momenbasel

momenbasel / timenest

Public

Network Time Machine for every Mac on your LAN. Runs on Mac mini, Raspberry Pi, or any home server. Docker stack: Samba + vfs_fruit, Avahi Bonjour discovery, FastAPI admin UI.

github.commomenbaseltimenest avahi backup bonjour docker fastapi
11
0
100% credibility
Found Apr 23, 2026 at 11 stars -- GitGems finds repos before they trend. Get early access to the next one.
Sign Up Free
AI Analysis
Python
AI Summary

TimeNest turns a Raspberry Pi or Linux computer with an external drive into a network backup server that Macs discover and use automatically for Time Machine backups.

How It Works

1
💭 Need a home backup for your Macs

You want an easy way to back up all your Macs to a shared drive at home, without buying Apple's old Time Capsule or paying for cloud storage.

2
🖥️ Set up your home server

Take a Raspberry Pi, old computer, or Linux box, plug in a big external hard drive, and make sure it's on your home network.

3
📥 Install with one easy command

Run a quick download script that sets everything up automatically, asking only for your drive location and a password.

4
🌐 Open the friendly dashboard

Go to a web page in your browser, log in with your password, and create a backup account for each Mac with its own space limit.

5
🍎 Link your Mac automatically

On your Mac, open Time Machine settings, and your new backup drive appears right there, ready to select without typing addresses.

6
📊 Monitor everything at a glance

Back on the dashboard, see live updates on space used per Mac, drive health, active backups, and get alerts if issues arise.

✅ Backups running smoothly

Your Macs now back up automatically over your home network to the shared drive, with quotas keeping things fair and organized.

Sign up to see the full architecture

5 more

Sign Up Free

Star Growth

See how this repo grew from 11 to 11 stars Sign Up Free
Repurpose This Repo

Repurpose is a Pro feature

Generate ready-to-use prompts for X threads, LinkedIn posts, blog posts, YouTube scripts, and more -- with full repo context baked in.

Unlock Repurpose
AI-Generated Review

What is timenest?

TimeNest turns a Raspberry Pi, Mac mini, or Linux home server into a drop-in Apple Time Capsule replacement, letting every Mac on your LAN back up via Time Machine over SMB with zero config. Plug in an external drive, run the Docker stack—Samba with vfs_fruit for backups, Avahi for Bonjour auto-discovery, and a FastAPI web UI for management—and your Macs see it in Finder and System Settings automatically. Built in Python, it handles network time synchronization for full-disk backups without iCloud limits or USB dongles.

Why is it gaining traction?

Unlike raw Samba shares or NAS plugins, TimeNest bundles true auto-discovery, per-user quotas, live dashboard for disk health and sessions, Prometheus metrics, and SMART monitoring into one lightweight stack—no manual mDNS or smb.conf tweaks. Developers dig the one-liner install script, multi-arch Docker images for arm64/amd64, and alerts for failures, making it a polished github network tools gem over fragmented Reddit setups. It stands out as a github network manager for homelab Time Machine needs, with benchmarks showing 60-80 MB/s on Pi 5.

Who should use this?

Homelab tinkerers with multiple Macs needing a shared backup drive on cheap hardware like Raspberry Pi. Small teams or families managing Time Machine quotas without buying Synology. Linux server admins wanting a github network monitoring tool for backup status and drive health, plus easy migration of existing sparsebundles.

Verdict

Grab it if you need a Time Capsule successor—docs are thorough, setup is dead simple, and it just works on supported hardware. At 11 stars and 1.0% credibility, it's early-stage but battle-tested; watch for roadmap items like alerts and RAID before production fleets.

(198 words)

Sign up to read the full AI review Sign Up Free

Similar repos coming soon.