Brainz Lab Stack

Self-hosted observability and developer tools platform for Rails applications.

Overview

Brainz Lab provides complete observability and developer tools for your Rails apps:

Observability

Recall - Structured logging with powerful search
Reflex - Error tracking with smart grouping
Pulse - APM with distributed tracing
Beacon - Uptime monitoring and status pages
Sentinel - Infrastructure and host monitoring

Developer Tools

Signal - Alerting and notifications hub
Flux - Feature flags and experiments
Vault - Secrets management
Vision - Visual regression testing

Quick Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/brainz-lab/stack/main/install.sh | bash

Requirements

Docker & Docker Compose
4GB RAM minimum (8GB recommended for full stack)

Note: The first start takes ~2 minutes while 36 databases are created and schemas are loaded. Subsequent starts are much faster.

Services

Application Services

Service	Port	Subdomain	Description
Recall	3001	recall.localhost	Structured logging
Reflex	3002	reflex.localhost	Error tracking
Pulse	3003	pulse.localhost	APM & tracing
Flux	3004	flux.localhost	Feature flags
Signal	3005	signal.localhost	Alerting hub
Vault	3006	vault.localhost	Secrets management
Beacon	3007	beacon.localhost	Uptime monitoring
Vision	3008	vision.localhost	Visual testing
Sentinel	3009	sentinel.localhost	Infrastructure monitoring

Infrastructure Services

Service	Port	Description
Traefik	80, 8080	Reverse proxy (dashboard on 8080)
TimescaleDB	5432	PostgreSQL with time-series extensions
Redis	6379	Cache and job queues
MinIO	9000, 9001	S3-compatible object storage

Usage

Start

./scripts/start.sh

Stop

./scripts/stop.sh

View Logs

./scripts/logs.sh          # All services
./scripts/logs.sh recall   # Single service

Reset Data

./scripts/reset.sh

Accessing Services

Via Subdomains (Recommended)

Traefik routes requests based on subdomain. On macOS, .localhost domains resolve automatically. On Linux, add to /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1 recall.localhost reflex.localhost pulse.localhost
127.0.0.1 flux.localhost signal.localhost vault.localhost
127.0.0.1 beacon.localhost vision.localhost sentinel.localhost

Then access: http://recall.localhost, http://reflex.localhost, etc.

Via Direct Ports

Access services directly: http://localhost:3001 (Recall), http://localhost:3002 (Reflex), etc.

Traefik Dashboard

View routing and health: http://localhost:8080

Integrate with Your App

1. Add the SDK

# Gemfile
gem 'brainzlab'

2. Configure

# config/initializers/brainzlab.rb
BrainzLab.configure do |config|
  config.secret_key = ENV['BRAINZLAB_SECRET_KEY']

  # Self-hosted URLs (via Traefik subdomains)
  config.recall_url = ENV['RECALL_URL']   # http://recall.localhost
  config.reflex_url = ENV['REFLEX_URL']   # http://reflex.localhost
  config.pulse_url  = ENV['PULSE_URL']    # http://pulse.localhost
  config.signal_url = ENV['SIGNAL_URL']   # http://signal.localhost
  config.flux_url   = ENV['FLUX_URL']     # http://flux.localhost
  config.vault_url  = ENV['VAULT_URL']    # http://vault.localhost
end

Tip: Run ./scripts/setup.sh to generate keys and optionally export URLs to your shell profile.

3. Use

# Logging
BrainzLab::Recall.info("User signed up", user_id: user.id)

# Error tracking (automatic in Rails, or manual)
BrainzLab::Reflex.capture(exception, user: current_user)

# APM (automatic instrumentation)
# Just install the gem and it works!

# Custom metrics
BrainzLab::Pulse.increment("orders.created")
BrainzLab::Pulse.gauge("queue.size", Sidekiq::Queue.new.size)

