Udon

Setup is a single command in Terminal rather than a reinstall or a bootable USB. Udon runs as a background service and the Mac still boots to the normal desktop, so a spare Mac mini can be a server and a machine you occasionally sit at. That matters if the same computer also runs a desktop app you need.

The Containers page covers images, ports, volumes, environment variables, CPU and memory caps, networks, and restart policy. You can run one container from the Run dialog on either Apple Container or OrbStack, or build a multi-service Docker Compose stack in the visual Composer on OrbStack. Pull output streams live, and a finished container lists a LAN URL for each published port.

The assistant calls Udon's own tools, so it works with the same permissions as your account and records every action in the audit log. It can search the app catalog, propose a stack with a shared network and volumes, create it, then read each container's logs and suggest fixes. The approval pill decides when it stops to ask: reads only by default, reversible changes if you relax it, everything if you trust it. Keys stay on the Mac in a file only the daemon can read.

File browsing, SMB shares, and disk health sit in the same dashboard as the containers that consume them. You mount a host folder once and use it across containers and shares, which removes the usual guessing about where a volume actually lives. Drive health monitoring is the part that matters for a machine holding the only copy of your photos.

Remote access runs over Tailscale, your own private network, instead of an open port on your router. The dashboard is served over HTTPS, and you log in from a phone browser at home or away. That design keeps the traffic off Udon's servers, and it means you are not exposing a home IP address to the internet to check on a container.

Udon ships an app catalog and setup flows for the software people actually run at home: Jellyfin and Plex for media, Immich for photos, Nextcloud for files, Vaultwarden for passwords, Paperless for documents, and n8n for automation. Each one still needs configuration, and the assistant can do much of that work, but the catalog shortens the distance between an empty Mac and a working service.