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Frank 3d4604c19f Stand up open-webui on dankclaw (quadlet, boot-persistent)

Replace the dead dankserver open-webui (bare container, :3000, pointed at a
dead :9090 backend) with a boot-persistent quadlet on dankclaw:
- CPU image (:main); dankclaw is CPU-only, so the :cuda image is wasted.
- Isolated on slirp4netns; publishes 3005 (3000 is Gitea's HTTP port).
- Default LLM backend is the local vLLM on 52625 (frank-default-large).
- Data persists under /home/dank/Containers/open-webui/data.
- Caddy route now proxies to the published LAN port (the container is not on
  Caddy's network).

Also corrects the model/port mapping in the docs: the live state (verified
2026-08-19) is frank-default-large on vLLM :52625 (dankclaw) and
frank-default-small on llama.cpp :7770 (dankserver) — the reverse of the
2026-08-17 note.

2026-08-19 01:04:50 -07:00

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OpenWebUI

OpenWebUI is a self-hosted chat interface for LLMs. It connects to OpenAI-compatible endpoints (vLLM, llama.cpp, Ollama) and adds RAG, plugins, tool calling, and multi-user support.

Host: Dankclaw — Port: 3005 (host) → 8080 (container) — Boot-persistent: Quadlet — Docs: https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui

Facts

Item	Value
Image	`ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main` (CPU build; Dankclaw is CPU-only)
Port	3005 (host) → 8080 (container). Port 3000 is Gitea's HTTP, so it is not usable.
Data volume	`/home/dank/Containers/open-webui/data` → `/app/backend/data`
Default backend	vLLM on Dankclaw `:52625` = `frank-default-large` (via `host.containers.internal:52625`)
Network	`slirp4netns` (isolated)
Persistence	Quadlet unit `open-webui.service`; `[Install] WantedBy=default.target`
Deploy	`scripts/deploy-open-webui-quadlet.sh dankclaw`

The LLM backends

The fleet runs two OpenAI-compatible endpoints. This mapping is the live state (verified 2026-08-19); it is the reverse of the 2026-08-17 note, which is now out of date.

Endpoint	Model name	Host	Capability
`:52625` (vLLM)	`frank-default-large`	Dankclaw	completion
`:7770` (llama.cpp FastMTP)	`frank-default-small`	Dankserver	completion, multimodal

The default connection points at the local vLLM (frank-default-large), so chat stays on-host. To add the other backend, open Admin → Connections in the UI and point an OpenAI connection at http://192.168.0.235:7770/v1 (key none).

Both endpoints are bare-metal systemd services managed by the sibling vllmScripts repository (not this repo). Model swaps, context sizing, and spec tuning happen there. See the vllmScripts knowledge base.

Boot persistence (Quadlet)

The unit lives at dankclaw/open-webui/quadlet/open-webui.container. On the host it installs to ~/.config/containers/systemd/open-webui.container. The generator turns it into open-webui.service. Because the unit sets [Install] WantedBy=default.target and user linger is on, it starts at boot. systemctl --user is-enabled open-webui.service reports generated (the quadlet boot-start state).

Volumes

Container path	Host path
`/app/backend/data`	`/home/dank/Containers/open-webui/data`

The data dir holds the database, RAG indexes, and uploads. The deploy script creates it if missing and preserves it across reruns.

Healthcheck

OpenWebUI responds on /health with 200. Probe it at http://dankclaw:3005/health.

Retired instances

The compose open-webui service (port 3000) was never run: 3000 is Gitea's HTTP port, so it could not bind.
The bare-container open-webui on Dankserver (port 3000) pointed at a dead backend (:9090) and was removed. Its data dir is preserved on Dankserver in case it is needed.
The bare-container searxng on Dankserver (port 8081) was removed. SearXNG now runs only on Dankclaw behind Caddy.

Gotchas

Use the non-CUDA image on this CPU-only host.
The default admin account is created on first login; secure it immediately.
If the backend is loading (3–8 minute model load), OpenWebUI shows connection errors until the model is ready.
host.containers.internal reaches only the podman host. To reach the Dankserver backend, use the LAN address 192.168.0.235:7770.

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