the-other-dude/docs

The Other Dude

Fleet management for MikroTik RouterOS devices. Built for MSPs who manage hundreds of routers across multiple tenants. Think "UniFi Controller, but for MikroTik."

The Other Dude is a self-hosted, multi-tenant platform that gives you centralized visibility, configuration management, real-time monitoring, and zero-knowledge security across your entire MikroTik fleet -- from a single pane of glass.

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Features

Fleet

• Dashboard -- At-a-glance fleet health with device counts, uptime sparklines, and status breakdowns per organization.
• Device Management -- Detailed device pages with system info, interfaces, routes, firewall rules, DHCP leases, and real-time resource metrics.
• Fleet Table -- Virtual-scrolled table (TanStack Virtual) that handles hundreds of devices without breaking a sweat.
• Device Map -- Geographic view of device locations.
• Subnet Scanner -- Discover new RouterOS devices on your network and onboard them in clicks.

Configuration

• Config Editor -- Browse and edit RouterOS configuration sections with a structured command interface. Two-phase config push with automatic panic-revert ensures you never brick a remote device.
• Batch Config -- Apply configuration changes across multiple devices simultaneously with template support.
• Bulk Commands -- Execute arbitrary RouterOS commands across device groups.
• Templates -- Reusable configuration templates with variable substitution.
• Simple Config -- A Linksys/Ubiquiti-style simplified interface covering Internet, LAN/DHCP, WiFi, Port Forwarding, Firewall, DNS, and System settings. No RouterOS CLI knowledge required.
• Config Backup & Diff -- Git-backed configuration storage with full version history and side-by-side diffs. Restore any previous configuration with one click.

Monitoring

• Network Topology -- Interactive topology map (ReactFlow + Dagre layout) showing device interconnections and shared subnets.
• Real-Time Metrics -- Live CPU, memory, disk, and interface traffic via Server-Sent Events (SSE) backed by NATS JetStream.
• Alert Rules -- Configurable threshold-based alerts for any metric (CPU > 90%, interface down, uptime reset, etc.).
• Notification Channels -- Route alerts to email, webhooks, or Slack.
• Audit Trail -- Immutable log of every action taken in the portal, with user attribution and exportable records.
• Transparency Dashboard -- KMS access event monitoring for tenant admins (who accessed what encryption keys, when).
• Reports -- Generate PDF reports (fleet summary, device detail, security audit, performance) with Jinja2 + WeasyPrint.

Security

• Zero-Knowledge Architecture -- 1Password-style hybrid design. SRP-6a authentication means the server never sees your password. Two-Secret Key Derivation (2SKD) with PBKDF2 (650K iterations) + HKDF + XOR.
• Secret Key -- 128-bit A3-XXXXXX format key stored in IndexedDB with Emergency Kit PDF export.
• OpenBao KMS -- Per-tenant envelope encryption via Transit secret engine. Go poller uses LRU cache (1024 keys / 5-min TTL) for performance.
• Internal Certificate Authority -- Issue and deploy TLS certificates to RouterOS devices via SFTP. Three-tier TLS fallback: CA-verified, InsecureSkipVerify, plain API.
• WireGuard VPN -- Manage WireGuard tunnels for secure device access across NAT boundaries.
• Credential Encryption -- AES-256-GCM (Fernet) encryption of all stored device credentials at rest.
• RBAC -- Four roles: super_admin, admin, operator, viewer. PostgreSQL Row-Level Security enforces tenant isolation at the database layer.

Administration

• Multi-Tenancy -- Full organization isolation with PostgreSQL RLS. Super admins manage all tenants; tenant admins see only their own devices and users.
• User Management -- Per-tenant user administration with role assignment.
• API Keys -- Generate mktp_-prefixed API keys with SHA-256 hash storage and operator-level RBAC for automation and integrations.
• Firmware Management -- Track RouterOS versions across your fleet, plan upgrades, and push firmware updates.
• Maintenance Windows -- Schedule maintenance periods with automatic alert suppression.
• Setup Wizard -- Guided 3-step onboarding for first-time deployment.

