wtf is nexternel?

Nexternel is a smart home system you run yourself on your own Linux server at home, instead of relying on a company's cloud service. It watches sensors and controls relays, which are switches that turn devices on and off, all over your own local network. Small ESP32 microcontroller devices, cheap Wi-Fi chips often used in DIY electronics, send sensor readings and switch states over a messaging system called MQTT. A tool called Node-RED takes that data, stores a history of it in a database called InfluxDB, and can run automation rules. A web dashboard lets you see everything and control your devices, backed by an API server, with a PostgreSQL database keeping track of users, devices, rooms, and how your dashboard is laid out. Everything runs inside Docker containers, a way of packaging software so each piece runs in its own isolated environment, started together with a single command. This means you do not need to separately install the messaging system, the databases, or the automation tool on your server, Docker handles all of that for you. Setting it up means getting an Ubuntu Linux server on your home network with about 2 gigabytes of memory, installing Docker on it, and copying the project files over, either with git or by uploading them with an SFTP tool like FileZilla. You then create a configuration file with passwords and secrets, generate a password file for the messaging system, and start everything with one command. After that you create an admin account, connect Node-RED to the messaging system, and log into the web dashboard. Connecting actual ESP32 hardware is an optional final step, and the project includes example configurations for a living room sensor and relay setup and a four relay garden board. The dashboard itself shows a customizable grid of widgets such as sensor readings, relay switches, gauges, a clock, and weather, arranged across multiple tabs, and lets you edit devices, rooms, and automations from a settings area.