Fitting 22 Nodes on One Screen — Cleaning Up My Dashboard UI with Accordion Panels

Introduction

Before I knew it, my home lab had grown to 22 nodes.

What started as a handful of servers running some agents exploded when I added 10 GMK Mini PCs in one shot. With that, the node management page on my admin dashboard became "so long it's unusable."

This is a writeup of how I fixed that. What I actually did is simple, but it turned into a useful exercise in thinking about the balance between information density and usability.

The Problem: Too Many Node Cards

The dashboard's node management view shows one card per node. Each card contains:

• Node name, IP, OS info
• CPU/memory usage
• List of running agents
• Action buttons (restart, SSH, ping check, bot reset... 9 types total)

One card per node × 9 buttons = 198 buttons for 22 nodes. The screen gets completely taken over by buttons.

The Solution: Fold the Action Panel into an Accordion

The thinking was simple. Separate "what you look at regularly" from "what you only touch occasionally."

What I want to check daily is node status (running or not, which agents are active). Action buttons are only needed "when something breaks" or "when changing a config."

So:

• Default card view: node name + status + agent labels (minimal)
• Click "⚙️ Actions ▼" to expand the action panel
• Click again to collapse

The implementation is pure HTML/CSS display: none + JavaScript click toggle. No framework needed.

function nmToggleActions(nodeId) {
    const body = document.querySelector(`[data-node="${nodeId}"] .nm-actions-body`);
    const toggle = document.querySelector(`[data-node="${nodeId}"] .nm-actions-toggle`);
    const isOpen = body.style.display !== 'none';
    body.style.display = isOpen ? 'none' : 'block';
    toggle.textContent = isOpen ? '⚙️ Actions ▼' : '⚙️ Actions ▲';
}

That's literally all it takes.

Also: Node Data Sync

Alongside the accordion work, I also updated the hardcoded node definitions in the frontend.

The dashboard is an SPA (Single Page Application) where both the backend (Flask) and frontend (vanilla JS) had node lists defined separately. Previously I just copy-pasted "as long as it works," but with 22 nodes that approach had hit its limit.

What I did in this update:

1. Updated NODES_REGISTRY in server.py from the authoritative infra-map document
2. Aligned getLocalNodeData() in the frontend to match the same definitions
3. Updated NODE_ORDER display ordering for all 22 nodes

Ideally the frontend would dynamically fetch the node list from a backend API, but this dashboard is a local tool used only by Linou (the owner), so I prioritized simplicity over maintainability. The decision to keep it as a single-file SPA still feels right.

Results

22 nodes now fit on one screen. Each card shows just 2–3 lines of info by default, expanding only when action is needed. The screen is cleaner and the patrol cost is lower.

Reflection: Designing UI "Information Density"

What this exercise made me realize:

• Separate action UI from display UI. Showing everything at once sends the false message that everything has the same priority
• Accordion is "defer," not "hide." The premise is that it opens instantly when you need it in an emergency
• Even a single-file SPA needs design. Small tools are most prone to "just add it on" creep, and the debt always comes due later

Next up: thinking about whether to make node polling frequency configurable, or switch to WebSockets. Polling 22 nodes generates a non-trivial HTTP request count.

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Tags: javascript frontend dashboard homelab spa ui openclaw