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* feat: classify stack deploy and update failures with suggested next actions Failed deploy and update responses now carry a failure classification (cause category, headline, and suggested next step) derived from the compose error output. The recovery panel and chip render the classification and include it in copied diagnostics, and gateway-style failures surface as a node-unreachable cause. * feat: add update and rollback readiness reports for stacks Before a manual update, Sencho now shows an advisory readiness verdict computed from the stored preflight result, open drift findings, live container health, the pending image change, the rollback backup slot, and node disk headroom. The Stack Dossier gains a rollback readiness section that states what a rollback can restore and explicitly discloses that volume and bind-mounted data are not covered. Toolbar and sidebar updates now share one update path, and admins can create a fleet snapshot from the readiness dialog before updating. Nodes that do not advertise the capability keep the direct update flow. * feat: observe stack health after updates with a post-deploy health gate After a deploy or update succeeds, Sencho now watches the stack for a configurable observation window and records a passed, failed, or unknown verdict: containers must stay running, healthchecks must report healthy, and restart loops or disappearing containers fail the gate. The deploy panel shows the observation live and holds off auto-closing until the verdict lands, a failed gate surfaces the existing recovery actions including rollback, and the stack timeline records update started and gate verdict events. Scheduled, webhook, bulk, and git-source updates are gated the same way; rollbacks and installs are deliberately not. The gate is observational only and can be tuned or disabled per node under host alert settings. * docs: document health-gated updates and rollback readiness New operator page covering the update readiness dialog, the post-update health gate and its settings, the rollback readiness disclosure, and classified failures, with cross-links from the atomic deployments and deploy progress pages. The API reference gains the readiness and health-gate endpoints, the healthGateId success field, and the failure classification schema on deploy and update error responses. * feat: withhold the success verdict while the health gate observes An update used to show a green Succeeded that a failed health gate then contradicted moments later. The deploy modal now reports Verifying health while the gate observes, shows success only when the gate passes, and makes a failed or unknown gate the headline result; success toasts soften to a verifying message while a gate runs. The mobile recovery card groups its actions behind one bottom-right Take action menu so it stays compact on a phone, with the classified cause still visible on the card. A successful image update now also counts as the last known-good marker in rollback readiness, and the docs gain screenshots of the readiness dialog, gate states, dossier section, and settings. * fix: harden log format strings and the env existence path check Log calls that interpolated the stack name into the console format string now use constant format strings with placeholder arguments, and envExists validates path containment inline at its filesystem access, matching the established patterns used elsewhere in the same files. * test: adapt deploy modal success specs to the post-deploy health gate The deploy feedback modal now withholds its success verdict while the health gate observes the new containers, showing "Verifying health" until the gate passes. The two success-path E2E tests waited for "Succeeded" within the gate's 90s default window and timed out. Shorten the observation window to the 15s minimum for these tests via the settings API, assert the verify-then-succeed sequence the modal actually renders, and restore the default window afterward so the test value does not leak into later runs. * fix: serialize health gate polling and harden gate observation Address race conditions in the post-update health gate found in review. Backend: the gate poller used setInterval, so a Docker observe slower than the 5s tick could overlap the next poll and corrupt the restart and missing-container accounting, and a wedged socket could leave a poll pending forever. Polling is now single-flight: each cycle self-schedules the next only after it settles, and the observe is bounded by an 8s timeout so a hung probe counts as a poll error and resolves the gate unknown after three in a row. Frontend: the gate poller could overlap requests, letting a slow earlier "observing" response overwrite an already-applied terminal verdict. It is now single-flight with a terminal latch, so a late response can never roll the UI back from passed or failed. Also reject a non-digit nodeId on the snapshot coverage route instead of letting parseInt coerce it, document that turning off the deploy progress panel opts out of the live gate UI while the gate still runs server-side, and add gate-coverage tests for the webhook, git source, and auto-update apply paths plus the new single-flight, observe-timeout, and recovery cases.
Self-hosted Docker Compose management for one machine or a fleet.
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Note
Sencho is currently in public beta on the path to v1.0. Core workflows are actively tested, but early users should review the known limitations and avoid deploying it blindly on critical infrastructure without testing in their own environment first.
What Sencho is
Sencho is for homelab operators, small DevOps teams, and platform engineers who run services on Docker Compose, want a graphical interface without giving up file-on-disk workflows, and need to manage more than one machine without SSH gymnastics or a VPN.
It runs as a single container on your hardware and gives you a UI for the work you currently do over SSH on compose stacks: deploying, editing files, watching logs, restarting containers, browsing volumes, and recovering from failures. Your compose files stay on the host filesystem and remain the source of truth.
A Sencho instance is autonomous. To manage another machine, you install a second Sencho on it and connect them with a long-lived API token; the primary dashboard then acts as an authenticated HTTP and WebSocket proxy across your fleet. Use TLS, a VPN, or a private network for any untrusted link. Each node still uses its local Docker socket (see Quick start), but Sencho does not require SSH and does not expose a remote Docker socket on the network. For nodes behind NAT or strict firewalls, the Pilot Agent establishes a single outbound WebSocket tunnel to the primary, so the remote host opens no inbound port at all.
Most capabilities are free in the Community tier. A few advanced governance, security, and fleet-control features ship in the paid Admiral tier; pricing lives at sencho.io/pricing.
