Architecture

Topology

flowchart TB
    Internet((Internet))
    Edge[Authenticated tunnel gateway]
    SSO[Identity and SSO]
    Proxy[Internal reverse proxy]

    subgraph Home[Segmented home network]
        subgraph Primary[Primary application host]
            Apps[Household and productivity apps]
            Data[Shared databases and caches]
            Media[Media, photos, and documents]
            Observe[Monitoring and dashboards]
            AI[Always-on AI and search]
        end

        subgraph Storage[Storage and ingestion host]
            Pool[Bulk ZFS storage]
            Arr[Media automation and download pipeline]
            Sync[File synchronization and backups]
            Remote[Remote-support relay]
        end

        subgraph Resilience[Offline and resilience host]
            Offline[Offline knowledge and education]
            HomeAuto[Home automation VM]
            Games[Game-server control plane]
            Secondary[Backup DNS and local AI]
            Agents[Automation and agent services]
        end

        Workstation[GPU operator workstation]
        EdgeNode[Low-power weather and radio node]
    end

    Internet --> Edge --> Proxy
    Proxy --> SSO
    SSO --> Apps
    Apps --> Data
    Apps --> Pool
    Media --> Pool
    Arr --> Pool
    Observe --> Apps
    AI -. optional heavy jobs .-> Workstation
    Secondary -. resilient local path .-> AI
    Agents --> Apps
    Sync --> Workstation
    EdgeNode --> Agents
    Remote -. private overlay .-> Workstation

Host responsibilities

Primary application host

The primary host carries the application plane:

shared PostgreSQL, MariaDB, and Redis
identity, SSO, ingress routing, and tunnel clients
media front ends, photo management, and document management
dashboards, monitoring, metrics, logs, and notifications
household applications and workflow automation
light-tier model serving, search, RAG, and vector storage
self-hosted development and administration tools

The host is intentionally not the only copy of storage, DNS, or offline knowledge.

Storage and ingestion host

The storage host owns the large-capacity data plane and workloads that benefit from data locality:

ZFS-backed bulk datasets
media acquisition, organization, and post-processing
synchronized document storage with versioning
backup targets and retained application data
private remote-support rendezvous and relay
selected CPU-only inference utilities
a secondary DNS replica

Offline and resilience host

The resilience host is designed to remain useful when public services are unavailable:

offline reference libraries and educational content
local notes and browser utilities
local model and vector services
agent memory and household helper applications
Home Assistant running in a dedicated virtual machine
game-server management
mesh-radio observation
a secondary DNS replica

GPU workstation

The workstation provides high-performance GPU capacity for interactive or heavy jobs. Routine background tasks must continue when it is asleep or offline.

Low-power edge node

The edge node handles always-on weather and mesh-radio functions close to the attached hardware. It reports upstream but is not part of the main application failure domain.

Request flows

External application request

client → tunnel gateway → internal reverse proxy → SSO policy → application

The tunnel endpoint is the only public routing layer. Application containers do not require direct inbound router exposure.

Internal application request

trusted client → internal DNS → application or reverse proxy → service

AI request

application → model gateway → always-on local model
                            ↘ optional GPU workstation

Storage request

application host → authenticated network storage mount → storage dataset

Failure-domain rules

Losing the GPU workstation must not stop routine automation.
Losing public DNS must not be confused with losing the private DNS zone.
Losing the primary application host must not destroy bulk datasets or backups.
A tunnel or SSO failure must not expose an application directly.
The offline host must retain useful local content without WAN access.
Changes to storage, networking, identity, and databases require explicit rollback points.

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