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* feat(git): swap isomorphic-git for native git transport behind clone seam Replace the isomorphic-git engine (HTTP-only, single importer) with the native git CLI behind the existing withClonedRepo seam, so SSH deploy keys, ref semantics, and private CAs become reachable in later PRs. - resolve-before-fetch: ls-remote pins the branch to an immutable SHA, then rev-parse verifies the checkout against it; tip races refuse - hardened spawns: argv arrays only, protocol allowlist (https only), neutralized hooks, isolated HOME and all config channels, no prompts - token reaches git only via a credential helper reading SENCHO_GIT_TOKEN from the child env; never argv or URL - size cap becomes a workspace watchdog (on-disk measure) keeping the same knob and breach message; deterministic final gate added - Windows: pin http.sslBackend=openssl (schannel ignores sslCAInfo) and anchor to Git's bundled CA; NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS combines with platform defaults instead of replacing them - error classification retargets to exit code + stderr while preserving the contractual mappings (AUTH_FAILED maps to 400, never 401; unauthenticated refusals mask as REPO_NOT_FOUND) - runtime image installs git; tests re-pointed at the transport boundary plus a new engine suite (classifier corpus, argv hardening, watchdog) Zero externally visible behavior change except two edge cases: an empty branch now surfaces BRANCH_NOT_FOUND, and a mid-fetch force push refuses instead of materializing the moved tip. * fix(git): unblock CI on linux kill-path test and codeql log warning Two CI-only findings from the first pipeline run: - The scripted spawn child in the transport tests lacked the kill method that killTree's POSIX fallback reaches when a fake process group does not exist; Linux runs crashed inside the timeout tests while Windows (taskkill branch) could not reproduce it. Give the fixture the method the real ChildProcess always has. - CodeQL flagged the workspace-removal warning that interpolated the NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS path (environment-sourced values are treated as sensitive at log sinks). Reword the warning to name the variable instead of its value; operators know their own environment. * fix(git): collapse remaining duplicated test setup so the shared helper is used * fix(git): close watchdog, size-gate, ref-validator, and kill-ordering gaps in native transport Resolves the release-blocking findings from an independent pre-merge audit of the native git transport swap: - A watchdog-triggered kill mid-clone was misclassified as a generic exit failure instead of a size breach, because runGit resolves (not rejects) when the child is killed via SIGKILL. - The final on-disk size measurement failed open when it could not be read (workspace removed mid-walk, permissions), letting an unmeasured clone through as a success. Now fails closed and logs the real cause. - The ref-name validator was an overly restrictive allow-list that rejected valid branch names (leading underscore, non-ASCII, '#'). Replaced with a deny-list matching real `git check-ref-format --branch` semantics, verified against the git binary, including a per-path-segment `.lock` check the first pass missed. - runGit's timeout handler settled as soon as a kill was issued rather than confirmed, racing workspace cleanup against a still-alive child tree. It now waits for the child's close event, with a bounded fallback if termination is never confirmed, and preserves the timeout classification if 'error' fires after the kill. - Windows killTree now also falls back to child.kill() when taskkill itself exits non-zero, not just when it fails to spawn. - Added a real, non-mocked integration test that drives the credential helper through the actual git binary against a local HTTPS server with Basic Auth checking. It caught a genuine bug the mocked suite could not see: the credential.helper config value was quoted in a way that broke git's own absolute-path helper detection, failing every authenticated clone. Fixed by removing the quotes. - Migrated a separately developed test file's mocks off the deleted isomorphic-git module onto the native transport seam, matching the pattern already used elsewhere, after merging with main pulled in that feature. Also updates two stale comments left over from the isomorphic-git era and adds a git version check to the Docker runtime image smoke tests. * fix(git): make credential-helper path safe, unify ref length, and fix Windows kill ordering Addresses three PR 1 correction items from pre-merge audit: - credential.helper is a shell string, not argv: interpolating the helper's workspace-relative path broke authenticated fetches whenever the workspace sat under a directory with a space in its name. The config value is now a fixed string that names an environment variable instead, so no workspace path character can affect how git's shell parses it. - The transport rejected branch names over 200 characters while the route accepted up to 256 and real git has no comparable limit. REF_MAX_LEN is now a single exported constant shared by the transport and both routes. - On Windows, taskkill runs as a separate process and could still be walking a killed process tree after the direct git child reported closed, letting the caller delete the workspace early. Kill operations are now awaited to completion (bounded by a timeout) before a timed-out or size-breached run settles, on both the close and error event paths. Verified against a real authenticated git server inside the built runtime image: public HTTPS, private HTTPS with a valid PAT, invalid PAT, a deleted branch, an oversized repository, and the awkward workspace-path case, including from a workspace path containing spaces and shell metacharacters. * fix(git): reap killed helpers and classify curl refusals
Self-hosted Docker Compose management for one machine or a fleet.
