One Screen to Rule Them All: Building a Homelab Command Center with Glance

· 4 min read
One Screen to Rule Them All: Building a Homelab Command Center with Glance

As a homelab grows, keeping tabs on everything becomes a chore. Between managing a Proxmox cluster, monitoring a Traefik reverse proxy, checking local Git repositories, and scanning tech news, you quickly find yourself drowning in a sea of open browser tabs.

I needed a single, centralized "start page" that could aggregate my entire digital footprint without consuming massive server resources. Enter Glance.

What is Glance?

Glance is an open-source, ultra-lightweight, and highly customizable self-hosted dashboard. Unlike heavier alternatives that require complex databases, Glance is driven entirely by a single, clean glance.yml configuration file. It can comfortably run inside a tiny Docker container or Proxmox LXC, consuming next to no memory.

Instead of just offering a static wall of bookmark icons, Glance serves as an active aggregator.

My New Command Center Setup

I recently restructured my Glance dashboard into a three-column layout designed to manage my day-to-day operations:

  • Infrastructure Status: Real-time health tracking for critical infrastructure, mapping routes straight through Traefik to tools like Authelia, Vaultwarden, and my local Git repositories.
  • Active Monitoring: A built-in release tracker that monitors GitHub repositories directly, alerting me the moment upstream updates drop for apps like Immich or Jellyfin.
  • Information Aggregation: Clean, horizontal cards parsing local subreddits and essential open-source RSS feeds (like Phoronix and Hacker News) alongside customized YouTube and Twitch creator widgets.

Clean Aesthetics, Zero Friction

The real beauty of Glance is its minimalist design philosophy. With a dark, cyberpunk-inspired theme (electric teals and deep charcoal slate hues), it bridges the gap between raw data utility and clean design aesthetics.

If you are looking to strip the friction out of your morning server checks and want a beautiful, unified view of your infrastructure, Glance is the weekend project your homelab needs.

services:
  glance:
    image: glanceapp/glance
    volumes:
      # FIX: Mount the config to the correct location the app expects
      - ./glance.yml:/app/config/glance.yml
      - ./assets:/app/assets
      - /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    
    networks:
      - traefik
    restart: unless-stopped
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.docker.network=traefik"
      - "traefik.http.routers.glance-http.entrypoints=http"
      - "traefik.http.routers.glance-http.middlewares=redir-https@file"
      - "traefik.http.routers.glance-http.rule=Host(`glance.linuxpad.blog`)"
      - "traefik.http.routers.glance-http.service=noop@internal"
      - "traefik.http.routers.glance-https.entrypoints=https"
      - "traefik.http.routers.glance-https.tls=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.glance-https.tls.certresolver=le"
      - "traefik.http.routers.glance-https.rule=Host(`glance.linuxpad.blog`)"
      - "traefik.http.routers.glance-https.middlewares=gzip@file,authelia@docker"
      - "traefik.http.routers.glance-https.service=glance-backend"
      # FIX: Default internal container port is 8080
      - "traefik.http.services.glance-backend.loadbalancer.server.port=8080"

networks:
  traefik:
    external: true
server:
  assets-path: /app/assets

theme:
  # Premium Deep Space / Cyberpunk theme
  background-color: 220 20 10   # Deep slate charcoal/navy
  primary-color: 180 80 55     # Electric Cyan/Teal accents
  negative-color: 15 85 55     # Sunset Amber / Muted Orange warnings

pages:
  - name: Home
    columns:
      # Left Column: System utility, system metrics, and quick tracking
      - size: small
        widgets:
          - type: clock
            time-format: 24h
            show-date: true

          - type: calendar

          - type: weather
            location: Chicago, USA
            unit: F

          - type: markets
            title: Tech & Crypto Watch
            markets:
              - symbol: BTC-USD
                name: Bitcoin
              - symbol: NVDA
                name: NVIDIA Corp
              - symbol: AMD
                name: AMD Hardware

          - type: releases
            title: Software Tracking
            repositories:
              - immich-app/immich
              - forgejo/forgejo
              - dani-garcia/vaultwarden
              - jellyfin/jellyfin
              - traefik/traefik

      # Middle Column: The Command Center (Search, Services Status Dashboard)
      - size: small
        widgets:
          - type: search
            search-engine: duckduckgo
            placeholder: Search the matrix...

          - type: monitor
            cache: 30s
            title: Infrastructure & Security
            sites:
              - title: Traefik Proxy
                url: https://traefik.linuxpad.blog
                icon: /assets/svg/traefik.svg
              - title: Flare
                url: https://flare.linuxpad.blog
                icon: /assets/svg/application-gateway-container.svg
              - title: Tailscale Admin
                url: https://login.tailscale.com
                icon: /assets/svg/tailscale-light.svg
              - title: Vaultwarden
                url: https://vault.linuxpad.blog/#/login
                icon: /assets/svg/vaultwarden.svg
              - title: Proxmox VE
                url: https://pve.tail9f20b.ts.net/
                icon: /assets/svg/proxmox.svg
              - title: Maintenant Dashboard
                url: https://maintenant.linuxpad.blog/dashboard
                icon: /assets/svg/uptimerobot.svg
              - title: Dockprobe Container Dashboard
                url: https://dockprobe.linuxpad.blog/
                icon: /assets/svg/healthchecks.svg  
              - title: Pi-Hole DNS
                url: http://100.99.187.98/admin/
                icon: /assets/svg/pi-hole.svg

          - type: monitor
            cache: 45s
            title: Media & Apps
            sites:
              - title: Jellyfin Media
                url: https://jellyfin.linuxpad.blog
                icon: /assets/svg/jellyfin.svg
              - title: Plex Media
                url: http://192.168.1.179:32400
                icon: /assets/svg/plex.svg
              - title: Forgejo Git
                url: https://git.linuxpad.blog
                icon: /assets/svg/git.svg
              - title: Immich Photos
                url: https://immich.linuxpad.blog
                icon: /assets/svg/immich.svg
              - title: Dockhand Container Dashboard
                url: https://dockhand.linuxpad.blog
                icon: /assets/svg/docker.svg

      # Right Column: Entertainment, Feeds, and Communities
      - size: full
        widgets:
          - type: rss
            title: Linux & Homelab Intelligence
            limit: 8
            collapse-after: 3
            cache: 1h
            style: horizontal-cards
            feeds:
              - url: https://www.phoronix.com/phoronix-rss.php
                title: Phoronix (Linux Hardware)
              - url: https://www.linuxtoday.com/feed/
                title: Linux Today
              - url: https://selfhosted.show/rss
                title: Self-Hosted Show
              - url: https://news.ycombinator.com/rss
                title: Hacker News

          - type: reddit
            title: Homelab Communities
            style: horizontal-cards
            subreddit: homelab+selfhosted+linux+proxmox

          - type: videos
            title: Homelab Creator Network
            cache: 2h
            channels:
              - UCR-DXc1voovS8nhAvccRZhg # Jeff Geerling
              - UCOk-gHyjcWZNj3Br4oxwh0A # Techno Tim
              - UCS-NkJiYhYku2YtKi2W4p3w # La chaîne de P.A.U.L
              - UC_yP2DpIgs5Y1uWC0T03Chw # Joueur Du Grenier

          - type: twitch-channels
            title: Live Streams
            channels:
              - theprimeagen
              - christitustech
              - mrchonks
              - blurbs

Assets Mount:

This will generate the needed png & svg icons. Make sure to copy the needed svg/png directories into the generated assets folder:


git clone https://github.com/walkxcode/dashboard-icons.git