OliveTin

OliveTin gives any shell command a web-based button. You define your actions in a YAML file — a label, the command to run, and optional input parameters — and OliveTin presents them as a clean, mobile-friendly dashboard. Anyone with access to the URL can trigger those actions without needing SSH credentials, a terminal, or any technical knowledge.

The core use case is making routine server tasks accessible without granting full shell access. Restarting a service, running a backup script, triggering a deploy, clearing a cache — these are the commands that come up repeatedly and that team members or household users sometimes need to run without sitting at a keyboard. OliveTin turns them into one-click actions on any device.

Input parameters extend this beyond simple one-click commands. You can define an action that accepts a parameter — a container name, an environment target, a filename — with validation rules that restrict what values are accepted. The underlying command substitutes the validated input, which gives you parameterised control without exposing arbitrary shell execution.

The YAML configuration is simple enough to read and modify without documentation. Each action has a name, an icon, a shell command, and optional parameter definitions. The entire configuration lives in one file alongside your Docker Compose setup, version-controllable and reviewable like any other infrastructure config.

The missing piece is authentication. OliveTin has no built-in login system. Putting it behind a reverse proxy with basic auth or a proper SSO solution like Authelia is required before exposing it to anyone beyond yourself. This is a common pattern in the homelab community and straightforward to set up, but it is a step that cannot be skipped.

OliveTin: Pros & Cons