The homelab already sitting on your desk.

Tugski turns an Apple Silicon Mac into a self-hosted home server — a self-hosting app store and a menu-bar app that feels like a first-party part of macOS, running quietly in the background instead of humming in a rack.

Coming soon See how it works ↓

Works with OrbStack Docker Desktop Colima

localhost:4287

Tugski

OrbStack Connected

Click around ↑

Running

jellyfin jellyfin/jellyfin:10.10 ● Running jellyfin.orb.local

nextcloud lscr.io/linuxserver/nextcloud ● Running nextcloud.orb.local

vaultwarden vaultwarden/server:1.32 ● Running vault.orb.local

radarr lscr.io/linuxserver/radarr Stopped not reachable

Hardware

The homelab you already own

An Apple Silicon Mac mini, Studio, or MacBook is already better home-server hardware than most dedicated boxes — Tugski just gives it the software to act like one.

Idles at a few watts

An M-series Mac draws less power sitting idle than most NAS boxes draw under load — leave it running around the clock without thinking about the electricity bill.

Silent, no rack required

No fans spinning up, no drive array humming in a closet. A Mac mini or Studio tucked behind a monitor is your whole homelab.

Hardware you already own

Skip the Raspberry Pi cluster or the used enterprise server. If there's a Mac on your desk, Tugski turns it into the home server you were about to go buy.

Features

A self-hosting app store, done the Apple way.

Tugski keeps the container engine out of sight and puts the apps front and center — dashboard-first, one click at a time.

One-click app catalog

Install self-hosted favorites — Jellyfin, Nextcloud, Vaultwarden, and 190 more — from a guided form that asks plain questions instead of showing raw Docker flags.

A real menu-bar app

A minimal SwiftUI menu-bar app owns the service, your credentials, and launch-at-login — so Tugski behaves like a first-party Mac app, not an Electron wrapper.

Bring your own runtime

Works with OrbStack, Docker Desktop, or Colima — whichever is already on your Mac. Running more than one? Tugski shows each one's container count so nothing looks lost.

Secure by default

Credentials are set only in the Mac app and hashed with Argon2id — the portal has no signup, no first-run admin claim, and no password reset.

Paste a compose file

Not in the catalog? Fill in a form by hand, or paste a docker-compose.yml — even a multi-service one — and Tugski populates the fields and deploys every service as a group, reporting anything it can't represent.

Update checking

Tugski compares your running images against the registry and flags what's out of date — on the dashboard and on each app's own page.

Reach it from your phone

Off by default. Flip one switch and the portal is reachable over HTTPS from anywhere on your network — Tugski issues its own certificate, so your phone gets the same dashboard your Mac does.

App catalog

193 apps, and counting

Six hand-authored entries tested on a Mac before they shipped, plus 187 generated from LinuxServer.io's own metadata — each with sane defaults for volumes, ports, and environment variables, reviewed before anything installs.

Jellyfin

Nextcloud

Vaultwarden

Home Assistant

Plane

qBittorrent

Radarr

Healthchecks

+ 185 more

How it works

From zero to running app in three steps

Install a Docker runtime

Already have OrbStack, Docker Desktop, or Colima? Tugski finds it automatically. If not, it points you to whichever fits your Mac best.

Launch the Tugski app

A menu-bar icon appears, the local service starts, and your one-time credentials are set right there — never over the network.

Install and manage apps

Open the portal, browse the catalog or create a container by hand, and manage everything from a dashboard built for people, not YAML.

Requirements

What Tugski needs to run

Tugski is a native macOS app. It does not bundle a container engine, and it isn't trying to replace one you already trust.

Platform macOS 14+ on Apple Silicon A SwiftUI menu-bar app. Windows and Linux are not on the roadmap.

Container runtime OrbStack, Docker Desktop, or Colima Bring one you've already installed — Tugski discovers it, it doesn't manage a VM for you.

Network access This Mac — or your whole network Runs on localhost by default. One switch makes it reachable over HTTPS from your phone or any other device, with a certificate Tugski issues itself.

Tugski is under active development and not yet publicly released. The core app — dashboard, 193-app catalog, container creation with multi-service compose support, LAN access over HTTPS, and the menu-bar shell — is built and working, and now signed with a real Developer ID. Notarization and a DMG are what's left before launch.

FAQ

Questions, answered

What is Tugski, exactly?

A native macOS menu-bar app that manages self-hosted Docker containers through a local web portal — a self-hosting app store and dashboard, but built to feel like a first-party Mac app rather than a Linux server UI running in a browser tab.

Can Tugski replace a NAS or a homelab server?

For running self-hosted apps, yes — that's the point. An Apple Silicon Mac idles efficiently, runs silently, and can stay powered on around the clock, so a Mac mini, Studio, or even a spare MacBook can take over the job a NAS or homelab box would otherwise do. Tugski adds the app-catalog and container-management layer on top of Docker to make that practical day to day.

Do I need Docker installed?

You need one existing container runtime: OrbStack, Docker Desktop, or Colima. Tugski doesn't bundle or manage a VM itself — it discovers whichever runtime you already have and talks to it directly.

Is Tugski free, and is it open source?

Tugski is currently in active development and hasn't shipped a public release yet. Pricing and distribution details will be announced closer to launch.

Can I access my apps from my phone or another device?

Yes. Turn on HTTPS in Settings and the portal becomes reachable from your phone or any other device on your network, at your Mac's LAN address — Tugski issues itself a certificate to encrypt the connection, since exposing a Docker-socket-backed portal over the network safely needs encryption in place first. It's off by default, and Tugski never reaches outside your network on its own; for access away from home, pair it with a VPN like Tailscale.

How are my credentials stored?

Your username and password are set only in the Tugski Mac app — never from a browser. The password is hashed with Argon2id and the hash is all the backend ever stores; the plaintext lives only in the macOS Keychain, for the app's own convenience.

What apps can I install from the catalog?

193 of them, across two sources: six entries Tugski hand-authors and tests itself — like Plex, Vaultwarden and Plane — plus 187 generated from LinuxServer.io's own metadata, covering favorites like Jellyfin, Nextcloud, Home Assistant, qBittorrent, and the *arr stack (Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr...). Each entry asks plain questions — a media folder, a time zone — instead of showing raw environment variables.

Can I run a container that isn't in the catalog?

Yes. New Container lets you fill in image, ports, volumes, and environment variables by hand — naming an image reads what it declares and fills the form in — or paste an existing docker-compose.yml, including a multi-service one, and Tugski will populate the form and deploy every service as a group, telling you plainly about anything it couldn't represent.

What happens if I have more than one runtime installed?

Runtimes don't share containers, images, or volumes with each other, so Tugski lets you choose which one to use and shows each one's container count so you can find where your apps actually live. Your choice is remembered.

What does "Tugski" mean?

It started out as "Tugboat" — fitting for something that ferries containers around — but the good domains were taken. A Tugski is a viral custom watercraft built by TikTok creator Rusty Van Ranch: a Little Tikes Tuggy sandbox mounted on a jet ski. The name stuck.

Tugski is coming.

Turn the Mac already on your desk into a home server — no NAS to buy, no VM to babysit, no dense control panel, just your apps.

Coming soon