Know what's happening in your homelab without it becoming a project.
NORA is a self-hosted monitoring, event capture, and notification platform for homelabbers and small self-hosted teams. One Docker image, one data directory, no pipelines to build. It just works.
NORA is built with Claude Code. Every feature goes through a tracked GitHub issue, every change is documented in PR notes, and nothing ships without being understood. Read the issue history and PRs — the process is the proof.
NORA is built on the shoulders of great open-source work — see the full list of projects credited below.
NORA is three things in one binary:
- A monitor — ping, URL, SSL, and DNS checks on a schedule, plus direct integration with Docker, Proxmox, Portainer, Traefik, Synology, and SNMP for resource metrics and health.
- An event capture service — a webhook ingest endpoint that normalizes events from the apps you already run (Sonarr, Radarr, n8n, Duplicati, Ghost, and 20+ more) into a single searchable feed.
- A notification router — rule-based alerts over Web Push or email, plus a scheduled digest summary you can hand off to non-technical stakeholders.
Everything ships in one image, writes to one folder (/data), and runs on a Raspberry Pi or a full homelab rack equally well.
More views: see docs/screenshots/.
- Monitor checks — ping, URL, SSL, DNS with baseline reset
- Webhook ingest — normalized events from 29 built-in app profiles, plus a custom profile editor
- Infrastructure integrations — Docker, Proxmox, Portainer, Traefik, Synology, SNMP
- Web Push + email notifications — rules engine over any event field
- Scheduled digest email — weekly or monthly summary via SMTP
- Two-factor auth — TOTP with any authenticator app
- Single binary, single data directory — mount
/data, done
For the full feature list, see docs/FEATURES.md.
docker run -d \
-p 8081:8081 \
-v ./data:/data \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro \
-e NORA_SECRET=your-secret-here \
-e NORA_ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@example.com \
-e NORA_ADMIN_PASSWORD=change-me \
ghcr.io/digitalcheffe/nora:latestOpen http://localhost:8081, sign in with the bootstrap credentials, then add your first app.
All paths (database, app templates, icons, VAPID keys) live under /data. Bind-mount wherever you want that folder to persist.
| Variable | Description | Default | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
NORA_SECRET |
JWT signing secret | — | Yes |
NORA_ADMIN_EMAIL |
Bootstrap admin email — used only when the users table is empty | — | First run |
NORA_ADMIN_PASSWORD |
Bootstrap admin password | — | First run |
NORA_PORT |
HTTP port | 8081 |
No |
NORA_LOG_LEVEL |
Set to debug for verbose request logging |
info |
No |
NORA_TIMEZONE |
IANA timezone for the digest scheduler (e.g. America/New_York) |
UTC |
No |
NORA_VAPID_PUBLIC |
VAPID public key — auto-generated on first run if not set | — | No |
NORA_VAPID_PRIVATE |
VAPID private key — auto-generated on first run if not set | — | No |
NORA_VAPID_SUBJECT |
VAPID subject (mailto or URL) | mailto:admin@localhost |
No |
Runtime configuration lives in Settings inside the app — no env vars needed:
- SMTP server, credentials, from address, test email
- Digest frequency + schedule
- Password policy and MFA requirement
- Per-app webhook tokens, API polling auth, and rate limits
- Alert rules
NORA ships with 29 pre-built profiles. Pick your app and NORA already knows how to handle its events.
| Category | Apps |
|---|---|
| Media | Plex · Sonarr · Radarr · Lidarr · Prowlarr · Tautulli · Seerr · TubeSync · NZBGet |
| Automation | n8n · Home Assistant · Mealie |
| Infrastructure | Traefik · UniFi · WG Easy · Homepage |
| Security & DNS | AdGuard Home · Cloudflare DDNS · Vaultwarden |
| Backup & Updates | Duplicati · What's Up Docker · DIUN |
| Notifications & Comms | Gotify · Ghost · Matrix · Matrix Admin · Maubot |
| Other | Uptime Kuma · Z-Wave JS to MQTT |
Custom profile editor lets you map any webhook payload to NORA's event model.
Several apps need a bit of extra wiring on their side to send the payload NORA expects. Reference configs live in docs/examples/:
| App | Reference |
|---|---|
| DIUN | diun-webhook-config.md |
| Duplicati | duplicati-webhook-config.md |
| Home Assistant | home-assistant-webhook-config.md |
| n8n | n8n-webhook-config.md |
| Seerr / Jellyseerr | seerr-webhook-config.md |
| Tautulli | tautulli-webhook-config.md |
| What's Up Docker | whatsupdocker-webhook-config.md |
NZBGet doesn't send webhooks natively, so NORA ships a tiny NZBGet extension — two files you drop into NZBGet's ScriptDir that fire a clean POST after each download. Grab manifest.json and main.py and follow the install notes at the top of main.py.
| Layer | Choice |
|---|---|
| Backend | Go — single binary, zero runtime dependencies |
| Database | SQLite — single file, zero ops |
| Frontend | React + Vite — PWA, installable |
| Push | Web Push / VAPID — browser-native, no third party |
| Deployment | Single Docker image (~50 MB) |
3-stage Docker build: frontend → Go binary → alpine:3.19 final image.
For the repository layout, data flow, database schema, and deployment internals, see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.
NORA would not exist without these open-source projects:
| Project | Role |
|---|---|
| Go | Backend runtime — single binary, zero dependencies |
| SQLite | Embedded database via mattn/go-sqlite3 |
| React + Vite | Frontend framework and build tool |
| React Router | Client-side routing |
| golang-jwt/jwt | JWT authentication |
| SherClockHolmes/webpush-go | Web Push / VAPID notifications |
| pquerna/otp | TOTP two-factor authentication |
| gosnmp/gosnmp | SNMP polling |
| robfig/cron | Scheduled task execution |
| rs/zerolog | Structured logging |
Code contributions: open an issue first so we can align on approach before you build.
Profile contributions: drop a YAML file in a GitHub issue or discussion and it will be reviewed for inclusion in the library.
MIT