Topographer

I never could find a dashboard service I liked. So...using AI, I prompted what I wanted to see. I always wanted to build a network topology but I figured there had to be a way to do it automatically instead of manually running all the commands to compile the network information then piece it together. Same thing with every machine on the network that had a topology to generate as well as a dashboard for that machine. I like it..it works for me. I hope you enjoy it for what it is. - FugginOld

Two topology tools in one repo:

1. Network topology — auto-discover a homelab network from live sources, normalize into one canonical model, render as an animated HTML dashboard. (the original pipeline, below)
2. Hardware topology + fleet dashboard — scan each machine's real hardware fabric (CPU, RAM, PCIe lanes, NVMe, NICs with link state, USB, displays) and watch every machine on your network from one live dashboard, with per-host CPU/net/disk telemetry. See HOWTO.md for the full setup.

The repo is the tooling. Your actual topology (IPs, MACs, hostnames, VLAN policy) is a build artifact and is gitignored — see Security.

Hardware topology + fleet dashboard

Map the real hardware of every machine on your network and watch them live:

   Windows PC ─┐  ./agent/report.sh  (or agent\report.ps1)
   Linux box  ─┼──►  topo_server.py on one host  ──►  live dashboard, one card per machine
   Proxmox    ─┘     (POST /api/ingest + telemetry)

• One server runs python renderers/html/topo_server.py; open http://HOST:8770.
• Each machine runs an agent that scans its own hardware and pushes its topology and live telemetry (agent/report.sh on Linux, agent/report.ps1 on Windows, or the bootstrap.sh one-liner for a fresh Debian box).
• Scanners: scanners/make_pc_topo.py (Windows, PnP/CIM) and scanners/make_linux_topo.py (Linux, sysfs/proc). Live metrics: core/local_telemetry.py (real CPU temp on Linux).

Full step-by-step — server firewall, each reporting machine, persistence, naming, tokens, troubleshooting — is in HOWTO.md.

How it works

sources ──▶ collectors ──▶ topo.json ──▶ renderers
(live)      (read-only)     (canonical)       (live dashboard)

Every collector is read-only and emits raw dicts. core/normalize.py merges them into one Topology (deduped by MAC, then reconciled by IP and hostname), core/enrich.py adds vendor/kind, and renderers consume only the canonical model — so you can add outputs without touching collection.

Quick start

pip install -r requirements.txt            # only PyYAML is required
python renderers/html/topo_server.py   # http://localhost:8770

On a Linux host, ./install.sh sets the dashboard up as a systemd service (starts on boot, prints its own URL); ./uninstall.sh removes it. See HOWTO.md.

Open the dashboard and click SCAN NETWORK — with no config at all it ping-sweeps your subnet and, if it doesn't recognise a gateway collector, fingerprints your router and tells you which one to enable (e.g. "gateway 192.168.1.1 looks like UNIFI — add a unifi API key"). Then:

cp config.example.yaml config.yaml         # edit — this file is gitignored
# enable unifi / proxmox / etc. with their API keys, then re-scan

Prefer the CLI? python scanners/make_network_topo.py --config config.yaml writes out/topo.json directly.

Adding a machine to the fleet: right-click any host in the network map → Generate machine topology. If SSH remote-scan is configured it scans over SSH; otherwise it hands you the one-line bootstrap.sh command to run on that host (persistent service, or TOPO_ONCE=1 for a one-off snapshot).

Collectors

MAC is the primary join key; nodes are then reconciled by IP and hostname so a host seen by three collectors collapses into one. unifi/proxmox/pingsweep are stdlib-only (no requests); the gateway/API collectors auto-degrade to [] when their source is absent, so enabling several is safe.

Renderer

• renderers/html/ — animated dashboard (VLAN zones, firewall hub, Tailscale overlay toggle, click-to-isolate). Reads topo.json; refreshes every 30s.

Automation

Runs on a homelab host, not GitHub Actions (Actions can't reach your LAN). See systemd/ for a timer that regenerates the map every 10 minutes. If you want history/diffing, snapshot each topo.json into SQLite and diff runs.

Security

Your generated topology is a map of your network. Keep it out of git. .gitignore already excludes config.yaml, out/, *.raw.json, and topo.json. Recommended: keep this repo private. If public, only ever commit the tooling and config.example.yaml (dummy values). One accidental git add -A of a build artifact leaks the whole layout.

Layout

collectors/   read-only source adapters (one file per source)
core/         schema · normalize · enrich · detect (gateway fingerprint) · oui.csv
renderers/    html/ (dashboard + topo_server.py) · card.py · network_cards.py
systemd/      units: topo-server (dashboard) · topo-agent · timer
tests/        fixtures + end-to-end pipeline test
scanners/make_network_topo.py   network topology orchestrator (collectors → topo.json)

# hardware topology + fleet dashboard (see HOWTO.md)
scanners/make_pc_topo.py      Windows hardware scan (PnP/CIM)
scanners/make_linux_topo.py   Linux hardware scan (sysfs/proc/USB/thermal)
core/local_telemetry.py       shared live CPU/net/disk/temp sampler
agent/topo_agent.py        push topology + telemetry to the server
install.sh · uninstall.sh  set up / remove the dashboard as a Linux service
agent/report.sh · agent/report.ps1   run the agent (self-updating)
Dockerfile · docker-compose.yml · templates/topographer.xml
                         run the dashboard as a container (incl. Unraid CA)
bootstrap.sh             agent one-liner install (Linux/Unraid): systemd / go-script /
                         TOPO_ONCE snapshot — adapts to the host, git-free
bootstrap.ps1            agent one-liner install (Windows): scheduled task, zip-fetch

Tests

python tests/test_pipeline.py      # no live network; uses fixtures

Every check CI runs is listed in CONTRIBUTING.md — all offline, seconds to run.

License

MIT © 2026 FugginOld. Covers everything in this repository, including the Unraid Community Applications template in templates/.