Tugtainer

Tugtainer is a self-hosted application that checks for new Docker images and helps you update containers through a web UI. It supports both manual and scheduled update flows and can manage multiple Docker hosts via an optional agent.

Key Features

• Web UI dashboard with authentication
• Scheduled checks/updates via cron-like scheduling
• Per-container policy: ignore, check only, or auto-update
• Multi-host management using a lightweight Tugtainer Agent
• Safe grouping for updates (Docker Compose project grouping and custom dependency labels)
• Optional Docker socket-proxy support to avoid mounting the Docker socket directly
• Private registry support via mounted Docker config
• Notifications via Apprise with templated messages
• Manual and automatic image pruning

Use Cases

• Keep homelab services updated while retaining per-service control
• Centralize image monitoring and update operations for multiple Docker hosts
• Receive notifications when updates are available without auto-updating critical containers

Limitations and Considerations

• Automatic updates are disabled by default and must be explicitly enabled per container
• Not recommended for production environments by the project
• Containers marked as protected (and non-running containers) will be skipped during updates; the app/agent/socket-proxy themselves should not be auto-updated from within Tugtainer

Tugtainer fits well for users who want a UI-driven alternative to purely CLI-based update routines. It combines scheduled automation, dependency-aware update ordering, and flexible notification options to keep Docker workloads current with controlled risk.