docs(decisions): record CI runs 500/503 for gate-toolbox-container

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
fix(ci): umask 0022 in the git checkout step — act's 0000 made Ansible ignore ansible.cfg
2026-11-08 00:26:27 -06:00 · 2026-11-08 00:20:38 -06:00 · 2026-11-08 00:15:38 -06:00 · 2026-11-08 00:12:03 -06:00 · 2026-11-08 05:53:29 +00:00 · 2026-11-08 05:41:34 +00:00
231 changed files with 29332 additions and 605 deletions
@@ -115,14 +115,60 @@ CI. That is a real coverage gap, not a phase.
 | variable | `REQUIRE_CLUSTER_TESTS` | `'true'` (Phase 1+) makes unverified cluster-needing touched reqs a hard block |
 | secret | `CONFORMANCE_TRIGGER_KUBECONFIG` | narrow creds to create/await the in-cluster Chainsaw Job (not cluster-admin) |

+## How images are built
+
+This repo's three images — `toolbox` (`infra/devcontainer/`), `agent-runner` (`infra/agent/`,
+built `FROM` the toolbox) and `conformance-runner` (`conformance/incluster/`) — are built,
+verified and published by [`images.yaml`](images.yaml), never from a workstation
+(operator rule, 2026-10-29). The logic is in [`scripts/images.sh`](scripts/images.sh).
+
+**The builder is rootless BuildKit** ([`platform/buildkit/`](../../platform/buildkit/README.md)),
+reached over mTLS with a pinned `buildx` — no job here touches a Docker daemon, privileged or
+otherwise (operator decision on PR #81). The client certificate reaches jobs as the Actions
+secrets `BUILDKIT_CA`, `BUILDKIT_CLIENT_CERT`, `BUILDKIT_CLIENT_KEY`.
+
+**Verification is a build target.** Each Containerfile ends in a `verify` stage that runs every
+in-image assertion at build time as the non-root uid with `RUN --network=none` (tool presence and
+pinned versions, `PM_SELFTEST=1 pm-dispatch`, the pm-worker probe, the `conformance-clone`
+refusals, no writable path outside the workspace). The pipeline builds `<image>-verify` before it
+builds, let alone pushes, the image. Build args come from each image's own
+`build-image.sh --print-build-args`, which is also the local podman path — so the recipe and the
+proof exist once.
+
+| Trigger | What happens |
+|---|---|
+| pull request touching an image's inputs | build + verify only. Nothing is pushed and **no registry credential is referenced** |
+| push to `main` touching an image's inputs | build + verify + publish to `gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/<image>` as `sha-<commit>` (immutable) and `main` (moving); the **registry-returned** digest is in the job summary |
+| `workflow_dispatch` | the same as a push when run on `main` (all images by default); verify-only elsewhere |
+
+Only images whose inputs changed are built. The publish job **never writes to git**: Renovate
+follows each image's `main` tag through a `# renovate-digest:` marker next to every digest
+reference (`platform/pm-agent/`, `infra/agent/versions.env`, `conformance/versions.env`) and
+opens the bump PR, which goes through the gate like anything else. A PR opened with the Actions
+token would not trigger the required gate, which is why it is Renovate's job and not this one's.
+
+Credential: the repository secret **`REGISTRY_PUSH_TOKEN`** (scope `write:package`, owned by an
+account with package write on the org). The automatic Actions token cannot push in Gitea 1.24.3
+— the reasoning, with source citations, is in the header of `images.yaml`. Retention:
+[`infra/gitea/registry-retention.sh`](../../infra/gitea/registry-retention.sh), an operator
+action, keeps every digest git pins plus the newest tags.
+
+Cost: the job shares the single act_runner slot with the gate, but the build itself runs in the
+`buildkitd` pod, not in DinD, so the runner's disk and memory are untouched. Until
+`platform/buildkit` is deployed and its client certificate copied
+(`infra/gitea/buildkit-client-secret.sh`), the job fails loudly at its builder preflight.
+
 ## Files

 ```
 .gitea/workflows/
  merge-gate.yaml            the pipeline (lint → l0 → l1 → conformance → decision)
+  images.yaml                build/verify/publish this repo's container images (see above)
  scripts/
-    install-tools.sh         installs the pinned tools per stage (from ci/versions.env)
+    install-tools.sh         installs the pinned tools per stage (from ci/versions.env) — used by the
+                             dormant merge-gate.yaml blueprint only; gate.yml runs in the toolbox image
    decide.sh                the R-TEST-03 merge decision over job results
+    images.sh                the image pipeline's driver (what to build, base, push, digest)
  README.md                  this file
 ```

@@ -3,8 +3,10 @@
 # This is the LIVE gate wired to the in-cluster Gitea Actions runner (ns gitea-actions,
 # Docker executor + DinD). It invokes the AGGREGATE merge gate — `./ci/gate.sh`, which is
 # exactly what `make -C ci gate` runs, so CI and the devcontainer gate the same way
-# (R-TEST-02): the runner just installs the pinned tools from ci/versions.env first (and see
-# below for why the script, not `make`, is invoked here). It runs every stage in order —
+# (R-TEST-02) — and since 2026-11-08 it runs INSIDE the same image: the job `container:` is the
+# CI-built devcontainer toolbox (see "THE JOB IMAGE" below), not a generic runner image that
+# downloads the pinned tools on every run. (See further below for why the script, not `make`,
+# is invoked here.) It runs every stage in order —
 # spec-immutability, lint, Kyverno L0, render==golden, L1 offline render — and then applies the
 # R-TEST-03 decision, printing
 # "MERGE GATE: PASS" (0) / "BLOCKED" (1) / "UNDETERMINED" (3) / "NOT APPLICABLE" (0). It is the
@@ -17,7 +19,8 @@
 # kinds of non-run must be told apart HERE, in the caller, because only the caller knows which
 # environment it is:
 #   * a pinned tool missing or a seam unwired ON THIS RUNNER is a DEFECT — the toolchain is
-#     installed for us two steps up. GATE_STRICT_SKIPS=true DECLARES that (no env sniffing, no
+#     baked into the job image and checked against ci/versions.env two steps up.
+#     GATE_STRICT_SKIPS=true DECLARES that (no env sniffing, no
 #     "does this look like CI?" heuristic) and makes those skips exit 1: untolerated, job fails.
 #   * spec-immutability CANNOT be verified here at all: the spec repo is a separate repo and is
 #     not checked out into this runner (SPEC_REPO_SLUG unwired; blueprint in merge-gate.yaml). It
@@ -41,6 +44,32 @@
 # same script the laptop runs; the extra pre-step is a read-only git-diff check and is
 # purely additive. The full pipeline blueprint (spec-checkout, per-layer jobs, decision job)
 # is retained dormant in merge-gate.yaml.
+#
+# THE JOB IMAGE (2026-11-08, feat/gate-toolbox-container). The gate job runs in
+# gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/toolbox, pinned BY DIGEST — the image
+# .gitea/workflows/images.yaml builds from infra/devcontainer/Containerfile, verifies, and
+# publishes. It is the SAME image `infra/devcontainer/dev.sh` runs, so a local gate and the CI
+# gate now execute the identical toolchain (R-TEST-02), not two installs that agree by intent.
+# Before this, the job ran in ghcr.io/catthehacker/ubuntu:act-22.04 and spent ~11s of every run
+# re-downloading yamllint, check-jsonschema, kyverno, promtool and chainsaw
+# (.gitea/workflows/scripts/install-tools.sh l0 + l1; measured on runs 494/495).
+#   * PINNED BY DIGEST, MOVED BY RENOVATE. The `# renovate-digest:` marker above the image line
+#     is the repo-wide convention (renovate.json5, "This repo's own CI-published images"):
+#     Renovate follows the `main` tag and opens a digest-bump PR, whose OWN gate run then
+#     executes on the new image — the bump tests itself. infra/gitea/registry-retention.sh reads
+#     the same marker, so the pinned digest is never pruned. Never hand-edit it to a tag.
+#   * PULL AUTH: none needed. The Home-Network org is public and the registry issues an
+#     anonymous pull token (measured 2026-11-08: anonymous /v2/token -> manifest 200), so the
+#     runner's DinD pulls it like any public image. If the org is ever made private, add
+#     `credentials:` here with a read:package token secret — the automatic Actions token has no
+#     package scope at /v2/token (see images.yaml's header).
+#   * COLD PULL: ~467 MB compressed (1.54 GB unpacked). The DinD store is an emptyDir, so the
+#     first job after a runner-pod restart or a digest bump pays one pull; every other run finds
+#     it cached (forcePull=false), exactly as it already did for the catthehacker image.
+#   * NO NODE in the toolbox, so `actions/checkout` (a Node action) cannot run here. The checkout
+#     step is plain git instead — see its comment for how it keeps fetch-depth-0 semantics.
+#   * install-tools.sh is NOT deleted: merge-gate.yaml (the dormant blueprint) still calls it,
+#     and conformance/tests/l0-static/alert-rules-unit-tested asserts its promtool wiring.
 ---
 name: gate

@@ -78,16 +107,76 @@ jobs:
  # Single required status check: the static merge gate.
  gate:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    # The CI-built toolbox — the same image dev.sh runs. See "THE JOB IMAGE" in the header.
+    container:
+      # renovate-digest: image=gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/toolbox tag=main
+      image: gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/toolbox@sha256:83a3501efe34fa0b039e3f0d360738686a0f59109866c49779768f5d5ed0ef81
    steps:
-      - name: Checkout
-        uses: actions/checkout@v4
-        with:
-          fetch-depth: 0        # full history so ci/touched-requirements.sh can diff vs main
-
-      - name: Install pinned CI toolchain (ci/versions.env)
+      # Plain git, because actions/checkout is a Node action and the toolbox has no Node. It
+      # reproduces what actions/checkout@v7 with `fetch-depth: 0` did here (read from its logged
+      # commands on runs 490/495): full history of every branch + tags, so
+      # ci/touched-requirements.sh can diff against origin/<base>; the exact event commit
+      # checked out (detached for a PR, as `-B <branch>` for a push). One difference, on
+      # purpose: the job token is passed to the single fetch through GIT_CONFIG_* environment
+      # variables and is NOT persisted into .git/config — nothing after this step needs
+      # authenticated git (ci/ and conformance/ make no network git calls), so there is no
+      # reason to leave a credential in the workspace for the gate's scripts to read.
+      - name: Checkout (git, full history)
+        env:
+          GIT_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
+          SERVER_URL: ${{ github.server_url }}
+          REPOSITORY: ${{ github.repository }}
+          SHA: ${{ github.sha }}
+          REF: ${{ github.ref }}
        run: |
-          ./.gitea/workflows/scripts/install-tools.sh l0
-          ./.gitea/workflows/scripts/install-tools.sh l1
+          set -euo pipefail
+          # act runs steps with umask 0000, so without this every checked-out directory is
+          # world-writable — and Ansible then IGNORES infra/ansible/ansible.cfg as a source
+          # ("Ansible is being run in a world writable directory"), which made the L0 check
+          # prod-baremetal-not-dev-surface fail on this PR's first CI run (run 500). The
+          # toolbox has Ansible, so that check now drives it for real. 0022 = what a
+          # workstation clone gets (reproduced locally: 0000 fails the check, 0022 passes).
+          umask 0022
+          git config --global --add safe.directory "$PWD"
+          git init -q .
+          git remote add origin "${SERVER_URL}/${REPOSITORY}"
+          auth="$(printf 'x-access-token:%s' "$GIT_TOKEN" | base64 -w0)"
+          GIT_CONFIG_COUNT=1 GIT_CONFIG_KEY_0=http.extraHeader \
+          GIT_CONFIG_VALUE_0="AUTHORIZATION: basic ${auth}" \
+            git -c protocol.version=2 fetch --quiet --no-tags --prune --no-recurse-submodules origin \
+              '+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*' '+refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*' \
+              "+${SHA}:refs/remotes/checkout/head"
+          unset auth GIT_TOKEN
+          case "$REF" in
+            refs/heads/*) git checkout -q --force -B "${REF#refs/heads/}" "$SHA" ;;
+            *)            git checkout -q --force --detach "$SHA" ;;
+          esac
+          [ "$(git rev-parse HEAD)" = "$SHA" ] || { echo "::error::HEAD is not ${SHA}" >&2; exit 1; }
+          echo "checked out $(git log -1 --format='%H %s') (ref ${REF}); $(git rev-list --count HEAD) commits of history"
+
+      # The image is the toolchain, so prove it is the PINNED one before trusting it: every
+      # *_VERSION in ci/versions.env must equal what the image recorded at build time
+      # (/etc/dev-toolchain-versions, written by infra/devcontainer/Containerfile; its `verify`
+      # stage already asserted the version-sensitive binaries report those pins). This replaces
+      # the per-run install: a drifted toolbox fails HERE, naming the tool, instead of gating with
+      # a different engine. ci/versions.env and infra/devcontainer/versions.env must move together.
+      - name: Toolchain is the one ci/versions.env pins
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          . ci/versions.env
+          drift=0
+          for var in $(grep -oE '^[A-Z_]+_VERSION' ci/versions.env); do
+            tool="$(printf '%s' "${var%_VERSION}" | tr 'A-Z_' 'a-z-')"
+            want="${!var}"
+            got="$(sed -n "s/^${tool}=//p" /etc/dev-toolchain-versions)"
+            if [ "$got" = "$want" ]; then
+              printf 'ok     %-18s %s\n' "$tool" "$want"
+            else
+              printf '::error::DRIFT  %s: ci/versions.env pins %s, the job image has %s\n' "$tool" "$want" "${got:-nothing}"
+              drift=1
+            fi
+          done
+          [ "$drift" -eq 0 ]

