betterNAS

betterNAS is a self-hostable WebDAV stack for mounting NAS exports in Finder.

The default product shape is:

node-service serves the real files from the NAS over WebDAV
control-server owns auth, nodes, exports, grants, and mount profile issuance
web control plane lets the user manage the NAS and get mount instructions
macOS client starts as native Finder WebDAV mounting, with a thin helper later

For now, the whole stack should be able to run on the user's NAS device.

Current repo shape

apps/node-agent
- NAS-side Go runtime and WebDAV server
apps/control-plane
- Go backend for auth, registry, and mount profile issuance
apps/web
- Next.js web control plane
apps/nextcloud-app
- optional Nextcloud adapter, not the product center
packages/contracts
- canonical shared contracts
infra/docker
- self-hosted local stack

The main planning docs are:

Default runtime model

                   self-hosted betterNAS on the user's NAS

                         +------------------------------+
                         | web control plane            |
                         | Next.js UI                   |
                         +--------------+---------------+
                                        |
                                        v
                         +------------------------------+
                         | control-server               |
                         | auth / nodes / exports       |
                         | grants / mount profiles      |
                         +--------------+---------------+
                                        |
                                        v
                         +------------------------------+
                         | node-service                 |
                         | WebDAV + export runtime      |
                         | real NAS bytes               |
                         +------------------------------+

 user Mac
   |
   +--> browser -> web control plane
   |
   +--> Finder -> WebDAV mount URL from control-server

Verify

Static verification:

pnpm verify

Bootstrap clone-local runtime settings:

pnpm agent:bootstrap

Bring the self-hosted stack up, verify it, and tear it down:

pnpm stack:up
pnpm stack:verify
pnpm stack:down --volumes

Run the full loop:

pnpm agent:verify

Current end-to-end slice

The first proven slice is:

boot the stack with pnpm stack:up
verify it with pnpm stack:verify
get the WebDAV mount URL
mount it in Finder

If the stack is running on a remote machine, tunnel the WebDAV port first, then use Finder Connect to Server with the tunneled URL.

Product boundary

The default betterNAS product is self-hosted and WebDAV-first.

Nextcloud remains optional and secondary:

useful later for browser/mobile/share surfaces
not required for the core mount flow
not the system of record

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