This is part of an ongoing series of notes on tools I build for my own infrastructure. Not polished products. Working software.

how it started

It started as a what-is-my-ip page.

That is how these things start. You want something simple, you build it in an afternoon, and then you start pulling on the thread. Every pull reveals something you did not know you were missing. The afternoon becomes a week. The what-is-my-ip becomes something else entirely.

This is not a tutorial. It is a record of what is running, why it is running, and what it took to get there. The lab changes. This note changes with it.

This note is updated as the lab changes. Last updated: 03 Jun 2026.

the hardware decision

I am not going to go back to the beginning. What matters is where things are now, and what led to the current shape.