# Home Lab Principles

## Working principles
- Start simple
- Prefer clarity over cleverness
- Document every meaningful architectural change
- Production and testing should be clearly separated
- Backups and restore confidence are first-class requirements
- Avoid deploying many apps before the platform is understandable

## Near-term app focus
1. Drive / file sync
2. Photo app
3. Identity / access layer

## Current transition direction
- from Synology Drive to possible Nextcloud later
- from Synology Photos to possible Immich later
- keep current media stack running while broader architecture is clarified

## Notes
This project should be managed incrementally, not as a big-bang migration.