What Sencho is not (yet)
Sencho is a Docker Compose control plane focused on homelab and small-fleet operators. It is intentionally not:
- A Kubernetes scheduler or replacement.
- A reverse proxy. Front Sencho with your existing proxy (Caddy, Traefik, nginx) for TLS and authentication on the public edge.
- A monitoring stack. Sencho surfaces container and host metrics in the dashboard but does not replace Prometheus, Grafana, or your existing alerting pipeline.
- A CI / CD pipeline. Use webhooks, the API, or Git-sourced stacks to connect Sencho to your build system.
See KNOWN_LIMITATIONS.md for the current limitation list.
Tier coverage: All bullets below are available in the free Community tier unless marked (Admiral). Full breakdown at sencho.io/pricing.
Capabilities
Stacks
- Full Compose lifecycle: create, deploy, restart, stop, pull
- Monaco editor with diff preview before save and one-click rollback
- Git-sourced stacks pulled and synced from any repository
- File explorer for compose, env, and supporting files
- Stack labels for grouping and bulk operations
- App Store with LinuxServer.io templates
Observability
- Aggregated log search and stream across every container in the fleet
- Live container stats, health checks, and image-update notifications
- Threshold alerts for CPU, memory, and network
- Read-only audit log of every action (Admiral)
- Network topology view of containers, networks, and nodes
Fleet
- Multi-node management via authenticated HTTP and WebSocket proxy
- Fleet view with grid and topology layouts
- Fleet snapshots of compose and env across the fleet
- Pilot Agent for nodes behind NAT or strict firewalls
- Node compatibility checks before deploying
Automation
- Auto-heal policies for failed containers
- Auto-update policies for image rollouts
- Scheduled operations on cron
- Webhooks on stack lifecycle events
- Blueprints: declarative fleet templates with drift detection (Admiral)
- Encrypted Fleet Secrets pushed to labeled nodes (Admiral)
Security
- SSO: custom OIDC, presets for Google, GitHub, and Okta, plus LDAP and Active Directory
- Two-factor authentication with TOTP and backup codes
- RBAC with admin (full control) and viewer (read-only) roles; deployer, node-admin, and auditor roles plus scoped permissions (Admiral)
- Vulnerability scanning via Trivy on every tier with VEX-based suppression; SARIF export and SBOM upload (Admiral)
- Private registries and deploy enforcement for non-compliant images (Admiral)
- API tokens for automation
Operations
- Host console in the browser (Admiral)
- Off-site stack archives via custom S3 (every tier) or Sencho Cloud Backup (Admiral) for managed storage
- Notification routing to Slack, Discord, email, and webhooks
- Global search across stacks, containers, and services
- Resources view for images, volumes, and networks with scoped prune actions
Before you install
Sencho talks to Docker through the host's /var/run/docker.sock. Mounting this socket grants Sencho the same privilege as sudo docker on the host. This is the same model used by Portainer, Dockge, Komodo, and other Compose dashboards. If your threat model requires stricter isolation, see running with a non-root container user and front Sencho with a reverse proxy that enforces authentication.
Quick start
Sencho runs in a single container.
services:
sencho:
image: saelix/sencho:latest
container_name: sencho
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "1852:1852"
volumes:
- /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
- ./data:/app/data
# 1:1 Compose Path Rule: the host path MUST match the container path
- /opt/docker:/opt/docker
environment:
- COMPOSE_DIR=/opt/docker
- DATA_DIR=/app/data
docker compose up -d
Open http://your-server:1852 and create your admin account.
Always front Sencho with a TLS-terminating reverse proxy in production. See the self-hosting guide for hardening, environment variables, and reverse-proxy examples.
Run with docker run instead
docker run -d --name sencho \
-p 1852:1852 \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
-v sencho_data:/app/data \
# 1:1 Compose Path Rule: the host path MUST match the container path
-v /opt/docker:/opt/docker \
-e COMPOSE_DIR=/opt/docker \
saelix/sencho:latest
For the full walkthrough, see the quickstart guide.
Adding remote nodes
To manage a second machine, install Sencho on it the same way, then add it from the primary dashboard with its URL and a long-lived API token. The primary proxies authenticated HTTP and WebSocket requests to the remote instance. The remote node does not run SSH for Sencho, does not expose its Docker socket on the network, and does not run a separate agent process. The local Sencho on each node manages its own Docker through the standard socket mount described in Quick start. Nodes behind NAT or strict firewalls can opt into the Pilot Agent for outbound-only connectivity.
See the multi-node guide for the full token-bearer flow.
Screenshots
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Telemetry and data handling
Sencho does not emit telemetry, analytics, or crash reports. The only outbound traffic is license validation against Lemon Squeezy, and only when a paid license key is activated. Community-tier instances make no outbound calls to Sencho-controlled endpoints. Stack metadata, container inventory, and user activity never leave your instance.
Documentation, community, and license
- Documentation: docs.sencho.io
- If something breaks: the Recovery guide covers getting back to a working state when Sencho, a deploy, sign-in, Docker, or a node fails.
- Community: GitHub Discussions
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- Security: SECURITY.md. Do not open public issues for security vulnerabilities.
- License: Business Source License 1.1. Free for most self-hosted production use under the BSL Additional Use Grant; see LICENSE and the license FAQ for exact terms. Converts to Apache 2.0 on 2030-03-25.