      # R-TEST-06: the spec is read-only to agents. An EXPLICIT early surfacing of the
      # spec-immutability check, so its result is a distinct, tolerant status line in the
@@ -0,0 +1,185 @@
+# Container images — built, verified and published by CI, never from a workstation.
+#
+# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+# WHY THIS FILE EXISTS (operator rule, 2026-10-29)
+# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+# "Container image creation, hosting and lifecycle must be part of CI/CD and the codebase, never a
+# one-off build/push from a workstation." Before this workflow, three images existed only as
+# workstation builds and NOTHING had ever been pushed to the Gitea registry: the Home-Network org's
+# package list was empty, platform/pm-agent/ pinned an all-zero digest and sat in ImagePullBackOff,
+# and conformance/versions.env carried an empty digest. Both build scripts said "publishing is an
+# operator action" — a step with no log, no recorded inputs and no verification anyone could read.
+#
+# WHAT IT DOES — the logic is in scripts/images.sh; this file only wires triggers and secrets.
+#   pull_request -> build + VERIFY only. No push, and no registry credential is referenced.
+#   push to main -> build + verify + PUBLISH to gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/<image>
+#   dispatch     -> same as a push when run on main; verify-only on any other ref.
+# Images: toolbox (infra/devcontainer), agent-runner (infra/agent, FROM toolbox) and
+# conformance-runner (conformance/incluster). Only images whose inputs changed are built.
+#
+# THE DIGEST LIFECYCLE — this workflow NEVER writes to git.
+#   1. publish pushes `sha-<commit>` (immutable) and `main` (moving), and prints the digest the
+#      REGISTRY returns in the job summary.
+#   2. Renovate (renovate.yaml) follows the `main` tag of each image through the
+#      `# renovate-digest:` markers next to every digest reference, and opens the bump PR.
+#   3. That PR goes through the gate like any other change, and Flux deploys it.
+# The bump PR is Renovate's and not this job's because a PR opened with the Actions token does not
+# trigger workflows, so it could never pass the REQUIRED gate check; Renovate's token is a real
+# user's.
+#
+# THE PUSH CREDENTIAL — `REGISTRY_PUSH_TOKEN`, a repository Actions secret, referenced BY NAME.
+# The automatic Actions token CANNOT be used. Gitea 1.24.3 source, verified:
+#   * services/auth/basic.go (Basic.Verify) turns a task token into the pseudo-user
+#     `gitea-actions` (ActionsUserID -2) and sets NO token scope;
+#   * routers/api/packages/container/container.go (Authenticate, the /v2/token exchange every
+#     docker client uses) then requires read:package / write:package / all scope and answers 401;
+#   * services/context/package.go (determineAccessMode) has `// TODO: ActionUser permission check`
+#     and no branch for that user, so even past login it would get at most READ on a public org.
+# So: a personal access token with scope `write:package`, minted by an account that has package
+# WRITE on the Home-Network org (org owner, or a team with the Packages unit at write). A dedicated
+# bot account in a packages-only team is the least-privilege choice. The username sent with it is
+# not checked by Gitea (basic.go resolves the owner from the token), so `vars.REGISTRY_PUSH_USER`
+# is optional and only labels the login.
+#
+# THE BUILDER — rootless BuildKit (operator decision on PR #81, 2026-10-29).
+# The act runner's job containers get NO Docker daemon (act_runner 0.2.11 forces docker_host "-"
+# for a tcp:// DinD, and gitea/act strips every bind when valid_volumes is empty — measured on
+# this PR's first run), and handing them the privileged DinD daemon would be root on the node for
+# anyone who can push a branch. So images are built by platform/buildkit/: a ROOTLESS buildkitd
+# (not privileged; uid 1000 in a user namespace), reached over mTLS at
+# buildkitd.buildkit.svc.cluster.local:1234 with a pinned `buildx` (remote driver). Its client
+# certificate reaches jobs as three Actions secrets — BUILDKIT_CA, BUILDKIT_CLIENT_CERT,
+# BUILDKIT_CLIENT_KEY — copied from cert-manager by infra/gitea/buildkit-client-secret.sh.
+# Pull requests get the client certificate (they must build) but never a registry credential.
+#
+# UNTIL platform/buildkit IS DEPLOYED (Flux applies it only after merge) THIS JOB FAILS, LOUDLY,
+# at its builder preflight. A skipped Gitea job reports `success`, so it is red on purpose.
+#
+# VERIFICATION is each Containerfile's `verify` stage, built before anything is pushed.
+#
+name: images
+
+on:
+  pull_request:
+    branches: [main]
+    paths:
+      - infra/devcontainer/Containerfile
+      - infra/devcontainer/versions.env
+      - infra/devcontainer/build-image.sh
+      - infra/agent/**
+      - conformance/incluster/Containerfile
+      - conformance/incluster/conformance-clone
+      - conformance/incluster/build-image.sh
+      - .gitea/workflows/images.yaml
+      - .gitea/workflows/scripts/images.sh
+      - platform/buildkit/versions.env
+  push:
+    branches: [main]
+    paths:
+      - infra/devcontainer/Containerfile
+      - infra/devcontainer/versions.env
+      - infra/devcontainer/build-image.sh
+      - infra/agent/**
+      - conformance/incluster/Containerfile
+      - conformance/incluster/conformance-clone
+      - conformance/incluster/build-image.sh
+      - .gitea/workflows/images.yaml
+      - .gitea/workflows/scripts/images.sh
+      - platform/buildkit/versions.env
+  workflow_dispatch:
+    inputs:
+      images:
+        description: "Which images: 'all', or a space-separated subset of: toolbox agent-runner conformance-runner"
+        required: false
+        default: "all"
+
+concurrency:
+  # Never cancel a publish half-way: a pushed `sha-` tag with no matching `main` move is
+  # recoverable (a rerun skips what is already published) but pointless to provoke.
+  group: images-${{ github.ref }}
+  cancel-in-progress: false
+
+jobs:
+  images:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    # Measured on the PR that introduced this file — see its decisions entry. Generous because a
+    # cold DinD store downloads the Fedora base and every pinned tool on each run.
+    timeout-minutes: 75
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout
+        uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0   # the per-image change detection diffs against the base commit
+
+      # ── pull requests: build + verify, NO credential ───────────────────────────────────────
+      - name: Build and verify (pull request — nothing is pushed)
+        if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
+        env:
+          MODE: verify
+          IMAGES: auto
+          PR_BASE_REF: ${{ github.base_ref }}
+          # The BUILDER's client certificate (platform/buildkit). Not a registry credential:
+          # a pull request can build, never push.
+          BUILDKIT_CA: ${{ secrets.BUILDKIT_CA }}
+          BUILDKIT_CLIENT_CERT: ${{ secrets.BUILDKIT_CLIENT_CERT }}
+          BUILDKIT_CLIENT_KEY: ${{ secrets.BUILDKIT_CLIENT_KEY }}
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          BASE_SHA="$(git merge-base "origin/${PR_BASE_REF}" HEAD)"
+          export BASE_SHA
+          ./.gitea/workflows/scripts/images.sh
+
+      # ── non-main dispatch: verify only ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+      - name: Build and verify (dispatch off main — nothing is pushed)
+        if: github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' && github.ref != 'refs/heads/main'
+        env:
+          MODE: verify
+          IMAGES: ${{ inputs.images == 'all' && 'toolbox agent-runner conformance-runner' || inputs.images }}
+          BUILDKIT_CA: ${{ secrets.BUILDKIT_CA }}
+          BUILDKIT_CLIENT_CERT: ${{ secrets.BUILDKIT_CLIENT_CERT }}
+          BUILDKIT_CLIENT_KEY: ${{ secrets.BUILDKIT_CLIENT_KEY }}
+        run: ./.gitea/workflows/scripts/images.sh
+
+      # ── main: publish ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+      - name: Preflight - the push token must exist, and its absence must be LOUD
+        if: github.event_name != 'pull_request' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
+        env:
+          REGISTRY_PUSH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.REGISTRY_PUSH_TOKEN }}
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          if [ -z "${REGISTRY_PUSH_TOKEN:-}" ]; then
+            echo "::error::REGISTRY_PUSH_TOKEN is not set on this repository." >&2
+            cat >&2 <<'MSG'
+
+          Images cannot be published without a registry credential, and this step fails rather
+          than skipping ON PURPOSE: a skipped Gitea job reports `success`, so skipping here would
+          make "nothing was published" look exactly like "published". That is how this repo went
+          a month with images that existed only on one workstation.
+
+          WHY NOT THE BUILT-IN ACTIONS TOKEN: Gitea 1.24.3 gives it no package scope at the
+          registry's /v2/token exchange (routers/api/packages/container/container.go,
+          Authenticate) — see the header of .gitea/workflows/images.yaml.
+
+          TO FIX: as an account with package WRITE on the Home-Network org (ideally a dedicated
+          bot in a packages-only team), create an access token with scope `write:package` and
+          nothing else, then add it to this repository as the Actions secret
+          REGISTRY_PUSH_TOKEN. Optionally set the Actions variable REGISTRY_PUSH_USER to that
+          account's name. Do not commit the token anywhere. Then re-run this workflow
+          (workflow_dispatch on main, images: all).
+          MSG
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "REGISTRY_PUSH_TOKEN is present (value not printed)."
+
+      - name: Build, verify and publish (main)
+        if: github.event_name != 'pull_request' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
+        env:
+          MODE: publish
+          IMAGES: ${{ github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' && (inputs.images == 'all' && 'toolbox agent-runner conformance-runner' || inputs.images) || 'auto' }}
+          BASE_SHA: ${{ github.event.before }}
+          REGISTRY_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.REGISTRY_PUSH_TOKEN }}
+          REGISTRY_USER: ${{ vars.REGISTRY_PUSH_USER }}
+          BUILDKIT_CA: ${{ secrets.BUILDKIT_CA }}
+          BUILDKIT_CLIENT_CERT: ${{ secrets.BUILDKIT_CLIENT_CERT }}
+          BUILDKIT_CLIENT_KEY: ${{ secrets.BUILDKIT_CLIENT_KEY }}
+        run: ./.gitea/workflows/scripts/images.sh
@@ -60,9 +60,9 @@ jobs:
  spec-immutability:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v4                 # the implementation repo
+      - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1                 # v7                 # the implementation repo
      - name: Check out the read-only spec (sibling path)
-        uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7
        with:
          repository: ${{ vars.SPEC_REPO_SLUG }}  # e.g. Home-Network/home-network-k3s (set in Gitea)
          path: ../home-network-k3s
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ jobs:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: [spec-immutability]
    steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7
        with: { fetch-depth: 0 }          # full history so touched-requirement diff works
      - name: Install pinned tools
        run: ./.gitea/workflows/scripts/install-tools.sh lint
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ jobs:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: [lint]
    steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7
        with: { fetch-depth: 0 }
      - name: Install pinned tools
        run: ./.gitea/workflows/scripts/install-tools.sh l0
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ jobs:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: [l0]
    steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7
        with: { fetch-depth: 0 }
      - name: Install pinned tools
        run: ./.gitea/workflows/scripts/install-tools.sh l1
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ jobs:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: [render-golden]
    steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7
        with: { fetch-depth: 0 }
      - name: Install pinned tools
        run: ./.gitea/workflows/scripts/install-tools.sh l1
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ jobs:
        run: make -C ci l1
      - name: Upload L1 artifacts
        if: always()
-        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@cf430e030ddbb5b0abf93d22962f4752f3646cd9 # v7
        with:
          name: l1-junit-coverage
          path: |
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ jobs:
    needs: [l1]
    if: ${{ vars.CLUSTER_AVAILABLE == 'true' }}
    steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7
        with: { fetch-depth: 0 }
      - name: Install pinned tools
        run: ./.gitea/workflows/scripts/install-tools.sh conformance
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ jobs:
        run: make -C ci conformance
      - name: Upload L2/L3 artifacts
        if: always()
-        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@cf430e030ddbb5b0abf93d22962f4752f3646cd9 # v7
        with:
          name: conformance-junit-coverage
          path: |
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ jobs:
    needs: [lint, l0, render-golden, l1, conformance]
    if: always()
    steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: actions/checkout@3d3c42e5aac5ba805825da76410c181273ba90b1 # v7
      - name: Decide
        env:
          R_LINT: ${{ needs.lint.result }}
@@ -0,0 +1,318 @@
+# Renovate — the dependency/image update automation. SCHEDULED, self-hosted against this Gitea.
+#
+# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+# WHY THIS FILE EXISTS: renovate.json HAS BEEN IN THIS REPO AND HAS NEVER ONCE RUN.
+# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+# Measured 2026-10-17: `renovate.json` is present, complete and thoughtfully written — it declares
+# managers, schedules, automerge classes and grouping. Nothing executes it. There is no Renovate
+# workflow (this is the first), no Renovate CronJob or Deployment in the cluster
+# (`kubectl get cronjob,deploy,job -A | grep -i renovate` -> nothing), and no bot account doing it
+# from outside. Meanwhile SEVEN files carry comments asserting "Renovate maintains this pin"
+# (platform/homepage/deployment.yaml:40, runbooks/serving/deployment.yaml:87,
+# platform/crafty/deployment.yaml:63, platform/vpn-ingress/daemonset.yaml:259,
+# platform/keycloak/postgres-cluster.yaml:75, apps/wave-0/nextcloud-db.yaml:302, and
+# platform/headlamp/helmrepository.yaml:2). Those comments have been false for the life of the file.
+#
+# The cost is measurable. With nothing bumping anything: the six per-app oauth2-proxy auth sidecars
+# sit on v7.8.1 while the platform oauth2-proxy in the SAME cluster runs v7.15.5; Keycloak (the IdP)
+# runs 26.0.6, a November-2024 release, 8 minors behind; Velero runs a RELEASE CANDIDATE
+# (velero-plugin-for-aws v1.14.3-rc.2) with a stable available; the CNPG Postgres image is 16.4,
+# missing every 16.5+ security release. A pin nothing maintains is not a pin, it is a fossil.
+#
+# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+# WHY RENOVATE AND NOT FLUX IMAGE-AUTOMATION (the decision, and it reverses ADR-0009's split)
+# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+# ADR-0009 divided the work: Renovate owns Helm chart/dependency bumps, Flux image-automation owns
+# per-service container image TAGS, deliberately non-overlapping. The second half of that split
+# cannot be delivered on this repo's terms, for three measured reasons:
+#
+#   1. IT WOULD BYPASS THE MERGE GATE, WHICH CLAUDE.md §1 FORBIDS. ImageUpdateAutomation does not
+#      open pull requests; it COMMITS AND PUSHES. Its default target is the source's own branch —
+#      `main` — so it would write straight past the PR flow. It can be pointed at a side branch
+#      instead, but then nothing opens the PR and bumps silently accumulate on a branch nobody
+#      merges. Either way a human or a second bot has to close the loop.
+#   2. ON THIS CLUSTER IT CANNOT EVEN DO THAT. Measured 2026-10-17: `main` is protected with
+#      `user_can_push: false`, and the `flux-system` GitRepository has NO `spec.secretRef` at all —
+#      the source is anonymous and read-only. Enabling write-back means minting an in-cluster git
+#      WRITE credential for the repository that defines the cluster, which is a materially larger
+#      blast radius than a CI-scoped token.
+#   3. RENOVATE ALREADY OPENS PRs NATIVELY, so every change it proposes goes through the gate with
+#      no extra machinery.
+#
+# So: Renovate owns BOTH halves, and Flux image-automation stays disabled. Note this is a change of
+# plan, not a change of state — image-automation has been commented out at
+# platform/kustomization.yaml:52 since it was authored, and the cluster has ZERO
+# ImageRepository/ImagePolicy/ImageUpdateAutomation objects (measured). Its two controllers ARE
+# installed and have idled for 43 days. Nothing is being torn down here; a path that was never
+# taken is being formally closed, and renovate.json's `docker`/`kubernetes` managers — disabled
+# purely to avoid fighting a controller that never ran — are switched on to fill the gap.
+#
+# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+# THIS WORKFLOW MUST NOT BE ABLE TO SUCCEED SILENTLY
+# ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
+# A SKIPPED Gitea job reports `success` (CLAUDE.md §2), so "green" is not evidence this ran. Two
+# guards:
+#   * The preflight step FAILS HARD (exit 1) if RENOVATE_TOKEN is absent, rather than skipping.
+#     A missing credential on a dependency bot is indistinguishable from "nothing to update", and
+#     that is precisely how renovate.json stayed inert for months.
+#   * The summary step records what ran into the job summary unconditionally.
+# What this still does NOT give you is an alert when the SCHEDULE stops firing. See the handoff
+# entry's "What I did NOT verify" — that gap is stated, not papered over.
+#
+# OPERATOR PREREQUISITE — ONE SECRET, NOT COMMITTED HERE:
+#   `RENOVATE_TOKEN` — a Gitea access token for the bot account (`renovate-bot`) with FIVE scopes.
+#   Each is required by a call Renovate 44.x makes against Gitea 1.24.3, and Gitea refuses a
+#   token missing one with `403 token does not have at least one of required scope(s)`:
+#     read:user          GET /user                        (platform init: initPlatform)
+#     read:organization  GET /orgs/{owner}, /orgs/{o}/labels  (initRepo -> isOrg, then org labels)
+#     write:repository   clone/push branches, /pulls, /statuses
+#     write:issue        /issues, /labels, /issues/{n}/labels  (dependency dashboard, PR labels;
+#                        Gitea files all of these under the ISSUE scope, not repository)
+#     read:package       the Gitea container registry (RENOVATE_HOST_RULES below)
+#   CORRECTED 2026-10-30. This list used to name only write:repository + read:user (+ read:package),
+#   and the operator minted exactly that. Run 350 then failed at
+#   `GET /api/v1/orgs/Home-Network 403 ... required=[read:organization], token scope=read:package,
+#   write:repository,read:user`; write:issue would have been the next wall. The preflight below now
+#   PROBES these scopes, so a short token fails in seconds with the missing scope named.
+#   Set it as an Actions secret on this repository. Nothing in this repo mints,
+#   stores or references its value; it is consumed by name only.
+#   Until it exists, this workflow FAILS LOUDLY on every scheduled run. That is intended: a
+#   visible red is the correct state for "automation configured but not credentialed".
+#
+# THE FIRST RUN WILL WANT TO OPEN A LOT OF PRs. ~30 dependencies are behind. renovate.json caps the
+# blast radius (`prConcurrentLimit: 5`, `prHourlyLimit: 2`), but run it manually with
+# `dry_run: true` FIRST and read the log before letting the schedule loose. That is what
+# workflow_dispatch's default is for.
+name: renovate
+
+on:
+  schedule:
+    # 08:15 UTC daily. renovate.json ALSO carries `"schedule": ["after 3am and before 6am"]` with
+    # `"timezone": "America/New_York"`, and THAT inner schedule is authoritative — Renovate re-checks
+    # it and DECLINES TO OPEN PRs outside it. So this cron must fire INSIDE the local window, not
+    # merely near it.
+    #
+    # WAS `15 3 * * *`, WHICH NEVER WOULD HAVE WORKED (fixed 2026-10-18, before the first scheduled
+    # run). Gitea Actions cron is UTC, so 03:15 UTC is 23:15 the PREVIOUS EVENING in New York --
+    # 3h45m BEFORE the window opens, not "slightly ahead" of it as the original comment claimed.
+    # Every nightly run would have started, logged "not within schedule", opened zero PRs and
+    # exited SUCCESSFULLY. A green tick forever, and no updates ever: the exact "failure mode is a
+    # green tick" shape this repo keeps getting burned by, and indistinguishable from "nothing
+    # needed updating".
+    #
+    # THE WINDOW IN UTC MOVES WITH US DST, and a cron cannot follow it:
+    #   EDT (UTC-4, Mar-Nov): local 03:00-06:00 == 07:00-10:00 UTC
+    #   EST (UTC-5, Nov-Mar): local 03:00-06:00 == 08:00-11:00 UTC
+    # 08:15 UTC is the only quarter-hour comfortably inside BOTH (04:15 EDT / 03:15 EST), so the
+    # schedule keeps working across both switchovers without an edit. Do not "tidy" this back to an
+    # early-morning-UTC value without redoing this arithmetic.
+    - cron: "15 8 * * *"
+  workflow_dispatch:
+    inputs:
+      dry_run:
+        description: "Dry run (no PRs, no branches). Leave true for the first run."
+        required: false
+        default: "true"
+      log_level:
+        description: "Renovate LOG_LEVEL (info | debug)"
+        required: false
+        default: "info"
+
+concurrency:
+  # Never two Renovate runs at once: concurrent runs race on the same branches and can open
+  # duplicate PRs. Not cancel-in-progress — a half-finished Renovate run can leave a branch pushed
+  # with no PR, so let the first one finish.
+  group: renovate
+  cancel-in-progress: false
+
+jobs:
+  renovate:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    # RENOVATE RUNS AS THE JOB CONTAINER, NOT THROUGH renovatebot/github-action. FIXED 2026-10-30.
+    # That action does exactly one thing: `docker run ghcr.io/renovatebot/renovate:<version>`. On
+    # this runner a job has NO Docker daemon, by decision (decisions/2026-10-29-image-pipeline.md:
+    # act_runner sets container.docker_host to `-` when DOCKER_HOST is tcp://, and the DinD daemon
+    # is privileged, so a job that could reach it would be root on the node). So every run of the
+    # action died before Renovate started. Dispatch run 343 (2026-10-30), verbatim:
+    #   [command]/usr/bin/docker run --env LOG_LEVEL ... --env RENOVATE_TOKEN=*** ...
+    #   failed to connect to the docker API at unix:///var/run/docker.sock; ... no such file or directory
+    #   ::error::Error: The process '/usr/bin/docker' failed with exit code 1
+    # No auth, scope, config or network question was ever reached. Making the Renovate image the
+    # job container needs no daemon: act starts it through the runner's own DinD exactly as it
+    # starts the default ubuntu image, then `exec`s each step inside it.
+    #
+    # PINNED here (was the action's `renovate-version: 44.167.0`). renovate.json5 is validated
+    # against this exact tag — keep them in step. Renovate's github-actions manager reads
+    # `.gitea/workflows` and extracts `container.image`, so this pin is still self-maintained.
+    #
+    # The image runs as uid 12021 (`ubuntu`), and that is fine under act: the step command files
+    # ($GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY etc.) are created mode 0666 (gitea/act v0.261.2 pkg/runner/step.go),
+    # HOME comes from the image env, and no step writes the workspace. There is deliberately NO
+    # actions/checkout: Renovate clones the repo itself from RENOVATE_ENDPOINT, and as uid 12021
+    # checkout could not `git init` the root-owned workspace volume anyway.
+    container:
+      image: ghcr.io/renovatebot/renovate:44.167.0
+    # Renovate scans every manager across the whole repo; 40m is generous for this repo's size and
+    # well under a runner's patience. Without a timeout a wedged run holds the `renovate`
+    # concurrency group and silently blocks every subsequent scheduled run.
+    timeout-minutes: 40
+    steps:
+      - name: Preflight - the token must exist, and its absence must be LOUD
+        shell: bash
+        env:
+          RENOVATE_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.RENOVATE_TOKEN }}
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          if [ -z "${RENOVATE_TOKEN:-}" ]; then
+            echo "::error::RENOVATE_TOKEN is not set on this repository." >&2
+            cat >&2 <<'MSG'
+
+          Renovate cannot run without a Gitea access token, and this step fails rather than
+          skipping ON PURPOSE: a skipped Gitea job reports `success`, so skipping here would make
+          "dependency automation is not running" look exactly like "everything is up to date".
+          That is the failure mode that let renovate.json sit inert in this repo for months while
+          seven files claimed "Renovate maintains this pin".
+
+          TO FIX: create a Gitea access token for the bot account (renovate-bot) with scopes
+          read:user, read:organization, write:repository, write:issue and read:package (the
+          header of .gitea/workflows/renovate.yaml says which call needs which), then add it to
+          this repository as the Actions secret RENOVATE_TOKEN. Do not commit it anywhere.
+          MSG
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "RENOVATE_TOKEN is present (value not printed)."
+          # Proves the step is running INSIDE the pinned Renovate image, not the default job image.
+          echo "renovate $(renovate --version)"
+
+      - name: Preflight - the token has every scope Renovate needs
+        shell: bash
+        env:
+          RENOVATE_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.RENOVATE_TOKEN }}
+        # ADDED 2026-10-30. Renovate reports EVERY platform-init failure as the bare
+        # "Authentication failure" (lib/modules/platform/gitea/index.ts initPlatform swallows the
+        # HTTP error), and a later scope gap surfaces as "Repository has unknown error". Two
+        # dispatches were spent learning one missing scope at a time. These probes are GETs only,
+        # and they name the missing scope. The token never reaches argv: curl reads it from stdin
+        # (`--config -`), so it is not in `ps` output or in the log.
+        run: |
+          set -uo pipefail
+          GITEA=https://gitea.home.keithjackson.dev
+          REPO=Home-Network/home-network-k3s-impl
+          fail=0
+          body=$(mktemp)
+          probe() { # <scope it proves> <path> <auth: bearer|basic>
+            local code
+            if [ "$3" = basic ]; then
+              code=$(printf 'user = "renovate:%s"\n' "$RENOVATE_TOKEN" \
+                | curl -sS --config - -o "$body" -w '%{http_code}' "$GITEA$2") || code=000
+            else
