save.
• Admin only: the whole page, including listing, viewing and downloading. Reads are not less sensitive than writes here — the browser reaches whatever the backend container can see, which includes every stack's .env and .secrets/*. Reading and downloading a file are audit-logged (file.read, file.download); directory listing is not, because the page polls it.
• Manage (admin): create folders/files, rename, delete (recursive for folders), upload files or whole folders (the directory tree is recreated server-side), and download any file. Copy/cut & paste moves files and folders between directories (clipboard bar + per-row copy/cut, with an overwrite prompt on conflict). Every mutation is audit-logged.
• Sandboxed: all access is confined to ALLOWED_BROWSE_ROOTS; path traversal and deleting a browse root are refused. StackPilot's own DATA_DIR is refused regardless of the setting — it holds stackpilot.db with password hashes, agent tokens and backup-destination credentials, none of which the API itself ever hands out. Note that a single / entry in ALLOWED_BROWSE_ROOTS switches the sandbox off entirely; it is no longer part of the default. To reach the real host filesystem, mount it into the backend and set HOST_ROOT_PREFIX (see the commented /:/host_root volume in docker-compose.yml). Endpoints live under /api/files/* (list, read, write, mkdir, touch, rename, copy, move, upload — with optional rel_path for folder uploads —, download, DELETE).

Deploying an agent on another host

cd agent
cp .env.example .env          # set a strong AGENT_TOKEN
docker compose up -d          # exposes the agent on :5010

Then in the central UI: Settings → Remote hosts → Add host with http://<that-host>:5010 and the same AGENT_TOKEN.

Architecture

frontend (React + Vite + Tailwind, served by nginx)
    │  proxies /api and /ws
    ▼
backend (FastAPI + docker-py + SQLite)
    │  docker-py + `docker compose` CLI
    ▼
Docker Engine (via /var/run/docker.sock — never exposed to the browser)

Quick start

cd stackpilot
cp .env.example .env
# edit .env and set a strong SECRET_KEY:  openssl rand -base64 48
docker compose up -d --build

Open http://localhost:5009 and complete the first-launch setup wizard to create your admin account.

Configuration

All backend settings are environment variables (see backend/config.py). The most important ones:

Variable	Default	Purpose
SECRET_KEY	(auto, persisted)	JWT + at-rest encryption key (see below)
STACKS_DIR	/opt/stacks	Where stack folders live (in-container)
DATA_DIR	/data	SQLite DB + app data
CORS_ORIGINS	localhost	Allowed API origins (comma separated)

SECRET_KEY signs JWTs and derives the key that encrypts backup-destination credentials in the database. Leave it unset and one is generated and written to ${DATA_DIR}/secret_key (mode 0600) on first start, so sessions and stored credentials survive restarts — that file is then part of your backup. Setting it explicitly always wins and nothing is written.

The host path for stacks is set via STACKS_HOST_DIR in .env, and it should be the same path as STACKS_DIR (/opt/stacks by default). Compose runs inside the backend container, so a stack's relative bind mounts (./config) are resolved against the container path and the daemon creates those directories at that path on the host. Point STACKS_HOST_DIR somewhere else and every stack's data lives at /opt/stacks/<stack>/… on the host while StackPilot looks at a different folder — the file browser and editor then show only the compose file. Backups cover the data either way (they read bind sources by host path through a helper container) and the Backup dialog warns when the two paths diverge.

Local development

Backend:

cd backend
python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
SECRET_KEY=dev STACKS_DIR=../data/stacks DATA_DIR=../data uvicorn main:app --reload --port 5008

Frontend (proxies to the backend on :5008):

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev   # http://localhost:5173

Tests & linting

Same three commands the CI runs — build-and-push only starts once they pass.

cd backend
pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
pytest                            # 729 tests, no Docker daemon needed
ruff check .
cd ../frontend && npx tsc --noEmit -p tsconfig.json

The suite drives the app through TestClient without the lifespan, so it never opens a Docker socket and never starts the background loops; conftest.py points DATA_DIR/STACKS_DIR at a temp directory before anything is imported.

The load-bearing one is tests/test_route_authorization.py. Authorization lives in the routers — each of 171 routes independently picks require_admin or get_current_user, and nothing checked that the choice was right, which is how 0.43.0 shipped a read-only role that could download the auth database. That file states the policy once — every route requires admin unless it is listed — and fails on any route that disagrees. Adding a route the user role may reach means adding it to USER_READABLE with a note on why it cannot return a credential. tests/test_agent_authorization.py does the same for the agent, where a single forgotten Depends(verify_token) would expose a whole host.

tests/test_token_revocation.py covers the revoke switch — that each of the three authority changes kills the account's tokens, that a cosmetic re-save does not, and that the refresh cookie is httpOnly and not marked Secure over plain HTTP. tests/test_schema_migration.py builds a database with the old user table and asserts the added column is backfilled rather than left NULL, which is what would otherwise have signed out every user on every install.

tests/test_stack_locking.py and tests/test_runtime_state.py cover the state that moved into the database: that a busy stack answers 409 without ever reaching Docker, that an expired lock is taken over rather than stranding the stack, that the stats cache serves repeat callers from one sweep, and that the update cache and rate limiter survive a restart. One of them asserts that update_service never imports the database — it is shared with the agent, which has none, so persistence has to stay opt-in.

tests/test_bundled_templates.py covers the 83 shipped templates: each must parse, name an image per service, keep .env.example in sync with the variables compose actually reads, ship every file it bind-mounts, and never come with a working default password.

