~/guide/builder $ ./recommend

Three choices cut through most homelab noise.

This cannot know your rack. It can give you a sensible first sequence and show where more complexity becomes justified.

01 What outcome justifies this lab?

01 · LearnMake the invisible visibleLearn Linux, networks, containers, and recovery without turning the house into a test environment.02 · Create valueRun something worth keepingGive the household a service that works quietly and can be restored when the hardware does not.03 · Build depthPractice serious operationsUse the lab to learn isolation, desired state, observability, and safe change on real systems.04 · Add bounded automationGive an agent guardrailsTurn structured operations into bounded tools an agent can use, inspect, and prove.

02 What must the platform do?Containers on one hostMixed VMs, passthrough, or isolationAn explicit multi-node or Kubernetes goal

03 Can the data be recreated?No. Recovery is part of day one.Yes. Document how to rebuild it.

Your starting architecture

Linux + Docker Compose

Do not buy another machine until the current one has a measured limit.

Define one useful workload and its owner.
Build the smallest foundation: Linux + Docker Compose.
Create an encrypted copy on another failure domain, then restore it.
Add reachability, host health, job heartbeats, and an alert path.
Run it for a month before adding another layer.