+              code=$(printf 'header = "Authorization: Bearer %s"\n' "$RENOVATE_TOKEN" \
+                | curl -sS --config - -o "$body" -w '%{http_code}' "$GITEA$2") || code=000
+            fi
+            if [ "$code" = 200 ]; then
+              echo "ok    $1  (GET ${2%%\?*} -> 200)"
+              return
+            fi
+            fail=1
+            echo "::error::scope $1: GET ${2%%\?*} -> $code"
+            case "$code" in
+              401) echo "      401 = Gitea rejected the token VALUE (wrong, expired or revoked)." ;;
+              403) if grep -q 'Access denied' "$body"; then
+                     echo "      403 'Access denied' = a Cilium/Envoy policy denial, not Gitea."
+                   else
+                     echo "      Gitea: $(jq -r '.message // empty' "$body" 2>/dev/null | head -c 300)"
+                   fi ;;
+              *)   echo "      body: $(head -c 200 "$body")" ;;
+            esac
+          }
+          probe read:user          "/api/v1/user"                          bearer
+          probe read:organization  "/api/v1/orgs/${REPO%%/*}"              bearer
+          probe read:repository    "/api/v1/repos/$REPO"                   bearer
+          probe read:issue         "/api/v1/repos/$REPO/labels?limit=1"    bearer
+          probe read:package       "/v2/token?service=container_registry&scope=repository:home-network/toolbox:pull" basic
+          # WRITE scopes cannot be proven by a GET. Gitea's scope-refusal message, however, lists
+          # the token's scopes (names only, never the value): ask for an admin route this bot
+          # cannot have, and read `token scope=` from the 403. Advisory if the format changes.
+          printf 'header = "Authorization: Bearer %s"\n' "$RENOVATE_TOKEN" \
+            | curl -sS --config - -o "$body" "$GITEA/api/v1/admin/orgs?limit=1" || true
+          scopes=$(jq -r '.message // empty' "$body" 2>/dev/null | sed -n 's/.*token scope=//p')
+          if [ -n "$scopes" ]; then
+            echo "token scopes (from Gitea): $scopes"
+            for want in write:repository write:issue; do
+              case ",$scopes," in
+                *",$want,"*|*",all,"*) echo "ok    $want" ;;
+                *) echo "::error::scope $want is missing (token scope=$scopes)"; fail=1 ;;
+              esac
+            done
+          else
+            echo "::warning::could not read the token's scope list; write:repository and write:issue are UNVERIFIED"
+          fi
+          rm -f "$body"
+          if [ "$fail" -ne 0 ]; then
+            echo "::error::RENOVATE_TOKEN failed the checks above (a 401 is the value, a 403 is a scope). Re-mint it for renovate-bot with read:user, read:organization, write:repository, write:issue, read:package and overwrite the secret."
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
+      - name: Run Renovate
+        shell: bash
+        # The repo config is discovered by Renovate from the cloned repo (renovate.json5,
+        # RENOVATE_REQUIRE_CONFIG=required). The action used to ALSO load it as the global config
+        # via RENOVATE_CONFIG_FILE; that double-loading is gone. ci/lint.sh's `configurationFile:`
+        # check therefore has nothing to resolve in this file, and passes.
+        env:
+          RENOVATE_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.RENOVATE_TOKEN }}
+          # Self-hosted Gitea. `platform` + `endpoint` were the two values renovate.json's own
+          # header said were "set at runtime by the operator's renovate runner" — this is that
+          # runner, so they are set here rather than in the repo config, which keeps renovate.json
+          # portable and free of this instance's URL.
+          RENOVATE_PLATFORM: gitea
+          RENOVATE_ENDPOINT: https://gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/api/v1
+          RENOVATE_REPOSITORIES: Home-Network/home-network-k3s-impl
+          # Renovate must never push to a protected branch; it works on its own branches and opens
+          # PRs against this base. Stated explicitly rather than inherited, because this is the
+          # property that keeps the whole mechanism inside CLAUDE.md §1's branch -> PR -> gate path.
+          RENOVATE_BASE_BRANCHES: main
+          RENOVATE_ONBOARDING: "false"
+          RENOVATE_REQUIRE_CONFIG: "required"
+          RENOVATE_DRY_RUN: ${{ github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' && inputs.dry_run == 'true' && 'full' || '' }}
+          LOG_LEVEL: ${{ github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' && inputs.log_level || 'info' }}
+          # ADDED 2026-10-29: registry read access for this repo's OWN images (toolbox,
+          # agent-runner, conformance-runner — published by .gitea/workflows/images.yaml and
+          # followed through `# renovate-digest:` markers). The Gitea registry answers 401 to
+          # anonymous reads, and Renovate scopes the platform token to hostType `gitea`, which a
+          # docker lookup never matches — so without this rule every digest lookup fails. Same
+          # token; it therefore needs scope `read:package` in addition to the ones listed in the
+          # preflight above. Gitea ignores the username for token auth (services/auth/basic.go).
+          RENOVATE_HOST_RULES: '[{"hostType":"docker","matchHost":"gitea.home.keithjackson.dev","username":"renovate","password":"${{ secrets.RENOVATE_TOKEN }}"}]'
+          # OPTIONAL, ADDED 2026-10-30. A github.com token (a fine-grained PAT with NO permissions,
+          # public-repo read only) for lookups of GitHub-hosted dependencies. Without it Renovate
+          # SKIPS them with `github-token-required` — measured in a local dry run: 17 deps, i.e.
+          # every `uses: actions/*` here plus kubevirt/kubevirt, kubevirt/containerized-data-importer
+          # and intel/intel-device-plugins-for-kubernetes. Unset is safe: the step below drops the
+          # empty variable, and those deps simply stay unmaintained, with a WARN in the log.
+          GITHUB_COM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.RENOVATE_GITHUB_COM_TOKEN }}
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          # An expression that evaluates to '' still EXPORTS the variable, as an empty string.
+          # Drop those so an unset value means "Renovate's default", never "set to empty".
+          for v in RENOVATE_DRY_RUN GITHUB_COM_TOKEN; do
+            [ -n "${!v:-}" ] || unset "$v"
+          done
+          # Through the image's entrypoint, as `docker run` would have gone: it sources the
+          # containerbase env and initialises the bundled tools before exec'ing Renovate.
+          exec renovate-entrypoint.sh renovate
+
+      - name: Summary
+        if: always()
+        run: |
+          {
+            echo "## Renovate"
+            echo
+            echo "- trigger: \`${{ github.event_name }}\`"
+            echo "- dry run: \`${{ github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' && inputs.dry_run || 'false' }}\`"
+            echo "- outcome: \`${{ job.status }}\`"
+            echo
+            echo "Renovate owns BOTH Helm chart bumps and container image tags here; Flux"
+            echo "image-automation is deliberately disabled (platform/kustomization.yaml)."
+            echo "Every change it proposes arrives as a pull request and must pass the merge gate."
+          } >> "$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"
@@ -0,0 +1,373 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+###############################################################################
+# .gitea/workflows/scripts/images.sh — the image pipeline's driver (images.yaml calls this).
+#
+# Builds, verifies and (on main) PUBLISHES the three images this repo ships:
+#
+#   toolbox             infra/devcontainer/    the pinned dev/gate toolchain
+#   agent-runner        infra/agent/           FROM toolbox; the PM dispatcher + worker
+#   conformance-runner  conformance/incluster/ the in-cluster L2/L3 Chainsaw runner
+#
+# THE BUILDER (operator decision on PR #81): a ROOTLESS BuildKit daemon, platform/buildkit/,
+# reached over mTLS. No CI job may reach a privileged daemon, so there is no `docker build` and no
+# `docker run` here: this script drives buildkitd with a pinned `buildx` (remote driver) and
+# nothing else. The client certificate arrives as Actions secrets (BUILDKIT_CA,
+# BUILDKIT_CLIENT_CERT, BUILDKIT_CLIENT_KEY; infra/gitea/buildkit-client-secret.sh puts them
+# there). If the daemon is unreachable this FAILS LOUDLY — it never skips.
+#
+# VERIFICATION IS A BUILD TARGET. Each Containerfile ends in a `verify` stage that runs every
+# in-image assertion at build time (as the non-root uid, with RUN --network=none); this script
+# builds `<image>-verify` and only then the image. Build args come from each image's own
+# `build-image.sh --print-build-args`, the same list the local podman path uses.
+#
+# MODES (env MODE):
+#   verify   build the verify targets, never push, hold no registry credential. Pull requests.
+#   publish  verify, then build + push to ${REGISTRY}/${NAMESPACE}/<image> with tags
+#            `sha-<12 hex>` (immutable: never re-pushed) and `main` (moving; Renovate follows
+#            it). The digest recorded is the one the REGISTRY returns, read back after the push.
+#
+# WHAT GETS BUILT (env IMAGES): `auto` (default) diffs BASE_SHA..HEAD_SHA against each image's
+# inputs; otherwise a space-separated list. A change to the pipeline itself (images.yaml, this
+# file, platform/buildkit/versions.env) builds everything in verify mode, and nothing extra in
+# publish mode: re-publishing unchanged inputs would only mint new digests and churn Renovate PRs.
+#
+# THE agent-runner BASE:
+#   * verify mode -> FROM the toolbox built in this run, linked with a bake `target:` context —
+#     a pull request holds no registry credential and that toolbox exists in no registry. If the
+#     toolbox's inputs did not change it is built anyway, as the base.
+#   * publish mode, toolbox published in this run -> FROM the digest the registry just returned.
+#   * publish mode otherwise -> AGENT_BASE_IMAGE from infra/agent/versions.env (the published
+#     toolbox digest Renovate keeps current). If that is still the all-zero placeholder the
+#     toolbox has never been published, so it is built and published first (the bootstrap).
+#
+# LOOP-FREEDOM. Renovate turns each publish into a digest-bump PR. Those bumps land in
+# platform/pm-agent/ (no image input), conformance/versions.env (no image input) and
+# infra/agent/versions.env (agent-runner input -> ONE more agent-runner build, whose own bump
+# lands in platform/pm-agent/ and stops). The worker Job template is deliberately NOT tracked:
+# it is baked INTO agent-runner, so bumping it would rebuild agent-runner, mint a new digest,
+# bump it again, forever. pm-dispatch overwrites that field at runtime anyway.
+###############################################################################
+set -euo pipefail
+
+REPO_ROOT="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/../../.." && pwd)"
+cd "${REPO_ROOT}"
+
+# shellcheck disable=SC1091
+BK_HOST_OVERRIDE="${BUILDKIT_HOST:-}"; BK_NAME_OVERRIDE="${BUILDKIT_SERVERNAME:-}"
+. ./platform/buildkit/versions.env
+BUILDKIT_HOST="${BK_HOST_OVERRIDE:-${BUILDKIT_HOST}}"
+BUILDKIT_SERVERNAME="${BK_NAME_OVERRIDE:-${BUILDKIT_SERVERNAME}}"
+
+MODE="${MODE:-verify}"
+IMAGES="${IMAGES:-auto}"
+REGISTRY="${REGISTRY:-gitea.home.keithjackson.dev}"
+NAMESPACE="${NAMESPACE:-home-network}"
+HEAD_SHA="${HEAD_SHA:-$(git rev-parse HEAD)}"
+BASE_SHA="${BASE_SHA:-}"
+SUMMARY="${GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY:-/dev/null}"
+ZERO_DIGEST="sha256:0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
+
+ALL_IMAGES=(toolbox agent-runner conformance-runner)
+SHA_TAG="sha-${HEAD_SHA:0:12}"
+MOVING_TAG="main"
+
+log()  { printf '\n\033[1m==> %s\033[0m\n' "$*"; }
+info() { printf '    %s\n' "$*"; }
+die()  { printf '\033[31mERROR: %s\033[0m\n' "$*" >&2; printf -- '- **ERROR**: %s\n' "$*" >>"${SUMMARY}"; exit 1; }
+yn()   { if [ -n "$1" ]; then echo "$2"; else echo "$3"; fi; }
+
+case "${MODE}" in verify|publish) ;; *) die "MODE must be verify or publish, got '${MODE}'" ;; esac
+for t in git jq curl sha256sum; do command -v "$t" >/dev/null || die "the job image lacks '$t'"; done
+
+# --- per-image facts ------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Inputs: a change under any of these rebuilds that image. conformance-runner takes its pins from
+# infra/devcontainer/versions.env. conformance/versions.env is NOT an input (it only RECORDS the
+# published digest), and must not become one: Renovate writes it after every publish -> a loop.
+inputs() {
+  case "$1" in
+    toolbox)            echo "infra/devcontainer/Containerfile infra/devcontainer/versions.env infra/devcontainer/build-image.sh" ;;
+    agent-runner)       echo "infra/agent/" ;;
+    conformance-runner) echo "conformance/incluster/Containerfile conformance/incluster/conformance-clone conformance/incluster/build-image.sh infra/devcontainer/versions.env" ;;
+  esac
+}
+context_of() { case "$1" in toolbox) echo infra/devcontainer ;; agent-runner) echo infra/agent ;; conformance-runner) echo conformance/incluster ;; esac; }
+PIPELINE_FILES=".gitea/workflows/images.yaml .gitea/workflows/scripts/images.sh platform/buildkit/versions.env"
+
+declare -A WANT=() BUILT=() DIGEST=() SECS=() NOTE=()
+
+changed_any() { # <paths...> -> 0 if BASE_SHA..HEAD_SHA touches any
+  [ -n "$(git diff --name-only "${BASE_SHA}" "${HEAD_SHA}" -- "$@")" ]
+}
+
+select_images() {
+  local i
+  if [ "${IMAGES}" != "auto" ]; then
+    for i in ${IMAGES}; do
+      case " ${ALL_IMAGES[*]} " in *" ${i} "*) WANT[$i]=1; NOTE[$i]="requested" ;; *) die "unknown image '${i}'" ;; esac
+    done
+    return
+  fi
+  if [ -z "${BASE_SHA}" ] || [[ "${BASE_SHA}" =~ ^0+$ ]] || ! git cat-file -e "${BASE_SHA}^{commit}" 2>/dev/null; then
+    info "no usable diff base ('${BASE_SHA}'): building everything"
+    for i in "${ALL_IMAGES[@]}"; do WANT[$i]=1; NOTE[$i]="no diff base"; done
+    return
+  fi
+  info "diff base ${BASE_SHA} .. ${HEAD_SHA}"
+  for i in "${ALL_IMAGES[@]}"; do
+    # shellcheck disable=SC2046
+    if changed_any $(inputs "$i"); then WANT[$i]=1; NOTE[$i]="inputs changed"; fi
+  done
+  # shellcheck disable=SC2086
+  if [ "${MODE}" = verify ] && changed_any ${PIPELINE_FILES}; then
+    for i in "${ALL_IMAGES[@]}"; do [ -n "${WANT[$i]:-}" ] || { WANT[$i]=1; NOTE[$i]="pipeline changed"; }; done
+  fi
+}
+
+# --- the builder: pinned buildx + mTLS to rootless buildkitd ---------------------------------
+WORK="$(mktemp -d)"
+trap 'rm -rf "${WORK}"' EXIT          # client key + registry auth live only here, only this long
+export BUILDX_CONFIG="${WORK}/buildx" DOCKER_CONFIG="${WORK}/docker"
+# Single-manifest images: the admission policies, Renovate and registry-retention.sh all reason
+# about one manifest per tag. (Provenance attestations would turn every push into an index.)
+export BUILDX_NO_DEFAULT_ATTESTATIONS=1
+mkdir -p "${BUILDX_CONFIG}" "${DOCKER_CONFIG}" "${WORK}/certs"
+echo '{}' > "${DOCKER_CONFIG}/config.json"
+
+setup_builder() {
+  log "Builder: rootless buildkitd at ${BUILDKIT_HOST} (mTLS)"
+  BUILDX="${BUILDX_BIN:-}"
+  if [ -z "${BUILDX}" ]; then
+    BUILDX="${WORK}/buildx-bin"
+    curl -fsSL --retry 3 -o "${BUILDX}" \
+      "https://github.com/docker/buildx/releases/download/v${BUILDX_VERSION}/buildx-v${BUILDX_VERSION}.linux-amd64" \
+      || die "could not download buildx v${BUILDX_VERSION}"
+    echo "${BUILDX_SHA256}  ${BUILDX}" | sha256sum -c --quiet - \
+      || die "buildx v${BUILDX_VERSION} does not match the sha256 pinned in platform/buildkit/versions.env — refusing to run it"
+    chmod +x "${BUILDX}"
+  fi
+  info "client: $("${BUILDX}" version)"
+
+  local missing=()
+  [ -n "${BUILDKIT_CA:-}" ]          || missing+=(BUILDKIT_CA)
+  [ -n "${BUILDKIT_CLIENT_CERT:-}" ] || missing+=(BUILDKIT_CLIENT_CERT)
+  [ -n "${BUILDKIT_CLIENT_KEY:-}" ]  || missing+=(BUILDKIT_CLIENT_KEY)
+  [ "${#missing[@]}" -eq 0 ] || die "the builder's client certificate is missing: ${missing[*]} not set.
+       These Actions secrets are copied from the cert-manager Secret buildkit/buildkit-client-ci by
+       infra/gitea/buildkit-client-secret.sh (an operator action, after platform/buildkit is
+       deployed). Without them nothing can be built — this fails rather than skipping ON PURPOSE."
+  umask 077
+  printf '%s\n' "${BUILDKIT_CA}"          > "${WORK}/certs/ca.pem"
+  printf '%s\n' "${BUILDKIT_CLIENT_CERT}" > "${WORK}/certs/cert.pem"
+  printf '%s\n' "${BUILDKIT_CLIENT_KEY}"  > "${WORK}/certs/key.pem"
+  umask 022
+
+  "${BUILDX}" create --name ci-remote --driver remote \
+    --driver-opt "cacert=${WORK}/certs/ca.pem,cert=${WORK}/certs/cert.pem,key=${WORK}/certs/key.pem,servername=${BUILDKIT_SERVERNAME}" \
+    "${BUILDKIT_HOST}" >/dev/null
+  if ! out="$(timeout 90 "${BUILDX}" inspect --bootstrap --builder ci-remote 2>&1)"; then
+    printf '%s\n' "${out}" >&2
+    die "buildkitd is UNREACHABLE at ${BUILDKIT_HOST} — nothing can be built, and this job fails
+       rather than skipping. In order of likelihood:
+         1. platform/buildkit is not deployed yet. Flux applies it only after it merges to main
+            (Kustomization 'buildkit'); a pull request that ADDS it cannot reach it.
+         2. the BUILDKIT_* secrets are stale (the client cert was renewed) or from another CA:
+            re-run infra/gitea/buildkit-client-secret.sh.
+         3. the NetworkPolicy (platform/buildkit/networkpolicy.yaml) does not admit this runner."
+  fi
+  printf '%s\n' "${out}" | grep -E '^(Name|Driver|Status|BuildKit version|Platforms):' | sed 's/^/    /' || true
+}
+
+# KEY=VALUE lines from an image's build-image.sh --print-build-args -> a JSON object.
+build_args_json() {
+  local ctx; ctx="$(context_of "$1")"
+  "./${ctx}/build-image.sh" --print-build-args | jq -Rn '[inputs | select(length>0) | capture("^(?<k>[^=]+)=(?<v>.*)$")] | map({(.k): .v}) | add'
+}
+
+# bake_run <bakefile> <targets...>
+bake_run() {
+  local f="$1"; shift
+  "${BUILDX}" bake --builder ci-remote --progress plain -f "$f" \
+    --metadata-file "${WORK}/meta.json" "$@"
+}
+
+# Write a bake file with a verify target and a ship target for one image.
+#   $1 image, $2 agent base mode: "" | "link" | <image ref>
+write_bake() {
+  local img="$1" base="${2:-}" ctx args f
+  ctx="$(context_of "$img")"
+  args="$(build_args_json "$img")"
+  f="${WORK}/bake-${img}.json"
+  local contexts='{}'
+  if [ "${img}" = agent-runner ]; then
+    if [ "${base}" = link ]; then
+      # FROM ${AGENT_BASE_IMAGE} resolves to the named context below, i.e. the toolbox target
+      # of this same bake file — built here, never pushed anywhere.
+      args="$(jq -c '. + {AGENT_BASE_IMAGE: "toolbox-in-this-run"}' <<<"${args}")"
+      contexts='{"toolbox-in-this-run": "target:toolbox"}'
+    else
+      args="$(jq -c --arg b "${base}" '. + {AGENT_BASE_IMAGE: $b}' <<<"${args}")"
+    fi
+  fi
+  jq -n --arg img "$img" --arg ctx "$ctx" --argjson args "$args" --argjson contexts "$contexts" \
+        --arg tbargs "$( [ "${base}" = link ] && build_args_json toolbox || echo '{}')" \
+        --arg rev "${HEAD_SHA}" --arg repo "${REGISTRY}/${NAMESPACE}/${img}" \
+        --arg sha "${SHA_TAG}" --arg moving "${MOVING_TAG}" --arg mode "${MODE}" '
+    {target: (
+      {
+        ($img + "-verify"): {context: $ctx, dockerfile: "Containerfile", target: "verify",
+                              args: $args, contexts: $contexts, output: ["type=cacheonly"]},
+        ($img): ({context: $ctx, dockerfile: "Containerfile", target: $img, args: $args,
+                  contexts: $contexts,
+                  labels: {"org.opencontainers.image.revision": $rev}}
+                 + (if $mode == "publish"
+                    then {tags: [($repo + ":" + $sha), ($repo + ":" + $moving)], output: ["type=image,push=true"]}
+                    else {output: ["type=cacheonly"]} end))
+      }
+      + (if ($contexts | has("toolbox-in-this-run"))
+         then {toolbox: {context: "infra/devcontainer", dockerfile: "Containerfile", target: "toolbox",
+                         args: ($tbargs | fromjson), output: ["type=cacheonly"]}}
+         else {} end)
+    )}' > "$f"
+  echo "$f"
+}
+
+# --- registry helpers (publish mode only) ----------------------------------------------------
+REG_TOKEN=""
+registry_token() {
+  [ -n "${REG_TOKEN}" ] && return 0
+  REG_TOKEN="$(curl -fsS --config <(printf 'user = "%s:%s"\n' "${REGISTRY_USER}" "${REGISTRY_TOKEN}") \
+    "https://${REGISTRY}/v2/token?service=container_registry&scope=*" | jq -r '.token // empty')" \
+    || die "could not obtain a registry bearer token from https://${REGISTRY}/v2/token"
+  [ -n "${REG_TOKEN}" ] || die "registry returned no bearer token"
+}
+# Prints the manifest digest the REGISTRY serves for <image>:<tag>; nothing if it is absent (404).
+# Any other answer is fatal: "cannot tell" must never be read as "not published", or the
+# immutable-tag guard would be bypassed by an auth hiccup.
+registry_digest() {
+  registry_token
+  local hdrs code digest
+  hdrs="$(curl -sS -I --config <(printf 'header = "Authorization: Bearer %s"\n' "${REG_TOKEN}") \
+    -H 'Accept: application/vnd.oci.image.manifest.v1+json' \
+    -H 'Accept: application/vnd.docker.distribution.manifest.v2+json' \
+    -H 'Accept: application/vnd.oci.image.index.v1+json' \
+    -H 'Accept: application/vnd.docker.distribution.manifest.list.v2+json' \
+    "https://${REGISTRY}/v2/${NAMESPACE}/$1/manifests/$2" | tr -d '\r')" \
+    || die "registry unreachable while reading $1:$2"
+  code="$(awk 'NR==1{print $2}' <<<"${hdrs}")"
+  digest="$(awk -F': ' 'tolower($1)=="docker-content-digest"{print $2}' <<<"${hdrs}" | tail -1)"
+  case "${code}" in
+    200) [[ "${digest}" =~ ^sha256:[0-9a-f]{64}$ ]] || die "registry answered 200 for $1:$2 with no usable digest"
+         echo "${digest}" ;;
+    404) ;;
+    *)   die "registry answered HTTP ${code} for $1:$2 — cannot tell whether it exists" ;;
+  esac
+}
+
+# build_one <image> [agent base]  — verify, then (publish) build + push + read back.
+build_one() {
+  local img="$1" base="${2:-}" t0 f pushed got existing
+  t0=$(date +%s)
+  f="$(write_bake "$img" "$base")"
+  log "VERIFY ${img} (Containerfile target: verify, on rootless BuildKit)"
+  bake_run "$f" "${img}-verify"
+  BUILT[$img]=1
+  if [ "${MODE}" = publish ]; then
+    existing="$(registry_digest "${img}" "${SHA_TAG}")"
+    # Immutable tag: never overwrite. A rebuild is not byte-reproducible, so re-pushing would
+    # silently change what `sha-<commit>` means after something may already have pinned it.
+    [ -z "${existing}" ] || die "${REGISTRY}/${NAMESPACE}/${img}:${SHA_TAG} already exists (${existing}); tags are immutable"
+    log "BUILD + PUSH ${img} -> ${REGISTRY}/${NAMESPACE}/${img}:{${SHA_TAG},${MOVING_TAG}}"
+    bake_run "$f" "${img}"
+    pushed="$(jq -r --arg t "$img" '.[$t]["containerimage.digest"] // empty' "${WORK}/meta.json")"
+    # The AUTHORITATIVE digest is what the registry serves, read back — not what the client
+    # reported. They should agree; if they do not, nothing downstream may trust either.
+    got="$(registry_digest "${img}" "${SHA_TAG}")"
+    [ -n "${got}" ] || die "pushed ${img}:${SHA_TAG} but the registry does not serve it"
+    [ -z "${pushed}" ] || [ "${pushed}" = "${got}" ] || die "${img}: client reported ${pushed} but the registry serves ${got}"
+    [ "$(registry_digest "${img}" "${MOVING_TAG}")" = "${got}" ] \
+      || die "${img}: ${MOVING_TAG} does not point at the digest just pushed (${got})"
+    DIGEST[$img]="${got}"
+    info "${img}: registry digest ${got}"
+  fi
+  SECS[$img]=$(( $(date +%s) - t0 ))
+  info "${img}: done in ${SECS[$img]}s"
+}
+
+# --- main ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+log "image pipeline: MODE=${MODE} IMAGES=${IMAGES} HEAD=${HEAD_SHA}"
+select_images
+
+if [ "${MODE}" = publish ]; then
+  : "${REGISTRY_TOKEN:?REGISTRY_TOKEN is required in publish mode}"
+  REGISTRY_USER="${REGISTRY_USER:-ci-image-publisher}"
+  # buildx (and through it buildkitd, which does the push) reads registry auth from this file.
+  jq -n --arg r "${REGISTRY}" --arg a "$(printf '%s:%s' "${REGISTRY_USER}" "${REGISTRY_TOKEN}" | base64 -w0)" \
+     '{auths: {($r): {auth: $a}}}' > "${DOCKER_CONFIG}/config.json"
+  chmod 600 "${DOCKER_CONFIG}/config.json"
+  registry_token
+  # Publish idempotence: an image already published at THIS commit is not rebuilt. That is what
+  # makes a re-run after a half-finished publish safe — the immutable tag is never pushed twice.
+  for i in "${ALL_IMAGES[@]}"; do
+    [ -n "${WANT[$i]:-}" ] || continue
+    d="$(registry_digest "${i}" "${SHA_TAG}")"
+    if [ -n "${d}" ]; then
+      info "${i}: already published at ${SHA_TAG} (${d}); not rebuilding"
+      unset "WANT[$i]"; DIGEST[$i]="${d}"; NOTE[$i]="already published at this commit"
+    fi
+  done
+fi
+
+# Decide the agent-runner base (see header).
+AGENT_BASE=""
+if [ -n "${WANT[agent-runner]:-}" ]; then
+  PINNED_BASE="$(. ./infra/agent/versions.env; echo "${AGENT_BASE_IMAGE}")"
+  if [ "${MODE}" = verify ]; then
+    AGENT_BASE=link
+    [ -n "${WANT[toolbox]:-}" ] || { WANT[toolbox]=1; NOTE[toolbox]="built as agent-runner's base (verify only)"; }
+  elif [ -z "${WANT[toolbox]:-}" ] && [ -z "${DIGEST[toolbox]:-}" ]; then
+    case "${PINNED_BASE}" in
+      *@"${ZERO_DIGEST}") WANT[toolbox]=1; NOTE[toolbox]="never published; required as agent-runner's base" ;;
+      *@sha256:*)         AGENT_BASE="${PINNED_BASE}" ;;
+      *) die "infra/agent/versions.env AGENT_BASE_IMAGE='${PINNED_BASE}' is not digest-pinned; CI will not build on a floating base" ;;
+    esac
+  fi
+fi
+
+for i in "${ALL_IMAGES[@]}"; do info "plan: ${i}: $(yn "${WANT[$i]:-}" BUILD skip)  (${NOTE[$i]:-inputs unchanged})"; done
+if [ -z "${WANT[toolbox]:-}${WANT[agent-runner]:-}${WANT[conformance-runner]:-}" ]; then
+  info "nothing to build"
+else
+  setup_builder
+fi
+
+if [ -n "${WANT[toolbox]:-}" ]; then build_one toolbox; fi
+if [ -n "${WANT[agent-runner]:-}" ]; then
+  if [ -z "${AGENT_BASE}" ]; then
+    AGENT_BASE="${REGISTRY}/${NAMESPACE}/toolbox@${DIGEST[toolbox]:?no toolbox digest to build agent-runner from}"
+  fi
+  info "agent-runner base: $( [ "${AGENT_BASE}" = link ] && echo "the toolbox built in this run (bake target: context)" || echo "${AGENT_BASE}")"
+  build_one agent-runner "${AGENT_BASE}"
+fi
+if [ -n "${WANT[conformance-runner]:-}" ]; then build_one conformance-runner; fi
+
+# --- summary ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+{
+  echo "## Images (${MODE})"
+  echo
+  echo "commit \`${HEAD_SHA}\` — builder: rootless BuildKit \`${BUILDKIT_HOST}\` (mTLS)"
+  echo
+  echo "| image | verify target built | seconds | published digest (registry-returned) | note |"
+  echo "|---|---|---|---|---|"
+  for i in "${ALL_IMAGES[@]}"; do
+    d="${DIGEST[$i]:-}"
+    echo "| \`${i}\` | $(yn "${BUILT[$i]:-}" yes no) | ${SECS[$i]:--} | $(yn "${d}" "\`${REGISTRY}/${NAMESPACE}/${i}@${d}\`" -) | ${NOTE[$i]:-inputs unchanged} |"
+  done
+  echo
+  if [ "${MODE}" = publish ]; then
+    echo "Tags pushed: \`${SHA_TAG}\` (immutable) and \`${MOVING_TAG}\` (moving)."
+    echo "Nothing here writes to git. Renovate opens the digest-bump PR on its next run."
+  else
+    echo "Verify mode: nothing was pushed and no registry credential was present."
+  fi
+} >>"${SUMMARY}"
+log "done"
@@ -37,6 +37,14 @@ coverage/
 infra/tofu/backend.hcl
 infra/tofu/.r2.env

