sencho/docs/features/overview.mdx

---
title: Product Guide
description: A high-level tour of Sencho, organized by the same areas as the product guide sidebar.
---

Sencho is a self-hosted cockpit for Docker Compose. The catalog below groups Sencho's product areas the same way the sidebar does, so you can scan the surface at a glance and jump into the deep-dive page for the parts you care about. Tier callouts are inline with each entry; if no tier is mentioned, the feature is available on every Sencho installation.

<Frame>
  <img src="/images/overview/dashboard-hero.png" alt="Sencho Home dashboard: the Healthy masthead with running container count, fleet-wide CPU, and memory, the CPU sparkline and memory, disk, and network gauge tiles, and the Stack health table sorted by load." />
</Frame>

## Core workflow

<Frame>
  <img src="/images/overview/stack-anatomy.png" alt="A stack open in the editor: the action toolbar, the container card with CPU and memory sparklines, the live log stream, and the right-hand panel on the Networking tab showing exposure intent, network memberships, published ports, and a runtime drift check. The full tab strip (Anatomy, Activity, Dossier, Drift, Environment, Networking, Doctor, Storage) is visible across the top of the panel." />
</Frame>

### Stack management

Deploy, start, stop, restart, update, and remove Docker Compose stacks through a point-and-click interface. Right-click any stack in the sidebar for a context menu that groups actions by purpose: inspect, organize, lifecycle, and destructive operations. [Learn more →](/features/stack-management)

### Editor

Full in-browser Monaco editor for `compose.yaml` and `.env` files with syntax highlighting. Toggle edit mode, save to disk, or save and deploy in one step. The container panel shows per-container live stats (CPU, RAM, network), with buttons to open the app, stream logs, or launch a terminal. [Learn more →](/features/editor)

### Stack file explorer

Browse, preview, and download files inside a stack's directory from the dashboard with any signed-in role. Write actions (upload, edit, rename, move, create folders, change permissions, and delete) require stack edit permission. [Learn more →](/features/stack-file-explorer)

### Resources hub

View and manage Docker images, volumes, networks, and unmanaged containers. Resources are classified as Managed, External, or Unused / Reclaimable, so cleanup decisions are visible before you prune. [Learn more →](/features/resources)

### Dashboard

The Home view shows system status, active and exited containers, Docker network activity, host resource usage, stack health, configuration status, fleet heartbeat, and recent alerts. [Learn more →](/features/dashboard)

### App Store

Browse pre-configured application templates. Filter by category, configure environment variables, volumes, and ports, and deploy with live progress feedback. Point the template source at your own registry when you want. [Learn more →](/features/app-store)

### Global search

Jump to any page, node, or stack from anywhere with `Ctrl+K` (`Cmd+K` on macOS). The palette groups results into Pages, Nodes, and Stacks, fans out across every online node, and keeps your hands on the keyboard. [Learn more →](/features/global-search)

### Deep links

Open stable URLs for Home, Fleet, Resources, Security, stack detail, stack files, stack edit, and other routable views. URLs preserve node and stack context so operators can share exact places in the app. [Learn more →](/features/deep-links)

### Appearance

Personalize Sencho's look: choose a theme, accent color, contrast, border brightness, typography, density, and chart treatment. Every choice is saved to the current browser. [Learn more →](/features/appearance)

## Stack intelligence

### Stack activity

Every stack has its own event log showing deploys, restarts, starts, stops, image updates, and drift, each event attributed to the user or system that triggered it. The most recent 50 events load immediately and new events stream in live without a page refresh. [Learn more →](/features/stack-activity)

### Stack Dossier

The **Dossier** tab in the right-hand Anatomy panel turns each stack into living documentation. Sencho fills in the operational facts it derives from your Compose file, and you add what it cannot infer, then export the whole thing as Markdown. [Learn more →](/features/stack-dossier)

### Drift Detection

The **Drift** tab compares the Compose file on disk against the live Docker runtime and reports where they diverge: a missing service, an undeclared container, a changed image, or different published ports. [Learn more →](/features/stack-drift)

### Compose Doctor

The **Doctor** tab runs a preflight check before you deploy. It renders the effective Compose model and reports common failure modes grouped by severity, with a clear fix for each. It is advisory and never blocks a deploy. [Learn more →](/features/compose-doctor)

### Compose Networking

The **Networking** tab shows how a stack is networked and exposed: its networks, each service's published ports and bindings, and a per-stack or per-service exposure intent that Sencho uses to flag when the Compose file disagrees. [Learn more →](/features/compose-networking)

### Environment and secrets guardrails

The **Environment** tab inventories every variable a stack uses, where each one comes from, and whether it looks like a secret, all from variable names so no value is ever exposed. [Learn more →](/features/environment-guardrails)

### Docker Label Audit

Inspect Docker and Compose labels that drive external automation across the fleet and inside each stack. The audit view helps you understand which labels exist and where they are attached. [Learn more →](/features/docker-label-audit)

### Storage portability

The **Storage** tab lists every mount a stack depends on, classifies each one, and gives the stack a single portability verdict so you know what will break if you move or restore it. [Learn more →](/features/compose-storage)

