StackBox

Local control panel for macOS inspired by XAMPP, designed for developers who prefer a fast, straightforward, and elegant interface to manage services like Apache and MySQL, plus access to tools like localhost, phpMyAdmin, and other utilities.

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Table of Contents

• Features
• Requirements
• Recommended Apache Config
• Logs
• Language support
• Install & Run
• Contributing
• License
• Support this project

Features

• Start, stop, and restart local Apache and MySQL services.
• Quick access to:
  • log files (opens in System Editor).
  • localhost (opens in Brave).
  • phpMyAdmin (opens in Brave).
  • Delete the httpd.pid file. (One-click delete of Apache PID file when needed, useful if Apache won’t start.)
  • Vs Code app.
• Real-time monitoring of service status.
• Minimalist interface optimized for macOS (vibrancy, hiddenInset, no annoying buttons).
• Automatically stops all services when you close the app (⌘ + Q or ⌘ + W).
• Built with Electron + ❤️.

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Requirements

• macOS 12+
• Node.js 18+
• Brave Browser installed (/Applications/Brave Browser.app)
• VS Code installed (/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app)
• Apache and MySQL managed via Homebrew

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Recommended Apache Config

To run Apache on ports 80 and 443 without requiring sudo each time, ensure your httpd.conf includes:

User <user>
Group <group>

And your Listen directives:

Listen 80
Listen 443

Adjust User and Group to match your local user.

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Logs

Access log:

/opt/homebrew/var/log/httpd/access_log

Apache error log:

/opt/homebrew/var/log/httpd/error_log

MySQL error log:

/opt/homebrew/var/mysql/<username>.err

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Change Apache and MySQL log paths

To change Apache logs, edit httpd.conf:

ErrorLog "/opt/homebrew/var/log/httpd/error_log"
CustomLog "/opt/homebrew/var/log/httpd/access_log" common

Replace with your custom paths:

ErrorLog "/Users/<username>/logs/apache_error.log"
CustomLog "/Users/<username>/logs/apache_access.log" common

To change the MySQL error log, edit my.cnf:

[mysqld]
log-error=/Users/<username>/logs/mysql_error.log

You can adjust these log paths in the IPC handlers located in your js/main.js under // IPC handlers for logs.

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Language support

StackBox auto-detects your system language and switches to en (English) or es (Spanish) automatically.

To add another language, copy the locales/en.json file, rename it using only the base language code (like fr.json, de.json, ru.json) and translate the keys.

Keep the structure identical to en.json.
On startup, if the detected language matches your file, it will be used automatically.

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Install & Run

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/danybranding/stackbox.git
   cd stackbox

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Start in development:

   npm start

4. Build for macOS:

   npm run build

Contributing

Open PRs and issues are welcome.
Please keep the code style consistent and follow the existing patterns.

License

MIT License — Copyright © 2025 DΔNNY BS

Support this project

If StackBox helps your local workflow, please star this repo on GitHub — it keeps the project visible and alive!

Happy local development!