+# Operator scratch, writable from inside the dev container (the repo is its only persistent
+# read-write mount). Holds things that must never be committed: a staged copy of the SOPS age or
+# WireGuard key, rendered VPN client profiles (infra/vpn-ingress/new-peer.sh writes here by
+# default). `infra/ansible/.gitignore` already does this for its own .cache/; this is the same
+# convention at the root. Do NOT rely on `*.key` alone to protect a staged key — that only covers
+# one filename shape, which is why this rule exists.
+.cache/
+
 # Claude Code local scratch: agent worktrees + session state. Nothing here is tracked;
 # ignoring it keeps `git add -A` from staging embedded worktree repos and keeps the lint
 # stage (which scans untracked files) from tripping on .claude/worktrees/.
@@ -4,6 +4,125 @@ Read this before doing anything durable. It is the delivery contract for AI codi
 sessions and agents. The newest entry in `decisions/` is the current PM handoff and
 takes precedence on *what* to work on; this file governs *how* it lands.

+**Start with §0.** It is first because it is the rule you can break before you have read
+anything else: the very first `git checkout -b` in the wrong directory has already done the
+damage.
+
+## 0. Work in your OWN workspace. Never in the shared checkout.
+
+Before you create a branch, edit a file, or run `git` anything: **make yourself a git
+worktree outside the repository root, and do all of your work there.** One workspace per
+agent run, no exceptions.
+
+    # from the shared checkout, ONCE, at the start of your run
+    git fetch origin main
+    git worktree add -b <type>/<slug> /path/outside/the/repo/wt-<slug> origin/main
+    cd /path/outside/the/repo/wt-<slug>        # everything after this happens HERE
+
+`/path/outside/the/repo` means outside this repository's tree — your session scratchpad,
+or a sibling like `/var/home/keith/source/wt-<slug>`. Branch from **`origin/main`**, never
+from `main` and never from `HEAD`; see "stale base" below.
+
+**The shared checkout is `/var/home/keith/source/home-network-k3s-impl`** — the operator's
+working copy, the one you are probably started in. In it, do **not**:
+
+- **`git checkout` / `git switch` / `git checkout -b`.** Its HEAD is shared state; moving
+  it moves the tree out from under whoever else is using it.
+- **edit, create or delete a file.** Including "just one doc", including a file you intend
+  to move later.
+- **`git add` / `git commit` / `git stash` / `git restore`.** `git add -A` there stages
+  whatever another agent left lying around; `git stash` *removes* their uncommitted work
+  into a place they will not look.
+- **`git worktree remove` anything you did not create.**
+
+Read-only commands there are fine, and the one write you do need is creating your own
+worktree.
+
+### Why — measured in the shared checkout, 2026-10-05
+
+| What was measured | Value |
+|---|---|
+| `checkout: moving` entries in its reflog | **107** — the tree has been yanked between branches 107 times |
+| the branch it was sitting on | `feat/pm-agent-issue-to-pr` — **not `main`** |
+| uncommitted trees left in it by other runs | **2** (`infra/agent/`, `platform/pm-agent/`), mtimes five minutes apart the same evening |
+| its local `main` vs `origin/main` | **two commits behind** (`4386d14` vs `22c94ef`) |
+| registered worktrees | **42**, of which **31** are on branches already merged to `main` |
+| gate scripts carrying an explicit `.claude/` exclusion | **9** |
+
+Each row is a distinct way the shared checkout damages work:
+
+- **Dirty tree, foreign files.** Two other runs' uncommitted directories were sitting in
+  it. An agent that edits there and runs `git add -A` ships someone else's half-finished
+  work inside its own PR, and the PR's author has no idea what those files are. This is not
+  hypothetical and it is not historical: **eleven minutes after those two directories were
+  measured, while this very section was being written, another run committed them** —
+  `5334abe feat(pm-agent): ...`, 1,000+ lines across `infra/agent/`, `clusters/`, `catalog/`
+  and `apps/` — onto the shared checkout's checked-out branch, moving its HEAD under anyone
+  reading it. Had this rule's author been working in that tree rather than in a worktree,
+  that commit and this one would have collided.
+- **Stale base.** Its `main` was two commits behind `origin/main`, so
+  `git checkout -b x main` there branches off a tree that is already not what CI will merge
+  into — the gate you run locally proves a base nobody else has. Worse, it was not even *on*
+  `main`: a bare `git checkout -b x` would have branched off `feat/pm-agent-issue-to-pr` and
+  silently inherited that work into your PR. `git fetch` first, and name `origin/main`
+  explicitly as the start point.
+- **Shared HEAD.** 107 branch switches in one tree is 107 chances to switch it while
+  another agent is mid-edit. The loser's changes are either carried onto the wrong branch
+  or lost to a checkout conflict — and the symptom surfaces in *their* session, not yours.
+
+### Put the workspace OUTSIDE the repo root
+
+A worktree *inside* the tree (`.claude/worktrees/agent-*/` — which is where Claude Code's
+own default puts it) is a full second copy of the repo that every tree-walking check then
+finds. Measured 2026-09-12: `find`-based discovery reported **the same manifest under test
+once per worktree, up to 18 times**, and the L0 check comparing that listing against the
+tree failed on paths that are not authored surface at all
+(`platform/monitoring/tests/run.sh:115-123`). Nine gate scripts now carry an explicit
+`.claude/` prune for this reason — which means the hazard is *worked around*, not fixed,
+and the next check that walks the tree will hit it again. Keep the copy out of the tree and
+none of that applies.
+
+### Clean up — and expect not to be able to
+
+31 of the 42 registered worktrees are on branches already merged to `main`. A registered
+worktree **pins its branch**: while it exists, that branch cannot be deleted or checked out
+anywhere else. So a left-behind workspace is a lock on a branch name, and the cost lands on
+whoever next needs it.
+
+Remove yours when you are done:
+
+    git worktree remove /path/outside/the/repo/wt-<slug>
+
+Measured 2026-10-05: on a worktree **you created yourself, in the session scratchpad**, that
+command **succeeds** — rc 0, no prompt, with or without a branch checked out. The "worktree
+removal is sandbox-blocked" note in circulation is about the `.claude/worktrees/agent-*` ones
+belonging to *other* sessions, some of which are additionally `locked` on git's own terms. So:
+remove yours, and only yours. If removal is refused, say so in your handoff and leave the
+worktree registered — do **not** `rm -rf` the directory, which leaves a registered worktree
+pointing at nothing and still holding the branch.
+
+If someone *else's* stale worktree is holding the branch you need, do not try to reclaim the
+branch name. Push a `rework/<pr-number>` branch to the PR's refspec instead.
+
+### If you are already standing in the shared checkout with edits
+
+Stop. Do not `git stash` (that moves other agents' work too). Create your worktree as
+above, redo the edits there, and leave the shared checkout's HEAD and working tree exactly
+as you found them.
+
+### Gating from a worktree
+
+Three known breakages, all with workarounds, all required every run: see §3, "Running the
+gate from a worktree".
+
+### If you are writing a brief for another agent
+
+The brief must name **its own explicit branch** and tell it to create **its own worktree**
+from `origin/main`. "Work on the current branch" and "continue in the checkout" are how
+branch sprawl and cross-contamination got here: an agent given no workspace uses the one it
+is started in, which is the shared one. Also carry §3's three gate workarounds into the
+brief — an agent that cannot gate will report rc 3 as green.
+
 ## 1. Never push to `main`. Ever.

 Every durable change reaches `main` exactly one way:
@@ -147,15 +266,21 @@ Exit codes are a contract — do not flatten them:
 | 3 | UNDETERMINED — a stage did not run. **Never report this as green.** |

 `spec-immutability` reaches rc 3 whenever the sibling spec repo is not checked out
-beside this one; that single skip is expected and tolerated. Any *other* skip is a
-real gap in your run.
+beside this one; that single skip is expected and tolerated — and from a worktree it is
+avoidable outright (§3's worktree list, item 3). `gitea-settings` is the other expected
+skip: it needs `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN`, which exists only in CI, so **a local run cannot
+return 0** — the honest best local result is rc 3 with `gitea-settings` as the only stage
+that did not run. Any *further* skip is a real gap in your run. Report the rc and name the
+skipped stages; never round rc 3 up.

 **Never gate on the host.** `promtool` and `kustomize` are not on the host `$PATH`,
 so checks SKIP and you get a false rc 3. Only the pinned toolbox result counts.

-### Running the gate from a git worktree
+### Running the gate from a worktree

-Two unrelated failures, both with known workarounds — put both in any agent brief:
+This is the **normal** path, not an edge case — §0 requires you to be in a worktree, so
+every gate run you do hits all of these. Three known breakages, all with
+workarounds, all of them yours to apply every run — put them in any agent brief:

 1. **`dev.sh` refuses to start:** `infra/ansible/.cache/prod.kubeconfig` is untracked
   and exists only in the main checkout. Do **not** copy it (it is a credential).
@@ -166,10 +291,17 @@ Two unrelated failures, both with known workarounds — put both in any agent br
   the `ENGINE` hook — a shim that intercepts `run` and re-execs
   `podman run -v /path/to/main/.git:/path/to/main/.git:ro "$@"`. A traceback in
   `tracked_files()` is this bug, not a broken tree.
+3. **`spec-immutability` skips** — the skip called tolerated above is also *avoidable*. `dev.sh`
+   derives the sibling spec path from its own `REPO_ROOT`, which in a worktree is your
+   workspace, so `../home-network-k3s` does not resolve and it adds no mount. Mount the spec
+   repo read-only in the same `ENGINE` shim and pass `-e SPEC_REPO=/home-network-k3s`: with
+   both mounts the stage reports `pass`, not SKIPPED, and R-TEST-06 is actually covered
+   (measured — `decisions/2026-10-01-render-selftest-runs-in-gate.md`).

 ## 4. Branch naming

-Use `feat/`, `fix/`, `docs/`, `chore/`. Note that `.gitea/workflows/gate.yml`'s **push**
+Use `feat/`, `fix/`, `docs/`, `chore/`. **One branch, one workspace, one PR** — if you
+need a second branch, make a second worktree (§0); do not re-point an existing one. Note that `.gitea/workflows/gate.yml`'s **push**
 trigger lists `feature/**` — not `feat/**` — so branch pushes get no fast-feedback run.
 The `pull_request` trigger fires regardless of branch name, so the PR gate is unaffected.

@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@ specification** at [`../home-network-k3s`](../home-network-k3s).
 - **Done = a green, reproducible, requirement-tagged conformance test** — never "merged," never a
  manual demo (spec `docs/14`, `agents/definition-of-done.md`).
 - **No work on `main`.** Every change is a feature branch merged into `main` (spec `CONTRIBUTING.md`).
+- **No work in a shared checkout.** Every agent run gets its own git worktree, outside the repo
+  root, branched from `origin/main`. This checkout is shared mutable state — see
+  [`CLAUDE.md` §0](CLAUDE.md).
 - **No plaintext secrets** — SOPS-encrypted only (spec `docs/07`).
 - **Phase discipline** — only build what the active roadmap phase authorizes (spec `roadmap/phases.md`).