UX

• Command Palette -- Cmd+K / Ctrl+K quick navigation (cmdk).
• Keyboard Shortcuts -- Vim-style sequence shortcuts (g d for dashboard, g t for topology, [ to toggle sidebar).
• Dark / Light Mode -- Class-based theming with flicker-free initialization.
• Page Transitions -- Smooth route transitions with Framer Motion.
• Skeleton Loaders -- Shimmer-gradient loading states throughout the UI.

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Architecture

                         +-----------+
                         |  Frontend |
                         | React/nginx|
                         +-----+-----+
                               |
                          /api/ proxy
                               |
                         +-----v-----+
                         |    API    |
                         |  FastAPI  |
                         +--+--+--+--+
                            |  |  |
              +-------------+  |  +--------------+
              |                |                 |
        +-----v------+  +-----v-----+   +-------v-------+
        | PostgreSQL  |  |   Redis   |   |     NATS      |
        | TimescaleDB |  |  (locks,  |   |  JetStream    |
        |   (RLS)     |  |  caching) |   |  (pub/sub)    |
        +-----^------+  +-----^-----+   +-------^-------+
              |                |                 |
        +-----+-------+-------+---------+-------+
        |             Poller (Go)                |
        |  Polls RouterOS devices via binary API |
        |        port 8729 TLS                   |
        +----------------------------------------+
              |
     +--------v---------+
     |  RouterOS Fleet   |
     |  (your devices)   |
     +-------------------+

• Frontend serves the React SPA via nginx and proxies /api/ to the backend.
• API handles all business logic, authentication, and database access with RLS-enforced tenant isolation.
• Poller is a Go microservice that polls RouterOS devices on a configurable interval using the RouterOS binary API, publishing results to NATS and persisting to PostgreSQL.
• PostgreSQL + TimescaleDB stores all relational data with hypertables for time-series metrics.
• Redis provides distributed locks (one poller per device) and rate limiting.
• NATS JetStream delivers real-time events from the poller to the API (and onward to the frontend via SSE).
• OpenBao provides Transit secret engine for per-tenant envelope encryption (zero-knowledge key management).

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 19, TanStack Router + Query, Tailwind CSS 3.4, Vite, Framer Motion
Backend	Python 3.12, FastAPI 0.115, SQLAlchemy 2.0 async, asyncpg, Pydantic v2
Poller	Go 1.24, go-routeros/v3, pgx/v5, nats.go
Database	PostgreSQL 17 + TimescaleDB 2.17, Row-Level Security
Cache	Redis 7
Message Bus	NATS with JetStream
KMS	OpenBao 2.1 (Transit secret engine)
VPN	WireGuard
Auth	SRP-6a (zero-knowledge), JWT (15m access / 7d refresh)
Reports	Jinja2 + WeasyPrint (PDF generation)
Containerization	Docker Compose (dev, staging, production profiles)

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Quick Start

See the full Quick Start Guide for detailed instructions.

# Clone and configure
cp .env.example .env

# Start infrastructure
docker compose up -d

# Build app images (one at a time to avoid OOM)
docker compose build api
docker compose build poller
docker compose build frontend

# Start the full stack
docker compose up -d

# Verify
curl http://localhost:8001/health
open http://localhost:3000

Three environment profiles are available:

Environment	Frontend	API	Notes
Dev	localhost:3000	localhost:8001	Hot-reload, volume-mounted source
Staging	localhost:3080	localhost:8081	Built images, staging secrets
Production	localhost (port 80)	Internal (proxied)	Gunicorn workers, log rotation

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Documentation

Document	Description
Quick Start	Get running in minutes
Deployment Guide	Production deployment, TLS, backups
Architecture	System design, data flows, multi-tenancy
Security Model	Zero-knowledge auth, encryption, RLS, RBAC
User Guide	End-user guide for all features
API Reference	REST API endpoints and authentication
Configuration	Environment variables and tuning

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Screenshots

See the documentation site for screenshots.

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Project Structure

backend/            Python FastAPI backend
frontend/           React TypeScript frontend
poller/             Go microservice for device polling
infrastructure/     Helm charts, Dockerfiles, OpenBao init
docs/               Documentation
docker-compose.yml  Base compose (infrastructure services)
docker-compose.override.yml   Dev overrides (hot-reload)
docker-compose.staging.yml    Staging profile
docker-compose.prod.yml       Production profile
docker-compose.observability.yml  Prometheus + Grafana

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License

Open-source. Self-hosted. Your data stays on your infrastructure.