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257 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
257 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
# 🏠 NixOS Home Lab Adventures
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[](https://nixos.org/)
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[](https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Flakes)
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[](LICENSE)
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A personal journey into NixOS flakes and home lab tinkering. This is my playground for learning declarative system configuration and building a multi-machine setup that's both fun and functional.
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## 🚀 Getting Started
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Want to try this out? Here's how to get rolling:
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```bash
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# Grab the repo
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git clone <repository-url> Home-lab
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cd Home-lab
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# Make sure everything looks good
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nix flake check
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# Test it out (won't mess with your current setup)
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sudo nixos-rebuild test --flake .#congenital-optimist
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# If you're happy with it, make it permanent
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sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#congenital-optimist
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```
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## 🏗️ What We're Working With
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### The Machines
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- **`congenital-optimist`** - My main AMD Threadripper beast for development and experimentation
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- **`sleeper-service`** - Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 running file server duties (the quiet workhorse)
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### The Stack
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- **OS**: NixOS 25.05 (Warbler) - because reproducible builds are beautiful
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- **Configuration**: Nix Flakes with modular approach - keeping things organized
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- **Virtualization**: Incus, Libvirt/QEMU, Podman - gotta test stuff somewhere
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- **Desktop**: GNOME, Cosmic, Sway - variety is the spice of life
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- **Storage**: ZFS with snapshots and NFS - never lose data again
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- **Network**: Tailscale mesh - because VPNs should just work
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## 📁 How It's Organized
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Everything's broken down into logical chunks to keep things manageable:
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```
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Home-lab/
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├── flake.nix # Main flake configuration
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├── flake.lock # Locked dependency versions
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├── machines/ # Machine-specific configurations
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│ ├── congenital-optimist/ # AMD workstation
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│ └── sleeper-service/ # Intel file server
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├── modules/ # Reusable NixOS modules
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│ ├── common/ # Shared system configuration
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│ ├── desktop/ # Desktop environment modules
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│ ├── development/ # Development tools and editors
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│ ├── hardware/ # Hardware-specific configurations
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│ ├── services/ # Service configurations
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│ ├── system/ # Core system modules
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│ ├── users/ # User configurations
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│ └── virtualization/ # Container and VM setup
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├── users/ # User-specific configurations
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│ └── geir/ # Primary user configuration
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│ ├── dotfiles/ # Literate configuration with org-mode
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│ └── user.nix # System-level user config
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├── overlays/ # Nix package overlays
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├── packages/ # Custom package definitions
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└── secrets/ # Encrypted secrets (future)
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```
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## 🔧 How I Manage This Chaos
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### Keeping Things Modular
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I've split everything into focused modules so I don't go insane:
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- **Desktop Environments**: Each DE gets its own module - no more giant config files
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- **Virtualization**: Separate configs for Incus, Libvirt, and Podman - mix and match as needed
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- **Development**: Modular tool setups for different workflows - because context switching is real
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- **Hardware**: Hardware-specific tweaks and drivers - make the silicon sing
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### Literate Programming (Because Documentation Matters)
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My user configs live in Emacs org-mode files - it's like having your documentation and code hold hands:
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- Configuration files that explain themselves
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- Automatic tangling from `.org` files to actual configs
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- Git tracks both the code and the reasoning behind it
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## 🚀 My Workflow
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### Tinkering Locally
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```bash
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# Check if I broke anything
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nix flake check
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# Test changes without committing to them
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sudo nixos-rebuild test --flake .#<machine-name>
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# Build and see what happens
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sudo nixos-rebuild build --flake .#<machine-name>
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# Ship it!
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sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#<machine-name>
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```
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### Git-Driven Chaos (In a Good Way)
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1. **Feature Branch**: New idea? New branch.
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2. **Local Testing**: Break things safely with `nixos-rebuild test`
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3. **Pull Request**: Show off the changes
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4. **Review**: Someone sanity-checks my work
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5. **Deploy**: Either automated or "click the button"
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## 🔐 Secrets and Security
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### Current Reality
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- No secrets in git (obviously)
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- Manual secret juggling during setup (it's fine, really)
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- ZFS encryption for the important stuff
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### Future Dreams
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- **agenix** or **sops-nix** for proper secret management
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- **age** keys for encryption magic
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- **CI/CD** that doesn't leak passwords everywhere
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## 🎯 The Hardware
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### CongenitalOptimist (The Workstation)
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- **CPU**: AMD Threadripper (check hardware-configuration.nix for the gory details)
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- **GPU**: AMD (with proper drivers and GPU passthrough for VMs)
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- **Storage**: ZFS pools (zpool for system, stuffpool for data hoarding)
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- **Role**: Main development machine, VM playground, desktop environment testing ground
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- **Services**: Whatever I'm experimenting with this week
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### SleeperService (The Quiet One)
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- **CPU**: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 @ 3.70GHz (4 cores, 8 threads - still plenty peppy)
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- **Memory**: 16GB RAM (enough for file serving duties)
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- **Storage**: ZFS with redundancy (because data loss is sadness)
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- **Role**: Network storage, file sharing, backup duties, monitoring the other machines
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- **Services**: NFS, Samba, automated backups, keeping an eye on things
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## 🧪 Testing (The "Does It Work?" Phase)
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### Automated Testing (Someday Soon)
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- **Configuration Validation**: `nix flake check` in CI - catch dumb mistakes early
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- **Build Testing**: Test builds for all machines - make sure nothing's broken
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- **Module Testing**: Individual module validation - each piece should work alone
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- **Integration Testing**: Full system builds - the moment of truth
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### My Manual Testing Ritual
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- [ ] System actually boots (surprisingly important)
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- [ ] Desktop environments don't crash immediately
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- [ ] VMs and containers start up
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- [ ] Network services respond
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- [ ] Development environment loads
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- [ ] Can actually get work done
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## 📈 Keeping Things Running
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### Health Checks (The Boring But Important Stuff)
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- Generation switching (did the update work?)