@@ -21,7 +24,8 @@ infra/          node provisioning: OpenTofu (Proxmox VE) + cloud-init + Ansible,
 bootstrap/      one-time cluster bootstrap: Flux install, SOPS/age key, host Gitea
 platform/       platform CONTROLLERS (Flux HelmReleases / operator bases): kyverno, cilium,
                longhorn, external-snapshotter, cert-manager, externaldns, gateway, coredns,
-                vpn-egress, monitoring, cnpg, keycloak, oauth2-proxy, kubevirt
+                vpn-egress, vpn-ingress, monitoring, cnpg, keycloak, oauth2-proxy, kubevirt
+                (vpn-egress = pods OUT via PIA; vpn-ingress = remote clients IN via WireGuard)
 platform-config/ platform CONFIGS — the custom resources of the CRDs installed above
                (ClusterIssuers, Gateway, Kyverno policies, KubeVirt/CDI CRs, Keycloak CRs).
                Split out because CRs and the CRDs they use cannot apply in one pass.
@@ -94,6 +98,20 @@ The running narrative — decisions, root causes, incidents, follow-ups — is

 ## Working on this repo

+**First, get out of this checkout.** It is the operator's working copy and several agents
+share it; concurrent runs here have overwritten each other's branches and left each other's
+uncommitted files behind. One workspace per change:
+
+```bash
+git fetch origin main
+git worktree add -b <type>/<slug> /path/outside/the/repo/wt-<slug> origin/main
+cd /path/outside/the/repo/wt-<slug>
+```
+
+Outside the repo root specifically — a worktree under `.claude/worktrees/` is a second full
+copy that tree-walking gate checks then count twice. The rule, the measurements behind it, and
+the three gate workarounds a worktree needs are in [`CLAUDE.md` §0](CLAUDE.md) and §3.
+
 Everything the gate needs is baked into the pinned dev container — **do not install the
 toolchain on the host**:

