Cortex

Syslog receiver and MCP server for homelab log intelligence.

tv.tootie/cortex · Repository · version 3.9.0 · 3 stars · listed from registry

Install

The sweep pulls the image and runs it in a throwaway container, but this is the command a user would run:

docker run -i --rm ghcr.io/jmagar/cortex:v3.9.0

Needs credentials: CORTEX_RECEIVER_HOST. The probe used placeholder values, so an amber needs credentials result below means the server asked for the real ones, not that it is broken. Maintainers: how to go green.

Results by platform

Linux

needs credentials2026-08-15 · probed over oci

3 recorded runs, oldest first.

handshake failed: MCP error -32000: Connection closed
--- stderr (tail) ---
… Migration 16: app_name/timestamp search index created elapsed_ms=0
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 17: created app/source inventory stats tables and triggers
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 17: created app/source inventory stats
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 18: added restarting column to heartbeat_containers
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 19: created host_heartbeats_latest fleet cache table
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 20: added index on error_signature_windows(window_end)
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 21: created AI session rollup table
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 22: added AI session rollup source watermark
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 23: building covering indexes (idx_logs_ai_project_cover, idx_logs_sev_host_time) — may take minutes on large DBs, write lock held
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 23: covering indexes for errors + ai projects created elapsed_ms=0
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 24: rebuilding AI covering indexes (timestamp-positioned) + initial ANALYZE — may take minutes on large DBs, write lock held
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 24: AI covering indexes rebuilt + baseline ANALYZE done elapsed_ms=0
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 25: creating timeline_hourly rollup + backfill — backfill is a one-time full scan (~60s on large DBs, write lock held)
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 25: timeline_hourly rollup created + backfilled elapsed_ms=0
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 26: created maintenance_jobs table
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 27: created graph projection schema
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 28: added graph projection runtime metrics
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 29: added covering indexes for error_summary, tail_logs, and ai_session sort
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 30: widened graph vocabulary for inventory topology
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 31: added graph relationship type index for topology findings
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 32: building graph→log covering indexes (idx_logs_hostname_appname_time, idx_logs_ai_session_time) — may take minutes on large DBs, write lock held
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 32: graph→log covering indexes created elapsed_ms=0
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 33: widened graph reason-code vocabulary for agent commands
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 34: added git_commit entity type and git-commit reason codes
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 35: added refuted trust level to graph tables
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 36: added user/device entities and identity relationships
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 37: created llm_invocations audit table
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 38: created ai_skill_events table + idx_logs_ai_tool_id
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 39: created ai_mcp_events table
20:06:40   INFO  Migration 40: created ai_hook_events table
20:06:40   INFO  Database initialized path=/data/cortex.db
20:06:40   INFO  Initial storage budget check completed deleted_rows=0 logical_db_size_bytes=696320 physical_db_size_bytes=2665456 free_disk_bytes=Some(86415314944) write_blocked=false
20:06:40   INFO  cortex auth policy: LoopbackDev (no auth wired; loopback bind) mcp_bind=127.0.0.1:3100
20:06:40   INFO  Configuration loaded syslog_bind=DOES_IT_INSTALL_PLACEHOLDER:1514 mcp_bind=127.0.0.1:3100 db_path=/data/cortex.db retention_days=90 max_db_size_mb=1024 recovery_db_size_mb=900 min_free_disk_mb=0 recovery_free_disk_mb=0 cleanup_interval_secs=60 pool_size=8 wal_mode=true mcp_auth_enabled=false docker_ingest_enabled=false docker_ingest_hosts=0
20:06:40   INFO  Log retention purge task started (hourly) retention_days=90
20:06:40   INFO  Storage budget enforcement task started cleanup_interval_secs=60
20:06:40   INFO  Batch writer started batch_size=100 flush_interval_ms=500
20:06:40   INFO  graph_refresh: disabled
20:06:40   INFO  Syslog listeners started (supervised) bind=DOES_IT_INSTALL_PLACEHOLDER:1514 max_message_size=8192 max_tcp_connections=512 tcp_idle_timeout_secs=300 write_channel_capacity=10000
error: CORTEX_API_TOKEN required for the REST API — run 'cortex setup repair' to generate one

macOS

not tested2026-08-15

3 recorded runs, oldest first.

docker not available on this runner, so container distributions are probed on Linux only

Windows

not tested2026-08-15

3 recorded runs, oldest first.

docker not available on this runner, so container distributions are probed on Linux only

Badge

Paste this into the project README to show the current result:

[![does it install](https://img.shields.io/endpoint?url=https://doesitinstall.com/badge/tv.tootie__cortex.json)](https://doesitinstall.com/s/tv.tootie__cortex.html)