54 Terabytes Under the Desk
Proxmox, k3s, Ollama, RAG — a home lab becomes an autonomous family AI
Shell · MCP · Claude Code · Bedrock
When my wife asks what's in the server room, I say: 'Jarvis.' That's a lie, of course. There's a Minisforum N5Pro. Small, quiet, 96 GB RAM. But what runs on it is closer to Jarvis than to a normal home server.
Why a Homelab When There's the Cloud?
Because I want to control my data. Photos, tax returns, health records, kids' report cards — that doesn't belong on someone else's servers. And because I want to run local LLMs. Models that process my documents without a single token leaving the hardware.
When your homelab processes your tax documents, tags your family photos, and analyzes your health data, 'local' isn't a preference. It's the only defensible option.
The Architecture Behind Jarvis
Proxmox 9
Hypervisor. 8 VMs + 26 LXC containers.
TrueNAS
54 TB storage. Family-centric architecture.
k3s Cluster
3 masters + 2 workers for container workloads.
Home Assistant
Home automation with KNX, MQTT, ESPHome.
AI Stack
Ollama, Qdrant, n8n agents. All local.
Media
Jellyfin, PhotoPrism, Audiobookshelf.
The Family at the Center
Each family member has their area: documents, photos, videos, backups. Plus shared: family photos, vacation videos, insurance, school documents. PhotoPrism sorts automatically. Audiobookshelf manages audiobooks. Jellyfin streams throughout the house.
Ollama and the n8n Agents
96 GB RAM fully utilized. Llama, Codellama, Mistral — no token goes to an external server. No prompt is logged. No model can be shut down because a provider changes pricing.
The exciting part isn't individual services. It's the interconnection. n8n workflows as agents: search Paperless, generate Ollama answers, feed results into Home Assistant. All local.
RAG for Your Own Life
'When was the last vehicle inspection?' — and the system doesn't search folders but understands the question and finds the answer in a scanned letter from three years ago. On a Minisforum under my desk.
The Dream of an Autonomous Home
The doorbell recognizes faces. Known face → open door, lights on, start music. Unknown → notification with photo. All local.
“When my son asks in ten years why there's a server in the basement, I'll say: 'That's Jarvis. He takes care of us.'”
— Philipp
Homelab with AI for your family? Let's talk about local AI infrastructure.
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