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Note
Sencho is used in production for day-to-day Docker Compose and fleet management. As a pre-1.0 project it still evolves quickly, so review the known limitations and validate against your own setup before deploying it on critical infrastructure.
What Sencho is
Sencho is a Docker Compose control plane for DevOps engineers, platform teams, system administrators and homelab users who run services on Compose and need a real operational surface: a graphical interface that does not give up file-on-disk workflows, and the ability to manage more than one machine without SSH gymnastics or a VPN.
It runs as a single container on your hardware and provides a UI for common Compose operations: 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.
Multi-node was part of the architecture from the start, not bolted on later: every Sencho instance is the same autonomous node, whether it runs alone or as one of many in a fleet. 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.
Sencho is free, open-source software under AGPLv3. Everything below is included in the Community tier with unlimited nodes and users.
Capabilities
Stacks
- Full Compose lifecycle: create, deploy, restart, stop, take down, pull
- Atomic deployments with automatic rollback on failure
- Monaco editor with diff preview before save and one-click rollback to any prior deploy
- Health-gated updates that hold a rollout until health checks pass, with stalled-update detection and in-app recovery
- Git-sourced stacks pulled and synced from any repository, with ordered multi-file Compose
- File explorer for compose, env, and supporting files, with move and rename across directories
- Drift detection that compares running containers against the effective Compose model and flags exactly what changed
- Environment and secrets guardrails that inventory every variable a stack uses and flag missing or duplicate values, without ever exposing a value
- Storage portability checks that show whether a stack's mounts can move cleanly to another node before you move it
- Compose Doctor preflight checks that catch compose problems before deploy
- Stack labels for grouping and bulk operations
- App Store with LinuxServer.io templates by default, or any custom Portainer-compatible registry
Observability
- Aggregated log search and stream across every container in the fleet
- Live container stats, health checks, and image-update notifications on a configurable cadence, with links from each image to its registry and source
- Threshold alerts for CPU, memory, and network
- Read-only audit log of every action, with a 14-day recent-activity window
- Network topology view of containers, networks, and nodes
- Documentation-drift flags when a stack dossier diverges from the running stack
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
- Fleet Federation: cordon nodes and pin Blueprints to specific hosts
- Fleet Actions: bulk label operations, fleet-wide stop-by-label, and fleet-wide prune
- Fleet Dossier: export the whole fleet as a single browsable Markdown archive
- Fleet Secrets: author environment-variable bundles once, push them to labeled nodes' stacks, with an audit trail of every change
- Fleet Sync: push scan policies, CVE suppressions, and misconfig acknowledgements from a control instance to its replicas
- Docker Label Audit across every node, for labels that drive external automation
- Remote updates: pull the latest image and recreate any node in the fleet from the Fleet view, no SSH session required
- Node labels and grouping
- 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
Security
- SSO: custom OIDC and presets for Google, GitHub, and Okta
- Two-factor authentication with TOTP and backup codes
- RBAC with five built-in roles and stack or node scoped assignments
- Security overview with a chart-led scan summary, sortable images, and searchable scan history
- Vulnerability scanning via Trivy, with on-demand node-wide scans, VEX-based suppression, SARIF export, and SBOM upload
- Compose network inspector with an exposure-intent guard for unintended published ports
- Node-wide network inventory, topology, and exposure findings across every stack on a node
- Scan policies that set severity thresholds and can block a deploy
- Private registries for Docker Hub, GHCR, and custom registries, plus deploy enforcement for non-compliant images
- API tokens for automation
Operations
- Off-site stack archives via custom S3-compatible storage
- Notification routing to Slack, Discord, and any generic webhook
- Global search across pages, nodes, and every stack in the fleet
- Resources view for images, volumes, and networks with scoped prune actions
- Host console: an interactive terminal on the host OS in the browser, no SSH session required
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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Same screens in Light
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Telemetry and data handling
Sencho does not emit telemetry, analytics, or crash reports, and makes no outbound calls to Sencho-controlled endpoints. Stack metadata, container inventory, and user activity never leave your instance.
Admiral
Admiral is Studio Saelix's paid business assurance plan on top of everything in Community: Hardened Build, Recovery Vault (managed off-site snapshots), priority support, and governance depth (LDAP / Active Directory, full audit log export and anomaly detection, and related organizational controls). Built-in RBAC (five roles and scoped assignments) is included on Community. AWS ECR registry credentials currently require Admiral as well; that access rule is temporary availability, not the reason Admiral exists. See sencho.io/pricing for current plan details.
Documentation, community, and license
- Documentation: docs.sencho.io
- Blog: sencho.io/blog
- Known limitations: KNOWN_LIMITATIONS.md
- 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: GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (
AGPL-3.0-only). Copyright (c) 2026 Studio Saelix. Sencho is free software; see LICENSE and Licensing for terms. Studio Saelix trademarks are described in TRADEMARKS.md.