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- Service status monitoring (what's broken now?)
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- ZFS pool health (happy disks = happy life)
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- Network connectivity (can I reach the internet?)
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- Resource usage (is something eating all my RAM?)
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### Backup Strategy (Paranoia Pays Off)
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- **ZFS Snapshots**: Automatic filesystem snapshots - time travel for your data
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- **Configuration Backups**: Git repo with full history - every mistake preserved for posterity
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- **Data Backups**: Automated services on SleeperService - redundancy is key
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- **Recovery Procedures**: Documented rollback processes - for when everything goes sideways
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## 🔄 CI/CD Dreams (Work in Progress)
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### Validation Pipeline (The Plan)
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```yaml
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# What I want GitHub Actions to do
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- Syntax Check: nix flake check # Catch the obvious stuff
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- Build Test: nix build .#nixosConfigurations.<machine> # Does it actually build?
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- Security Scan: Nix security auditing # Keep the bad guys out
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- Documentation: Update system docs # Because future me will forget
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```
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### Deployment Pipeline (The Dream)
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```yaml
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# Automated deployment magic
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- Staging: Deploy to test environment # Break things safely
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- Integration Tests: Automated system testing # Does everything still work?
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- Production: Deploy to production machines # The moment of truth
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- Rollback: Automatic rollback on failure # When things go wrong (they will)
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```
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## 🤝 Want to Contribute?
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### How to Jump In
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1. Fork or clone the repo
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2. Create a feature branch for your idea
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3. Make your changes
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4. Test locally with `nixos-rebuild test` (don't break my machine)
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5. Submit a pull request
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6. Chat about it in the review
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7. Merge when we're both happy
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### Module Development Tips
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- Keep modules focused - one job, do it well
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- Document what your module does and how to use it
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- Test modules independently when you can
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- Use consistent naming (future you will thank you)
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- Include example configurations for others
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## 📖 Documentation
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- **[Plan](plan.md)**: The grand vision and migration roadmap
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- **[Instructions](instruction.md)**: Step-by-step setup and AI agent guidance
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- **[Machine Documentation](machines/)**: Individual machine configs and notes
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- **[Module Documentation](modules/)**: How each module works
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- **[User Documentation](users/)**: User-specific configuration details
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## 🎯 The Journey So Far
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### Phase 1: Flakes Migration ✅
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- [x] Converted to flake-based configuration (no more channels!)
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- [x] Modularized desktop environments (sanity preserved)
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- [x] Added comprehensive virtualization (all the containers)
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- [x] Set up GitOps foundation (git-driven everything)
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### Phase 2: Configuration Cleanup (In Progress)
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- [ ] Optimize modular structure (make it even better)
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- [ ] Enhance documentation (explain the magic)
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- [ ] Standardize module interfaces (consistency is king)
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### Phase 3: Multi-Machine Expansion (Coming Soon)
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- [ ] Add SleeperService configuration (wake up the sleeper)
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- [ ] Implement service modules (automate all the things)
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- [ ] Set up network storage (centralized data paradise)
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### Phase 4: Automation & CI/CD (The Dream)
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- [ ] Implement automated testing (catch problems early)
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- [ ] Set up deployment pipelines (one-click deploys)
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- [ ] Add monitoring and alerting (know when things break)
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### Phase 5: Advanced Features (Future Fun)
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- [ ] Secrets management (proper secret handling)
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- [ ] Advanced monitoring (graphs and dashboards)
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- [ ] Backup automation (paranoia made easy)
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## 📄 License
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This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the [LICENSE](LICENSE) file for details. Feel free to steal ideas, improve things, or just poke around.
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## 🙏 Thanks
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- **NixOS Community** for excellent docs and endless patience with newbie questions
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- **Culture Ship Names** for inspiring machine nomenclature (because why not?)
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- **Emacs Community** for literate programming inspiration and org-mode magic
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- **Home Lab Community** for sharing knowledge, war stories, and "it works on my machine" solutions
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---
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*"The ship had decided to call itself the Arbitrary, presumably for much the same reason."*
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