# Dynacat, a Glance Fork With Dynamic Widget Auto-Refresh

> Dynacat is a Glance fork that adds dynamic widget auto-refresh by default. Drop-in replacement, single binary under 20 MB, configured in YAML.

Published: 2026-03-26
URL: https://daniliants.com/insights/github-panonim-dynacat-dynamic-dashboard/
Tags: self-hosting, dashboard, docker, glance-fork, rss, homelab, yaml-config, dynamic-widgets

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## Summary

Dynacat is a self-hosted dashboard forked from Glance, with a single key differentiator: dynamic widget auto-refresh by default. It ships as a single binary under 20 MB, is configured entirely in YAML, and integrates out-of-the-box with RSS feeds, Reddit, Hacker News, YouTube, Twitch, Docker, market prices, and weather - no custom widget code required.

## Key Insight

- **Direct Glance drop-in:** swap `glanceapp/glance:latest` for `panonim/dynacat:latest` in an existing Docker Compose and the migration is done. No config changes needed.
- **Dynamic reloading is the whole pitch** - the upstream Glance project is static by default; Dynacat adds automatic widget refresh. Can be disabled via `ENABLE_DYNAMIC_UPDATE=false` env var if static behaviour is preferred.
- **Single binary, minimal deps:** <20 MB Docker image or standalone binary built with Go >=1.23. Low footprint makes it viable on low-power hardware (Raspberry Pi, NAS).
- **Custom API integration without coding:** the `custom-api` widget fetches JSON from any URL and renders it with custom HTML - useful for surfacing internal metrics or third-party data feeds without writing a widget plugin.
- **Adblock DNS caveat:** Pi-Hole/AdGuard Home rate limiting commonly causes widget timeouts when many widgets run on a single page. Fix: raise rate limit in DNS service settings.
- **Dark Reader conflict:** the browser extension breaks layouts for market/bookmark widgets. Disable it per-domain.