VPS Lean Projects

All 10 projects share a common base — this is the foundation each project runs on top of:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name babu.thotas.com;

    # WatchDog
    location /watchdog/ {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5001/;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }

    # PaperTrail
    location /papertrail/ {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5002/;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }

    # LinkVault
    location /linkvault/ {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5003/;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }

    # PulseRSS
    location /pulserss/ {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5004/;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }

    # HabitForge
    location /habitforge/ {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5005/;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }

    # TinySync
    location /tinysync/ {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5006/;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }

    # PastePit
    location /pastepit/ {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5007/;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }

    # Nomad Board
    location /nomad/ {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5008/;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }

    # WhisperBox
    location /whisperbox/ {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5009/;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }

    # AutoGrok
    location /autogrok/ {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5010/;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }
}

Each project gets its own sub-path. SSL via Let's Encrypt (certbot). No port forwarding needed beyond 80/443.

┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐
│  Flask Web App   │────▶│  SQLite DB       │     │  Telegram Bot    │
│  Port 5001      │     │  watchdog.db    │     │  (alert sender)  │
└────────┬─────────┘     └──────────────────┘     └────────▲─────────┘
         │                                                │
         │ check every 5min via systemd timer            │ push
         ▼                                                │
┌──────────────────┐                                     │
│  health_checks   │─────────────────────────────────────┘
│  (Python script) │
│  - HTTP ping     │
│  - SSL check     │
│  - Latency       │
└──────────────────┘

Storage: /var/data/watchdog.db — sites, check history, alert log

┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐
│  Flask Web App   │────▶│  SQLite DB       │────▶│  Ollama          │
│  Port 5002      │     │  papertrail.db   │     │  localhost:11434 │
│  /notes, /ask   │     │  notes + vectors │     │  nomic-embed     │
└──────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘
         │
    ┌────┴────────────────────────────┐
    │  Markdown files in /var/notes/ │
    │  (one .md per note)            │
    └────────────────────────────────┘

Storage: notes as .md files in /var/notes/, embeddings in SQLite. Ollama for semantic search + QA.

┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐
│  Flask Web App   │────▶│  SQLite DB       │     │  Ollama          │
│  Port 5003      │     │  linkvault.db    │     │  localhost:11434 │
│  /add, /list    │     │  links + metadata│     │  llama3.2 (sum)  │
└────────┬─────────┘     └──────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘
         │
    ┌────▼────────────────────────────┐
    │  Puppeteer/requests             │
    │  - Fetch page title/desc        │
    │  - Store OG image URL           │
    │  - Optional: LLM summary        │
    └─────────────────────────────────┘

Storage: /var/data/linkvault.db. Thumbnails/favicon cached locally.

┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐
│  Flask Web App   │────▶│  SQLite DB       │     │  Ollama          │
│  Port 5004      │     │ arterss.db      │     │  localhost:11434 │
│  /feeds, /digest│     │  feeds + articles│    │  llama3.2 (sum)  │
└──────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘
         │                                              │
    ┌────┴────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────┐
    │  Cron job (daily at 7am PT)                         │
    │  - fetchparser: parse all feeds                      │
    │  - New articles → store in DB                        │
    │  - Build digest prompt → Ollama → summarized email   │
    │  - SMTP: send to Thota's inbox                       │
    └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Storage: /var/data/pulserss.db. Feed URLs stored, articles deduplicated by URL.

┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐
│  Flask Web App   │────▶│  SQLite DB       │     │  Whisper.cpp    │
│  Port 5009      │     │  whisperbox.db  │     │  (shell call)   │
│  /upload        │     │  transcripts    │     │  ~700MB RAM     │
└──────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘
         │
    ┌────▼────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │  Audio files stored in /var/audio/           │
    │  (mp3, wav, m4a supported)                  │
    │  - Normalize audio                         │
    │  - Run whisper.cpp base.en                  │
    │  - Store transcript text in DB              │
    └────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Storage: Audio files in /var/audio/ (10GB volume recommended), transcripts in SQLite.

Note: WhisperBox runs as standalone — Ollama is stopped during transcription to free ~1.5GB RAM.

┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐
│  Flask Web App   │────▶│  SQLite DB       │     │  Ollama          │
│  Port 5005      │     │  habitforge.db  │     │  localhost:11434 │
│  /habits, /check│     │  habits + checks│     │  llama3.2 (mot.) │
└──────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘
         │                                              │
    ┌────┴────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────┐
    │  Cron job (weekly, Sunday 9am PT)                    │
    │  - Build streak report                               │
    │  - Ollama: generate motivational text               │
    │  - SMTP: send weekly check-in email                  │
    └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Storage: /var/data/habitforge.db. Streak data and check-in history.

/var/
├── data/                    # All project databases
│   ├── watchdog.db
│   ├── papertrail.db
│   ├── linkvault.db
│   ├── pulserss.db
│   ├── habitforge.db
│   ├── nomadboard.db
│   └── whisperbox.db
├── notes/                   # PaperTrail markdown files
├── audio/                   # WhisperBox uploads (large, separate volume)
├── uploads/                 # PastePit pastes, TinySync files
└── backups/                 # Nightly .tar.gz of /var/data + /var/notes

/etc/
├── nginx/
│   └── sites-available/vps-projects  # nginx config
└── systemd/system/
    ├── watchdog-check.timer
    ├── watchdog-check.service
    ├── pulserss-digest.timer
    └── pulserss-digest.service

/opt/
└── ollama/                  # Ollama binary + models
    └── models/              # llama3.2 2B + nomic-embed-text

⚠️ Strategic insight: 10 always-on Flask apps + Ollama exceeds 4GB. Choice: run only 3-4 projects always-on, the rest as cron-triggered or on-demand. Recommended always-on: WatchDog, PaperTrail, HabitForge, LinkVault. Others trigger via systemd timers.