Self-Host Weekly (15 August 2025)

Weekly Highlights

Every so often I receive a request to add software to selfh.st/apps that leaves me wondering if I actually know what constitutes self-hosting. Browser extensions, command line scripts, Discord bots, etc. Should self-hosted software always be accessible via the browser? What if I use a CLI-based monitoring or downloading solution?

Some draw the line at desktop apps, but I'm also aware of several communities that entertain discussion around desktop-based office software like LibreOffice – as well as occasional requests for the coveted self-hosted alternative to Microsoft OneNote (desktop-based, but I suppose it's also offered as an online service).

Either way, don't @ me for occasionally covering self-hosted adjacent software in this newsletter.

Unrelatedly, the CEO of GitHub announced they're stepping down this week and Microsoft wasted no time with a restructure that shifts its staff over to their CoreAI division. Cue the panic from the open-source community concerning its inevitable enshittification (despite the vast majority of these projects still utilizing it for their source code).

If you're not aware, viable self-hosted alternatives do exist – GitLab, Forgejo, and Gitea specifically come to mind (and Codeberg for those who don't have the infrastructure to self-host it themselves).

A few other things that captured my attention this week:

• The Vaultwarden project (passwords) finally merged a commit bringing SSO to the platform. I'm still not sure why someone would want this (user management?), but it did lead me to discovering the game changer that is Bitwarden SSH Agent (thanks, IDPea).
• Home Assistant announced a new Z-Wave device, which, as usual, is only interesting if you're currently in the market for a very specific type of hardware
• Is it really foss?, a project from Dan Brown (BookStack – not the The Da Vinci Code guy), celebrated its 100th-project milestone
• The relatively young fitness tracking platform SparkyFitness officially has an Android app (APK download)
• AOL is finally shutting down its dial-up service after just over 30 years of operation (The Onion had my favorite take on it)
• Reddit is officially blocking the Internet Archive due to the amount of data AI scrapes from its web archive. Data hoarders, unite? (Bonus points if you can archive u/ElevenNotes posts as well.)

Happy selfh.st/ing!

Newswire

Auf Wiedersehen, GitHub ♥️

I am stepping down as GitHub CEO to build my next adventure. GitHub is thriving and has a bright future ahead.…

The GitHub Blog •Thomas Dohmke

Z-Wave reborn - Home Assistant Connect ZWA-2

Announcing the ultimate way to connect Z-Wave devices to Home Assistant

Home Assistant •Paulus Schoutsen

We caught companies making it harder to delete your personal data online – The Markup

Dozens of companies are hiding how you can delete your personal data, The Markup and CalMatters found. After our report…

The Markup •Colin Lecher

SafeLine WAF — Self-Hosted Web Application Firewall for Your Homelab

Discover SafeLine WAF, an intelligent self-hosted Web Application Firewall that uses AI to protect your web services. C…

Akash Rajpurohit •Akash Rajpurohit

Plex Users Urged To Update Media Server After Security Flaw Exposed - Slashdot

BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz: If you run Plex Media Server, it’s time to drop everything and update. The…

Slashdot

HandBrake 1.10 Adds Social Media Presets: Convert Videos Under 10MB for Instagram, TikTok, and More

These new presets optimize videos for social media posting.

It's FOSS News •Sourav Rudra

New Container: ONLYOFFICE | Info :: LinuxServer.io

We have released a new container for ONLYOFFICE! ONLYOFFICE provides a full range of tools to create, edit and collabor…

Info :: LinuxServer.io

Software Updates

New Software

Recently Discovered

Project Updates

More from selfh.st

Introducing Member Perks: Full-Text Newsletter RSS, Custom Icon Colors 🎉

Exclusive features for subscribed members

selfh.st •Ethan Sholly

My Favorite Apps Launched in 2025 (So Far)

A look back at some of my favorite self-hosted software and applications released in the first half of 2025…

selfh.st •Ethan Sholly

Feedback

Content Spotlight

Meet BrickTracker, a self-hosted platform for tracking LEGO sets. Leveraging Rebrickable's API, BrickTracker provides a minimal web interface for importing and tracking specific LEGO sets and their accompanying pieces and mini-figures. Features include missing piece tracking, parts inventories, consolidated views of pieces across an entire collection, and wishlists for tracking future purchases.

BrickTracker can be easily deployed via Docker and requires an external API key from Rebrickable to populate set information.

Links: Source Code

Videos and Podcasts

• Dockpeek: A Docker Port Dashboard for Your Homelab | DB Tech
• Reflections on Matrix criticism over the last week | Matrix.org
• Forgejo: An Alternative to Gitea, A Fork of a Popular Forge Platform | Awesome Open Source
• Stop Port Forwarding! Secure Home Lab Access with Modern Tools | VirtualizationHowTo
• The Smart Home Long Range Performance KING | Everything Smart Home
• I Turned This Broken Phone Into A Home Server | Hardware Haven

Command Line Corner

Use tr -dc A-Za-z0-9_ < /dev/urandom | head -c 16 | xargs to quickly generate a password from the command line (create a bash alias for quick reference in the future):

$ tr -dc A-Za-z0-9_ < /dev/urandom | head -c 16 | xargs
  M0hPYmTAu877Lj6q

(Thanks to selfh.st reader Molnar E. for this week's command line tip!)

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