# 12 — Optimization Opportunities

Observations from the running infrastructure. Each item is independent — accept, defer, or reject.

## For Nexa directly

1. **Reuse, don't redeploy.** The earlier `DEPLOYMENT.md` would have spun a second Memos / n8n / Qdrant. The current homelab already runs all three. The new [09-deployment](./09-deployment.md) treats these as pre-existing — keeps the config minimal and avoids port collisions.
2. **Use LiteLLM virtual keys per logical caller.** Today there's one SAIA key. Issuing one key per workflow (`nexa-router`, `nexa-embed`, `nexa-digest`) lets you set different per-key rate/cost limits and disable a single workflow without rotating everything.
3. **Use n8n's *credential* objects, never inline secrets.** The current workflows under `nexa-core/n8n-workflows/phase-1/*.json` should be reviewed — if any header `Authorization` is hardcoded, replace with credential references before importing.
4. **Centralise system alerts on a single ntfy topic** (`nexa.system`). Backrest, Proxmox notifications, n8n failure-webhook and the Octoprint Exited state all go to that topic; one Memos system memo aggregates them.
5. **Defer graph DB until Phase 3.4.** Qdrant alone covers ~80% of the assistant's daily value. The graph DB is justified once you actually need dependency analysis or critical-path queries.
6. **Auto-export n8n workflows.** `nexa-core/scripts/backup_workflows.sh` already exists. Schedule it inside the n8n container (cron) and let it `git commit && git push` — this is the cheapest disaster recovery.

## For the wider homelab (out of scope but worth noting)

7. **Octoprint `EXITED`** — either remove the Homepage entry or fix the container; right now it permanently shows red.
8. **Zoraxy widget missing** on Homepage. Homepage v1.x has no built-in Zoraxy widget, but you can use the generic `customapi` widget against `/api/stats/summary` to surface request counts.
9. **AI gateway naming.** `ai.nuclide.systems` currently proxies LobeHub (a chat UI on `:3210`), while the LiteLLM API lives on `:4000`. For Nexa, point n8n directly at LiteLLM (`http://192.168.1.40:4000` over the docker net — no public TLS hop needed) to save latency and isolate from UI restarts.
10. **MCP servers consolidation.** Dozzle shows `crawl4ai-mcp`, `markitdown-mcp`, `papersearch-mcp` running individually. They're all MCP servers — Nexa Phase-3 could pull from these via LiteLLM's MCP support to enrich the embedding pipeline (e.g. fetch + markitdown a Karakeep link before embedding).
11. **Backup the n8n SQLite file** — Backrest covers `/home/node/.n8n` if added; today the only "backup" is the workflow JSON which omits credentials and execution history.
12. **Pocket-ID SSO in front of n8n** would let you remove n8n basic-auth and unify session management across the whole stack. One-time setup, large UX win.
13. **Vaultwarden as the secret store** for Nexa secrets (`SAIA_API_KEY`, `MEMOS_API_KEY`, …) — read at bootstrap via the Bitwarden CLI from inside the docker host. Removes the need for a `.env` on disk.
14. **AdGuard as DNS-based control plane.** Since AdGuard is the resolver for the LAN, you can rewrite `*.nuclide.systems` to `192.168.1.4` (Zoraxy) internally and avoid a hairpin via the WAN — already the case if AdGuard rewrite rules are set, worth verifying.
15. **Immich + Qdrant.** Immich is already running and embeds photos with CLIP. If you ever want photo-aware Nexa answers, you can mount Immich's existing search via its API — no second embedding pass.
16. **Disk usage on LXC 104** is 47.7 % (Proxmox). Monitor; n8n execution logs and Dozzle history are the usual culprits. Setting `EXECUTIONS_DATA_PRUNE=true` and `EXECUTIONS_DATA_MAX_AGE=168` (7 days) on n8n keeps it bounded.