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Pocket Homelab
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Getting started

What Pocket Homelab is, what it needs from you, and the fastest route from install to a working dashboard.

On this page

Pocket Homelab is a native iPhone and Mac client for the self-hosted services you already run. It talks to your servers directly over whatever network you give it, your LAN, your VPN, your Tailscale tailnet, and it stores what it needs to do that in the device Keychain. There is no Pocket Homelab account and no Pocket Homelab server.

What you need

  • An iPhone on iOS 18 or later, a Mac on macOS 15 or later, or both. An Android app (Android 9 or later) is in testing; see The Android app.
  • At least one self-hosted service with a reachable URL and, usually, an API key or app password.
  • A way to reach those servers from the device: same network, a VPN, Tailscale, or a public HTTPS endpoint you control.

The short version

  1. Install the app and open it. Home greets you with three ways in: look around a sample homelab, connect a service, or bring a configuration.
  2. Connect one service. Pick it from the catalogue, enter its address and credentials, then press Connect.
  3. Use Home. Every configured service gets a card; every card loads independently. A Getting started card walks you through the next few steps.
  4. Shape it. Choose your tabs, rearrange the Home cards, pick a pinned header banner.

Already have an env file from the Raycast extension, or the app set up on another iPhone or Mac? Skip straight to Connect your services: paste the file in one go, or move the whole configuration across under a passphrase.

Where to go next

Install the app

Requirements, App Store links and what happens on first launch.

Connect your services

The service catalogue, the connection check, env files and moving to another device.

Free and Pro

Three active integrations for free; what Pro unlocks and what it costs.

Sample workspace

The real Home on nine made-up services, before you connect anything real.

Principles worth knowing up front

  • A service with an empty URL is invisible. No card, no tab, no search result, no browser link.
  • Switching a service off keeps its credentials. So does the free-plan limit; nothing is deleted.
  • Every row loads on its own. A slow or unreachable service never blocks the rest of the dashboard.
  • Nothing leaves the device except the requests you configure, sent straight to your servers. The request log in Settings → Diagnostics stays in memory and records addresses and results only.