The ecosystem takes shape — backups, security, and automation

June 30. Three active projects — Arachne, Dogwalk, Capivara — each with its own repository, database, secrets. Keeping everything running manually was no longer viable.

June ended with a realization: projects without infrastructure are liabilities, not assets. If a server goes down, if a database corrupts, if a key leaks — the problem isn’t the project’s, it’s mine.

The backup system

The first priority was obvious: automated backup of everything.

#!/bin/bash
# backup.sh — runs on cron nightly at 3am
DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
BACKUP_DIR="/mnt/f/backups/$DATE"
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"

# Projects
for project in arachne dogwalk capivara; do
  sqlite3 "~/projetos/$project/data/$project.db" \
  ".backup '$BACKUP_DIR/${project}_$(date +%H%M).db'"
done

# Sync to M: (secondary backup)
rsync -avz /mnt/f/backups/ /mnt/m/backups/

The structure was simple but solid: SQLite database → local backup (F:) → rsync to secondary drive (M:). Two failure points covered, zero external service costs.

Security hardening

With real data running, security was no longer optional. Each project received:

Environment variables: No hardcoded secrets
Basic firewall: ufw configured per service
Health checks: Endpoints I could query to know everything was alive
Log rotation: To avoid filling up the disk

The Hermes Agent stepped in as the ecosystem’s brain — monitoring logs, triggering alerts, and even suggesting fixes when something went off track.

Cloudflare Tunnel

Instead of exposing ports directly (and dealing with bot attacks), I used Cloudflare Tunnel. Each project got its own subdomain with reverse proxy, automatic SSL, and built-in DDoS protection:

arachne.yoursite.com → Tunnel → localhost:8000
dogwalk.yoursite.com → Tunnel → localhost:3000
capivara.yoursite.com → Tunnel → localhost:8001

Simple, secure, and free.

The ecosystem standing

When the clock struck midnight on July 1st, the ecosystem looked like this:

Project	Status	Backup
Arachne	Multi-engine pipeline running	Automatic
Dogwalk	E2E tests + CI	Automatic
Capivara	Secure personal hub under construction	Automatic
Portfolio	Redesign starting	Static

It wasn’t perfect. But it was robust. And it was mine.

June 2026 was the month I stopped building scattered projects and started building an ecosystem.