Built a local-first AI workspace for Linux troubleshooting, security audits and operational diagnostics
Posted by Large-Cress900@reddit | linuxadmin | View on Reddit | 12 comments
I’ve been building SysAI, a local-first operational AI workspace focused on Linux, Docker, nginx, self-hosted infrastructure and security workflows.
Instead of acting like a generic chatbot, SysAI tries to generate structured operational outputs:
- rollback-aware remediation
- verification steps
- environment-aware diagnostics
- operational reports
- security audit workflows
- Docker/nginx/systemd awareness
- Ollama support for fully local inference
Current stack:
- Electron
- React
- local proxy architecture
- multi-provider AI support
- local-first workflow design
I recently added:
- collapsible operational reports
- markdown export
- remote observation security mode
- command palette
- workflow demo GIF in the README
Would genuinely love feedback from people running homelabs/self-hosted infra.
sysvora@reddit
This is actually a super cool angle. Most “AI for ops” stuff I’ve seen just spits out generic chat answers that you still have to translate into real steps, so the rollback / verification focus is nice.
Really like that it’s local‑first with Ollama support too. For homelab people who are already paranoid about shipping logs off to random clouds, that’s kind of the only acceptable way to use this stuff.
Biggest thing I’m curious about is how well it handles partial or messy context. Like, if you only feed it a couple systemctl outputs and an nginx error log, does it still produce sane remediation + verification steps, or does it need a carefully curated bundle of info?
Either way, bookmarked the repo, going to try it on my little zoo of half‑documented containers this weekend.
Large-Cress900@reddit (OP)
Yeah honestly thats exactly the kind of environment I built it for 😄
Most real systems are just a pile of half documented containers, random configs and logs pasted together at 2am.
Right now it handles partial context “ok” if there are enough signals, but thats still one of the areas I want to improve the most. Especially around assumptions and verification when the info is incomplete.
And yeah same here on the local-first side. Sending infra logs/configs to random cloud services always felt a bit weird to me honestly.
Curious to see how it behaves on your setup once you try it. And if you want to test the full version just send me a DM or mail me, I’m still giving out free beta licenses to people willing to actually stress test it 😄
IllllIIlIllIllllIIIl@reddit
Honest opinion? It's obvious slop that will, beyond all reasonable doubt, be abandoned within a month after you lose interest and move on to your next slop project
Large-Cress900@reddit (OP)
Fair point — most side projects do die. But this one is different because: BYOK model — I have zero infrastructure costs. No servers to maintain, no bills scaling with usage. Most projects die because the creator gets bored maintaining infrastructure. I don't have that problem. Solves my real problem — I'm a Linux sysadmin. I use this tool every day. I built it because I needed it, not because I thought it would be trendy. As long as I manage servers, I'll maintain it. Open source — If I disappear, someone else can fork it. The code is MIT licensed and on GitHub. It's not dependent on me staying interested. Is it guaranteed to succeed? No. But it's not a typical side project that dies when enthusiasm fades.
devoopsies@reddit
The balls on you to react to /u/IllllIIlIllIllllIIIl showing concern for your lack of effort by doubling-down with an LLM-generated response.
IllllIIlIllIllllIIIl@reddit
I genuinely don't get what these kinds of people are even trying to do. This repo looks like it's kind of sort of trying to implement AIOps but vibe coded by someone who is very obviously unaware of AIOps as an existing concept. What sysadmin/syseng/devops person in their right mind is ever going to use this?
Large-Cress900@reddit (OP)
AIOps is a real thing. But I'm not trying to build AIOps. AIOps is automating IT operations at enterprise scale — event correlation, anomaly detection, runbook automation across entire infrastructure. It's a platform. SysAI is much simpler: a tool for a single sysadmin who pastes a log and gets the fix, or describes what they need and gets the command. It's not trying to automate anything it's trying to make the manual workflow faster. Will enterprise AIOps platforms eventually do this better? Probably. But they cost €50k/year and require implementation teams. SysAI is 'download the app, add your API key, paste a log', 2 minutes to try out."
Large-Cress900@reddit (OP)
I think people demonize AI too much. During the day, I write code, fix code, handle emails, meetings, etc. It's obvious that I use AI tools to help me with the grunt work, like writing an email. But that doesn't mean a lack of effort—absolutely not, because what's in the email, the idea it expresses, the message it wants to convey, that's decided by me, not by AI. I use AI to do the dirty work, but the decisions, the effort, and everything else come from my own head. AI should assist, and that's how I use it. Obviously, as you'll notice, now that I'm at home, I'm writing this email myself without delegating to any agent.
Large-Cress900@reddit (OP)
I mean yeah 😄 I use AI tools while building an AI workspace, kinda hard not to at this point honestly.
But the infrastructure cost thing is actually the real point. A lot of AI projects die because people end up paying for servers/gpus/apis every month and eventually just give up on it.
With BYOK/local-first there’s basically no scaling cost on my side so its a very different situation.
devoopsies@reddit
I think the big issue is that if you can't demonstrate care for your project, why would any of the professionals here?
When you respond to valid criticism with all the effort of what looks to have been a copy-paste into Claude or OpenAI, you undermine any credibility that you may have, or could have garnered with a well thought-out response.
Large-Cress900@reddit (OP)
This is your pov, my effort is for develop code for my project meanwhile read and answer to the comments, where is the problem? I think the people see to many AI everywhere
stufforstuff@reddit
That accurately summarizes my first girlfriend in undergrad.