I Vibe Coded a Full Self-Hosted AI Stack Installer. Then I Gave It Away.
DracattusDev7 min read·Just now--
How a personal productivity tool became an open-source project for builders at the intersection of AI and blockchain.
It started, like most of my best ideas, with frustration.
Every time I spun up a new machine — whether it was a fresh MacBook, a home server, or a remote VPS — I found myself doing the same thing. Installing Docker. Setting up Coolify. Cloning Gitea. Configuring Grafana. Wiring up Prometheus. Writing YAML I’d already written a dozen times before.
It was boring, error-prone, and frankly beneath the kind of work I wanted to be doing.
So I did what any developer does when something annoys them enough: I automated it.
What I didn’t expect was that “a script to set up my tools” would turn into a full cross-platform desktop installer with a wizard interface, an in-app package registry, Docker Compose generation, auto-SSL via Traefik, and a built-in App Store.
And now it’s public. Welcome to OpenTang.
The “Starfleet” Build
I have to be honest about something: I didn’t build this alone. Not even close.
I run an AI-assisted development setup I call Starfleet Command — a pair of OpenClaw agents that operate under my direction. Admiral Nakamura handles strategy, coordination, and planning from Starfleet Command. Jean-Luc Picard executes on the USS Enterprise — my development laptop — handling code, commits, and implementation.
The entire OpenTang codebase was produced through a combination of my direction and their execution. We pair-programmed in the truest sense — except one of us runs on Rust and the other runs on silicon.
This is what AI-assisted development actually looks like in 2026. Not “autocomplete” and not “generate a function.” It’s architectural thinking, milestone planning, iterative builds, real-time debugging, and shipping production code — together.
OpenTang is a proof of what’s possible when you stop thinking of AI as a tool and start treating it as a crew.
What OpenTang Actually Is
OpenTang is a cross-platform desktop application — built with Tauri v2, React, TypeScript, and Rust — that walks you through setting up a complete self-hosted AI and developer infrastructure stack.
Think of it as Homebrew meets Docker Desktop meets an AI-native App Store, but opinionated, guided, and secure by default.
You open the app. You walk through a wizard. You click install. Your stack comes up.
No YAML. No hunting for environment variables. No fighting with SSL certificates. No wondering which port conflicts with what.
The tagline says it all: Tang Coded. Tang Focused.
The Technical Reality
Under the hood, OpenTang is doing real work.
The wizard collects:
- Your preferred AI agent edition (NanoClaw for lightweight, Hermes for balanced, OpenClaw for full stack)
- Your LLM of choice — local via Ollama, or cloud-connected via OpenAI, Anthropic, or a custom endpoint
- Your service selection from a curated registry of 14+ packages
- Your network mode (localhost, LAN, or internet-facing with auto-SSL)
The Rust engine then:
- Dynamically generates a production-quality docker-compose.yml tailored to your selections
- Generates a .env file with cryptographically strong, unique credentials for every service — auto-generated using rand with a secure RNG
- Deploys via docker compose up -d with real-time streaming output
- Polls container health until every service confirms running
- Writes a state file to ~/.opentang/ so the app remembers your setup across sessions
Traefik handles reverse proxy and automatic Let’s Encrypt SSL when you’re running internet-facing. Your services come up with valid HTTPS without touching a DNS challenge manually.
The App Store tab — available after your initial install — lets you add, remove, and update services without touching a terminal. Browse by category. Hit install. Done.
Out of the box, OpenTang can deploy any combination of:
• Coolify — Self-hosted PaaS for deploying apps and databases
• OpenClaw / Hermes / NanoClaw — AI agent systems, the Koba42 lineup
• Ollama — Local LLM runtime supporting Llama, Mistral, Gemma, and Phi
• Gitea — Private Git server
• Portainer — Docker management UI
• Grafana + Prometheus — Monitoring and observability
• n8n — Workflow automation
• Uptime Kuma — Self-hosted uptime monitoring
• Vaultwarden — Self-hosted Bitwarden-compatible password manager
• Nextcloud — Cloud storage, calendar, and office suite
• SearXNG — Private metasearch engine
• Sage Wallet — The premier Chia blockchain desktop wallet
Every service comes with a production-quality Compose template, credential injection, volume configuration, and health checks. Nothing is assumed. Everything is explicit.