API surface (Phase 1)

POST   /api/auth/setup | login | refresh        GET /api/auth/me | needs-setup
POST   /api/auth/logout | logout-everywhere
GET    /api/stacks                              POST /api/stacks
GET    /api/stacks/{id}                          PUT /api/stacks/{id}   DELETE /api/stacks/{id}
POST   /api/stacks/{id}/{start|stop|restart|pull|update|down|clone}
GET    /api/stacks/{id}/logs                     GET /api/stacks/{id}/export
POST   /api/stacks/convert                       (docker run → compose)
GET    /api/system/info | gpus | devices         GET /api/audit
GET    /api/system/update                         POST /api/system/update (self-update)
WS     /ws/logs/{stack_id}[/{service}]           WS  /ws/events
WS     /ws/deploy/{stack_id}                     WS  /ws/update/{stack_id}

Phase 2 endpoints

GET    /api/volumes | /orphaned                  DELETE /api/volumes/{name}
POST   /api/volumes/prune                        POST /api/volumes/generate-yaml
GET    /api/host/paths?path=&show_hidden=        (sandboxed browser)
POST   /api/editor/services | add-volume | set-gpu | add-device | remove-device | set-privileged

Phase 3 endpoints

GET    /api/images | /updates                    POST /api/images/check
POST   /api/ports/conflicts                       POST /api/editor/set-resources
GET    /api/templates | /{id}                     POST /api/templates/{id}/instantiate
POST   /api/templates | /from-stack               DELETE /api/templates/custom/{slug}

Phase 4 endpoints

GET    /api/stacks/{id}/backup?include_volumes=&stop_first=   POST /api/stacks/restore
GET    /api/settings                              PUT  /api/settings
GET    /api/settings/webhooks                     POST /api/settings/webhooks
PUT    /api/settings/webhooks/{id}                DELETE /api/settings/webhooks/{id}
POST   /api/settings/webhooks/{id}/test
GET    /api/auth/users                            POST /api/auth/users
PATCH  /api/auth/users/{id}                        DELETE /api/auth/users/{id}

Phase 5 endpoints

GET    /api/agents                                POST /api/agents
PUT    /api/agents/{id}                            DELETE /api/agents/{id}
POST   /api/agents/{id}/ping                       GET  /api/agents/{id}/system
GET    /api/agents/{id}/stacks | /{sid}            GET  /api/agents/{id}/stacks/{sid}/logs
POST   /api/agents/{id}/stacks                     PUT  /api/agents/{id}/stacks/{sid}
DELETE /api/agents/{id}/stacks/{sid}               POST /api/agents/{id}/stacks/{sid}/{action}

agent (on the remote host, Bearer AGENT_TOKEN):
GET    /agent/ping | /system | /stacks | /stacks/{id} | /stacks/{id}/logs
GET    /agent/stacks/{id}/backup                   POST /agent/stacks/restore
POST   /agent/stacks | /stacks/{id}/{action}       PUT/DELETE /agent/stacks/{id}

Phase 6 endpoints

GET    /api/backups/destinations                  POST /api/backups/destinations
PUT    /api/backups/destinations/{id}              DELETE /api/backups/destinations/{id}
POST   /api/backups/destinations/{id}/test         GET  /api/backups/destinations/{id}/backups
DELETE /api/backups/destinations/{id}/backups/{name}
POST   /api/stacks/{id}/backup/push                POST /api/stacks/restore-from

Phase 7 endpoints

GET    /api/backups/schedules                     POST /api/backups/schedules
PUT    /api/backups/schedules/{id}                 DELETE /api/backups/schedules/{id}
POST   /api/backups/schedules/{id}/run

Phase 8 endpoints (remote-stack backups)

GET    /api/agents/{id}/stacks/{sid}/backup        POST /api/agents/{id}/stacks/{sid}/backup/push
POST   /api/agents/{id}/stacks/restore             POST /api/agents/{id}/stacks/restore-from
backup schedules accept an optional agent_id to target a remote host.

Phase 9 endpoints

GET    /api/networks | /{id}                       POST /api/networks
DELETE /api/networks/{id}                           POST /api/networks/prune
DELETE /api/stacks/{id}?delete_files=             (stack delete, now surfaced in the UI)

Phase 11 endpoints

WS   /ws/agent-logs/{agent_id}/{stack_id}         (live remote logs, proxied to the agent)
GET  /api/networks/{id}/containers                 POST /api/networks/{id}/connect | /disconnect
POST /api/agents/{id}/stacks                       (create a stack on a remote host — now in the UI)
POST /api/templates/{id}/instantiate {agent_id}    (instantiate a template onto a remote host)

Phase 24 endpoints

GET  /api/dashboard/funnel[?refresh=true]   (stack-health funnel, 30s TTL cache)
GET  /api/dashboard/summary                 (containers, uptime series, ops activity)

Security notes

• The Docker socket is only ever touched by the backend process; it is never proxied to the browser.
• Login is rate-limited (10/min/IP).
• Compose files are backed up to *.bak before every overwrite.
• Generated YAML never includes the obsolete version: field and uses Compose v2 (docker compose) syntax.