diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..81278aa5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+DATABASE_URL=./data/zerobyte.db
+RESTIC_PASS_FILE=./data/restic.pass
+RESTIC_CACHE_DIR=./data/restic/cache
+ZEROBYTE_REPOSITORIES_DIR=./data/repositories
+ZEROBYTE_VOLUMES_DIR=./data/volumes
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e12444f2..c2b6cf20 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -14,3 +14,9 @@ mutagen.yml.lock
 notes.md
 smb-password.txt
 cache.db
+
+data/
+
+.env*
+!.env.example
+!.env.test
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c48914ce..4e3ffa7d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -76,13 +76,13 @@ Zerobyte can be customized using environment variables. Below are the available
 
 ### Environment Variables
 
-| Variable              | Description                                                                                                   | Default    |
-| :-------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | :--------- |
-| `PORT`                | The port the web interface and API will listen on.                                                            | `4096`     |
+| Variable              | Description                                                                                                        | Default    |
+| :-------------------- | :----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :--------- |
+| `PORT`                | The port the web interface and API will listen on.                                                                 | `4096`     |
 | `RESTIC_HOSTNAME`     | The hostname used by Restic when creating snapshots. Automatically detected if a custom hostname is set in Docker. | `zerobyte` |
-| `LOG_LEVEL`           | Logging verbosity. Options: `debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error`.                                                 | `info`     |
-| `SERVER_IDLE_TIMEOUT` | Idle timeout for the server in seconds.                                                                       | `60`       |
-| `TZ`                  | Timezone for the container (e.g., `Europe/Paris`). **Crucial for accurate backup scheduling.**                | `UTC`      |
+| `LOG_LEVEL`           | Logging verbosity. Options: `debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error`.                                                      | `info`     |
+| `SERVER_IDLE_TIMEOUT` | Idle timeout for the server in seconds.                                                                            | `60`       |
+| `TZ`                  | Timezone for the container (e.g., `Europe/Paris`). **Crucial for accurate backup scheduling.**                     | `UTC`      |
 
 ### Secret References
 
@@ -281,3 +281,28 @@ For a complete list of third-party software licenses and attributions, please re
 ## Contributing
 
 Contributions by anyone are welcome! If you find a bug or have a feature request, please open an issue on GitHub. If you want to contribute code, feel free to fork the repository and submit a pull request. We require that all contributors sign a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) before we can accept your contributions. This is to protect both you and the project. Please see the [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) file for more details.
+
+## Development (no Docker)
+
+You can run Zerobyte locally during development without Docker:
+
+```bash
+bun install
+bun run dev
+```
+
+For local development, create a `.env.local` file at the repo root and override the Docker paths:
+
+```bash
+# Example
+DATABASE_URL=./data/zerobyte.db
+RESTIC_PASS_FILE=./data/restic.pass
+RESTIC_CACHE_DIR=./data/restic/cache
+ZEROBYTE_REPOSITORIES_DIR=./data/repositories
+ZEROBYTE_VOLUMES_DIR=./data/volumes
+```
+
+Notes:
+
+- Remote mount backends (NFS/SMB/WebDAV/SFTP) rely on Linux mount tooling and `CAP_SYS_ADMIN`; on macOS they are expected to be unavailable.
+- To actually run backups/repository checks, install `restic` on your machine (e.g. via Homebrew). If `restic` is not installed, the app still starts but backup operations will fail with a clear error.
diff --git a/app/client/components/file-tree.tsx b/app/client/components/file-tree.tsx
index 22d0a5c4..ba101598 100644
--- a/app/client/components/file-tree.tsx
+++ b/app/client/components/file-tree.tsx
@@ -501,6 +501,7 @@ const NodeButton = memo(({ depth, icon, onClick, onMouseEnter, className, childr
 