# Feature flags
if BrainzLab::Flux.enabled?(:new_checkout, user: current_user)
  # New checkout flow
end

# Secrets
api_key = BrainzLab::Vault.get("stripe/api_key")

# Alerts
BrainzLab::Signal.trigger("high_error_rate", severity: :critical)

Configuration

Copy .env.example to .env and customize:

cp .env.example .env

Key Settings

Variable	Description	Default
`POSTGRES_USER`	Database user	`brainzlab`
`POSTGRES_PASSWORD`	Database password	`brainzlab`
`RECALL_PORT`	Recall port	`3001`
`REFLEX_PORT`	Reflex port	`3002`
`PULSE_PORT`	Pulse port	`3003`
`FLUX_PORT`	Flux port	`3004`
`SIGNAL_PORT`	Signal port	`3005`
`VAULT_PORT`	Vault port	`3006`
`BEACON_PORT`	Beacon port	`3007`
`VISION_PORT`	Vision port	`3008`
`SENTINEL_PORT`	Sentinel port	`3009`

Subdomain Configuration (Production)

Variable	Description	Default
`RECALL_HOST`	Recall subdomain	`recall.localhost`
`REFLEX_HOST`	Reflex subdomain	`reflex.localhost`
`PULSE_HOST`	Pulse subdomain	`pulse.localhost`
`FLUX_HOST`	Flux subdomain	`flux.localhost`
`SIGNAL_HOST`	Signal subdomain	`signal.localhost`
`VAULT_HOST`	Vault subdomain	`vault.localhost`
`BEACON_HOST`	Beacon subdomain	`beacon.localhost`
`VISION_HOST`	Vision subdomain	`vision.localhost`
`SENTINEL_HOST`	Sentinel subdomain	`sentinel.localhost`

Using GitHub Container Registry

To use GHCR instead of Docker Hub:

RECALL_IMAGE=ghcr.io/brainz-lab/recall:latest
REFLEX_IMAGE=ghcr.io/brainz-lab/reflex:latest
PULSE_IMAGE=ghcr.io/brainz-lab/pulse:latest
# ... etc for other services

Production Deployment

Prerequisites

Use a managed database (RDS, Cloud SQL, etc.) or secure your TimescaleDB
Set up HTTPS - Traefik can handle Let's Encrypt automatically
Configure proper secrets in .env
Set up backups for PostgreSQL and MinIO

DNS Configuration

Set up DNS records pointing to your server:

recall.yourdomain.com    → Your server IP
reflex.yourdomain.com    → Your server IP
pulse.yourdomain.com     → Your server IP
flux.yourdomain.com      → Your server IP
signal.yourdomain.com    → Your server IP
vault.yourdomain.com     → Your server IP
beacon.yourdomain.com    → Your server IP
vision.yourdomain.com    → Your server IP
sentinel.yourdomain.com  → Your server IP

Environment Variables for Production

# Database
POSTGRES_USER=brainzlab
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=<strong-password>

# Master keys - leave EMPTY for pre-built images.
# The images include encrypted credentials that match their built-in keys.
# Setting custom master keys will cause "key must be 16 bytes" errors.
RECALL_MASTER_KEY=
REFLEX_MASTER_KEY=
PULSE_MASTER_KEY=
FLUX_MASTER_KEY=
SIGNAL_MASTER_KEY=
VAULT_MASTER_KEY=
BEACON_MASTER_KEY=
VISION_MASTER_KEY=
SENTINEL_MASTER_KEY=

# Secret keys and SDK key (auto-generated by setup.sh)
BRAINZLAB_SECRET_KEY=<generated-key>

# Subdomains (your domain)
RECALL_HOST=recall.yourdomain.com
REFLEX_HOST=reflex.yourdomain.com
PULSE_HOST=pulse.yourdomain.com
FLUX_HOST=flux.yourdomain.com
SIGNAL_HOST=signal.yourdomain.com
VAULT_HOST=vault.yourdomain.com
BEACON_HOST=beacon.yourdomain.com
VISION_HOST=vision.yourdomain.com
SENTINEL_HOST=sentinel.yourdomain.com

