Glance Dashboard Setup: RSS + Reddit + GitHub Trends + Nginx

Docker Compose + Glance YAML + Nginx + glance.theinfinity.dev

Most mornings, the internet isn’t an “ocean of knowledge.” It’s a soup of notifications. Glance takes that soup, pours it into a single bowl, and helps you keep the signal without drowning in the noise.

In this article, we’ll:

Run Glance with Docker Compose

Design a single “Tech” dashboard (GitHub Trends + Releases + Reddit + HN + Lobsters + Monitor)

Publish it behind Nginx on glance.theinfinity.dev

Bonus: how to leverage Glance’s community-widgets ecosystem like plug-ins

TL;DR

Docker Compose setup in minutes ✅

A curated dashboard via glance.yml ✅

GitHub trends + release radar ✅

Reddit + HN + Lobsters for real-world pulse ✅

Nginx reverse proxy + SSL + (optional) basic auth ✅

Community widgets + $include to keep configs clean ✅

1) Setup: Docker Compose

Folder layout:

~/glance/
  docker-compose.yml
  config/
    glance.yml

docker-compose.yml:

services:
  glance:
    container_name: glance
    image: glanceapp/glance
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./config:/app/config
    ports:
      - 8081:8080

Start it:

cd ~/glance
docker compose up -d
docker logs -f glance

At this point, Glance should be reachable internally at http://SERVER_IP:8081. We’ll put it behind Nginx next.

2) Dashboard philosophy: what this page is actually for

This dashboard is not built to “show everything.”

It’s built to answer a few questions fast:

GitHub: what’s trending today, and what just shipped (releases)?

Discussions: what are people arguing about (and learning from) on Reddit / HN / Lobsters?

Ops: is TheInfinity.dev alive and responding?

My Commentary: Done right, Glance becomes a daily briefing, not another time-sink.
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3) Full config/glance.yml

Save the file below as config/glance.yml.

Note: since we’re placing Glance behind a reverse proxy (Nginx), I’m adding server.proxied: true so Glance can properly interpret forwarded headers.
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theme:
  background-color: 50 1 6
  primary-color: 24 97 58
  negative-color: 209 88 54


pages:


  - name: "Tech"
    columns:

      - size: small
        widgets:
          - type: group
            style: clean
            widgets:

              - type: custom-api
                title: "🔥 Github Trends"
                cache: 24h
                url: 'https://api.ossinsight.io/v1/trends/repos/?period=past_24_hours&language=All'
                template: |
                    <ul class="list list-gap-10 collapsible-container" data-collapse-after="10">
                      {{ range .JSON.Array "data.rows"}}
                        <li>
                          <a class="color-primary-if-not-visited" href="https://github.com/{{ .String "repo_name" }}">{{ .String "repo_name" }}</a>
                          <ul class="list-horizontal-text">
                              <li class="color-highlight"> {{.String "primary_language"}} </li>

                              <li style="display: flex; align-items: center;gap: 4px;">
                                {{ .Int "stars" }}
                                <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="10" height="10" fill="currentColor" viewBox="0 0 16 16" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false">
                                  <path d="M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 6.765c-.329-.314-.158-.888.283-.95l4.898-.696L7.538.792c.197-.39.73-.39.927 0l2.184 4.327 4.898.696c.441.062.612.636.282.95l-3.522 3.356.83 4.73c.078.443-.36.79-.746.592L8 13.187l-4.389 2.256z"/>
                                </svg>
                              </li>

                              <li style="display: flex; align-items: center;gap: 4px;">
                                {{ .Int "forks" }}
                                <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false">
                                  <path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/>
                                  <circle cx="12" cy="18" r="2" />
                                  <circle cx="7" cy="6" r="2" />
                                  <circle cx="17" cy="6" r="2" />
                                  <path d="M7 8v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h6a2 2 0 0 0 2 -2v-2" />
                                  <path d="M12 12l0 4" />
                                </svg>
                              </li>

                              <li style="display: flex; align-items: center;gap: 4px;">
                                {{ .Int "pull_requests" }}
                                <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false">
                                  <circle cx="6" cy="6" r="3"></circle>
                                  <circle cx="18" cy="18" r="3"></circle>
                                  <path d="M13 6h3a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v7"></path>
                                  <line x1="6" y1="9" x2="6" y2="21"></line>
                                </svg>
                              </li>

                          </ul>
                          <ul class="list collapsible-container">
                            <li style="white-space: nowrap; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis;" class="color-subdue">
                              Contributors: {{ .String "contributor_logins"}}
                            </li>
                            <li>
                              {{ .String "description" }}
                            </li>
                          </ul>
                        </li>
                      {{ end }}
                    </ul>


              - type: rss
                title: "🔥 Product Hunt"
                style: clean
                feeds:
                  - url: https://www.producthunt.com/feed
                collapse-after: 15

              - type: monitor
                cache: 1m
                title: Services
                sites:
                  - title: Website
                    url: https://theinfinity.dev
                    icon: https://www.theinfinity.dev/logo.svg