 	return (
 		<button
+			type="button"
 			className={cn("flex items-center gap-2 w-full pr-2 text-sm py-1.5 text-left", className)}
 			style={{ paddingLeft }}
 			onClick={onClick}
diff --git a/app/client/components/grid-background.tsx b/app/client/components/grid-background.tsx
index bac779ea..78c14aa7 100644
--- a/app/client/components/grid-background.tsx
+++ b/app/client/components/grid-background.tsx
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ export function GridBackground({ children, className, containerClassName }: Grid
 	return (
 		<div
 			className={cn(
-				"relative min-h-full w-full overflow-x-hidden",
+				"relative min-h-full w-full",
 				"bg-size-[20px_20px] sm:bg-size-[40px_40px]",
 				"bg-[linear-gradient(to_right,#e4e4e7_1px,transparent_1px),linear-gradient(to_bottom,#e4e4e7_1px,transparent_1px)]",
 				"dark:bg-[linear-gradient(to_right,#262626_1px,transparent_1px),linear-gradient(to_bottom,#262626_1px,transparent_1px)]",
diff --git a/app/client/components/volume-file-browser.tsx b/app/client/components/volume-file-browser.tsx
index 78327270..fc8826f5 100644
--- a/app/client/components/volume-file-browser.tsx
+++ b/app/client/components/volume-file-browser.tsx
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import { FolderOpen } from "lucide-react";
 import { FileTree } from "~/client/components/file-tree";
 import { listFilesOptions } from "../api-client/@tanstack/react-query.gen";
 import { useFileBrowser } from "../hooks/use-file-browser";
+import { parseError } from "../lib/errors";
 
 type VolumeFileBrowserProps = {
 	volumeName: string;
@@ -66,7 +67,7 @@ export const VolumeFileBrowser = ({
 	if (error) {
 		return (
 			<div className="flex items-center justify-center h-full min-h-50">
-				<p className="text-destructive">Failed to load files: {(error as Error).message}</p>
+				<p className="text-destructive">Failed to load files: {parseError(error)?.message}</p>
 			</div>
 		);
 	}
diff --git a/app/client/modules/backups/components/create-schedule-form.tsx b/app/client/modules/backups/components/create-schedule-form.tsx
index 386bb000..bf78889d 100644
--- a/app/client/modules/backups/components/create-schedule-form.tsx
+++ b/app/client/modules/backups/components/create-schedule-form.tsx
@@ -6,7 +6,9 @@ import { X } from "lucide-react";
 import { useCallback, useState } from "react";
 import { useForm } from "react-hook-form";
 import { listRepositoriesOptions } from "~/client/api-client/@tanstack/react-query.gen";
+import { CronInput } from "~/client/components/cron-input";
 import { RepositoryIcon } from "~/client/components/repository-icon";
+import { Button } from "~/client/components/ui/button";
 import { Card, CardContent, CardDescription, CardHeader, CardTitle } from "~/client/components/ui/card";
 import { Checkbox } from "~/client/components/ui/checkbox";
 import {
@@ -20,13 +22,11 @@ import {
 } from "~/client/components/ui/form";
 import { Input } from "~/client/components/ui/input";
 import { Select, SelectContent, SelectItem, SelectTrigger, SelectValue } from "~/client/components/ui/select";
-import { Button } from "~/client/components/ui/button";
 import { Textarea } from "~/client/components/ui/textarea";
 import { VolumeFileBrowser } from "~/client/components/volume-file-browser";
-import { CronInput } from "~/client/components/cron-input";
-import { cronToFormValues } from "../lib/cron-utils";
 import type { BackupSchedule, Volume } from "~/client/lib/types";
 import { deepClean } from "~/utils/object";
+import { cronToFormValues } from "../lib/cron-utils";
 
 const internalFormSchema = type({
 	name: "1 <= string <= 128",
@@ -377,7 +377,7 @@ export const CreateScheduleForm = ({ initialValues, formId, onSubmit, volume }:
 								onSelectionChange={handleSelectionChange}
 								withCheckboxes={true}
 								foldersOnly={false}
-								className="flex-1 border rounded-md bg-card p-2 min-h-75 max-h-100 overflow-auto"
+								className="relative border rounded-md bg-card p-2 h-100 overflow-y-auto"
 							/>
 							{selectedPaths.size > 0 && (
 								<div className="mt-4">
@@ -641,8 +641,8 @@ export const CreateScheduleForm = ({ initialValues, formId, onSubmit, volume }:
 						</CardContent>
 					</Card>
 				</div>
-				<div className="h-full">
-					<Card className="h-full">
+				<div className="xl:sticky xl:top-6 xl:self-start">
+					<Card>
 						<CardHeader className="flex flex-row items-center justify-between gap-4">
 							<div>
 								<CardTitle>Schedule summary</CardTitle>
diff --git a/app/server/core/capabilities.ts b/app/server/core/capabilities.ts
index 2fc454c8..41e75581 100644
--- a/app/server/core/capabilities.ts
+++ b/app/server/core/capabilities.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 import * as fs from "node:fs/promises";
+import os from "node:os";
+import path from "node:path";
 import { logger } from "../utils/logger";
 
