Workbench

Local web UI for a home Ubuntu server. Two things:

• Scripts — run/stop shell scripts from the browser, see running status, last run time, and live log output
• Dashboard — markdown file rendered as a link page to local services

LAN only. No auth. No internet dependency.

---

Setup

npm install
npm start
# → http://localhost:3000

Default port is 3000. Override with PORT=8080 npm start.

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File Structure

workbench/
├── server.js
├── package.json
├── data/
│   ├── scripts.json           # your scripts (gitignored)
│   ├── scripts.example.json   # example template
│   ├── dashboard.md           # your links (gitignored)
│   └── dashboard.example.md   # example template
├── logs/                      # auto-created, one file per script run
└── public/
    └── index.html

scripts.json and dashboard.md are gitignored. Copy the .example files to get started, or the server will use the examples as fallback.

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Configuring Scripts

Copy data/scripts.example.json to data/scripts.json and edit. Restart the server after changes.

[
  {
    "name": "backup",
    "label": "Run Backup",
    "command": "bash",
    "args": ["/home/user/scripts/backup.sh"],
    "cwd": "/home/user"
  }
]

Field	Required	Description
name	yes	Unique identifier, used for log filenames
label	no	Display name shown in the UI (falls back to name)
command	yes	Executable to run
args	no	Array of arguments
cwd	no	Working directory (defaults to server process cwd)

---

Dashboard

Copy data/dashboard.example.md to data/dashboard.md and edit. Changes are picked up on next page load — no restart needed.

# Local Services

## Monitoring
- [Grafana](http://localhost:3001)
- [Prometheus](http://localhost:9090)

## Dev
- [Gitea](http://localhost:3002)

---

Logs

Each script run creates a new log file: logs/<name>_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS.log.

On the next run, the previous log is deleted and a new one is created. The UI always shows the last 200 lines on load, then streams live while the script runs.

To keep logs permanently, back up the logs/ directory before running scripts.

---

Running as a Service

Create /etc/systemd/system/workbench.service:

[Unit]
Description=Workbench
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node /home/user/workbench/server.js
WorkingDirectory=/home/user/workbench
Restart=on-failure
Environment=PORT=3000

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable --now workbench