Dashy is a start page for your server. It shows a tile for each of your apps, so anyone in the house can find them in one click without knowing a single port number.
On this page
At a glance#
- What it is
- Dashboard Tool Productivity
- Where it opens
- Dashboard
On its own port at
http://your-server:port - Updates
- Automatic A backup is taken first, and it rolls back if the update fails
- Backups
- Included Part of the daily backup when that's switched on
- Copies
- As many as you like Run several copies, each with its own data
- Needs
- A domain for sign-in
What it's good for#
Once you run more than a few apps, remembering which one lives on which port gets old quickly, and nobody else in the house will ever manage it. Dashy gives everyone one page to bookmark, with a tile for each app. Set it as the home page in the family's browsers and the server becomes something people actually use.
The LibrePortal WebUI can open your apps too, but it's the control panel for the whole server. Dashy is a page you can hand to anyone: it only opens your apps, and it can't install, stop or reconfigure them.
Signing in#
There's nothing to sign in to. Dashy has no accounts by design: it's a page of links, and everyone who opens it sees the same thing.
That's why it's marked private in the catalogue, reachable only from your trusted places, and it has no domain address, only its port. Keep it that way. Dashy doesn't show anything secret, but it's a neat map of everything you run, and anyone who can open it can also use Dashy's own editor to change what it shows. From outside the house, use the LibrePortal VPN.
Your apps are added for you#
LibrePortal writes Dashy's page itself, from the same list of app addresses the WebUI uses for its buttons. Each tile has the app's name, icon and short description, and opens the right address. When an app has more than one page to open, each gets its own tile.
To start with, every installed app is on the dashboard. To choose, use the Tools tab:
- Open Dashy's page in LibrePortal and go to Tools.
- Run Manage Shortcuts. It lists every installed app's pages; tick the ones you want on the dashboard.
- Run it. LibrePortal rewrites the dashboard and restarts Dashy so the change shows.
Once you've picked, apps you install later aren't added by themselves; run Manage Shortcuts again to add them. If you untick everything, you're back to showing every app.
Everything is in one section for now
The tiles are meant to be grouped by kind of app. At the moment they all end up in one section called Other. To check: dashy_update_conf.sh reads each app's category from a containers/<app>/<app>.sh header that almost no app has any more, so every tile lands in Other. Update this callout when it reads the category from the app's config.
Changing how it looks#
The rest is on Dashy's Config tab. Dashboard Theme picks one of Dashy's built-in colour schemes. Dashboard Title and Dashboard Description set the heading; leave them empty for the defaults, which include your server's name. Item Layout and Icon Size arrange the tiles, and Tile Click Behaviour decides whether an app opens in a new tab, the same tab, or a pop-up over the dashboard.
Status Checks puts a small up-or-down light on each tile. It's off to start with, because Dashy would keep checking every app for as long as someone has the page open. If you want to know when an app is down, Uptime Kuma does that job properly and can tell you about it.
Edits made inside Dashy don't last
Dashy has its own editor for changing tiles in the browser. On LibrePortal, the dashboard is rewritten whenever you run Manage Shortcuts or save LibrePortal's settings, so anything you change there is lost. Make changes through Manage Shortcuts and the Config tab instead.
Good to know#
- Icons come from the WebUI. The tile icons are loaded from the LibrePortal WebUI's own address. Someone who can open Dashy but not the WebUI sees the tiles without their icons.
- Updates are automatic, following Dashy's latest release, with a backup taken first.
- It runs on your server's timezone from 0.4.7. Installs made with 0.4.6 or earlier run on UTC, because the setting never reached the app, and an update doesn't change the app's compose file where it lives. Press Update Configuration on its Config tab, without changing anything, and the compose is written afresh with the right timezone. Your settings and shortcut choices are kept.
What the install asks#
When you install Dashy, LibrePortal asks for a little more than usual before it starts:
- Name your dashboard You can leave this one empty.
- Access and shortcuts
Addresses and ports#
Dashy has one port. LibrePortal picks a free port number for each when you install, so yours will differ from anyone else's. The Config tab's Network section shows them, and the app's Open button uses the right one.
| What it is | Who can reach it | With a domain |
|---|---|---|
| Dashboard | Trusted places only | Port only |
Settings#
These are Dashy's own settings on its Config tab. The settings every app shares, like backups, updates and where its data lives, are explained in App pages and settings.
| Setting | What it does | Starts as |
|---|---|---|
| Item Layout | How tiles are arranged within sections. Choices: Auto, Horizontal, Vertical |
horizontal |
| Icon Size | Tile icon size on the dashboard. Choices: Small, Medium, Large |
large |
In its config file#
A few more aren't on the Config tab yet. They live in the app's config file, described here so you know they exist. How to change them.
| Setting | What it does | Starts as |
|---|---|---|
NameCFG_DASHY_DISPLAY_NAME |
What this app is called on your dashboards. Leave empty to use its usual name | Empty |
Show on the LibrePortal DashboardCFG_DASHY_SHOW_ON_DASHBOARD |
Whether this app gets a shortcut on the front page of the LibrePortal WebUI, separate from any Dashy dashboard Choices: true, false |
true |
Dashboard NameCFG_DASHY_DASHBOARD_NAME |
What the dashboard was called when it was set up | Empty |
Dashboard StartCFG_DASHY_DASHBOARD_START |
Which apps it started with Choices: people, all, none |
people |
Dashboard AppsCFG_DASHY_DASHBOARD_SEED |
The apps picked when it was set up | Empty |
Dashboard AudienceCFG_DASHY_DASHBOARD_AUDIENCE |
Who it was set up for Choices: household, trusted, public |
Empty |
Works with#
These are the other apps Dashy knows how to work with. Once it's installed, its page shows the same list with whether each one is connected. How this works.
- Grafana: Shows dashboards for the apps that have one. works with every app
- Prometheus: Collects metrics from the apps that can export them. works with every app
- Uptime Kuma: Watches your apps and shows when one goes down. works with every app
Privacy and security#
All clear Dashy does not report on you. LibrePortal turns off its update check and stops it looking tile icons up on an outside service.
What leaves this server#
Nothing leaves this server on its own.
What LibrePortal turns off#
- Update check
- Favicon lookups on an outside service
Licence: MIT. Audited: 21 October 2026. See the privacy of every app and the Promise.
Sources#
Under the hood#
- It runs this image:
lissy93/dashy:4.7.14@sha256:22d4c21359dfdcede70af6b496814f4d9b3b7b0dde577d3cf5188fb6bf8c6c46. - It can sit behind Authelia's sign-in once Authelia is installed.
- Its own project and documentation: github.com/Lissy93/dashy
Ports, settings, tools and connections on this page are read from LibrePortal v0.10.97's app catalogue each time the guide is built.