Cross-Platform Remote Development Infrastructure 🌐

dev-infra — a sanitized homelab blueprint for Remote-SSH, SMB storage, and private Tailscale access.

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A polished, public-safe blueprint of my cross-platform homelab and remote development workflow.

The setup centers on a headless M4 Mac Mini as the always-on compute/NAS node. At home, traffic flows from router → switch → devices, with the ThinkPad also able to use Wi-Fi. When I am outside or overseas, the same client devices connect through a private Tailscale mesh.

Real IPs, hostnames, usernames, SMB credentials, SSH keys, and private share names are intentionally excluded.

📚 Table of contents

• ✨ Highlights
• 🧭 Architecture
• 🧩 Device roles
• 📁 Repository layout
• 🖼️ Screenshots
• 🚀 Quick check
• ⚙️ Templates
• 🔒 Privacy choices
• ⚖️ License

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✨ Highlights

• 🖥️ Remote development: VSCodium Remote-SSH into the Mac Mini
• 🗂️ Shared storage: SMB access across desktop, laptop, and phone
• 🔐 Private remote access: Tailscale instead of public SSH/SMB exposure
• 🐧 Linux client support: sanitized /etc/fstab CIFS mount example
• 📦 Reusable docs: config templates without private machine details

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🧭 Architecture

graph TD
    subgraph LAN [Home LAN: 192.168.x.x]
        Router[Router / Gateway]
        Switch[Network Switch]
        Mac[M4 Mac Mini\nCompute + NAS]
        Win[Windows 11 Gaming PC\nVSCodium]
        Think[ThinkPad T495\nArch Linux]
        Phone[Android Phone\nWi-Fi Client]

        Router --- Switch
        Switch --- Mac
        Switch --- Win
        Switch -. optional wired .- Think
        Router -. Wi-Fi .- Think
        Router -. Wi-Fi .- Phone

        Win -->|Remote-SSH + SMB mapped drives| Mac
        Think -->|Remote-SSH + CIFS mount| Mac
        Phone -->|SMB file access over LAN| Mac
    end

    subgraph Mesh [Private Tailnet]
        Tailnet((Tailscale\n100.x.x.x))
    end

    Think -. when outside / overseas .-> Tailnet
    Phone -. when outside / overseas .-> Tailnet
    Tailnet -. private SSH / SMB route .-> Mac

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This keeps the home path as router → switch → devices, and shows the same ThinkPad and Android devices using Tailscale when I am outside or overseas.

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🧩 Device roles

Device	Role	Access
🪟 Windows 11 gaming PC	Main at-home coding client	Wired LAN through switch; VSCodium Remote-SSH + SMB mapped drives
🐧 ThinkPad T495	Portable Arch Linux client	Home Wi-Fi or optional wired LAN; Tailscale SSH when outside/overseas
🍎 M4 Mac Mini	Headless compute + NAS	Wired LAN through switch; reachable at 192.168.x.x or 100.x.x.x
🤖 Android phone	Mobile file client	Wi-Fi/LAN at home; Tailscale while outside/overseas

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📁 Repository layout

dev-infra/
├── README.md
├── LICENSE
├── infrastructure.json
├── setup_infra.sh
├── configs/
│   ├── fstab.example
│   └── ssh_config.example
├── docs/
│   └── images/
└── .gitignore

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🖼️ Screenshots

Redacted workflow screenshots live under docs/images/.

Windows VSCodium Remote-SSH workflow

Linux VSCodium Remote-SSH workflow

Windows mapped SMB network drive

Android SMB/file-manager access

Linux terminal / CIFS workflow

All screenshots are redacted before publishing.

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🚀 Quick check

Run the read-only diagnostics script:

./setup_infra.sh

It checks for useful client tools such as ssh, tailscale, mount.cifs, and smbclient. It does not modify system files.

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⚙️ Templates

• 🔑 configs/ssh_config.example — LAN and Tailscale SSH aliases
• 🗄️ configs/fstab.example — Linux CIFS mount example using NAS-Share
• 🧾 infrastructure.json — sanitized machine-readable topology

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🔒 Privacy choices

This repo intentionally uses placeholders:

Placeholder	Meaning
192.168.x.x	Home LAN address range
100.x.x.x	Tailscale address range
NAS-Share	Example SMB share name
your_mac_username	Example SSH username

Real local config should stay outside git.

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⚖️ License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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