Containers, logs, and actions

The Containers page aggregates enabled Docker and Portainer integrations. The page shell loads immediately while inventory requests run asynchronously.

Find a container

Use the search box and the Status, Host, and Provider filters to narrow the list. Open Search tips for prefixed terms that target known fields (host:, name:, image:, status:, port:, label:, provider:, id:), including negation and quoted values. Clear filters resets the search and filters without touching your saved views.

Sort order, layout, grouping, density, and which fields appear on cards live under Display options so the list stays uncluttered. On phones, the filter button opens one sheet with both the filters and the display settings.

The inventory loads once and does not poll in the background. Select Refresh to fetch a fresh list; it bypasses the short in-memory list cache.

Saved views remember search, filters, sort, grouping, layout, density, and visible fields. Built-in All / Running / Stopped presets are always available; you can add named personal views (up to a small limit). Hidden containers stay global across every view. Existing preferences auto-upgrade to a versioned workspace on first load after v0.9.0—no manual migration step.

Failed providers are isolated. One slow or unavailable endpoint should produce a clear partial error instead of taking down the complete page.

Control drawer

Open a container to use the control drawer with three tabs:

1. Overview — health, status, image, start time, and published ports first. Open Technical details for lifecycle, platform, restart policy, networks, safe mounts, limits, and allowlisted label values.
2. Metrics — CPU, memory, network, block I/O, and PIDs from a short-lived stats snapshot. Turn on live refresh to poll about every five seconds while the tab is open (process-local stats cache is five seconds).
3. Logs — improved log reader with line-count and severity filters. Docker multiplexed stdout/stderr streams are decoded server-side before display.

Inspect results use a short process-local cache (thirty seconds). Routes require providerId; the server resolves the integration from the database and does not trust a client-supplied provider type for inspect, stats, or actions.

Only selected label values are shown (Compose project, Swarm namespace, OCI title / version / vendor). Environment variables, command arrays, healthcheck output, and host bind mount sources are never returned to the browser.

Logs can contain application secrets even after common patterns are redacted. Treat copied output as sensitive and review it before attaching it to an issue.

Start, stop, and restart

Actions appear only when the individual Docker or Portainer integration allows them. They are disabled by default (Allow container actions in Settings). When actions are off, the drawer says so and links to the integration settings.

Every action:

1. names the exact container;
2. shows provider, endpoint (when present), and current state;
3. explains what will happen;
4. requires confirmation; and
5. calls a fixed Engine start/stop/restart endpoint server-side (directly or through the Portainer Docker gateway).

UniHomelabDash does not provide raw shell, terminals, streaming logs, bulk actions, or arbitrary command execution. Portainer stack restart and redeploy remain unavailable.

Add a container to the dashboard

The Add to dashboard flow opens the manual service form with safe metadata. Health URL inference uses explicit labels or reachable published ports when possible and ignores OCI package URLs. Always review the generated URL before saving it.