      - size: full
        widgets:

          - type: rss
            title: "🧠 Tech & Dev Feeds"
            style: detailed-list
            cache: 12h
            feeds:
              - url: https://www.lastweekinaws.com/newsletter/feed/
                title: Last Week in AWS
              - url: https://newsletter.systemdesign.one/feed
                title: System Design Newsletter
              - url: https://blog.bytebytego.com/feed
                title: ByteByteGo
              - url: https://newsletter.memesmotivations.com/feed
                title: The M&Ms Newsletter
              - url: https://nuvemmag.substack.com/feed
                title: Nuvem Mag
              - url: https://newsletter.francofernando.com/feed
                title: Franco Fernando
              - url: https://rss.beehiiv.com/feeds/xgTKUmMmUm.xml
                title: TLDRSec
              - url: https://rss.beehiiv.com/feeds/ypr2bi0H9m.xml
                title: Hungry Minds
              - url: https://blog.alexewerlof.com/feed
                title: Alex Ewerlöf
              - url: https://hellointerview.substack.com/feed
                title: Hello Interview
              - url: https://seattledataguy.substack.com/feed
                title: Seattle Data Guy
              - url: https://newsletter.systemdesigncodex.com/feed
                title: System Design Codex
              - url: https://blog.algomaster.io/feed
                title: Algomaster
              - url: https://dribbble.com/shots/popular.rss
                title: Dribbble Inspiration

          - type: group
            title: "💬 Reddit Discussions"
            style: cards
            widgets:
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: technology
                show-thumbnails: true
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: selfhosted
                show-thumbnails: true
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: devops
                show-thumbnails: true
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: kubernetes
                show-thumbnails: true
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: n8n
                show-thumbnails: true
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: automation
                show-thumbnails: true
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: notebooklm
                show-thumbnails: true
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: aicuriosity
                show-thumbnails: true
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: GeminiNanoBanana
                show-thumbnails: true
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: AgentsOfAI
                show-thumbnails: true
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: OpenAI
                show-thumbnails: true
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: ChatgptArtist
                show-thumbnails: true
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: artificial
                show-thumbnails: true
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: PromptEngineering
                show-thumbnails: true
              - type: reddit
                subreddit: WritingPrompts
                show-thumbnails: true


      - size: small
        widgets:
          - type: group
            style: clean
            widgets:
              - type: hacker-news
                title: "🔥 Hacker News"
                style: clean
                collapse-after: 10

              - type: lobsters
                title: "🦞 Lobsters"
                style: clean
                collapse-after: 10

Restart after changes:

docker compose restart

4) Community Widgets: from copy-paste to “include” level

Glance has a community-widgets repository: a shared pool of community-made widgets.

Small widgets: you can paste them directly into glance.yml.

Large widgets: split them into separate files to avoid YAML indentation pain, then include them.

Example structure:

config/widgets/immich-stats.yml

# community widget content (could be long)

Then in your main glance.yml:

widgets:
  - $include: widgets/immich-stats.yml

This keeps the main config readable and makes experimentation stupidly easy.

5) “Glance loads a bit slowly” (and why that can be normal)

Glance may cache and fetch data for multiple widgets on startup. If you keep stacking heavy sources, you may notice a few seconds of initial load time.

Practical fixes:

Split into pages (Tech / AI)

Keep cache durations sane (e.g., GitHub releases at 12h is perfect)

6) Publishing: glance.theinfinity.dev behind Nginx

6.1 DNS

Create an A record:

glance.theinfinity.dev → your VPS IP

6.2 Nginx reverse proxy

Create:

/etc/nginx/sites-available/glance.theinfinity.dev

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name glance.theinfinity.dev;

  location / {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8081;

    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_read_timeout 60s;
  }
}

Enable + reload:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/glance.theinfinity.dev /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

6.3 SSL (Let’s Encrypt)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d glance.theinfinity.dev

7) If you expose it publicly: the simplest shield (Nginx Basic Auth)

This panel is your personal command center. It doesn’t have to be a public monument.

sudo apt install -y apache2-utils
sudo htpasswd -c /etc/nginx/.htpasswd glanceadmin

Update your Nginx config:

location / {
  auth_basic "Restricted";
  auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/.htpasswd;

  proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8081;
  proxy_set_header Host $host;
  proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
  proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
  proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
}

Final thoughts

The power here isn’t “I installed Glance.”

The power is the combo:

GitHub Trends for daily open-source signals

Releases Radar to catch changes before they surprise production

Reddit + HN + Lobsters to track real discussion and pain points

Community widgets to grow your dashboard like Lego blocks

Subdomain + Nginx for clean publishing

server.proxied: true so it behaves correctly behind a reverse proxy

glance.theinfinity.dev fits perfectly into the TheInfinity.dev ecosystem as a behind-the-scenes operations panel for discovery and content flow.

Build a Daily Tech Command Center with Glance