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Pocket Homelab
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Pocket Core

v0.29.2 · Self-hosted · MIT

The quiet hub that ties your apps together.

Pocket Core is the piece in the middle of a Pocket Box. Apps announce themselves to it, pass events to each other through it and sign everyone in with it, and your phone gets every service on the box from one QR code. One binary, one SQLite file, one volume.

Get it on GitHubHow to run it
Pocket Core on an iPhone: 18 of 18 apps up, 25 services, 4 paired devices and the start of the app listPocket Core on an iPhone: 18 of 18 apps up, 25 services, 4 paired devices and the start of the app list

Overview

Everything on the box, on one page.

Every Pocket app registers itself when it starts, and Core checks its health from then on. The overview shows which apps are up, their versions, the paired devices and the latest events on the bus.

The Pocket Core overview: 18 apps with version and health, counters for services and devices, and recent events from Kitchen, Habits, Money and GarageThe Pocket Core overview: 18 apps with version and health, counters for services and devices, and recent events from Kitchen, Habits, Money and Garage

Links

Apps that help each other.

One app can act for a person in another without tokens pasted between them. Kitchen keeps its pantry in Inventory, posts receipts to Split and marks a habit, and every permission has its own switch.

  • Apps ask in their manifest, the target app says what it allows
  • Core hands out five-minute tokens for one app and one person
  • A switch for the admin and one for each person
The Links page with Pocket Kitchen opened: it may mark habits, see and adjust Inventory items and add shared expenses in SplitThe Links page with Pocket Kitchen opened: it may mark habits, see and adjust Inventory items and add shared expenses in Split

Pairing

One QR code, every service.

Tap Pair a device and scan the code with the Pocket Homelab app. The phone receives every service on the box with its own token, and the credentials go into the Keychain.

  • Type the eight-character code if the camera is not handy
  • Revoke a device and its token stops working everywhere
  • Each person only receives the services meant for them
The Pair a device sheet on an iPhone with a QR code, an eight-character pairing code and how to use itThe Pair a device sheet on an iPhone with a QR code, an eight-character pairing code and how to use it

Events

Every event on the bus.

Apps publish what happens, like a fill-up in Garage or a recipe cooked in Kitchen. Core stores each event, streams it live to listeners and delivers it to webhooks, so other apps can react without knowing who sent it.

  • Filter by topic pattern or source, grouped by day
  • Open an event to see its payload, or copy it as JSON
  • Signed webhooks with retries, and replay after a reconnect
The event log with a Garage fill-up event opened, showing the vehicle, litres and costThe event log with a Garage fill-up event opened, showing the vehicle, litres and cost

And the rest of it

  • One sign-in for everything

    Core is an OpenID Connect provider. One account per person signs in to every Pocket app, and to apps like Immich, Nextcloud, Jellyfin or Audiobookshelf on the same box.

  • A household, not a user

    Admins and members. Each service says who receives it, so a shared key never lands on a child's phone, and members see only their own devices and logins.

  • Connectors for other apps

    Core can create each person's account in apps like Forgejo, Immich, Jellyfin or Paperless-ngx, switch on sign-in with Core there and turn what happens in them into events. Off until you switch them on.

  • Your apps for AI assistants

    An optional MCP endpoint lets Claude Code or Codex check your apps and read or add items, after each person signs in with their own account and approves the access.

Install

One container, one volume.

Run the image, open it and create the admin account. Settings shows the registration key: give every Pocket app the Core address and that key, and they appear under Apps on their next start. Set BASE_URL to the address your phones really use before you pair anything.

On a Pocket Box it is already installed, and every app on the box is registered with it.

Every setting in the README →

docker run -d --name pocket-core -p 8080:8080 -v ./data:/data \
  -e BASE_URL=https://core.example.com -e SECURE_COOKIES=true \
  ghcr.io/abjelosevic88/pocket-homelab-core:latest

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