@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ spec:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: gitea
-        image: gitea/gitea:1.24.3
+        image: gitea/gitea:28.3.0
        ports:
        - containerPort: 3000
        env:
@@ -89,14 +89,18 @@ spec:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: gitea-bootstrap
              key: secret-key
-        - name: GITEA__server__DOMAIN
-          value: gitea.${BASE_DOMAIN}
        - name: GITEA__server__ROOT_URL
          value: https://gitea.${BASE_DOMAIN}/
        - name: GITEA__actions__ENABLED
          value: 'true'
        - name: GITEA__actions__DEFAULT_ACTIONS_URL
          value: github
+        - name: GITEA__actions__RUN_RETENTION_DAYS
+          value: '400'
+        - name: GITEA__security__EGRESS_MODE
+          value: lax
+        - name: GITEA__service__DISABLE_REGISTRATION
+          value: 'true'
        - name: GITEA_ADMIN_USERNAME
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
@@ -191,6 +195,27 @@ spec:
      - port: '3000'
        protocol: TCP
 ---
+# CiliumNetworkPolicy in-cluster client ingress allow (R-NET-02): gitea-allow-pm-agent-ingress
+apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
+kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
+metadata:
+  name: gitea-allow-pm-agent-ingress
+  namespace: gitea
+  labels:
+    app.kubernetes.io/name: gitea
+spec:
+  endpointSelector:
+    matchLabels:
+      app.kubernetes.io/name: gitea
+  ingress:
+  - fromEndpoints:
+    - matchLabels:
+        k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace: pm-agent
+    toPorts:
+    - ports:
+      - port: '3000'
+        protocol: TCP
+---
 # CiliumNetworkPolicy world egress allow (egress class governs the path; R-NET-05): gitea-allow-internet-egress
 apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
 kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ spec:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: jackett
-        image: lscr.io/linuxserver/jackett:latest
+        image: lscr.io/linuxserver/jackett:v0.24.3025-ls29
        ports:
        - containerPort: 9117
        volumeMounts:
@@ -244,6 +244,27 @@ spec:
      - port: '4180'
        protocol: TCP
 ---
+# CiliumNetworkPolicy monitoring scrape ingress allow (R-NET-02/R-OBS-01): jackett-allow-monitoring-scrape
+apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
+kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
+metadata:
+  name: jackett-allow-monitoring-scrape
+  namespace: jackett
+  labels:
+    app.kubernetes.io/name: jackett
+spec:
+  endpointSelector:
+    matchLabels:
+      app.kubernetes.io/name: jackett
+  ingress:
+  - fromEndpoints:
+    - matchLabels:
+        k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace: monitoring
+    toPorts:
+    - ports:
+      - port: '44180'
+        protocol: TCP
+---
 # CiliumNetworkPolicy world egress allow (egress class governs the path; R-NET-05): jackett-allow-internet-egress
 apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
 kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ spec:
  # Scaling out is non-disruptive: CNPG creates -2 then -3 sequentially, each seeded by
  # pg_basebackup from the running primary, which is neither restarted nor disconnected.
  instances: 3
-  imageName: ghcr.io/cloudnative-pg/postgresql:16.4
+  imageName: ghcr.io/cloudnative-pg/postgresql:16.15
  # Stamp app.kubernetes.io/name=nextcloud-db onto every generated pod/service so the rendered
  # nextcloud egress CiliumNetworkPolicy's toEndpoints selector matches the primary pod (R-NET-02).
  inheritedMetadata:
@@ -300,7 +300,7 @@ spec:
              # is already in it and it is already present on every node, so this
              # adds no new image and no new supply-chain surface. Keep the tag in
              # step with spec.imageName above when Renovate bumps it.
-              image: ghcr.io/cloudnative-pg/postgresql:16.4
+              image: ghcr.io/cloudnative-pg/postgresql:16.15
              imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
              command:
                - psql
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ spec:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: pihole
-        image: pihole/pihole
+        image: pihole/pihole:2026.10.1
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
        env:
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ spec:
        - name: FTLCONF_dns_rateLimit_count
          value: '0'
        - name: FTLCONF_misc_dnsmasq_lines
-          value: address=/${BASE_DOMAIN}/${GATEWAY_VIP};address=/unifi.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${UNIFI_L4_VIP};address=/crafty-mc.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${CRAFTY_L4_VIP};address=/pihole-dns.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${PIHOLE_DNS_VIP}
+          value: local-ttl=60;address=/${BASE_DOMAIN}/${GATEWAY_VIP};address=/unifi.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${UNIFI_L4_VIP};address=/crafty-mc.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${CRAFTY_L4_VIP};address=/pihole-dns.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${PIHOLE_DNS_VIP};address=/plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${PLEX_L4_VIP}
        - name: FTLCONF_webserver_api_password
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
@@ -232,6 +232,27 @@ spec:
      - port: '4180'
        protocol: TCP
 ---
+# CiliumNetworkPolicy monitoring scrape ingress allow (R-NET-02/R-OBS-01): pihole-allow-monitoring-scrape
+apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
+kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
+metadata:
+  name: pihole-allow-monitoring-scrape
+  namespace: pihole
+  labels:
+    app.kubernetes.io/name: pihole
+spec:
+  endpointSelector:
+    matchLabels:
+      app.kubernetes.io/name: pihole
+  ingress:
+  - fromEndpoints:
+    - matchLabels:
+        k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace: monitoring
+    toPorts:
+    - ports:
+      - port: '44180'
+        protocol: TCP
+---
 # CiliumNetworkPolicy world egress allow (egress class governs the path; R-NET-05): pihole-allow-internet-egress
 apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
 kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ spec:
  storageClassName: longhorn
  resources:
    requests:
-      storage: 8Gi
+      storage: 16Gi
 ---
 # PVC plex-media (R-STATE)
 apiVersion: v1
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ spec:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: plex
-        image: plexinc/pms-docker:latest
+        image: plexinc/pms-docker:1.43.6.11085-d1e52e169
        ports:
        - containerPort: 32400
        env:
@@ -137,6 +137,20 @@ spec:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: plex-claim
              key: PLEX_CLAIM
+        - name: ADVERTISE_IP
+          value: https://192-168-2-24.130072f20c334d6c8f63d0dfef87309b.plex.direct:32400
+        - name: PLEX_TLS_CRT
+          valueFrom:
+            secretKeyRef:
+              name: plex-vip-tls
+              key: tls.crt
+              optional: true
+        - name: PLEX_TLS_KEY
+          valueFrom:
+            secretKeyRef:
+              name: plex-vip-tls
+              key: tls.key
+              optional: true
        resources:
          limits:
            gpu.intel.com/i915: 1
@@ -146,6 +160,14 @@ spec:
        - name: media
          mountPath: /media
          readOnly: true
+        lifecycle:
+          postStart:
+            exec:
+              command:
+              - /bin/bash
+              - -c
+              - "# NOTE \u2014 LOAD-BEARING: SHELL VARIABLES HERE ARE WRITTEN BARE, NEVER BRACE-WRAPPED.\n# This whole script is rewritten by Flux postBuild envsubst BEFORE it ever runs, so a\n# brace-wrapped name is read as a cluster-vars knob: an undeclared one is a HARD\n# Kustomization failure under StrictPostBuildSubstitutions, and a declared one would be\n# replaced with its value. Shell vars are therefore `$PX`, `$TOKEN`, `$P12` \u2014 bare. Only\n# BASE_DOMAIN below is brace-wrapped, because it IS a knob and IS meant to be\n# substituted. Command substitution `$(cmd)` is left alone and needs no escaping. A shell\n# variable written with braces would be blanked or would fail the whole Kustomization \u2014\n# this repo has already lost a gitea OIDC bootstrap to exactly that mistake, and\n# catalog/render.py now refuses to emit it (which is how this very comment got caught).\n# DELIBERATELY NO `set -u`. The TLS env vars are declared `optional: true`, so when the\n# certificate has not issued yet they are genuinely UNSET, not empty \u2014 and under `set -u`\n# the first `[ -n \"$PLEX_TLS_CRT\" ]` would abort the script, which for a postStart hook\n# means kubelet KILLS THE CONTAINER. That is the precise failure the `optional` flag exists\n# to prevent, so turning it back on here would defeat the whole design. (The alternative,\n# a brace-wrapped `:-` default, would need envsubst escaping \u2014 the trap the note above\n# describes.) Every value below is explicitly guarded instead.\nPX=\"/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml\"\nCERTDIR=/config/certs\nP12=$CERTDIR/plex-vip.p12\n# The PKCS#12 passphrase protects nothing and is deliberately not a secret: Plex needs it\n# in cleartext in customCertificateKey, and it and the bundle sit on the same PVC. It is a\n# container-format requirement, not an access control.\nP12PASS=plexvip\nLANNETS='10.0.0.0/8,192.168.0.0/16'\nCERTDOMAIN=plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}\nAPI=http://127.0.0.1:32400\n\n# (1) Build the PKCS#12 bundle from the PEM the Secret supplies. Rebuilt on every start so\n# a cert-manager RENEWAL is picked up with no extra moving part.\nif [ -n \"$PLEX_TLS_CRT\" ] && [ -n \"$PLEX_TLS_KEY\" ]; then\n  mkdir -p $CERTDIR && chmod 700 $CERTDIR\n  printf '%s' \"$PLEX_TLS_CRT\" > $CERTDIR/tls.crt\n  printf '%s' \"$PLEX_TLS_KEY\" > $CERTDIR/tls.key\n  chmod 600 $CERTDIR/tls.key\n  if openssl pkcs12 -export -out $P12.tmp -inkey $CERTDIR/tls.key \\\n       -in $CERTDIR/tls.crt -passout pass:$P12PASS 2>/dev/null; then\n    mv -f $P12.tmp $P12\n    chown 1000:1000 $P12 2>/dev/null || true\n    chmod 600 $P12\n    echo \"[plex-settings] PKCS#12 bundle written\"\n  else\n    rm -f $P12.tmp\n    echo \"[plex-settings] WARN: pkcs12 export failed; keeping any previous bundle\" >&2\n  fi\n  rm -f $CERTDIR/tls.key\nelse\n  echo \"[plex-settings] WARN: TLS env empty; certificate not installed this start\" >&2\nfi\n\n# (2) Wait, bounded (~90s), for the local API. /identity needs no auth.\ni=0\nwhile [ \"$i\" -lt 45 ]; do\n  if [ \"$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' --max-time 5 $API/identity 2>/dev/null)\" = \"200\" ]; then\n    break\n  fi\n  i=$(expr $i + 1); sleep 2\ndone\n\n# (3) The prefs API needs the server token. It already lives in Preferences.xml on this\n# PVC; it is never echoed here, and Plex redacts tokens in its own request log. An\n# UNCLAIMED server has none \u2014 a normal state on a fresh /config \u2014 so skip, do not fail.\nTOKEN=$(grep -o 'PlexOnlineToken=\"[^\"]*\"' \"$PX\" 2>/dev/null | head -1 | cut -d'\"' -f2)\nif [ -z \"$TOKEN\" ]; then\n  echo \"[plex-settings] not claimed yet \u2014 skipping prefs, will retry next start\" >&2\n  exit 0\nfi\n\n# Percent-encode what our values actually contain. Plex takes prefs as QUERY parameters on\n# a PUT, so a raw '/' or ',' would be read as structure rather than data.\nenc() {\n  printf '%s' \"$1\" | sed -e 's|%|%25|g' -e 's|/|%2F|g' -e 's|,|%2C|g' \\\n                         -e 's|:|%3A|g' -e 's| |%20|g'\n}\nsetpref() {\n  code=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' --max-time 10 -X PUT\
+                \ \\\n    -H \"X-Plex-Token: $TOKEN\" \"$API/:/prefs?$1=$(enc \"$2\")\" 2>/dev/null)\n  if [ \"$code\" = \"200\" ]; then\n    echo \"[plex-settings] set $1\"\n  else\n    echo \"[plex-settings] WARN: $1 -> HTTP $code\" >&2\n  fi\n}\n\n# (4) THE LAN DEFINITION \u2014 the reason this hook was written. Without it Plex has NO notion\n# of a local network and tags EVERY client remote. Measured 2026-10-04: 468 requests\n# logged \"Allowed Network (WAN)\" and ZERO \"(LAN)\", including Seerr from inside the\n# cluster, which is why the server showed as Remote to LAN clients. Note allowedNetworks\n# (the ALLOWED_NETWORKS env) only waives AUTH \u2014 it does NOT make a client local. Two\n# different settings; only one of them has an env hook.\nsetpref LanNetworksBandwidth \"$LANNETS\"\n\n# (5) THE CERTIFICATE, which is what makes the `https` in ADVERTISE_IP servable. Set only\n# if the bundle exists \u2014 pointing Plex at a missing file would break its TLS listener.\nif [ -s \"$P12\" ]; then\n  setpref customCertificatePath \"$P12\"\n  setpref customCertificateKey \"$P12PASS\"\n  setpref customCertificateDomain \"$CERTDOMAIN\"\nelse\n  echo \"[plex-settings] WARN: no bundle; leaving certificate prefs untouched\" >&2\nfi\nexit 0\n"
      volumes:
      - name: config
        persistentVolumeClaim:
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ spec:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: qbittorrent
-        image: lscr.io/linuxserver/qbittorrent:5.1.2
+        image: lscr.io/linuxserver/qbittorrent:5.3.0
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
        env:
@@ -319,6 +319,27 @@ spec:
      - port: '4180'
        protocol: TCP
 ---
+# CiliumNetworkPolicy monitoring scrape ingress allow (R-NET-02/R-OBS-01): qbittorrent-allow-monitoring-scrape
+apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
+kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
+metadata:
+  name: qbittorrent-allow-monitoring-scrape
+  namespace: qbittorrent
+  labels:
+    app.kubernetes.io/name: qbittorrent
+spec:
+  endpointSelector:
+    matchLabels:
+      app.kubernetes.io/name: qbittorrent
+  ingress:
+  - fromEndpoints:
+    - matchLabels:
+        k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace: monitoring
+    toPorts:
+    - ports:
+      - port: '44180'
+        protocol: TCP
+---
 # CiliumNetworkPolicy world egress allow (egress class governs the path; R-NET-05): qbittorrent-allow-internet-egress
 apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
 kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ spec:
  # Scaling out is non-disruptive: CNPG creates -2 then -3 sequentially, each seeded by
  # pg_basebackup from the running primary, which is neither restarted nor disconnected.
  instances: 3
-  imageName: ghcr.io/cloudnative-pg/postgresql:16.4
+  imageName: ghcr.io/cloudnative-pg/postgresql:16.15
  # Stamp app.kubernetes.io/name=semaphore-db onto every generated pod/service so the rendered
  # semaphore egress CiliumNetworkPolicy's toEndpoints selector matches the primary pod (R-NET-02).
  inheritedMetadata:
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ spec:
      initContainers:
        - name: dind
          restartPolicy: Always   # <- this field is what makes it a SIDECAR
-          image: docker:27-dind
+          image: docker:29-dind
          securityContext:
            privileged: true
          env:
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ spec:
      containers:
        # ---- act_runner: registers with Gitea, dispatches jobs to the DinD daemon ----
        - name: runner
-          image: gitea/act_runner:0.2.11
+          image: gitea/act_runner:0.6.1
          # No `command:` override. The image's own entrypoint (/sbin/tini -- /opt/act/run.sh)
          # registers from env on first boot and runs `act_runner daemon`. The two wait-loops
          # that used to live here are gone: kubelet now holds this container until the dind
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ spec:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: keycloak
-        image: quay.io/keycloak/keycloak
+        image: quay.io/keycloak/keycloak:26.0.6
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
        volumeMounts:
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ spec:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: radarr
-        image: lscr.io/linuxserver/radarr:5.21.1
+        image: lscr.io/linuxserver/radarr:5.28.0
        ports:
        - containerPort: 7878
        env:
@@ -347,6 +347,27 @@ spec:
      - port: '4180'
        protocol: TCP
 ---
+# CiliumNetworkPolicy monitoring scrape ingress allow (R-NET-02/R-OBS-01): radarr-allow-monitoring-scrape
+apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
+kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
+metadata:
+  name: radarr-allow-monitoring-scrape
+  namespace: radarr
+  labels:
+    app.kubernetes.io/name: radarr
+spec:
+  endpointSelector:
+    matchLabels:
+      app.kubernetes.io/name: radarr
+  ingress:
+  - fromEndpoints:
+    - matchLabels:
+        k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace: monitoring
+    toPorts:
+    - ports:
+      - port: '44180'
+        protocol: TCP
+---
 # CiliumNetworkPolicy world egress allow (egress class governs the path; R-NET-05): radarr-allow-internet-egress
 apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
 kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ spec:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: semaphore
-        image: semaphoreui/semaphore:v2.19.10
+        image: semaphoreui/semaphore:v2.19.17
        ports:
        - containerPort: 3000
        env:
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ spec:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: sonarr
-        image: lscr.io/linuxserver/sonarr:4.0.15
+        image: lscr.io/linuxserver/sonarr:4.0.20
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8989
        env:
@@ -345,6 +345,27 @@ spec:
      - port: '4180'
        protocol: TCP
 ---
+# CiliumNetworkPolicy monitoring scrape ingress allow (R-NET-02/R-OBS-01): sonarr-allow-monitoring-scrape
+apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
+kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
+metadata:
+  name: sonarr-allow-monitoring-scrape
+  namespace: sonarr
+  labels:
+    app.kubernetes.io/name: sonarr
+spec:
+  endpointSelector:
+    matchLabels:
+      app.kubernetes.io/name: sonarr
+  ingress:
+  - fromEndpoints:
+    - matchLabels:
+        k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace: monitoring
+    toPorts:
+    - ports:
+      - port: '44180'
+        protocol: TCP
+---
 # CiliumNetworkPolicy world egress allow (egress class governs the path; R-NET-05): sonarr-allow-internet-egress
 apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
 kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ spec:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: seerr
-        image: ghcr.io/seerr-team/seerr:v3.4.1
+        image: ghcr.io/seerr-team/seerr:v3.5.1
        ports:
        - containerPort: 5055
        volumeMounts:
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 name: gitea
 kind: container
 source:
-  image: gitea/gitea:1.24.3     # pinned recent stable tag (R-UPD-01); update.range governs advancement
+  image: gitea/gitea:28.3.0     # pinned recent stable tag (R-UPD-01); update.range governs advancement
 # Headless-install bootstrap (formerly apps/gitea-bootstrap-patch.yaml; now first-class via the
 # ServiceDefinition env/envFrom/lifecycle fields, schema >=1.2.0). Gitea must come up INSTALLED
 # without the interactive web wizard and with a FIXED, persistent SECRET_KEY, so all of this is
@@ -23,14 +23,43 @@ env:
      secretKeyRef:
        name: gitea-bootstrap
        key: secret-key
-  - name: GITEA__server__DOMAIN              # correct public clone/redirect URLs for the TLS-terminated host
-    value: gitea.${BASE_DOMAIN}
+  # ROOT_URL is the ONLY source of the instance domain since Gitea 28 (go-gitea/gitea#39400): [server]
+  # DOMAIN is no longer read, and the SSH domain defaults from ROOT_URL too. GITEA__server__DOMAIN was
+  # removed in the 28 upgrade; the stale DOMAIN line environment-to-ini already wrote into app.ini is
+  # inert. Correct public clone/redirect URLs for the TLS-terminated host come from this one value.
  - name: GITEA__server__ROOT_URL
    value: https://gitea.${BASE_DOMAIN}/
  - name: GITEA__actions__ENABLED            # Phase 6 CI/CD: declared (not implicit upstream default) so the
    value: "true"                            # in-cluster act_runner (ns gitea-actions) registers against it
  - name: GITEA__actions__DEFAULT_ACTIONS_URL  # resolve `uses: <org>/<action>@ref` from github.com (cluster
    value: github                              # has internet egress; not air-gapped)
+  # Gitea 28 added run retention (go-gitea/gitea#38855): completed runs, with their jobs, logs and
+  # artifacts, are deleted by the cleanup_action_runs cron after RUN_RETENTION_DAYS. Upstream's default
+  # (400) is kept but DECLARED, so the deletion horizon is visible here rather than implicit. The spec
+  # repo states no CI-history retention requirement; 0 would mean keep forever.
+  - name: GITEA__actions__RUN_RETENTION_DAYS
+    value: "400"
+  # Gitea 28 (go-gitea/gitea#39426) puts webhooks, the OAuth2 avatar fetch and OpenID 2.0 behind an
+  # egress policy: in the default lax mode, PUBLIC targets are allowed and private/loopback/CGNAT
+  # targets need an IP or CIDR entry in [security] ALLOWED_HOST_LIST (a hostname entry is NOT enough
+  # for a private address). DECLARED lax with an EMPTY allow list, deliberately:
+  #   * the Keycloak OIDC login source is NOT gated by it. In 28.3.0 the openidConnect provider is
+  #     goth's, built with its default HTTP client (services/auth/source/oauth2/providers_openid.go);
+  #     egress.NewSecurityPolicy is used only by routers/web/auth/oauth.go (avatar fetch, and
+  #     [oauth2_client] UPDATE_AVATAR is off here) and modules/auth/openid (OpenID 2.0, unused).
+  #     So keycloak.<domain> resolving to the private Gateway address in-cluster does not matter.
+  #   * this instance has no webhooks and no mirrors (measured 2026-11-07), and 1.27 already refused
+  #     private webhook targets by default, so nothing that worked before is newly denied.
+  # Adding an entry here would only WIDEN the webhook SSRF surface. Add the narrowest CIDR (e.g. the
+  # Gateway address /32) only if a real private webhook target appears.
+  - name: GITEA__security__EGRESS_MODE
+    value: lax
+  # Gitea 28 (go-gitea/gitea#39400) disables LOCAL self-registration unless DISABLE_REGISTRATION is
+  # explicitly false; 1.27 defaulted it open. Declared true: accounts arrive via Keycloak only.
+  # OAuth2 auto-registration below is unaffected — routers/web/auth/oauth.go gates it on
+  # ALLOW_ONLY_INTERNAL_REGISTRATION and ENABLE_AUTO_REGISTRATION, not on DISABLE_REGISTRATION.
+  - name: GITEA__service__DISABLE_REGISTRATION
+    value: "true"
  - name: GITEA_ADMIN_USERNAME               # break-glass local admin creds (consumed by the postStart hook)
    valueFrom:
      secretKeyRef:
@@ -208,6 +237,19 @@ inClusterClients:
    namespace: flux-system      # matched by NAMESPACE alone — the flux controllers' pod labels belong
                                # to upstream's manifests, not to this platform's contract
    port: 3000                  # ONLY the Gitea HTTP port — the same single port the Gateway allow opens
+  # The PM agent service (platform/pm-agent/). Its dispatcher reads issues and posts comments
+  # over this port, and every worker Job clones, pushes and opens pull requests over it. Like
+  # Flux's source-controller above, it dials the ClusterIP DIRECTLY — deliberately, so the
+  # agent's path to the repository depends on neither public DNS, nor Cloudflare, nor the
+  # shared Gateway, nor ${BASE_DOMAIN}. And exactly as for Flux, that means this namespace's
+  # own default-deny (R-NET-01) DROPS the connection unless it is declared here: without this
+  # entry the dispatcher's egress allow is satisfied and the packet is still discarded at the
+  # Gitea end, which presents as an authentication timeout rather than as a policy denial.
+  # That is the 2026-09-13 lesson documented at length above, applied before it is relearned.
+  - name: pm-agent
+    namespace: pm-agent         # matched by NAMESPACE alone, so the dispatcher Deployment and every
+                                # ephemeral worker Job are covered by the one declaration
+    port: 3000                  # ONLY the Gitea HTTP port
 auth:
  mode: oidc                    # native Keycloak OIDC client (docs/13 SSO row, docs/15 "Native OIDC" set; R-IDP-02)
  groups:
@@ -220,9 +262,14 @@ auth:
  # recovery tools (docs/15 "Availability caveat"). No secret is embedded here.
 update:
  channel: stable               # R-UPD-01
-  range: ">=1.22.0 <2.0.0"      # stay on the 1.x stable line
+  range: ">=28.0.0 <29.0.0"     # Gitea dropped the "1." prefix at 28.0.0 (successor of 1.27); stay on 28.x
  cadence: "0 4 * * *"
-  autoRollbackOnFailedHealth: true   # R-UPD-03
+  # R-UPD-03. INERT FOR THIS SERVICE, and it must stay that way: this flag renders only an annotation
+  # on a Flux ImagePolicy, and apps/ is rendered --no-image-automation (ci/render-golden.sh), so no
+  # ImagePolicy exists and the Deployment (strategy Recreate) is never auto-reverted. That matters
+  # because a Gitea upgrade (1.27 -> 28 included) MIGRATES THE SQLITE DB ONE-WAY: an image revert onto
+  # a migrated DB is not a rollback. Roll Gitea back by RESTORING THE DATA PVC from its pre-upgrade backup.
+  autoRollbackOnFailedHealth: true
 observability:
  metrics: true
  slis:
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 name: jackett
 kind: container
 source:
-  image: lscr.io/linuxserver/jackett:latest
+  image: lscr.io/linuxserver/jackett:v0.24.3025-ls29
 exposure: internal              # LAN-only web UI at jackett.${BASE_DOMAIN} (docs/13 row 4; R-DNS/R-NET)
 egress: vpn                     # indexer scraping via node PIA tunnel + kill-switch (docs/03; ADR-0015; R-NET-05/06)
 storage:
@@ -70,7 +70,8 @@ auth:
    - ^/api/
 update:
  channel: stable               # R-UPD-01
-  range: ">=0.22.0"             # stay on the Jackett 0.22.x stable line
+  range: ">=0.22.0"             # floor only, no ceiling (0.24.x runs as of 2026-10-30; Jackett has no
+                                # major line to hold back from, so renovate.json5 mirrors no cap)
  cadence: "0 4 * * *"
  autoRollbackOnFailedHealth: true   # R-UPD-03
 observability:
@@ -5,8 +5,15 @@
 # Validates against schemas/servicedefinition.schema.json.
 name: keycloak
 kind: container
+# DOCUMENTATION-ONLY IMAGE. The running server is NOT chosen here: the Keycloak operator
+# (platform/keycloak/kustomization.yaml, three pinned release URLs) picks it via its
+# RELATED_IMAGE_KEYCLOAK, and the Keycloak CR has no spec.image. This SD's render,
+# apps/wave-1/keycloak.yaml, is not listed in apps/wave-1/kustomization.yaml and deploys nothing
+# (ci/render-golden.sh RENDER_GOLDEN_NOT_ONBOARDED). The tag records the operator's version for
+# readers; renovate.json5 disables Renovate for this image so it cannot raise PRs against a file
+# nothing deploys. The Keycloak version moves with the operator — update this tag by hand then.
 source:
-  image: quay.io/keycloak/keycloak
+  image: quay.io/keycloak/keycloak:26.0.6
 exposure: public              # login/redirect flows for internet-exposed services; hardened (docs/15; R-DNS/R-NET)
 egress: internet              # normal WAN egress (docs/03; R-NET-05)
 storage:
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 name: pihole
 kind: container
 source:
-  image: pihole/pihole
+  image: pihole/pihole:2026.10.1
 exposure: internal            # LAN-only admin UI (docs/13 row 6; R-DNS/R-NET)
 egress: internet              # normal WAN egress (docs/03; R-NET-05)
 storage:
@@ -134,8 +134,48 @@ env:
  # then silently wrong: FTL stores `["a","b"]` as ONE array element containing those literal
  # characters, writes that single bogus line into /etc/pihole/dnsmasq.conf and reports "0 invalid"
  # while resolution for the zone does not work. Confirmed both ways against the live image.
+  # plex-vip -> ${PLEX_L4_VIP} (added 2026-10-04) is the LAN HALF of Plex's single advertised
+  # hostname. Plex publishes ONE URL to plex.tv for both local and remote clients
+  # (catalog/plex.yaml ADVERTISE_IP): on the LAN this answer points it at the tcp/32400
+  # LoadBalancer, while Cloudflare answers the same name publicly with the WAN address, NATed to
+  # the same VIP. WITHOUT THIS LINE the entry above answers it with ${GATEWAY_VIP} via the zone
+  # wildcard, where NOTHING listens on 32400 — measured 2026-10-04, plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}
+  # resolved to the Gateway VIP and a connect to :32400 there returned http=000. That is a silent
+  # failure: the Plex web UI on plex.${BASE_DOMAIN} keeps working through the Gateway on 443 while
+  # every client that takes the ADVERTISED connection cannot reach the server at all.
+  #
+  # ── local-ttl=60 — THE SPLIT-HORIZON ANSWER MUST BE CACHEABLE ────────────────────────────────
+  # MEASURED 2026-10-18, diagnosing "DNS flapping between the cluster ingress and the public IP":
+  #
+  #   dig home.keithjackson.dev @192.168.2.23 (pihole)  -> 192.168.2.20                TTL=0
+  #   dig home.keithjackson.dev @1.1.1.1      (public)  -> wan.home.keithjackson.dev   TTL=300
+  #   dig home.keithjackson.dev @192.168.2.1  (router)  -> wan....  TTL=153 -> 148 -> 143
+  #
+  # dnsmasq answers `address=` entries with **TTL 0** unless told otherwise, and that is the whole
+  # bug. The SOHO router forwards LAN queries to PiHole and CACHES the result, so:
+  #   * the CORRECT answer is UNCACHEABLE (TTL 0) -- the router must re-query PiHole on every
+  #     single lookup, which is maximum exposure to any momentary gap; while
+  #   * the WRONG answer is CACHEABLE FOR 5 MINUTES -- the instant the router falls back to its
+  #     upstream (standard forwarder behaviour when the forward target does not answer) it latches
+  #     the public WAN address and serves it to EVERY LAN CLIENT for the public record's 300s TTL.
+  # The decrementing TTL on the router's reply above is the proof it caches rather than forwarding
+  # live. So ONE sub-second PiHole gap -- a pod restart, an L2 announcement lease moving, an ARP
+  # flap, a kured node reboot -- becomes FIVE MINUTES of the whole house resolving to the WAN IP.
+  # That asymmetry, not the gap, is why this is visible as "flapping" rather than a blip.
+  #
+  # 60s is a deliberate floor, not a tuning knob: long enough to ride out a pod restart and a lease
+  # re-election (both seconds), short enough that a genuine VIP change still propagates inside a
+  # minute. These VIPs are pinned by name (`lbipam.cilium.io/ips`) and effectively static, so the
+  # propagation cost is theoretical while the flap it prevents is measured. If flaps persist across
+  # LONGER outages, raising this toward the public record's 300 would cover them -- at the cost of
+  # the same delay on a real change. It does NOT help when PiHole is down longer than the TTL: the
+  # cache expires, the router falls back, and the public answer latches again. That is a real
+  # outage, and the fix for it is PiHole availability, not DNS caching.
+  #
+  # Applies to every `address=` reply below (dnsmasq: local-ttl governs replies made from
+  # configuration, /etc/hosts and DHCP leases), so one directive covers all five names.
  - name: FTLCONF_misc_dnsmasq_lines
-    value: "address=/${BASE_DOMAIN}/${GATEWAY_VIP};address=/unifi.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${UNIFI_L4_VIP};address=/crafty-mc.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${CRAFTY_L4_VIP};address=/pihole-dns.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${PIHOLE_DNS_VIP}"
+    value: "local-ttl=60;address=/${BASE_DOMAIN}/${GATEWAY_VIP};address=/unifi.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${UNIFI_L4_VIP};address=/crafty-mc.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${CRAFTY_L4_VIP};address=/pihole-dns.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${PIHOLE_DNS_VIP};address=/plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${PLEX_L4_VIP}"
  # THE ADMIN PASSWORD, previously the ONE operator-set value declared nowhere. Sourced from
  # apps/wave-0/pihole-bootstrap-secret.sops.yaml (SOPS/age, same wave => same reconcile), which
  # carries the full rationale and the measurement that found it.
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 name: plex
 kind: container
 source:
-  image: plexinc/pms-docker:latest
+  image: plexinc/pms-docker:1.43.6.11085-d1e52e169
 # plexinc/pms-docker env. Rendered VERBATIM onto the app container by render.py (schema env list).
 env:
  # PLEX_UID/PLEX_GID: the image boots as root (s6 PID1), chowns /config to this uid/gid, then drops
@@ -72,14 +72,227 @@ env:
      secretKeyRef:
        name: plex-claim
        key: PLEX_CLAIM
-  # ADVERTISE_IP ("Custom server access URLs") is DEFERRED, not accidentally omitted. It tells Plex
-  # which URL to advertise to plex.tv for REMOTE clients. The only candidate is
-  # https://plex.home.keithjackson.dev, but that host resolves via split-horizon DNS to the INTERNAL
-  # Gateway VIP (conformance/tests/l2-behavioral/dns-internal-resolution), and both its public
-  # reachability and whether the TLS-terminating Cilium Gateway proxies Plex's 32400 API correctly for
-  # remote access are UNVERIFIED. Advertising a wrong/internal-only URL breaks remote access for ALL
-  # clients, so per "prefer safety over completeness" it is left unset. FOLLOW-UP: once remote
-  # reachability through the Gateway is confirmed, set ADVERTISE_IP: "https://plex.home.keithjackson.dev:443".
+  # ADVERTISE_IP ("Custom server access URLs") — the connection Plex publishes to plex.tv.
+  #
+  # THE VALUE MUST BE RESOLVABLE BY EVERY CLIENT, NOT JUST BY CLIENTS THAT USE OUR DNS. That single
+  # property is what this field keeps getting wrong, so it is the first thing to check before
+  # changing it. A Plex client resolves the advertised host ITSELF, with whatever resolver it
+  # happens to use — and on a real LAN that is frequently NOT PiHole: browsers ship DoH on by
+  # default, phones have "private DNS", guest and IoT devices often take the router's DNS, and some
+  # clients hard-code a public resolver.
+  #
+  # THAT IS NOT THEORETICAL — IT TOOK PLEX DOWN FOR THE WHOLE LAN ON 2026-10-05. This field briefly
+  # advertised `plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}`, a name that exists ONLY in PiHole's split-horizon answers
+  # (catalog/pihole.yaml) and in no public zone. Clients that did not use PiHole could not resolve
+  # it; the SOHO router answered the failed lookup with ITSELF, and every one of them landed on the
+  # router's own web UI and reported a certificate error for `CN = %D`. Measured 2026-10-05: the
+  # router serves that self-signed cert (`C = ZZ, O = %D342e7e6b, CN = %D`) on BOTH `192.168.2.1:443`
+  # and the WAN address, while PiHole itself was answering perfectly — both replicas returned
+  # `plex-vip -> ${PLEX_L4_VIP}` and `plex -> ${GATEWAY_VIP}`. The DNS was right; the DEPENDENCY on
+  # it was the bug. Nothing Plex advertises listens on 443, which is how we know the clients had left
+  # the Plex path entirely and were talking to the router.
+  #
+  # SO: `<dashed-ip>.<serverhash>.plex.direct`, WHICH IS RESOLVER-INDEPENDENT. This is Plex's own
+  # mechanism and the reason it exists: `plex.direct` is a PUBLIC zone that returns the private
+  # address embedded in the label, so EVERY resolver on earth — PiHole, the router, 1.1.1.1, a DoH
+  # browser — answers `192-168-2-24.<hash>.plex.direct` with `192.168.2.24`. It needs no
+  # split-horizon entry, no Cloudflare record, and no certificate work, because the wildcard cert
+  # Plex already serves on 32400 covers exactly this name. Re-verified live 2026-10-05 with FULL
+  # validation (no `curl -k`): resolves to 192.168.2.24 and `/identity` returns **200, TLS verified**.
+  #
+  # WHY NOT THE NICER HOSTNAME, since a readable name in our own zone is obviously more pleasant:
+  # it cannot be made to work for clients that bypass PiHole. A public record for it would resolve
+  # to the WAN address, and with no NAT hairpin on this router a LAN client sent there fails too —
+  # so the hostname is correct ONLY for clients using PiHole, and wrong for the rest. There is no
+  # configuration of that name that is right for both. `plex.direct` is right for both.
+  # (The PiHole `plex-vip` answer is KEPT — it is harmless, costs nothing, and is genuinely useful
+  # for reaching the VIP by name from a LAN shell. It is simply not what Plex advertises.)
+  #
+  # THE TWO EMBEDDED VALUES, and the honest cost of this choice. The dashed IP must track
+  # ${PLEX_L4_VIP} and `<serverhash>` is this server's certificate identity — read it from the live
+  # listener with
+  #     openssl s_client -connect <vip>:32400 </dev/null | openssl x509 -noout -subject
+  # Nothing in this tree can derive either, and nothing checks that they still agree: envsubst
+  # cannot dash an IP, so this is a literal. That fragility is real and was the reason the hostname
+  # was tried in the first place — it is accepted here because an unresolvable name is a WORSE
+  # failure (silent, LAN-wide, and it points users at the router) than a stale literal, which at
+  # least fails loudly and only after someone changes the VIP.
+  #
+  # The image's /etc/cont-init.d/40-plex-first-run runs `setPref "customConnections"
+  # "${ADVERTISE_IP}"` (line 127, verified in the running image), OUTSIDE the
+  # PLEX_CLAIM/PlexOnlineToken guard, with its `/.firstRunComplete` marker on the container OVERLAY
+  # fs rather than the /config PVC — so this is re-applied on EVERY pod start and git, not a web
+  # form, owns the value.
+  - name: ADVERTISE_IP
+    value: https://192-168-2-24.130072f20c334d6c8f63d0dfef87309b.plex.direct:32400
+  # THE TLS MATERIAL FOR THE NAME ABOVE, as PEM text in env rather than a mounted volume.
+  # `plex-vip-tls` is issued by cert-manager from ClusterIssuer `letsencrypt-prod` for exactly
+  # `plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}` (apps/wave-0/plex-cert.yaml, same wave => same reconcile as this
+  # workload). The postStart hook converts it to the PKCS#12 bundle Plex requires.
+  #
+  # WHY ENV AND NOT A VOLUME, which would be the conventional choice. MEASURED 2026-10-04:
+  # `schemas/servicedefinition.schema.json` `storage` accepts only
+  # [class, export, mountPath, name, readOnly, size, subPath] with `additionalProperties: false`,
+  # `catalog/render.py` emits NO secret volumes, and no rendered app mounts a Secret as a volume.
+  # Mounting one therefore needs a schema + renderer change; `env.valueFrom.secretKeyRef` is
+  # already in the schema and already used by PLEX_CLAIM above. PEM is text, so it survives an env
+  # var intact (a raw PKCS#12 would not — it is binary and carries NUL bytes).
+  #
+  # COST, STATED PLAINLY: the private key is readable from this container's environment
+  # (/proc/1/environ, `kubectl exec env`) by anything that can already exec into the pod. That is
+  # the same audience that can read the converted bundle under /config, so the marginal exposure is
+  # small — but a secret VOLUME would still be the better shape, and adding secret-volume support
+  # to the schema is the clean follow-up that removes this note.
+  #
+  # `optional: true` IS LOAD-BEARING, NOT DEFENSIVE CLUTTER (schema 1.11.0, added for this). The
+  # Certificate is issued INTO THIS NAMESPACE, and the namespace is created by the rendered
+  # apps/wave-0/plex.yaml itself — so the cert CANNOT be issued in an earlier tier, and the
+  # Certificate and this Deployment land in the SAME reconcile. On a cold bootstrap the Secret is
+  # therefore briefly absent while cert-manager completes a DNS01 challenge. With a HARD ref, Plex
+  # would sit in CreateContainerConfigError until a certificate issued — and because `apps-wave-0`
+  # is `wait: true` with `apps-wave-1` dependsOn it, a failed or slow issuance would STALL THE WHOLE
+  # APP TIER (the same hazard the `hardware` block below documents for the GPU resource). Optional
+  # instead means: no cert -> Plex still starts and serves, the postStart hook logs that the
+  # certificate was not installed, and the next start after issuance converges. Plex falls back to
+  # its own `*.plex.direct` certificate in the meantime, so the degraded state is "advertised URL
+  # not yet servable over TLS", not "media server down".
+  - name: PLEX_TLS_CRT
+    valueFrom:
+      secretKeyRef:
+        name: plex-vip-tls
+        key: tls.crt
+        optional: true
+  - name: PLEX_TLS_KEY
+    valueFrom:
+      secretKeyRef:
+        name: plex-vip-tls
+        key: tls.key
+        optional: true
+lifecycle:
+  # LEVEL-TRIGGERED PLEX SETTINGS, re-asserted on EVERY container start — the same pattern and the
+  # same reasoning as catalog/pihole.yaml's and catalog/qbittorrent.yaml's postStart: desired state
+  # lives in git and is re-asserted unconditionally rather than typed into a web form once. Typing
+  # settings into the web form is precisely what took this service down on 2026-10-04.
+  #
+  # IT EXISTS BECAUSE THE IMAGE HAS NO ENV FOR THESE SETTINGS. Measured 2026-10-04 across the whole
+  # init surface (/etc/cont-init.d, /etc/services.d, /plex-common.sh, /usr/local/bin): the image
+  # calls setPref for exactly SIX prefs — MachineIdentifier, ProcessedMachineIdentifier,
+  # PlexOnlineToken, customConnections, allowedNetworks, TranscoderTempDirectory — and supports NO
+  # generic PLEX_PREFERENCE* hook of any kind. The two things we need (a LAN definition and a custom
+  # certificate) are reachable ONLY through Plex's own API, so this hook is the only GitOps path.
+  #
+  # IT MUST NEVER FAIL. A postStart hook that exits non-zero makes kubelet KILL the container, so
+  # every step is bounded and the script ends with an unconditional `exit 0`. A missing token, an
+  # unissued certificate or an unreachable API degrades to "not applied this start" and is retried
+  # on the next one; it never crashloops Plex.
+  postStart:
+    exec:
+      command:
+        - /bin/bash
+        - -c
+        - |
+          # NOTE — LOAD-BEARING: SHELL VARIABLES HERE ARE WRITTEN BARE, NEVER BRACE-WRAPPED.
+          # This whole script is rewritten by Flux postBuild envsubst BEFORE it ever runs, so a
+          # brace-wrapped name is read as a cluster-vars knob: an undeclared one is a HARD
+          # Kustomization failure under StrictPostBuildSubstitutions, and a declared one would be
+          # replaced with its value. Shell vars are therefore `$PX`, `$TOKEN`, `$P12` — bare. Only
+          # BASE_DOMAIN below is brace-wrapped, because it IS a knob and IS meant to be
+          # substituted. Command substitution `$(cmd)` is left alone and needs no escaping. A shell
+          # variable written with braces would be blanked or would fail the whole Kustomization —
+          # this repo has already lost a gitea OIDC bootstrap to exactly that mistake, and
+          # catalog/render.py now refuses to emit it (which is how this very comment got caught).
+          # DELIBERATELY NO `set -u`. The TLS env vars are declared `optional: true`, so when the
+          # certificate has not issued yet they are genuinely UNSET, not empty — and under `set -u`
+          # the first `[ -n "$PLEX_TLS_CRT" ]` would abort the script, which for a postStart hook
+          # means kubelet KILLS THE CONTAINER. That is the precise failure the `optional` flag exists
+          # to prevent, so turning it back on here would defeat the whole design. (The alternative,
+          # a brace-wrapped `:-` default, would need envsubst escaping — the trap the note above
+          # describes.) Every value below is explicitly guarded instead.
+          PX="/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml"
+          CERTDIR=/config/certs
+          P12=$CERTDIR/plex-vip.p12
+          # The PKCS#12 passphrase protects nothing and is deliberately not a secret: Plex needs it
+          # in cleartext in customCertificateKey, and it and the bundle sit on the same PVC. It is a
+          # container-format requirement, not an access control.
+          P12PASS=plexvip
+          LANNETS='10.0.0.0/8,192.168.0.0/16'
+          CERTDOMAIN=plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}
+          API=http://127.0.0.1:32400
+
+          # (1) Build the PKCS#12 bundle from the PEM the Secret supplies. Rebuilt on every start so
+          # a cert-manager RENEWAL is picked up with no extra moving part.
+          if [ -n "$PLEX_TLS_CRT" ] && [ -n "$PLEX_TLS_KEY" ]; then
+            mkdir -p $CERTDIR && chmod 700 $CERTDIR
+            printf '%s' "$PLEX_TLS_CRT" > $CERTDIR/tls.crt
+            printf '%s' "$PLEX_TLS_KEY" > $CERTDIR/tls.key
+            chmod 600 $CERTDIR/tls.key
+            if openssl pkcs12 -export -out $P12.tmp -inkey $CERTDIR/tls.key \
+                 -in $CERTDIR/tls.crt -passout pass:$P12PASS 2>/dev/null; then
+              mv -f $P12.tmp $P12
+              chown 1000:1000 $P12 2>/dev/null || true
+              chmod 600 $P12
+              echo "[plex-settings] PKCS#12 bundle written"
+            else
+              rm -f $P12.tmp
+              echo "[plex-settings] WARN: pkcs12 export failed; keeping any previous bundle" >&2
+            fi
+            rm -f $CERTDIR/tls.key
+          else
+            echo "[plex-settings] WARN: TLS env empty; certificate not installed this start" >&2
+          fi
+
+          # (2) Wait, bounded (~90s), for the local API. /identity needs no auth.
+          i=0
+          while [ "$i" -lt 45 ]; do
+            if [ "$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' --max-time 5 $API/identity 2>/dev/null)" = "200" ]; then
+              break
+            fi
+            i=$(expr $i + 1); sleep 2
+          done
+
+          # (3) The prefs API needs the server token. It already lives in Preferences.xml on this
+          # PVC; it is never echoed here, and Plex redacts tokens in its own request log. An
+          # UNCLAIMED server has none — a normal state on a fresh /config — so skip, do not fail.
+          TOKEN=$(grep -o 'PlexOnlineToken="[^"]*"' "$PX" 2>/dev/null | head -1 | cut -d'"' -f2)
+          if [ -z "$TOKEN" ]; then
+            echo "[plex-settings] not claimed yet — skipping prefs, will retry next start" >&2
+            exit 0
+          fi
+
+          # Percent-encode what our values actually contain. Plex takes prefs as QUERY parameters on
+          # a PUT, so a raw '/' or ',' would be read as structure rather than data.
+          enc() {
+            printf '%s' "$1" | sed -e 's|%|%25|g' -e 's|/|%2F|g' -e 's|,|%2C|g' \
+                                   -e 's|:|%3A|g' -e 's| |%20|g'
+          }
+          setpref() {
+            code=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' --max-time 10 -X PUT \
+              -H "X-Plex-Token: $TOKEN" "$API/:/prefs?$1=$(enc "$2")" 2>/dev/null)
+            if [ "$code" = "200" ]; then
+              echo "[plex-settings] set $1"
+            else
+              echo "[plex-settings] WARN: $1 -> HTTP $code" >&2
+            fi
+          }
+
+          # (4) THE LAN DEFINITION — the reason this hook was written. Without it Plex has NO notion
+          # of a local network and tags EVERY client remote. Measured 2026-10-04: 468 requests
+          # logged "Allowed Network (WAN)" and ZERO "(LAN)", including Seerr from inside the
+          # cluster, which is why the server showed as Remote to LAN clients. Note allowedNetworks
+          # (the ALLOWED_NETWORKS env) only waives AUTH — it does NOT make a client local. Two
+          # different settings; only one of them has an env hook.
+          setpref LanNetworksBandwidth "$LANNETS"
+
+          # (5) THE CERTIFICATE, which is what makes the `https` in ADVERTISE_IP servable. Set only
+          # if the bundle exists — pointing Plex at a missing file would break its TLS listener.
+          if [ -s "$P12" ]; then
+            setpref customCertificatePath "$P12"
+            setpref customCertificateKey "$P12PASS"
+            setpref customCertificateDomain "$CERTDOMAIN"
+          else
+            echo "[plex-settings] WARN: no bundle; leaving certificate prefs untouched" >&2
+          fi
+          exit 0
 # HARDWARE TRANSCODING — the host iGPU's render device (schema 1.8.0 `hardware`; R-PLAT-02).
 # INTENT ONLY, AND THE MECHANISM DELIBERATELY DOES NOT LIVE HERE. This says "this workload needs an
 # Intel Quick Sync render device"; it does NOT name a device path and it does NOT name a resource.
@@ -138,7 +351,7 @@ exposure: public              # edge port-forward + public DNS; clients + Seerr
 egress: internet              # normal WAN egress (docs/03; R-NET-05)
 storage:
  - name: config
-    size: 8Gi
+    size: 16Gi
    class: longhorn           # Plex DB/metadata: replicated app state on the 3-replica tier (docs/04; R-STATE-01/02)
    mountPath: /config        # plexinc/pms-docker writes its identity/claim + "Library" DB under /config, NOT the
                              # renderer default /data/config. Without this the PVC sat unused and Plex wrote to the
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
 name: qbittorrent
 kind: container
 source:
-  image: lscr.io/linuxserver/qbittorrent:5.1.2   # pinned stable tag (R-UPD-01); update.range governs advancement
+  image: lscr.io/linuxserver/qbittorrent:5.3.0   # pinned stable tag (R-UPD-01); update.range governs advancement
 # LinuxServer images run their service as the user `abc`, whose uid/gid these two set. They are
 # LOAD-BEARING FOR THE BULK MOUNT, not cosmetic — exactly as on sonarr/radarr. Measured on prod
 # 2026-09-12 BEFORE this change: `id` inside the container reported the qbittorrent-nox process as
@@ -359,7 +359,7 @@ storage:
                                # The live /config contents were copied onto each PVC before this landed,
                                # so API keys and credentials other apps reference were preserved.
  # THE DOWNLOADS AREA — ONE mount of the SAME export sonarr/radarr/plex already consume
-  # (192.168.2.102:/mnt/Storage/plex), narrowed by subPath to the `downloads` subtree and presented at
+  # (192.168.2.30:/mnt/Storage/plex), narrowed by subPath to the `downloads` subtree and presented at
  # /downloads, which is precisely where this app is ALREADY configured to write.
  #
  # WHY subPath: downloads AND NOT THE EXPORT ROOT AT /media (the shape sonarr/radarr use):
@@ -434,7 +434,7 @@ dependencies: []                # default-deny: reaches only DNS; arr reach it n
                                # for weeks and neither has any CNP naming the NFS server or port 2049
                                # (grep apps/wave-1/sonarr.yaml: none). The SAME fact is what keeps the VPN
                                # egress gateway off this traffic (its selector is a podSelector), and
-                                # 192.168.2.102 is inside the 192.168.0.0/16 excludedCIDR besides — see
+                                # 192.168.2.30 is inside the 192.168.0.0/16 excludedCIDR besides — see
                                # platform/vpn-egress/egress-steering.yaml, "BULK NFS".
 ingressRoutes:
  - host: qbittorrent.${BASE_DOMAIN}
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 name: radarr
 kind: container
 source:
-  image: lscr.io/linuxserver/radarr:5.21.1   # pinned stable v5 tag (R-UPD-01); update.range governs advancement
+  image: lscr.io/linuxserver/radarr:5.28.0   # pinned stable v5 tag (R-UPD-01); update.range governs advancement
 # LinuxServer images run their service as the user `abc`, whose uid/gid these two set. They are
 # LOAD-BEARING for the bulk mount, not cosmetic: see the storage note below. The default is 911,
 # which cannot write a 1000:3000-owned 0755 tree.
@@ -156,11 +156,17 @@ OAUTH2_COOKIE_REFRESH = "2m30s"
 # ready endpoints. The flag is confirmed present in the PINNED v7.8.1 binary (`--help`),
 # which matters because the shared proxy is on v7.15.3 and could not have vouched for it.
 #
-# THIS IS THE PREREQUISITE ONLY, AND IT IS NOT YET SCRAPED. A container port is not a
-# Service port: these sidecars' Services expose the app port and :4180, and each namespace's
-# default-deny baseline has `ingress: []`, so Prometheus can neither resolve nor reach this
-# port until a Service port (or PodMonitor), a monitoring-ingress allow and a ServiceMonitor
-# are added. Do not read this flag as "metrics are working".
+# THE SCRAPE WORKS AS OF 2026-10-05 — but it took THREE independent pieces, and this flag is
+# only the first. A container port is not a Service port, and each namespace's default-deny
+# baseline denies all ingress, so the flag alone bought nothing for 63.7h:
+#   1. this flag + a named `metrics` container port   (PR #28)
+#   2. a monitor that targets POD ports, not Service ports — platform/oauth2-proxy/podmonitor.yaml
+#      is a PodMonitor for exactly that reason (no Service exposes 44180)
+#   3. an ingress allowance from ns monitoring        (PR #49, r_monitoring_ingress_policy below)
+# Verified on prod 2026-10-05: all 6 targets up == 1, scraping in 1-6ms.
+# STILL do not read this flag alone as "metrics are working" — 1 without 3 is precisely the state
+# that produced 5 x TargetDown for 63.7h. If you add a sidecar metrics port anywhere else, check
+# that r_monitoring_ingress_policy covers it.
 OAUTH2_PROXY_METRICS_PORT = 44180

