That project is a treat - but it's effectively an FTP server, so most of its useful data will be in the files it hosts themselves. And it's deliberately built for being run off a single server. I had a similar project a long while ago which would "wrap" an FTP server with a WeTransfer-like web UI, and it also had no database - since none was needed.

"No build step for assets" is how I do my Rails apps these days if I can help it, luckily modern browsers allow for that to a great extent.