Homebox¶

Homebox is an inventory and organization system built specifically for home users, focusing on simplicity, speed, and ease of use.

Description¶

It helps you keep track of your belongings, their locations, warranties, and purchase details. Written in Go, it is extremely lightweight (typically using less than 50MB of RAM) and uses SQLite for portable data management.

When to use it¶

When you need a simple, fast inventory system to track household items.
For organizing belongings across multiple locations (e.g., "Garage", "Attic", "Storage Unit").
To keep track of warranties, purchase dates, and prices for insurance or maintenance purposes.
When you want a self-hosted solution that is easy to backup and move.

When not to use it¶

When you need complex multi-user permission models or enterprise-grade asset management.
When you require deep integration with e-commerce platforms or point-of-sale systems.
If you need a system that supports a massive number of concurrent users (it is designed for home/small team use).

Links¶

Alternatives¶

Grocy (more focused on groceries and meal planning)
Snipe-IT (Enterprise-grade IT asset management)

Getting started¶

Docker¶

The fastest way to run Homebox is using the official Docker image:

docker run -d \
  --name homebox \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  --publish 3100:7745 \
  -v /path/to/data:/data \
  ghcr.io/sysadminsmedia/homebox:latest

Access the web interface at http://localhost:3100.

Hello World¶

Open http://localhost:3100 in your browser.
Create your initial admin account.
Navigate to Locations and create a new location called "Living Room".
Go to Items, click Add Item, and add "Smart TV" to the "Living Room" location.
You've started your inventory!

CLI examples¶

While Homebox is primarily managed via its web interface, you can use docker exec for basic administrative tasks:

# View the help menu for the Homebox binary
docker exec homebox /app/homebox --help

# Check the version of the running Homebox instance
docker exec homebox /app/homebox version

# Export the internal database to a SQL file (manual backup)
docker exec homebox sqlite3 /data/homebox.db .dump > backup.sql

API examples¶

Homebox provides a REST API for programmatic interaction.

Health Check¶

curl -X GET "http://localhost:3100/api/v1/health"

List Items (using a Bearer Token)¶

If authentication is enabled, you will need to provide an API token:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
     "http://localhost:3100/api/v1/items"

Python Example¶

import requests

url = "http://localhost:3100/api/v1/items"
headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
if response.status_code == 200:
    items = response.json()
    for item in items:
        print(f"Item: {item['name']}, Location: {item['location']['name']}")

Backlog¶

Export data to CSV for insurance purposes.

Contribution Metadata¶

Confidence: high
Last reviewed: 2026-03-02

Sources / References¶

https://github.com/sysadminsmedia/homebox
https://homebox.software/
https://snipeitapp.com/