### Stack labels

Tag stacks with custom colored labels like `production`, `staging`, or `media-server`. Filter the sidebar by label, identify stacks at a glance, and bulk-action a label across every stack that carries it. [Learn more →](/features/stack-labels)

### Stack sidebar

Manage, group, and pin your stacks from the primary sidebar, organized by label. Pinned stacks sit in a dedicated `PINNED` group at the top, and bulk mode acts on a hand-picked subset at once. [Learn more →](/features/sidebar)

## Deploy and automate

### Deploy progress

Stream live output from stack actions in a structured log view with stage badges. Choose a modal or an inline band; it auto-dismisses on success and minimizes to a status pill that persists across navigation. [Learn more →](/features/deploy-progress)

### Atomic deployments

Sencho snapshots your compose and environment files before applying changes. If containers crash within a few seconds of deploy, the previous configuration is restored automatically. [Learn more →](/features/atomic-deployments)

### Health-gated updates

Before an update, a readiness dialog gives a single verdict drawn from Compose Doctor, drift, container health, the pending image change, rollback backup, and node disk. After the update lands, a health gate watches the containers for an observation window and records whether it held. [Learn more →](/features/health-gated-updates)

### Deploy enforcement

Block deploys that violate a scan policy before `docker compose up` runs, with an admin bypass path and a full audit trail. The pre-flight gate enumerates images and blocks a deploy when an image meets or exceeds the policy's severity threshold. [Learn more →](/features/deploy-enforcement)

### Git sources

Link a stack to a Git repository and keep one or more compose files in sync via manual pulls or webhook triggers. Merge a base file with environment overrides in order, review a diff before applying, and create stacks directly from a repo. [Learn more →](/features/git-sources)

### Blueprints

Fleet-wide compose templates that Sencho keeps in sync across the nodes you choose. One declaration covers many nodes via label selectors, drift detection always runs, and stateful blueprints get a confirmation prompt before first deploy and before eviction. [Learn more →](/features/blueprint-model)

### Scheduled operations

Automate recurring maintenance like stack restarts, fleet snapshots, system prunes, scans, and image updates. Use the simple point-and-click mode or switch to a full cron expression for precise control. [Learn more →](/features/scheduled-operations)

### Auto-update policies

Review pending container updates across your fleet with risk badges and one-line changelog previews on a single board. The hero counts how many updates are ready to apply without review and surfaces major version bumps separately. [Learn more →](/features/auto-update-policies)

### Auto-heal policies

Automatically restart containers that fail Docker healthchecks for longer than a threshold. Each policy ships with safety rails: a cooldown period, an hourly restart cap, recent-user-action suppression, and auto-disable on repeated restart failures. [Learn more →](/features/auto-heal-policies)

### Webhooks

Trigger stack actions from external CI/CD pipelines over HTTP. Create a webhook targeting a specific stack and action, then call it from GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or anything that can send a POST. [Learn more →](/features/webhooks)

## Observe and audit

### Global observability

The **Logs** view aggregates output from every container across every stack into a single scrollable stream. Filter by stack, log level, or keyword, and switch to developer mode for real-time streaming instead of polling. [Learn more →](/features/global-observability)

### Alerts and notifications

Configure threshold-based alerts per stack and route notifications to Discord, Slack, or any generic webhook. Per-stack [routing rules](/features/alerts-notifications#notification-routing) send each stack's alerts to the right channel. [Learn more →](/features/alerts-notifications)

### Audit log

Track mutating actions across your Sencho instance with a searchable trail: who deployed, stopped, deleted, or changed settings, with timestamps, user attribution, and node context. The recent 14-day window is available on every installation. Admiral adds CSV and JSON export, anomaly detection, and configurable retention. [Learn more →](/features/audit-log)

## Fleet management

<Frame>
  <img src="/images/overview/fleet-topology.png" alt="Fleet view in grid layout: the fleet masthead showing aggregate CPU, memory, and container counts across all nodes, the tab strip (Overview, Snapshots, Status, Map, Deployments, Federation, Actions), and the node grid with per-node container counts and CPU, RAM, and disk usage bars." />
</Frame>

### Multi-node support

Add remote Sencho instances as nodes. Every dashboard operation works identically whether you target your local machine or a server across the world, using a transparent HTTP proxy model with no SSH or shared Docker sockets. [Learn more →](/features/multi-node)

### Pilot Agent

Add remote nodes behind NAT, residential networks, or corporate firewalls without exposing any inbound port. The agent runs in a container on the remote host and holds an outbound WebSocket tunnel to your primary instance. [Learn more →](/features/pilot-agent)

### Sencho Mesh

Connect containers across nodes by hostname over the Pilot tunnel so a multi-node fleet feels like one machine. Opt a stack into the mesh and its services become reachable from any other meshed stack at a stable hostname. Limited availability; requires Admiral when enabled on an instance. [Learn more →](/features/sencho-mesh)

