Lightweight, self-hosted Docker visibility for homelabbers.

Nestview gives you a live health dashboard, searchable log history, and Discord alerts for all your containers — no manual configuration, no Grafana stack required. Point it at your Docker socket and it discovers everything automatically.

---

Quick start

Create a docker-compose.yml with the following contents:

services:
  backend:
    image: ghcr.io/kylejschultz/nestview-backend:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - DATABASE_PATH=/data/nestview.db
      - LOG_RETENTION_DAYS=${LOG_RETENTION_DAYS:-7}
      - NESTVIEW_COLLECTOR_KEY=${NESTVIEW_COLLECTOR_KEY:-}
      # Optional: protect write endpoints (start/stop/restart, settings).
      # The frontend will prompt for this key on first load if set.
      - NESTVIEW_API_KEY=${NESTVIEW_API_KEY:-}
    volumes:
      - nestview_data:/data
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock

  collector:
    image: ghcr.io/kylejschultz/nestview-collector:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      - backend
    environment:
      - BACKEND_URL=http://backend:8000
      - POLL_INTERVAL=${POLL_INTERVAL:-10}
      - LOG_BATCH_INTERVAL=${LOG_BATCH_INTERVAL:-5}
      - NESTVIEW_COLLECTOR_KEY=${NESTVIEW_COLLECTOR_KEY:-}
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro

  frontend:
    image: ghcr.io/kylejschultz/nestview-frontend:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "${NESTVIEW_PORT:-8080}:80"
    depends_on:
      - backend

volumes:
  nestview_data:

Then run:

docker compose up -d
# Open http://localhost:8080 — the setup wizard will guide you through Discord alerts

That's it. Nestview will find all running and stopped containers immediately.

---

Updates

To pull the latest images and restart:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

---

Security

Do not expose port 8080 directly to the internet. Nestview is designed for home networks and trusted LANs. The dashboard has no login by default — anyone who can reach port 8080 can view your container names, logs, and metrics.

If you need to access Nestview remotely, put it behind a VPN (Tailscale, WireGuard) or a reverse proxy with authentication (Authelia, Authentik, nginx basic auth). Do not port-forward 8080 through your router.

Optional API key (NESTVIEW_API_KEY)

For an extra layer of protection, set NESTVIEW_API_KEY in your .env file:

NESTVIEW_API_KEY=your-strong-random-key

When set, all write operations (container start/stop/restart, settings changes) require the key. The frontend will prompt for it on first load. Viewing the dashboard, logs, and events does not require the key.

---

Environment variables

The defaults work out of the box. Copy .env.example to .env only if you want to change the port or add a collector key.

Variable	Default	Description
NESTVIEW_PORT	8080	Host port Nestview is exposed on
NESTVIEW_COLLECTOR_KEY	(empty)	Optional shared secret to authenticate the collector
NESTVIEW_API_KEY	(empty)	Optional key to protect write endpoints; frontend prompts for it when set
POLL_INTERVAL	10	Seconds between Docker stats polls
LOG_BATCH_INTERVAL	5	Seconds between log flushes to the backend

Log retention and exited container TTL are configured in the Settings UI.

---

Features

• Zero-config autodiscovery — all containers, Compose stacks, ports, volumes, and networks detected automatically via the Docker socket
• Live health dashboard — per-container CPU%, memory, uptime, restart count, and status badge; containers grouped by Compose project
• Searchable log history — logs streamed from every running container, stored in SQLite, searchable from the UI
• Configurable retention — set log retention and container TTL in the Settings UI; cleanup runs hourly
• Discord alerting — get a notification when a container crashes, restarts unexpectedly, or is OOM-killed

---

Discord alerts

1. In your Discord server, go to Server Settings → Integrations → Webhooks → New Webhook
2. Copy the webhook URL
3. Open Nestview and paste the URL into the setup wizard (shown on first launch) or Settings → General

Nestview sends a formatted embed when a container crashes (non-zero exit), is OOM-killed, or restarts unexpectedly.

---

License

GNU General Public License v3.0 — free to use, modify, and self-host. If you distribute modified versions, you must release them under the same license.

Community & support

• Discord — bug reports, general chat, release announcements
• GitHub Issues — bugs and feature requests
• GitHub Sponsors / Ko-fi — if Nestview saves you time, a coffee is always appreciated

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. TL;DR: open an issue before big changes, follow conventional commits, don't be a dick.