 export type SystemCapabilities = {
@@ -55,6 +57,11 @@ async function detectRclone(): Promise<boolean> {
 }
 
 async function detectSysAdmin(): Promise<boolean> {
+	if (process.platform !== "linux") {
+		logger.warn("sysAdmin capability: disabled. Non-Linux platform detected");
+		return false;
+	}
+
 	try {
 		const procStatus = await fs.readFile("/proc/self/status", "utf-8");
 
diff --git a/app/server/core/constants.ts b/app/server/core/constants.ts
index 972407a9..87e58f08 100644
--- a/app/server/core/constants.ts
+++ b/app/server/core/constants.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,11 @@
 export const OPERATION_TIMEOUT = 5000;
-export const VOLUME_MOUNT_BASE = "/var/lib/zerobyte/volumes";
-export const REPOSITORY_BASE = "/var/lib/zerobyte/repositories";
+
+export const VOLUME_MOUNT_BASE = process.env.ZEROBYTE_VOLUMES_DIR || "/var/lib/zerobyte/volumes";
+export const REPOSITORY_BASE = process.env.ZEROBYTE_REPOSITORIES_DIR || "/var/lib/zerobyte/repositories";
+
+export const RESTIC_CACHE_DIR = process.env.RESTIC_CACHE_DIR || "/var/lib/zerobyte/restic/cache";
+
 export const DATABASE_URL = process.env.DATABASE_URL || "/var/lib/zerobyte/data/ironmount.db";
-export const RESTIC_PASS_FILE = "/var/lib/zerobyte/data/restic.pass";
+export const RESTIC_PASS_FILE = process.env.RESTIC_PASS_FILE || "/var/lib/zerobyte/data/restic.pass";
 
 export const DEFAULT_EXCLUDES = [DATABASE_URL, RESTIC_PASS_FILE, REPOSITORY_BASE];
diff --git a/app/server/db/db.ts b/app/server/db/db.ts
index 7e992a9b..10fbf264 100644
--- a/app/server/db/db.ts
+++ b/app/server/db/db.ts
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ export const runDbMigrations = () => {
 	} else if (config.__prod__) {
 		migrationsFolder = path.join("/app", "assets", "migrations");
 	} else {
-		migrationsFolder = path.join("/app", "app", "drizzle");
+		migrationsFolder = path.join(process.cwd(), "app", "drizzle");
 	}
 
 	migrate(db, { migrationsFolder });
diff --git a/app/server/utils/restic.ts b/app/server/utils/restic.ts
index 1e2051ab..4eabbb49 100644
--- a/app/server/utils/restic.ts
+++ b/app/server/utils/restic.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import path from "node:path";
 import os from "node:os";
 import { throttle } from "es-toolkit";
 import { type } from "arktype";
-import { REPOSITORY_BASE, RESTIC_PASS_FILE, DEFAULT_EXCLUDES } from "../core/constants";
+import { REPOSITORY_BASE, RESTIC_PASS_FILE, DEFAULT_EXCLUDES, RESTIC_CACHE_DIR } from "../core/constants";
 import { config as appConfig } from "../core/config";
 import { logger } from "./logger";
 import { cryptoUtils } from "./crypto";
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ export const buildRepoUrl = (config: RepositoryConfig): string => {
 
 export const buildEnv = async (config: RepositoryConfig) => {
 	const env: Record<string, string> = {
-		RESTIC_CACHE_DIR: "/var/lib/zerobyte/restic/cache",
+		RESTIC_CACHE_DIR,
 		PATH: process.env.PATH || "/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin",
 	};
 
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 1a4cdab1..4e036b71 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 	"scripts": {
 		"lint": "oxlint --type-aware",
 		"build": "react-router build",
-		"dev": "bunx --bun vite",
+		"dev": "NODE_ENV=development bunx --bun vite",
 		"start": "bun ./dist/server/index.js",
 		"cli:dev": "bun run app/server/cli/main.ts",
 		"cli": "ZEROBYTE_CLI=1 bun ./dist/server/index.js",