> The reason is simple: CLI agents like Claude Code make self-hosting on a cheapo home server dramatically easier and actually fun.

But I want to host an LLM.

Might as well ask here in case author or anyone else with a similar setup is reading. Has anyone run into stability issues running a bunch of self-hosting stuff on a mac mini M1 (8GB)? My setup is pretty basic - docker running Jellyfin, Immich, *arr software, qbittorrent. Stuff is stored on a NAS over SMB. Usually within a few hours of rebooting, the OS or at least userspace totally freezes. SSH connections are instantly closed, screen share doesn't work. It responds to ping for a while but that also goes down eventually. Pretty stumped...

Nope, never trust AI to do such things, it’s imminent to cause issues. Maybe as an assistant only but never installed on the same server and worse, the privilege to access/execute commands.

Anyone seriously about tech should have a homelab. It’s a small capital investment that lasts for years and with proxmox or similar having your own personal “private cloud” on demand is simple.

Tailscsle was never the unlock for me, but I guess I never was the typical use case here.

I have a 1U (or more), sitting in a rack in a local datacenter. I have an IP block to myself.

Those servers are now publicly exposed and only a few ports are exposed for mail, HTTP traffic and SSH (for Git).

I guess my use case also changes in that I don’t use things just for me to consume, select others can consume services I host.

My definition here of self-hosting isn’t that I and I only can access my services; that’s be me having a server at home which has some non critical things on it.

This post is spot on, the combo of tailscale + Claude Code is a game changer. This is particularly true for companies as well.

CC lets you hack together internal tools quickly, and tailscale means you can safely deploy them without worrying about hardening the app and server from the outside world. And tailscale ACLs lets you fully control who can access what services.

It also means you can literally host the tools on a server in your office, if you really want to.

Putting CC on the server makes this set up even better. It’s extremely good at system admin.

I literally did this yesterday and had the same thought. Older computer (8 gigs ram) with crappy windows I never used and I thought huh, I wonder how good these models can take me through installing linux with goal of docker deploys of relatively basic things like cron tasks, personal postgres, and minio that I can used for self shared data.

Took a couple hours with some things I ran across, but the model had me go through the setup for debian, how to go through the setup gui, what to check to make it server only, then it took me through commands to run so it wouldn't stop when I closed the laptop, helped with tailscale, getting the ssh keys all setup. Heck it even suggested doing daily dumps of the database and saving to minio and then removing after that. Also knows about the limitations of 8 gigs of ram and how to make sure docker settings for the difference self services I want to build don't cause issues.

Give me a month and true strong intention and ability to google and read posts and find the answer on my own and I still don't think I would have gotten to this point with the amount of trust I have in the setup.

I very much agree with this topic about self hosting coming alive because these models can walk you through everything. Self building and self hosting can really come alive. And in the future when open models are that much better and hardware costs come down (maybe, just guessing of course) we'll be able to also host our own agents on these machines we have setup already. All being able to do it ourselves.

how many times will I get clickbaited by some cool title only to see AI praise in the article and nothing more? It's tiring and happens way too often

related "webdev is fun again": claude. https://ma.ttias.be/web-development-is-fun-again/

Also the "Why it matters" in the article. I thought it's a jab at AI-generated articles but it starts too look like the article was AI written as well

Was this article written entirely by Claude for the most part? It definitely reads like it was.

Threads like this one make me feel at home. Last night I spent an hour trying to figure out a way to adjust tailscale to allow me access to containers on a MacVLAN on my NAS when I connect in away from home. Claude's an excellent tool to help me make informed decisions. I find the knowledge needs to be double checked more than some domains (I'm a big fan of requesting Claude search online for information before using its discourse as a basis for any decisions) but I still feel like I'm learning the WHY and HOW because I can still ask.

I share a lot of the same hesitations as others in the thread - using a giant US-based tech giant's tool for research as well as another US giant's tool to manage access, but it's really a game change and I'd be unable to find the time to do everything I want if I didn't have access to these otherwise.

I'm not even a software guy by engineering, my network is already complicated enough that learning and correctly securing things otherwise would simply just not be feasible with the time and energy I'd like to dedicate to it.