Binnacle
DOCKER MONITORING COOLIFY-AWARE V0.6.0

WATCH CONSOLE / SINGLE SERVER

Know what your Docker server is doing before it runs out of room.

For self-hosters running too many containers on one VPS.

Binnacle shows host pressure, container usage, Coolify and Compose services, checks, incidents, alerts, notifications, effective health, events, and local history in one lightweight, read-only dashboard — without Prometheus, Grafana, or external telemetry.

View install guide View source

Current release: v0.6.0 is available for amd64 and arm64 from GHCR with an immutable version tag.

WATCH CONSOLE / PRESSURE STATE REAL APPLICATION UI
Binnacle Watch Console showing high host pressure, a degraded Docker service, a delayed collector, and recent OOM and restart events.
HOST PRESSURE LOGICAL SERVICES EVENT CONTEXT

THE OPERATING PROBLEM

One VPS. Too many containers. Not enough visibility.

Coolify makes it easy to deploy apps. Binnacle helps you understand what those apps are doing to your server over time: memory pressure, CPU spikes, disk growth, restarts, OOMs, and noisy services.

01

OPERATING PRINCIPLES

Designed to observe, not operate.

  1. 01.1

    Local-first

    Metrics stay on your server in SQLite. No cloud account. No external telemetry.

  2. 01.2

    Low overhead

    Designed as a small single service for VPSs, not a full observability stack.

  3. 01.3

    Coolify-aware

    Uses Coolify and Compose metadata to present logical services instead of transient container IDs.

  4. 01.4

    Read-only by design

    Observes Docker without stop, restart, delete, exec, shell, or redeploy controls.

  5. 01.5

    Live state

    Streams current host and container state to the dashboard as samples are collected.

  6. 01.6

    Useful history

    Keeps local metric and event history so you can see what changed, not just what is happening now.

02

RESOURCE MODEL

Coolify-aware, not Coolify-only.

Binnacle works with plain Docker and Docker Compose. On Coolify hosts, it uses available Docker labels and metadata to keep logical resources recognizable across container replacement.

Docker monitoring comes first. Coolify awareness improves the names and grouping without making the dashboard depend on the Coolify API.

LABELS / RESOURCE MAPPING
coolify.resource.uuid
personal-site
compose.project
personal-site
compose.service
web
containers
web-1, web-2
logical resource
web / 2 units
03

TOOL SELECTION

Not another observability stack.

Binnacle is not trying to replace Prometheus, Grafana, or a centralized multi-node metrics platform. It is for single Docker servers and Coolify VPSs that need clear local visibility with minimal operational overhead.

LOCAL WATCH CONSOLE

Use Binnacle when

  • You run many containers on one VPS.
  • You want local history without a monitoring stack.
  • Read-only workload safety is a requirement.
  • You want logical services instead of raw container noise.
  • You want one focused Docker monitoring service.
CENTRAL OBSERVABILITY

Use Prometheus / Grafana when

  • You need multi-server aggregation.
  • You need long-term centralized observability.
  • You need complex queries and alert routing.
  • You already operate a metrics stack.
  • You need broad integrations and custom dashboards.
Glances
Broad machine, process, and container inspection.
Uptime Kuma
Endpoint availability checks, status pages, and notifications.
Coolify
Deployment control with built-in resource and status monitoring.
Binnacle
Read-only Docker pressure, service context, events, and local history.
04

PROJECT STATUS / TRANSPARENT BY DEFAULT

Current release.

STABLE RELEASE

v0.6.0 passed release qualification and is published with a multi-architecture container image and build provenance.

NEXT

Advanced authentication and portability remain disabled by default pending acceptance. Multi-server monitoring remains later scope; workload controls remain excluded.

05

DEPLOYMENT SEQUENCE

Deploy v0.6.0.

REQUIREMENTS

Linux on amd64 or arm64 · Docker Engine 29.5.1+ · read access to host /proc, /sys, and Docker · one persistent data volume

  1. 01

    Docker Compose first-run token

    export BINNACLE_SETUP_TOKEN="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"
  2. 02
    PRIMARY PATH

    Coolify

    Deploy the included service template, copy the generated setup token, attach a domain, and complete local onboarding.

    PORTABLE PATH

    Docker Compose

    Use the canonical Compose definition with host telemetry mounts, the Docker socket, and a persistent SQLite volume.

  3. 03

    Follow the release-aware guide

    Use the immutable v0.6.0 image tag in production. The guide covers Coolify, Docker Compose, secrets, upgrades, and the restricted Docker socket boundary.

    Open install guide
06

FIELD REFERENCE

Documentation index.