### Fleet View

Monitor your whole infrastructure from one screen. The Fleet view shows every node with health metrics, container counts, and resource usage in a grid or topology layout, plus a read-only Map of how stacks, services, networks, volumes, and ports relate across the fleet. [Learn more →](/features/fleet-view)

### Fleet Dossier

Export your entire homelab as a single Markdown archive. The **Export Dossier** action walks every node and stack, pairs the facts Sencho derives with the notes you wrote in each [Stack Dossier](/features/stack-dossier), and produces a browsable archive. Admin-only. [Learn more →](/features/fleet-dossier)

### Fleet Federation

Operator-driven placement controls for fleets running Blueprints. Cordon a node to mark it unschedulable for new work, or pin a blueprint to a specific node to override selector matches. [Learn more →](/features/fleet-federation)

### Fleet Actions

Run fleet-wide bulk operations from one tab: stop every stack carrying a label across all nodes, assign a label to selected stacks across nodes, or prune Docker resources fleet-wide. Admin-only. [Learn more →](/features/fleet-actions)

### Fleet Sync

When several Sencho instances run as a fleet, the control instance is the source of truth for security configuration and replicates scan policies and CVE suppressions to every remote automatically. Replicas show the rules read-only. [Learn more →](/features/fleet-sync)

### Fleet Secrets

Centralized, encrypted, versioned env-var bundles you push to labeled nodes' stacks. Every save bumps a version, and every push records a per-node diff in the audit log using overlay merge semantics. Limited availability; requires Admiral and the admin role when enabled on an instance. [Learn more →](/features/fleet-secrets)

### Fleet-wide backups

Create point-in-time snapshots of every compose and environment file across all nodes, stored centrally and browsable by node and stack. Restore an individual stack from any snapshot with optional one-click redeploy. [Learn more →](/features/fleet-backups)

### Remote updates

Check for outdated nodes and trigger over-the-air updates from the Fleet view. A one-click update pulls the latest image and recreates the container; an **Update all** action covers the whole fleet at once. [Learn more →](/features/remote-updates)

### Node compatibility

When you manage nodes running different Sencho versions, the dashboard detects each node's capabilities and disables unsupported actions so they stay hidden instead of failing. [Learn more →](/features/node-compatibility)

### Host console

Open an interactive terminal on the host OS directly in the browser with full xterm.js emulation and color support. No SSH client required. Limited availability; requires Admiral and the admin role when enabled on an instance. [Learn more →](/features/host-console)

## Security and access

<Frame>
  <img src="/images/overview/security-overview.png" alt="The Security page: the 'Action needed' masthead with critical and high CVE counts and last scan time, the tab strip (Overview, Images, Compose risks, Secrets, Policies, Suppressions, History, Scanner setup), the actionable findings summary listing fixable CVEs, detected secrets, and exposed images, and the 30-day risk trend chart." />
</Frame>

### Security

A primary surface in the top navigation that brings your security posture into one command center, scoped to the active node. An overview masthead reports your current posture, and tabs cover image findings, Compose risks, secrets, scan policies, suppressions, scan history, and scanner setup. [Learn more →](/features/security)

### Vulnerability scanning

Scan container images for known CVEs with [Trivy](https://trivy.dev). Install Trivy with one click from the Security page Scanner setup tab on first use; the [setup guide](/operations/trivy-setup) covers bind-mounted and air-gapped alternatives. [Learn more →](/features/vulnerability-scanning)

### CVE suppressions

Accept known-benign vulnerabilities so scan results stay focused on findings that actually need action. Suppressed findings remain in the database and raw counts but are visually dimmed in scan drawers and comparison sheets with your reason shown. [Learn more →](/features/cve-suppressions)

### Private registries

Store credentials for private Docker registries: Docker Hub organizations, GHCR, and self-hosted registries. Admiral adds AWS ECR. Sencho injects them automatically during deploy and pull. [Learn more →](/features/private-registries)

### Two-factor authentication

Protect your account with a time-based one-time password from an authenticator app and ten single-use backup codes for sign-in recovery. On every sign-in, Sencho asks for the current six-digit code after your password passes. [Learn more →](/features/two-factor-authentication)

### RBAC and user management

Create unlimited accounts with read-only Viewer access to dashboards, logs, and file contents, while keeping deploy and edit locked to admins. Community includes the Admin and Viewer roles; Admiral adds more granular team roles and scoped permissions. [Learn more →](/features/rbac)

### SSO and LDAP authentication

Authenticate with your existing identity provider. Custom OIDC and preset providers for Google, GitHub, and Okta are built in. Admiral adds LDAP / Active Directory. SSO runs alongside password login and auto-provisions accounts on first sign-in with configurable role mapping. [Learn more →](/features/sso)

### SSO setup guide

Follow provider-specific setup steps for Google, GitHub, Okta, custom OIDC providers, and LDAP / Active Directory. [Learn more →](/getting-started/sso-quickstart)

### API tokens

Generate scoped API tokens for CI/CD pipelines, scripts, and automation workflows. Each token carries a permission level so you can follow the principle of least privilege. [Learn more →](/features/api-tokens)