 # --- Hardware capability: `hardware.gpu: intel-quicksync` ------------------------------
@@ -1362,8 +1368,9 @@ def _oauth2_sidecar_container(s: dict) -> dict:
        f"--cookie-refresh={OAUTH2_COOKIE_REFRESH}",
        "--pass-access-token=true",
        "--set-xauthrequest=true",
-        # Start the /metrics listener. Prerequisite only — not yet reachable by Prometheus;
-        # see OAUTH2_PROXY_METRICS_PORT above for exactly what is still missing.
+        # Start the /metrics listener. Scraped as of 2026-10-05, but only because
+        # r_monitoring_ingress_policy also opens this port to ns monitoring — the flag alone was
+        # inert for 63.7h. See OAUTH2_PROXY_METRICS_PORT above for the three pieces required.
        f"--metrics-address=0.0.0.0:{OAUTH2_PROXY_METRICS_PORT}",
    ]
    secret = f"{s['name']}-oauth2-proxy"
@@ -1541,12 +1548,54 @@ def r_monitoring_ingress_policy(s: dict):
    trap Longhorn's own NetworkPolicies set (platform/longhorn/networkpolicy-metrics.yaml exists
    for exactly this reason), and it is a THIRD independent way for a metrics SLI to be inert.

-    Rendered only alongside a declared metricsEndpoint, and it opens ONLY that port to ONLY the
-    monitoring namespace: an allow for a port nothing serves would be a standing hole for no
+    Rendered only alongside a port something actually serves, and it opens ONLY that port to ONLY
+    the monitoring namespace: an allow for a port nothing serves would be a standing hole for no
    benefit.
+
+    TWO INDEPENDENT SOURCES OF A SERVED METRICS PORT, and this used to cover only the first:
+
+      1. `observability.metricsEndpoint` — the APP's own exporter. NOTE, measured 2026-10-04: no
+         ServiceDefinition in this catalog declares one, so before the sidecar clause below this
+         function had NEVER emitted a single object on any branch. It is correct but, so far,
+         entirely latent — do not read its presence as evidence that scrape ingress is solved.
+
+      2. THE forward-auth GATE SIDECAR's own `/metrics` on 44180 (added 2026-10-04). Every
+         `_needs_oauth2_sidecar` app gets `--metrics-address=0.0.0.0:{OAUTH2_PROXY_METRICS_PORT}`
+         and a named `metrics` container port from `_oauth2_sidecar_container`, so the port is
+         served whenever the sidecar exists — unconditionally, which is what makes it safe to
+         open without a per-app declaration.
+
+    WHY CLAUSE 2 KEYS ON `_needs_oauth2_sidecar` AND NOT ON `observability.metrics`: it must match
+    the condition the SCRAPE keys on, exactly. platform/oauth2-proxy/podmonitor.yaml selects pods
+    by the `homelab.keithjackson.dev/auth-mode: forward-auth` POD LABEL and nothing else, so a
+    target exists iff the sidecar exists. Keying the allowance on `observability.metrics` instead
+    would let `metrics: false` produce a discovered-but-blocked target — the same "two halves
+    authored apart" failure this function exists to prevent, just moved one field over.
+
+    THIS CLAUSE IS A BUG FIX, and the bug was live for 63.7h. Measured on prod 2026-10-04: all 6
+    sidecar targets across jackett/radarr/sonarr/qbittorrent/pihole read `health=down`,
+    `lastError: context deadline exceeded`, `lastScrapeDuration` exactly 10.0s — the scrapeTimeout,
+    i.e. packets DROPPED, not refused. Each app namespace ships a `default-deny` NetworkPolicy
+    with `policyTypes: [Ingress, Egress]` and NO `ingress` key at all (deny-all-ingress), and the
+    only ingress allowance is `<app>-allow-gateway-ingress`: `fromEntities: [ingress]` -> 4180.
+    Prometheus matched no clause. 5 x `TargetDown` + 6 x `OAuth2ProxyGateUnobserved` had been
+    re-notifying at ~22 emails/day since the PodMonitor landed on 2026-10-02.
+
+    WHY THE POLICY BELONGS HERE AND NOT IN platform/oauth2-proxy: podmonitor.yaml's header records
+    the objection — a policy in that tier would name app namespaces created by the SIBLING
+    apps-wave-0/1 tiers (measured Flux graph: `oauth2-proxy` and `apps-wave-0` both
+    `dependsOn=[platform-config]`, no ordering between them), so it would apply on a running
+    cluster and fail on a cold bootstrap. Rendered here it ships in the same tier that creates the
+    namespace, which dissolves that ordering problem entirely.
    """
-    ep = s["observability"].get("metricsEndpoint")
-    if not ep or not s["observability"]["metrics"]:
+    obs = s["observability"]
+    ep = obs.get("metricsEndpoint")
+    ports: list[str] = []
+    if ep and obs["metrics"]:
+        ports.append(str(ep["port"]))
+    if _needs_oauth2_sidecar(s):
+        ports.append(str(OAUTH2_PROXY_METRICS_PORT))
+    if not ports:
        return None
    return {
        "apiVersion": "cilium.io/v2",
@@ -1564,7 +1613,7 @@ def r_monitoring_ingress_policy(s: dict):
                        {"matchLabels": {"k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace": MONITORING_NS}}
                    ],
                    "toPorts": [
-                        {"ports": [{"port": str(ep["port"]), "protocol": "TCP"}]}
+                        {"ports": [{"port": p, "protocol": "TCP"} for p in ports]}
                    ],
                }
            ],
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 name: seerr
 kind: container
 source:
-  image: ghcr.io/seerr-team/seerr:v3.4.1   # Seerr: maintained Overseerr/Jellyseerr successor, Plex-native request UI (docs/13 row 5); served on 5055
+  image: ghcr.io/seerr-team/seerr:v3.5.1   # Seerr: maintained Overseerr/Jellyseerr successor, Plex-native request UI (docs/13 row 5); served on 5055
 # The ghcr.io/seerr-team/seerr image runs as the non-root user `node:node` (UID 1000 / GID 1000 —
 # the standard node base-image user; confirmed from the image config's User field). On boot the app
 # creates /app/config/logs and writes its settings/DB under the mounted /app/config PVC. A fresh
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 name: semaphore
 kind: container
 source:
-  image: semaphoreui/semaphore:v2.19.10   # pinned recent stable tag (R-UPD-01); update.range governs advancement
+  image: semaphoreui/semaphore:v2.19.17   # pinned recent stable tag (R-UPD-01); update.range governs advancement
 env:
  # --- PostgreSQL connection (the CNPG-DB pattern). DIALECT/HOST/PORT/DB/USER are literals; PASS is
  #     sourced from the in-namespace SOPS secret (the CNPG -app secret lives in ns semaphore-db,
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 name: sonarr
 kind: container
 source:
-  image: lscr.io/linuxserver/sonarr:4.0.15   # pinned stable v4 tag (R-UPD-01); update.range governs advancement
+  image: lscr.io/linuxserver/sonarr:4.0.20   # pinned stable v4 tag (R-UPD-01); update.range governs advancement
 # LinuxServer images run their service as the user `abc`, whose uid/gid these two set. They are
 # LOAD-BEARING for the bulk mount, not cosmetic: see the storage note below. The default is 911,
 # which cannot write a 1000:3000-owned 0755 tree.
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ caller that must distinguish them invokes `./ci/gate.sh` directly.

