An archive
Field notes.
Things I’ve learned, broken, or refined — written down so I don’t forget, and shared in case they help someone else.
HTTPS for services the internet can't reach
Let's Encrypt's usual challenge asks you to be publicly reachable. A home lab isn't. DNS-01 and a wildcard certificate solve it in one line of Caddy — plus the gotcha that breaks renewal without telling you.
A DNS server for the house — and why Technitium
What a resolver of your own actually buys you: blocking for devices that can't be fixed, names that work everywhere, queries that stay home. And why I run Technitium rather than the usual stack.
Renovate as a one-shot container
Running Renovate without a scheduler or a CI platform — a one-shot Docker container that scans your repos, opens PRs, and exits. Works on Forgejo and GitHub.
Tailscale on a UniFi gateway
Installing Tailscale on a Ubiquiti UniFi gateway as a subnet router and exit node — done on a UCG Fiber, works on any UniFi OS 2.x console. My whole home network in my pocket, wherever I am.
You don't need Vercel: a static site on Swiss hosting
Why I host my Astro site on Infomaniak's Swiss servers instead of a US cloud — data sovereignty, renewable energy, and a deploy that's one rsync command.