Traefik with HTTPS

Update traefik/traefik.yml for production with Let's Encrypt:

entryPoints:
  web:
    address: ":80"
    http:
      redirections:
        entryPoint:
          to: websecure
  websecure:
    address: ":443"

certificatesResolvers:
  letsencrypt:
    acme:
      email: your-email@example.com
      storage: /letsencrypt/acme.json
      httpChallenge:
        entryPoint: web

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        Your Rails App                            │
│                                                                  │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐    │
│  │                    brainzlab gem                         │    │
│  │  Recall │ Reflex │ Pulse │ Signal │ Flux │ Vault        │    │
│  └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         Traefik                                  │
│              (Reverse Proxy + Load Balancer)                     │
│         recall.* │ reflex.* │ pulse.* │ ...                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
     ┌────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┐
     ▼                        ▼                        ▼
┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐
│ Recall  │  │ Reflex  │  │  Pulse  │  │  Flux   │  │ Signal  │
│  :3001  │  │  :3002  │  │  :3003  │  │  :3004  │  │  :3005  │
└────┬────┘  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘
     │            │            │            │            │
     └────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
                              │
     ┌────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┐
     ▼                        ▼                        ▼
┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌─────────┐
│  Vault  │  │ Beacon  │  │ Vision  │  │Sentinel │  │  MinIO  │
│  :3006  │  │  :3007  │  │  :3008  │  │  :3009  │  │  :9000  │
└────┬────┘  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘  └────┬────┘  └─────────┘
     │            │            │            │
     └────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘
                              │
              ┌───────────────┴───────────────┐
              ▼                               ▼
       ┌─────────────┐                 ┌─────────────┐
       │ TimescaleDB │                 │    Redis    │
       │    :5432    │                 │    :6379    │
       └─────────────┘                 └─────────────┘

Health Checks

All services expose a /up endpoint for health checks:

curl http://localhost:3001/up  # Recall
curl http://localhost:3002/up  # Reflex
# ... etc

Traefik dashboard shows service health: http://localhost:8080

Troubleshooting

Services won't start

Check if ports are in use:

lsof -i :3001  # Check if port is taken

Container name conflicts

If you see "container name already in use" errors:

docker-compose down --remove-orphans
docker-compose up -d

Database connection errors

Ensure TimescaleDB is healthy:

docker-compose ps timescaledb
docker-compose logs timescaledb

Services return 502

On first boot, services need ~2 minutes for database setup. Wait and retry:

# Check a specific service
docker-compose logs vault
# Look for "Listening on http://0.0.0.0:3000" to confirm it's ready

Seed warnings

Some services may show seed warnings like NoMethodError or RecordInvalid during first boot. These are non-fatal - the services still start and function correctly.

Reset everything

If something goes wrong and you want a completely fresh start:

./scripts/reset.sh          # Removes all data and volumes
./scripts/start.sh          # Start fresh

Traefik routing issues

Check Traefik dashboard at http://localhost:8080 for:

Service health (green = healthy)
Router configuration
Active routes

View all logs

docker-compose logs -f

Documentation

Full documentation: docs.brainzlab.ai/self-hosting

License

MIT

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 17 Commits
postgres/init		postgres/init
scripts		scripts
traefik		traefik
.env.example		.env.example
.gitignore		.gitignore
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
docker-compose.yml		docker-compose.yml
install.sh		install.sh

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Brainz Lab Stack

Overview

Quick Install

Requirements

Services

Application Services

Infrastructure Services

Usage

Start

Stop

View Logs

Reset Data

Accessing Services

Via Subdomains (Recommended)

Via Direct Ports

Traefik Dashboard

Integrate with Your App

1. Add the SDK

2. Configure

3. Use

Configuration

Key Settings

Subdomain Configuration (Production)

Using GitHub Container Registry

Production Deployment

Prerequisites

DNS Configuration

Environment Variables for Production

Traefik with HTTPS

Architecture

Health Checks

Troubleshooting

Services won't start

Container name conflicts

Database connection errors

Services return 502

Seed warnings

Reset everything

Traefik routing issues

View all logs

Documentation

Related

License

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