I'm Evi Gruber, and cloudapp.dev is where I write up the things I actually build — full-stack web work and, increasingly, the smart-home automation running in my own house. No fluff, no reposted press releases: every guide here comes from a real project, with runnable code you can copy.
What you'll find here
Two threads run through the blog:
Modern web development — Next.js 14 (App Router, i18n, SEO, infinite scroll), headless CMS architecture, Azure (SaaS setups, AD B2C authentication, AI Search), Prisma + Postgres, on-site search, and analytics you host yourself.
Home Assistant & smart home — drawn straight from my own setup: pulling a Huawei solar inverter over Modbus, self-consumption and autarky sensors, KNX automations, alarm integrations, and PV-surplus hot water.
Everything is written as a step-by-step how-to, in English and German.
How I approach it
Three principles I don't compromise on:
Free services only. Every tutorial is built so you can follow it without paying for anything — free tiers, open source, self-hosting.
Real, not theoretical. If a guide is on this site, I shipped it. The code is from production projects, including this blog.
Own your stack. I lean toward self-hosting and owning your data over renting black boxes.
This site practices what it preaches
cloudapp.dev isn't a tutorial site running on someone else's platform — I build and host it myself. It's a Next.js app backed by a self-hosted headless CMS, with its own search and analytics. Several of the articles here document decisions I made on this exact codebase.
How this site is written
The posts are written with AI assistance. The ideas, the setups and the measurements are mine: everything described here runs in my own Home Assistant or on my own servers, and the numbers come from those systems. An AI model helps me draft and translate the texts. I review and edit every post and take editorial responsibility for it before it goes live. The cover images are HTML layouts rendered in a browser, and the screenshots come straight from the running systems, so no image generator is involved.
Where to start
New here? Browse the topics in the tag cloud, search for a specific tool or framework, or dive into the Home Assistant series if smart-home automation is your thing. Everything is free to read and free to build.
Happy coding ❤️