Self-Hosting Discoveries: Part 1 of ???

Recent random surfing and curiosity got me into "self-hosting" a few apps that normally I would have left up to the big cloud companies like Google and Microsoft and others...

Generally, that means 

1) Install "Windows Subsystem for Linux" or WSL on your Windows 11 Home PC

2) Install Docker Desktop and register for a free tier membership

3) Download and configure whatever app you want to self-host available in Docker container form

4) Install Tailscale distributed VPN and register for a free tier membership, then setup your nodes (i.e. your host PC, and whatever peripheral you want to access it from, probably your smartphone)

5) Test if everything works! 

However, there are a LOT of little niggles that causes a lot of problems in practice, at least on my personal desktop (Win11, NOT Pro), which I guess I *could* have solved by using an old PC to host these apps...

a) startup sequence

The startup sequence was kinda screwed up, as the Docker Desktop refused to initialize properly, which means none of the containers (apps) works either. Keeps complaining about not "signed in", even though it just opens up my browser, and my browser *is* signed into Docker. Had to close Docker Desktop completely, then reopen it. 

THEN the services won't open, kept complaining about port not open. Had to Powershell admin mode, then net stop hns to fix that. THEN the containers in Docker Desktop will start normally. 

b) Can't resume from sleep? 

This may be my PC's own fault, but the net effect is if my PC went to sleep I can't be sure this thing will keep running. 

c) Containers are still a mystic art

There are many ways to configure a container, and many of them require the use of CLI, or editing a Docker Compose file (YAML). 

There are more, but I am figuring them out... slowly. 

App Discovery: Karakeep (aka Hoarder) a web clip manager

If you go on the web a lot, you often come across articles that you want to reference later. So do you bookmark it, email it to yourself, or do something else? (Evernote? OneNote? Obsidian? Pocket?)

I personally had used various services including one called Omnivore, but that shut down a few months back. Then I read somewhere that if you host your own, you don't have to be EVER at the mercy of some other service provider.

As I find clipping to Evernote way too slow (up to 15 seconds per clip), I decided to look for something else. 

Then I found KaraKeep. 

How KaraKeep Works

KaraKeep is both an app and a service. It takes clippings of articles you can transfer to it via bookmarks, Android app, app share, iOS app, Chrome or Firefox extensions, and so on. It will take whatever you sent it (and optionally, run it against an LLM to extract keywords) so later you can go back and browse or search through via regular search and keywords. 

How to Install / Self-Host KaraKeep

What's great about Karakeep: it runs via a Docker Container, so there is minimal configuration if you already have Docker Container all set up. You simply download the whole package, and "run" it. Done. They have documentation online, and Discord channel as well.  

To make KaraKeep server available to you from almost anywhere, you setup a Tailscale distributed VPN, and enroll both your PC (whichever that runs the Docker container) and your smartphone (where you plan to clip from) to make sure they can see each other. And really, that's it. 

From now on, when you see an interesting article on the smartphone, simily do share >> KaraKeep. No need to choose keywords, no need to choose specific labels, no need to specify title... Share it, and forget it. It's clipped almost instantly, no matter where you are, and whether you're on cellular data or wifi. 

Run the app itself (or if you're at home, go to the machine running KaraKeep and browse to http://localhost:3000) and you can see what you've clipped, and use search and keywords to find what you clipped on that subject. 

If you want to use LLM to automagically pull out keywords for your searches, you need to configure KaraKeep (server, on your PC) by following this guide. 

Troubleshooting

Oh, and if you ever run into a problem with Docker, something about port 3000 is already taken, you need to restart hns, with "net stop hns" then "net start hns". You may also need to restart the Docker Container for Karakeep. Then it should work. 

If it fails on the smartphone side, make sure Tailscale is RUNNING. Obviously Tailscale needs to run for the VPN to work, and send your traffic back to your network to the KaraKeep "server". 

Now go have fun clipping everything you needed.