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Security Wasn’t an Afterthought
One of the things that genuinely surprised me while building this was how much I cared about the security story.
When you’re setting up infrastructure for developers — especially developers working with crypto, AI, and SaaS — the defaults matter enormously. Weak passwords, exposed ports, and misconfigured proxies are how incidents happen.
OpenTang’s approach:
- Every credential is auto-generated at install time using cryptographically secure randomness. No defaults. No “admin/admin.” Each service gets a unique, 24-character alphanumeric password minimum.
- Credentials never leave your machine. There’s no telemetry, no phone-home, no analytics. The .env file lives at ~/.opentang/ and that’s where it stays.
- Traefik handles TLS. In internet-facing mode, Let’s Encrypt certificates are provisioned automatically. HTTP → HTTPS redirect is baked in.
- Smart port conflict detection prevents services from colliding silently.
- Docker auto-install on Linux — for users who don’t have Docker, OpenTang can install it directly using the official get.docker.com script. No guessing at package names.
The EULA is equally explicit: OpenTang is provided AS-IS, you use it at your own risk, and Koba42 Corp is not liable for misconfiguration or downstream incidents. This isn’t fine print — it’s the honest truth about self-hosted software and I want users to understand it.
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Who This Is For
I built this for myself, which means I built it for a very specific kind of person.
You’re probably the target user if:
- You’re building at the intersection of AI and blockchain — developing AI-driven dApps, NFT tooling, on-chain agents, or crypto-adjacent SaaS products
- You want to own your infrastructure rather than depend on cloud services you don’t control
- You’re a developer or technical creator who’s tired of spending a day setting up tools instead of building product
- You believe local AI is the future — that running your own models on your own hardware is more valuable than paying per-token forever
- You’re in the Chia ecosystem and want a clean, integrated developer environment with Sage Wallet already in the mix
OpenTang isn’t for everyone. It’s not a consumer product. It’s a developer tool built by a developer who needed it to exist — and decided that if it had to exist, it should be done properly.
It’s Beta. That’s Fine. I want to be clear: OpenTang is a beta. The version is v0.1.0 and it’s been tested on macOS, Linux, and Windows, but this is real software doing real things to your system. Use it on a machine you’re comfortable experimenting on. Back up important data first. Read the EULA.
That said — it works. The wizard works. The Compose generation works. The App Store works. The AI detection works. The credential generation works. It’s not vaporware.
It’s also completely open source under the Apache 2.0 license. The repository is at github.com/Koba42Corp/opentang. PRs are welcome. Package submissions are welcome. Feedback is welcome.
The registry is designed to be extended — if you’ve built a service that belongs in the OpenTang ecosystem, open a PR and let’s add it.
What’s Next
The roadmap is real:
- v0.2.0 — ClawHub integration (community skill/plugin packages for OpenClaw), macOS code signing and notarization, auto-updater
- v0.3.0 — Remote install mode (deploy a stack to a VPS directly from the app), multi-node support, backup/restore
- v1.0.0 — The stable release. When it’s earned it.
Try It
Landing page: opentang.koba42.com
GitHub: github.com/Koba42Corp/opentang
Downloads: Available for Linux (.AppImage / .deb), macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon), and Windows (.msi)
If you’re building something at the edge of AI and blockchain, or just trying to own your infrastructure stack without the setup tax — give it a try. Tell me what breaks. Tell me what’s missing.
The stack is yours. The stack is juicy.
OpenTang is an open-source project by Koba42 Corp. v0.1.0 beta. Apache 2.0 license. Built with Tauri v2, React, TypeScript, and Rust. Deployed with love by Starfleet Command.
