> The dashboard runs in one of two modes.
> Source: https://zedensix.com/homerun/canary/docs/ui-modes · Site index: https://zedensix.com/llms.txt

# Simple and advanced modes

The dashboard runs in one of two modes.

- **Simple** is for self-hosting a homelab through click-ops: a short sidebar,
  templates and one-click deploys up front, sensible defaults, and the
  engineering settings out of the way.
- **Advanced** shows the full feature set for engineering work: environments,
  release channels, pull request previews, revisions, infrastructure as code,
  object storage, build servers, the registry and observability in depth.

A mode only changes what's in view. A feature simple mode hides keeps working:
services that use it keep using it, scheduled jobs still run, and its page still
opens from a link or by typing its address. Landing on a hidden page keeps its
sidebar entry, tab or section highlighted, so you can see where you are.

## Picking a mode

- **For the instance**: the onboarding wizard asks "How will you use Homerun?"
  on its first step, **Homelab, click-ops** (simple) or **Engineering work**
  (advanced), and makes that the instance default. An admin changes it later
  under **Settings → General → Interface mode**. An instance that never picked
  one, including every instance set up before modes existed, is in advanced
  mode.
- **For your account**: **Profile → Appearance → Interface** picks **Simple**,
  **Advanced** or **Follow the instance default** (the default). The profile
  menu in the top right has a **Switch to simple mode** or **Switch to advanced
  mode** shortcut that saves the same choice in one click.

Your own choice wins over the instance default. Read-only accounts can switch
too: the mode is a personal preference, not a change to the instance.

## What simple mode hides

### Sidebar

Simple mode keeps **Overview**, **Services**, **Monitoring**, **Stacks**,
**Templates**, **Cron Jobs**, **Status Page**, **Volumes**, **Backups**,
**Backup Destinations**, **Redirects**, **Git Providers**, **Notification
Channels**, **DNS**, **Users**, **Authentication** and **Settings** (the last
four for admins, as in advanced mode).

It hides **Deployments** (the instance-wide history), **Remote Hosts**,
**Scheduling**, **Terminal**, **Build Cache**, **Object Storage**,
**Infrastructure as Code**, **IDP**, **API Docs**, **System Logs**, **Docker
Registry** and **Docker Cleanup**. **Monitoring** stays with its traffic, uptime
and host charts; its **Traces**, **CrowdSec** and **Settings** tabs are hidden.

### A service's tabs

Every tab stays. Inside them, simple mode hides:

- **Environments & Revisions**: the **Environments** list, **Revisions**,
  **Previews** and **Channels**. The tab opens on **Source**, and **Environment
  Variables** stays. On a git service, the build method, build cache and build
  server sit behind a collapsed **Advanced** section on **Source**.
- **Overview**: the header's **⋯** menu gains **Roll back to the previous
  version** once the service has an earlier revision to go back to, in place of
  the Revisions list.
- **Observability**: **Traces** and **Pipelines**. **Monitoring**, **Logs**,
  **Uptime**, **Errors** and **Health** stay, and Health only shows the current
  healthcheck, not the override settings.
- **Networking**: the **Ports** and **Cache** sections, and on **Network** the
  network mode sits behind a collapsed **Advanced** section. **Domains** and
  **Network** stay.
- **Container**: **Runtime** (entrypoint, command, labels, capabilities,
  devices…). On a swarm instance, **Replicas** and placement sit behind a
  collapsed **Advanced** section on **Compute**.
- **Security**: **Blocked paths** and the login wall's path rules. The login
  wall itself and image scanning stay.

A setting simple mode tucks away still shows when a service already uses it:
blocked paths that are set, a response cache, published or exposed ports,
healthcheck overrides, host network mode or more than one replica.

### Settings

Simple mode keeps **General**, **Networking**, **Email** and **Migrate**, and
hides **Docker**, **TLS**, **Error pages** and **IP bans**. A hidden tab comes
back when a setup issue points at one of its fields.

### Creating a service

The wizard keeps all its steps, with the essentials first and the rest behind a
collapsed **Advanced** section: the build method and cache for a git repo, the
network mode and protocol, and on the **Runtime** step the restart policy,
limits, command and healthcheck, summarized above the section so you can see the
defaults you're getting. The Runtime section opens on its own when detection
filled any of it in.

## The Overview in simple mode

Simple mode puts a **Deploy an app** strip above the service counts: a handful
of popular templates (Jellyfin, Immich, Vaultwarden, Home Assistant, Nextcloud,
Paperless-ngx, AdGuard Home, Uptime Kuma), each with a **Quick Deploy** button
that creates and deploys it with no further input, plus links to every template
and to deploying any Docker image. Read-only accounts don't get the strip.
Everything else on the [dashboard](https://zedensix.com/homerun/canary/docs/dashboard) stays as in advanced mode.