Why Homebase Hub
Features
Six pages share one login, one bar and one Settings page. Pick a name to see its own page on the website.
| Page | What it does | Highlights |
|---|
| 🏠 Home | A start page that feels like yours | A clock and widgets in frosted glass, background photos that change, with or without the bar |
| 🔖 Links | Bookmarks in tabs and categories | Import from any browser, see which links you open most, icons saved on your server, encrypted tabs |
| 📝 Info | Notes in boxes, or as a document | 1 to 12 boxes in each tab, cards or one document with an outline, export as PDF or text |
| 💳 Cards | Your cards in one searchable table | Filter by bank, network, type and holder, yearly charges added up, Holders and Banks windows, export to Excel |
| ✅ Tasks | Bills, renewals and chores | Due dates, repeats and prices, calendar and analytics, Year in Review PDF |
| 🧰 Tools | Small tools that run in your browser | 53 tools in six sections: images, photos, PDF, calculators (EMI, SIP, FD and RD), documents (invoices, text compare, Markdown, spreadsheets) and utilities (QR scanner, barcodes, time zones, recorder). Save your settings as presets |
And around the pages:
| Extra | What you get |
|---|
| ⚙️ Settings | Guided Setup for protection, 141 looks and your own colours, backup and restore, updates and health checks |
| ✈️ Telegram | A daily digest, Due Now messages with Done, Skip and Snooze buttons, and backup files sent to your chat |
| 📱 On your phone | Add the site to the home screen of a phone or computer and it opens like an app, with its own icon and no browser bars (Settings > General > Install on Your Phone). Swipe between pages. Nothing is kept offline: your data always comes from your server |
| 🛡️ Security | One password, optional two-step login, encrypted tabs and backups, and checked updates you can undo |
Screenshots
Every picture is the running app. Dark is the default and light is one click away.
Install
Requirements
| You need | Details |
|---|
| Hosting | PHP 8.3 or newer (tested on 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5) |
| Access | A file manager or FTP |
| HTTPS | Recommended |
| Database | None |
Quick start
- Download
site-update-X.Y.Z.zip from the latest release.
- In your hosting file manager, upload it to your domain's folder (for example
public_html) and extract it there.
- Open your domain and click the key icon. Enter the setup code from
site-data/core/SETUP-CODE.php and choose a password.
[!TIP]
Open Settings > Overview > Guided Setup next. It walks you through a strong password, two-step login, an encryption passphrase, a first backup and Telegram, one step at a time.
[!WARNING]
Never delete site-data. It holds all your data, and updates never touch it.
Updating
Open Settings > Updates.
- Press Check Now to look for a new version on GitHub. The daily check is off unless you turn it on.
- Press Download and Check. The download is verified against its SHA-256, and you see what will change.
- Apply it with your password. A copy of the current version is kept first, and Go Back restores it.
You can also upload a zip in the same place.
[!NOTE]
An update that needs a newer PHP than your server has is refused, and nothing changes.
Telegram
Optional. Set it up in Settings > Telegram and your site can message you:
- A daily digest of what is due.
- Due Now messages with Done, Skip and Snooze buttons (1 Hour, 3 Hours or Tomorrow).
- Backup files sent to your chat.
- Commands you can type to the bot:
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/today | Overdue and due today, with Done buttons |
/week | The next 7 days |
/next | The next 10 tasks |
/add Netflix 649 monthly 5 Nov | A new task (price, repeat, date and time are optional) |
/done Netflix | Mark a task done |
/snooze Netflix 2h | Pause its reminders (30m, 2h, 1d or tomorrow) |
/backup | Send a backup file now |
/status | A quick check of the site |
Security in short
| Area | What it does |
|---|
| 🔑 Login | One bcrypt password, optional two-step login with recovery codes, trusted browsers and a device list. Logins pause after five wrong tries. |
| 🔐 Encryption | Tabs in Links and Info and your backups can be encrypted. The keys are made in your browser from your passphrase, so a lost passphrase and recovery key means lost data. |
| 🚪 Closed data | Data files answer 404 to a browser, even on hosts where .htaccess is ignored. |
| ♻️ Safe updates | They come only from this project's GitHub releases, are compared with the release's SHA-256 checksum and fully checked before anything changes, and need your password. |
| ⏳ PHP support | Settings tells you when your PHP stops getting security fixes. |
| 🧰 Tools | Every tool runs in your browser; files are not uploaded. The camera, microphone and screen sharing are allowed on the Tools page only, after you press a button. |
More on the Security page. To report a problem, open an issue. For anything else, message me on Telegram: @Jackpison.
Where things are stored
| What | Where |
|---|
| Your data: pages, settings, login, backups | site-data/ in your site folder, closed to browsers |
| Your logo, start page photos and saved link icons | web/hub/media/, never replaced by an update |
| The README, changelog and readable source | web/hub/docs/, closed to browsers |
FAQ
Contributing
Bug reports and ideas are welcome. CONTRIBUTING.md has the short version, and AGENTS.md lists every check to run before a change.
Building and testing
The readable source is in src/. To build the update zip you need Python 3 and Node:
npm ci
python3 scripts/build.py
This writes build/site-update-X.Y.Z.zip and its .sha256. python3 scripts/make-site.py builds the website and the PDF guide into build/site. The tests are described in tests/README.md.
Releases
python3 scripts/release.py X.Y.Z raises the version everywhere, and python3 scripts/release.py --check checks that it agrees. A release is made by pushing a tag vX.Y.Z that matches the version in src/web/hub/core/lib/boot.php. The release workflow builds the zip, publishes the release and updates the website.
Changelog
Every version is in CHANGELOG.md and on the website. Each release page lists only what changed in that version.
Contact
Licence and credits
Homebase Hub is free software under the GPL-3.0. Bundled libraries keep their own licences, listed in THIRD-PARTY.md. The website uses the Manrope font (SIL Open Font License). Start page photos in the screenshots carry their own credits.
