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* feat(auto-heal): restart crashed containers and harden the heal loop Auto-Heal now restarts containers that crash (non-zero exit) and stay down past the policy threshold, in addition to those that fail their Docker healthcheck. Crash detection reuses the container event classifier so a container that exits cleanly or that an operator stopped is never restarted; only classified crashes set the heal signal. Also hardens the existing loop: - A paid controlling instance refreshes proxied remotes' entitlement on a background interval so a remote node's policies keep evaluating between operator visits instead of lapsing a few minutes after the sheet was last opened. A node that stays unreachable surfaces a warning. - Overlapping policies (all-services plus a service-specific one) restart a given container at most once per evaluation pass, so the hourly cap holds. - A failed restart now counts toward the cooldown and hourly cap, so a broken setup is retried on the cooldown interval rather than every poll. - Diagnostic logging behind developer mode for evaluation, heal decisions, timing, and lease refresh. * docs(auto-heal): document crash healing and refresh troubleshooting Cover the two heal conditions (unhealthy and crashed), note that clean exits and operator stops are never restarted and that crash healing acts on crashes observed while Sencho is running, and update the troubleshooting and tab visibility entries accordingly. * fix(auto-heal): close stale crash-signal race and harden lease refresh A crash signal could outlive the crash it described. The exit classifier is deferred 500ms, so an immediate restart could let it stamp the crash marker after the container was already running, and a later clean or operator-initiated exit did not clear it; the next poll could then restart a container that had exited cleanly. Now a clean or intentional exit always clears the marker, a die that a start has superseded is not stamped, and the die's own time is captured at arrival rather than at the deferred classification so the supersede check is accurate. Also: - Crash state survives the event service's idle-prune window, so crash healing works for any configured threshold rather than only short ones. - An exited or dead container is matched before any health-text parsing, so it can never fall into the healthcheck path. - A remote with no reachable proxy target counts toward the lease-refresh failure warning instead of being silently skipped.
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 automation and fleet-control features ship in paid tiers; 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 with (Skipper) for paid mid-tier or (Admiral) for paid top-tier. 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 (Skipper)
- Auto-update policies for image rollouts (Skipper)
- Scheduled operations on cron (Skipper)
- Blueprints: declarative fleet templates with drift detection (Skipper)
- Webhooks on stack lifecycle events (Skipper)
- Encrypted Fleet Secrets pushed to labeled nodes (Skipper)
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 five roles: admin (full control), viewer (read-only), deployer (deploy and restart, no edits), node-admin (admin scoped to specific nodes), and auditor (read-only with audit-log access)
- Vulnerability scanning via Trivy on every tier with VEX-based suppression; SARIF export and SBOM upload (Skipper)
- Private registries (Admiral) and deploy enforcement (Skipper) for non-compliant images
- 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
- 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.