Introducing HexOS Local

November 25, 2025
By Jonathan Panozzo

Since the launch of the HexOS beta, all users have been managing their systems through the online-hosted Command Deck at deck.hexos.com. This has been the fastest way for us to keep everyone on a consistent and stable experience while we built out the foundation of the product. This was an architectural choice we made for two primary reasons:

First, it gave us a means to update our UI/UX without requiring any user intervention.
We push the update to deck.hexos.com and everyone gets it immediately. No button to push. No reboot required. No compatibility issues between different versions. When we fix a bug or add a feature, every user has it within seconds. This velocity has been invaluable for moving quickly and iterating based on user feedback.

Second, it made secure remote management access very easy to provide.
No port forwarding. No complex DNS setup. No SSL certificate management. You can access your server from anywhere without exposing anything to the internet or becoming a networking expert. It just works.

These benefits are real, and they've served us well. As the product has grown, we've also heard consistent feedback: HexOS users want local control. The performance that comes from talking directly to hardware sitting on their own network; resilience that doesn't depend on hosted infrastructure, and perhaps most importantly, the philosophical alignment of managing a self-hosted server through a self-hosted interface. That’s why today, we're excited to announce HexOS Local.

What HexOS Local Brings

HexOS Local runs directly on your HexOS system, bringing four primary benefits:

Performance: Local operations will perform much faster. No more round trips to our servers for every click. No more waiting for responses to travel across the internet and back to replace a failed drive or add a folder. When you're on your local network, you're talking directly to your hardware.

Resiliency: You will be able to perform core management tasks even if the cloud deck is unavailable. You'll still have full access to your local management interface. All the core NAS functionality you need will always be available.

Sovereignty: All management is local to your system and under your control. Your configuration, your preferences, your data. It all lives on hardware you own, accessible through an interface running on your own server.

Features: While hosting the management interface will be the primary feature of HexOS Local, there are additional capabilities that it will enable. Pre-configuring applications themselves (not just their installation) and addressing app-specific issues with hotfixes (when necessary) will also be possible. We are extremely excited about the potential here and will post more in the future when we have examples to share.

How Will HexOS Local Work Exactly?

The initial installation and setup of HexOS will remain exactly the same. You'll install via the ISO, then claim and provision your initial storage pools using deck.hexos.com, just like you do today.

Once your initial storage pools are configured, we'll automatically download HexOS Local to your server and provision local access automatically using dynamic DNS and proper SSL certificates. And for existing users, adoption of HexOS Local will happen without user intervention. Our goal is to make this as seamless as possible.

All local access will resolve automatically, and remote access will still be enabled via deck.hexos.com. Whether you're sitting at your desk or away from home, you'll be able to manage your server. The difference is that when you're local, you'll get the speed and resilience benefits of talking directly to your hardware. And by keeping HexOS Local separate from the OS itself, we can update the management interface independently from the underlying operating system. UI improvements don't require OS updates. OS updates don't force interface changes. Everything stays modular, maintainable, and focused.

What Features Can I Use Through HexOS Local?

All features of HexOS will be accessible through the Local app. The interface will be identical to what you're using today, just faster and locally hosted.

Cloud-based features like app and VM curations, buddy backups, and email notifications will require the Command Deck. Local-only features such as storage and folder management will not. Managing your core NAS functionality won't depend on the cloud.

When Will HexOS Local Be Available?

An updated roadmap will be posted soon with details on when this and other features will be launching in HexOS. We know all of you have been waiting patiently for this capability since we first launched the beta. Thank you for that patience. We're building this right, and we're excited to get it into your hands.

HexOS Local represents a major step forward in our vision for what HexOS should be: a powerful, enterprise-grade NAS platform that's as easy to use as a smartphone, running on hardware you control, managed through an interface you host. We're getting closer every day.