 | stage | a skip there means | verdict |
 |---|---|---|
-| `lint`, `l0`, `render-golden`, `l1` | a **pinned tool is absent** or a **wired seam went unwired** — it *could not run* | **BLOCKED** under strict skips (a CI runner: the toolchain is installed for us by `.gitea/workflows/scripts/install-tools.sh`, so a skip is a defect); **UNDETERMINED** otherwise (a workstation missing a tool is a real local condition — still non-zero, still not a pass; the remedy is `infra/devcontainer/dev.sh`, which carries the pinned toolchain) |
+| `lint`, `l0`, `render-golden`, `l1` | a **pinned tool is absent** or a **wired seam went unwired** — it *could not run* | **BLOCKED** under strict skips (a CI runner: the toolchain is the job image — the CI-built toolbox, `.gitea/workflows/gate.yml` `container:` — so a skip is a defect); **UNDETERMINED** otherwise (a workstation missing a tool is a real local condition — still non-zero, still not a pass; the remedy is `infra/devcontainer/dev.sh`, which carries the pinned toolchain) |
 | `spec-immutability` (R-TEST-06) | the sibling spec repo is not checked out, so the spec **could not be verified** | **UNDETERMINED** — unverified is unverified. Deliberately *not* upgraded to BLOCKED by strict skips: the live runner does not check the spec repo out at all, so blocking would leave the only enforced status check permanently red for a reason no PR could clear. It is therefore the **one** skip whose non-answer a caller may knowingly tolerate, and `.gitea/workflows/gate.yml` does so in one visible line. `REQUIRE_SPEC_VERIFICATION=true` makes it a hard block once that checkout is wired. Locally: check the spec repo out beside this one, or set `SPEC_REPO` (`dev.sh` mounts a sibling automatically). |
 | `decisions-log` | **nothing** — this stage has no skip path. It reads only files in the tree under test and needs no tool and no cluster, so there is no environment in which it "could not run" | a reported skip is a **defect in the stage** and BLOCKS. The stage fails when the frozen `DECISIONS-LOG.md` is modified (which silently re-creates, for every *other* open branch, the tail-hunk conflict that made four of five PRs unmergeable on 2026-09-29) or when a `decisions/` entry is malformed. There is deliberately **no** `REQUIRE_DECISIONS_LOG` knob: a guard with an off switch is not a guard. See `decisions/README.md`. |
 | `conformance` (L2/L3) | `CLUSTER_AVAILABLE!=true` — the environment **declared** the capability absent (documented Phase-0 behaviour) | **does not deny a PASS**: a declared-inapplicable stage was never *supposed* to run. It is NAMED in the PASS headline and step summary, the touched requirements it would have covered are reported UNVERIFIED, and `REQUIRE_CLUSTER_TESTS=true` (Phase 1+) turns that into a block. A skip **despite** `CLUSTER_AVAILABLE=true` is a defect and BLOCKS. |
@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@
 # WHICH SKIPS BLOCK, AND WHY (per stage — a skip is not one thing):
 #
 #   lint / l0 / render-golden / l1   A skip here means a PINNED tool is absent or a wired
-#     seam went unwired. On a CI runner the pinned toolchain is installed for us by
-#     .gitea/workflows/scripts/install-tools.sh, so a skip there is a DEFECT, not an
+#     seam went unwired. On a CI runner the pinned toolchain is the job image itself (the
+#     CI-built toolbox, .gitea/workflows/gate.yml), so a skip there is a DEFECT, not an
 #     environment: it BLOCKS. On a workstation a missing tool is a real local condition, so
 #     it degrades to UNDETERMINED (still non-zero, still never a pass). See strict_skips()
 #     in ci/lib.sh for how CI is detected and why misdetecting it cannot fail open.
@@ -257,7 +257,7 @@ for s in lint l0 render-golden l1; do
    skip)
      if strict_skips; then
        err "${s}: skipped (unwired seam / missing tool) under STRICT skips, where the pinned"
-        err "  toolchain is installed for us (.gitea/workflows/scripts/install-tools.sh) and every"
+        err "  toolchain is baked into the job image (.gitea/workflows/gate.yml container:) and every"
        err "  seam is on main — so this is a DEFECT, not an environment -> blocks merge"
        summary "- ${s}: **SKIPPED under strict skips** (unwired seam / missing tool) — blocks merge"
        BLOCK=1
@@ -97,9 +97,9 @@ cluster_available() { truthy "${CLUSTER_AVAILABLE:-false}"; }
 # --- Skip strictness: is this a CI runner, or a workstation? -------------------
 # A SKIPPED stage is never green anywhere (HARD RULE 4), but its SEVERITY differs:
 #
-#   CI       the pinned toolchain is installed by .gitea/workflows/scripts/install-tools.sh
-#            before the gate runs, and every seam is on `main`. A stage that skips here is a
-#            DEFECT (a tool dropped from the installer, a seam that went unwired) -> BLOCK.
+#   CI       the pinned toolchain IS the job image (the CI-built toolbox; gate.yml `container:`),
+#            and every seam is on `main`. A stage that skips here is a
+#            DEFECT (a tool dropped from the image, a seam that went unwired) -> BLOCK.
 #   local    a missing pinned tool is a real, ordinary local condition -> the gate reports
 #            UNDETERMINED (exit 3): not green, not a pass, but distinguishable from a red.
 #
@@ -27,3 +27,34 @@ fi

 yamllint -c "${CI_DIR}/yamllint.yaml" -f "${YAMLLINT_FORMAT:-standard}" "${files[@]}"
 ok "yaml/lint passed (${#files[@]} files)"
+
+# A workflow's `configurationFile:` must name a file that exists. Renovate's did not after #79
+# renamed renovate.json -> renovate.json5, and every scheduled run failed with ENOENT for 11 days
+# while the gate stayed green. Valid YAML, so yamllint cannot see it.
+missing=0
+while IFS=: read -r wf _ value; do
+  value="${value#*configurationFile:}"
+  value="$(echo "$value" | sed -E 's/#.*//; s/^[[:space:]"'\'']+//; s/[[:space:]"'\'']+$//')"
+  if [ -n "$value" ] && [ ! -e "$value" ]; then
+    err "${wf}: configurationFile '${value}' does not exist in the repo"
+    missing=1
+  fi
+done < <(grep -nE '^[[:space:]]*configurationFile:' .gitea/workflows/*.y*ml 2>/dev/null || true)
+[ "$missing" -eq 0 ] || exit 1
+ok "workflow configurationFile references resolve"
+
+# A workflow must not use an action that needs a Docker daemon: jobs on this runner get NONE, by
+# decision (decisions/2026-10-29-image-pipeline.md; act_runner maps docker_host to `-`). Such an
+# action is valid YAML and passes every other stage, then dies at runtime with
+# "failed to connect to the docker API at unix:///var/run/docker.sock". renovatebot/github-action
+# did exactly that on every Renovate run until 2026-10-30 (run 343). Run the tool's image as the
+# job `container:` instead (see .gitea/workflows/renovate.yaml). Container (`docker://`) actions
+# and Docker's own daemon-bound actions are rejected for the same reason. Comments are ignored.
+daemon_uses='uses:[[:space:]]*["'\'']?(docker://|renovatebot/github-action|docker/(build-push|setup-buildx|setup-qemu|login)-action)'
+bad=0
+while IFS= read -r hit; do
+  err "${hit%%:*}: needs a Docker daemon, which jobs here do not get: $(echo "${hit#*:*:}" | sed -E 's/^[[:space:]]+//')"
+  bad=1
+done < <(grep -HnE "^[^#]*${daemon_uses}" .gitea/workflows/*.y*ml 2>/dev/null || true)
+[ "$bad" -eq 0 ] || exit 1
+ok "no workflow uses a Docker-daemon-bound action"
@@ -0,0 +1,490 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# =============================================================================
+# ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy.py
+#
+# Render platform/keycloak/passkey-desired-state.yaml FROM
+# platform/keycloak/keycloak-realm-import.yaml.
+#
+# WHY THIS EXISTS
+# ---------------
+# The Keycloak realm import is a ONE-SHOT that fails OPEN: once it rests at
+# Done=True / Started=False it never re-runs. Measured on prod 2026-10-18, hours
+# after the passkey declaration merged:
+#
+#     kubectl -n keycloak get keycloakrealmimport homelab -o jsonpath=...status
+#     Done=True  Started=False  HasErrors=False
+#
+# So the WebAuthn passwordless policy and the restructured `browser-mfa` flow that
+# keycloak-realm-import.yaml declares are INERT. They are in git, Flux applied
+# them, and they reach the realm never. platform/keycloak/passkey-reconciler.yaml
+# is the level-triggered loop that closes that; this renderer supplies the DESIRED
+# STATE it converges towards.
+#
+# THE ONE VALUE THAT IS NOT RENDERED: `bind-browser-flow`, git's switch for whether the
+# reconciler may BIND its verified candidate browser flow (one atomic PUT of the
+# realm's browserFlow). It is an operator DECISION -- "I have tested the candidate
+# flow in a browser; make it the login path" -- not a fact derivable from the realm
+# import, so it cannot be generated. It is instead CARRIED THROUGH from the committed
+# file: --write preserves it, --check accepts any value of it that is exactly the
+# string "true" or "false" and rejects everything else (an unquoted YAML true is a
+# bool, which a ConfigMap rejects at apply time -- failing the whole platform-config
+# Kustomization -- so it is refused HERE, at merge time). An absent file or key
+# renders as "false". Going live is therefore a one-line PR flipping that line.
+#
+# THE CONSTRAINT THAT SHAPES IT: the reconciler pod runs with
+# automountServiceAccountToken: false, exactly like its client-secret sibling. It
+# has NO Kubernetes API access at all, by design (R-SEC-02) — so it cannot read the
+# KeycloakRealmImport CR to learn what the realm is supposed to look like. Its input
+# must be MOUNTED. Hence a ConfigMap.
+#
+# THAT IS ALSO WHY THIS IS A RENDERER AND NOT A HAND-WRITTEN ConfigMap. A
+# hand-authored copy of the policy would be a SECOND SOURCE OF TRUTH for the RP ID,
+# the user-verification requirement and the whole flow tree — free to disagree with
+# the realm import. "Two declarations that can disagree" is the same shape as the
+# bug this whole effort is closing. So the ConfigMap is GENERATED from the realm
+# import and the generation is GATED:
+# conformance/tests/l0-static/keycloak-passkey-reconciler/check.sh runs this script
+# with --check on every merge, and the merge fails if the committed file is not what
+# this renderer produces. Same render==golden idiom as
+# ci/render-keycloak-client-urls.py, catalog/render.py and ci/render-golden.sh.
+#
+# STRINGS ARE COPIED VERBATIM, NEVER RE-DERIVED. webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessRpId is
+# written in the realm import as the Flux substitution token ${BASE_DOMAIN}, and it
+# is carried through into the ConfigMap CHARACTER FOR CHARACTER. Both files are
+# rendered by the SAME Flux Kustomization (./platform-config, whose
+# postBuild.substituteFrom reads cluster-vars), so both are substituted in the same
+# pass with the same value and cannot disagree about what the base domain is. This
+# renderer never parses, splits or reconstructs a hostname and never reads
+# cluster-vars — there is no second place the domain is decided.
+#
+# THE ONE THING THIS RENDERER DERIVES RATHER THAN COPIES
+# -----------------------------------------------------
+# The enrolment required action, `webauthn-register-passwordless`. It is
+# deliberately NOT declared in the realm import, and the import's own header
+# explains at length why declaring it there would be actively DANGEROUS: Keycloak
+# 26.0.6 treats `requiredActions` in a realm representation as REPLACE, not merge,
+# so declaring one action imports exactly that action plus delete_account and skips
+# DefaultRequiredActions.addActions entirely — deleting CONFIGURE_TOTP,
+# UPDATE_PASSWORD, VERIFY_EMAIL and seven more. Losing CONFIGURE_TOTP is a hard
+# lock-out of every platform-admin, because auth-otp-form in the browser flow still
+# demands a TOTP they could then never enrol.
+#
+# So the required action cannot be copied from the import, because it is correctly
+# absent from it. It is instead DERIVED, as a consequence of what the import DOES
+# declare:
+#
+#   IF the declared browser flow contains a `webauthn-authenticator-passwordless`
+#   execution, THEN passkey logins are offered, THEREFORE the enrolment action must
+#   be registered and enabled — and NOT a defaultAction, because the import's whole
+#   stated posture is "additive and optional" and a defaultAction forces enrolment
+#   on every user at next login.
+#
+# This is a derivation, not a second declaration: there is no value here that a
+# human could edit into disagreement with the import. If the import stops declaring
+# the passkey execution, this renderer stops emitting the required action (and
+# fails, because then the whole desired state is empty of passkey intent).
+#
+# WHAT IS DELIBERATELY NOT EXPORTED
+#   * the TWO-FACTOR webAuthnPolicy* family. Nothing in this realm uses the
+#     `webauthn-authenticator` two-factor authenticator; the passwordless
+#     authenticator reads getWebAuthnPolicyPasswordless() only, so a policy written
+#     into the two-factor family is a silent no-op. Exporting it would hand the
+#     reconciler a write surface with no purpose.
+#   * `clients`, `users`, `groups`, `roles`. Client secrets and client URLs are the
+#     SIBLING reconciler's surface (platform/keycloak/client-secret-reconciler.yaml),
+#     and users/groups/roles are nobody's — prod's real user and the media-users /
+#     platform-admins / viewers groups must survive every run of everything.
+#   * execution `priority`. It is consumed here to ORDER the exported executions
+#     (Keycloak returns them in priority order), but the numbers themselves are not
+#     exported: the reconciler compares the resulting SEQUENCE, which is what
+#     actually determines behaviour. Exporting the integers would make a
+#     priority renumbering that changes no ordering read as drift.
+#
+# USAGE
+#   python3 ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy.py            # print the rendered file
+#   python3 ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy.py --write     # write it (regenerate)
+#   python3 ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy.py --check     # exit 1 if it has drifted
+# =============================================================================
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import argparse
+import difflib
+import json
+import sys
+from pathlib import Path
+
+try:
+    import yaml
+except ImportError:  # pragma: no cover
+    print("FATAL: PyYAML is required (same dependency as catalog/render.py)",
+          file=sys.stderr)
+    raise SystemExit(1)
+
+ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
+IMPORT_FILE = "platform/keycloak/keycloak-realm-import.yaml"
+OUT_FILE = "platform/keycloak/passkey-desired-state.yaml"
+DATA_KEY = "passkey-desired-state.json"
+CONFIGMAP_NAME = "keycloak-passkey-desired-state"
+NAMESPACE = "keycloak"
+
+# The realm keys this renderer exports, and therefore the ONLY realm keys the
+# reconciler may write. Every one is a webAuthnPolicyPasswordless* field. Kept in
+# lockstep with POLICY_FIELDS in the reconciler script; the L0 check asserts the two
+# tuples are identical, so they cannot drift apart silently.
+POLICY_STR_FIELDS = (
+    "webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessRpId",
+    "webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessRpEntityName",
+    "webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessRequireResidentKey",
+    "webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessUserVerificationRequirement",
+    "webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessAuthenticatorAttachment",
+    "webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessAttestationConveyancePreference",
+)
+POLICY_LIST_FIELDS = (
+    "webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessSignatureAlgorithms",
+    "webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessAcceptableAaguids",
+)
+POLICY_INT_FIELDS = ("webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessCreateTimeout",)
+POLICY_BOOL_FIELDS = ("webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessAvoidSameAuthenticatorRegister",)
+POLICY_FIELDS = (POLICY_STR_FIELDS + POLICY_LIST_FIELDS + POLICY_INT_FIELDS
+                 + POLICY_BOOL_FIELDS)
+
+# The field Keycloak 26.0.6 gates the WHOLE passwordless policy on
+# (DefaultExportImportManager.updateRealm: the policy is applied only when
+# RpEntityName is non-null and non-empty). A desired state without it would produce
+# an accepted PUT that changes nothing, so refuse to render one.
+RP_ENTITY_NAME = "webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessRpEntityName"
+
+# The execution whose presence is what makes passkey enrolment necessary.
+PASSKEY_AUTHENTICATOR = "webauthn-authenticator-passwordless"
+ENROL_ACTION = "webauthn-register-passwordless"
+
+
+BIND_KEY = "bind-browser-flow"
+BIND_VALUES = ("true", "false")
+
+
+def committed_bind(root: Path) -> str:
+    """The operator's bind-browser-flow value from the COMMITTED file, or "false".
+
+    This is the only input read from the output file, and it is validated, not trusted:
+    anything other than the exact strings "true" / "false" is a hard failure."""
+    target = root / OUT_FILE
+    if not target.is_file():
+        return "false"
+    docs = [d for d in yaml.safe_load_all(target.read_text(encoding="utf-8")) if d]
+    cm = next((d for d in docs if d.get("kind") == "ConfigMap"), None) or {}
+    data = cm.get("data") or {}
+    if BIND_KEY not in data:
+        return "false"
+    v = data[BIND_KEY]
+    if not isinstance(v, str) or v not in BIND_VALUES:
+        raise SystemExit(
+            "FATAL: %s data.%s is %r. It must be exactly the QUOTED string \"true\" or "
+            "\"false\": an unquoted true/false is a YAML boolean, which a ConfigMap rejects "
+            "at apply time and which would fail the whole platform-config Kustomization"
+            % (OUT_FILE, BIND_KEY, v))
+    return v
+
+
+def render(root: Path) -> str:
+    """Return the full text of passkey-desired-state.yaml as it should be committed."""
+    docs = list(yaml.safe_load_all((root / IMPORT_FILE).read_text()))
+    imp = next((d for d in docs if d and d.get("kind") == "KeycloakRealmImport"), None)
+    if imp is None:
+        raise SystemExit("FATAL: no KeycloakRealmImport document in %s" % IMPORT_FILE)
+    realm = (imp.get("spec") or {}).get("realm") or {}
+    realm_name = realm.get("realm")
+    if not isinstance(realm_name, str) or not realm_name:
+        raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s declares no spec.realm.realm name" % IMPORT_FILE)
+
+    # ---- the passwordless policy, copied VERBATIM ----------------------------------
+    policy: dict[str, object] = {}
+    for f in POLICY_STR_FIELDS:
+        if f not in realm:
+            continue                      # not declared => NOT MANAGED
+        v = realm[f]
+        # A bare ${BASE_DOMAIN} parses as a plain string; an int or bool here would be
+        # a YAML quoting mistake that must not be silently stringified.
+        if not isinstance(v, str):
+            raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s realm field %s is not a string (got %r) — "
+                             "quote it in the realm import" % (IMPORT_FILE, f, v))
+        policy[f] = v
+    for f in POLICY_LIST_FIELDS:
+        if f not in realm:
+            continue
+        v = realm[f]
+        if not isinstance(v, list) or not all(isinstance(x, str) for x in v):
+            raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s realm field %s is not a list of strings"
+                             % (IMPORT_FILE, f))
+        policy[f] = list(v)               # verbatim, order as authored
+    for f in POLICY_INT_FIELDS:
+        if f not in realm:
+            continue
+        v = realm[f]
+        if not isinstance(v, int) or isinstance(v, bool):
+            raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s realm field %s is not an integer"
+                             % (IMPORT_FILE, f))
+        policy[f] = v
+    for f in POLICY_BOOL_FIELDS:
+        if f not in realm:
+            continue
+        v = realm[f]
+        if not isinstance(v, bool):
+            raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s realm field %s is not a boolean"
+                             % (IMPORT_FILE, f))
+        policy[f] = v
+
+    if not policy:
+        # Fail closed. An empty policy would make the reconciler believe every field is
+        # unmanaged and silently stop reconciling — the realm import's own fail-open.
+        raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s declares no webAuthnPolicyPasswordless* field — "
+                         "refusing to render an empty desired state" % IMPORT_FILE)
+    if not policy.get(RP_ENTITY_NAME):
+        raise SystemExit(
+            "FATAL: %s does not declare a non-empty %s. Keycloak 26.0.6 applies the "
+            "passwordless policy ONLY when that field is set, so every realm PUT would "
+            "be accepted and change nothing" % (IMPORT_FILE, RP_ENTITY_NAME))
+
+    # ---- the flow tree, flattened per flow and ORDERED BY PRIORITY -----------------
+    browser_flow = realm.get("browserFlow")
+    if not isinstance(browser_flow, str) or not browser_flow:
+        raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s declares no spec.realm.browserFlow — the flow could "
+                         "be perfect and still not be the one anyone logs in through"
+                         % IMPORT_FILE)
+    raw_flows = realm.get("authenticationFlows") or []
+    if not isinstance(raw_flows, list) or not raw_flows:
+        raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s declares no authenticationFlows" % IMPORT_FILE)
+
+    flows: dict[str, object] = {}
+    for fl in raw_flows:
+        alias = fl.get("alias")
+        if not isinstance(alias, str) or not alias:
+            raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s has an authentication flow with no alias"
+                             % IMPORT_FILE)
+        if alias in flows:
+            raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s declares the flow %r twice"
+                             % (IMPORT_FILE, alias))
+        execs = fl.get("authenticationExecutions") or []
+        if not isinstance(execs, list) or not execs:
+            raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s flow %r declares no authenticationExecutions"
+                             % (IMPORT_FILE, alias))
+        ordered = []
+        for ex in sorted(execs, key=lambda e: (e.get("priority") or 0)):
+            is_flow = bool(ex.get("authenticatorFlow"))
+            name = ex.get("flowAlias") if is_flow else ex.get("authenticator")
+            if not isinstance(name, str) or not name:
+                raise SystemExit(
+                    "FATAL: %s flow %r has an execution with neither an authenticator "
+                    "nor a flowAlias" % (IMPORT_FILE, alias))
+            requirement = ex.get("requirement")
+            if not isinstance(requirement, str) or not requirement:
+                raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s flow %r execution %r declares no requirement"
+                                 % (IMPORT_FILE, alias, name))
+            entry: dict[str, object] = {
+                "kind": "flow" if is_flow else "authenticator",
+                "name": name,
+                "requirement": requirement,
+            }
+            cfg = ex.get("authenticatorConfig")
+            if cfg is not None:
+                if not isinstance(cfg, str) or not cfg:
+                    raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s flow %r execution %r has a non-string "
+                                     "authenticatorConfig" % (IMPORT_FILE, alias, name))
+                entry["configAlias"] = cfg
+            ordered.append(entry)
+        flows[alias] = {"topLevel": bool(fl.get("topLevel")), "executions": ordered}
+
+    if browser_flow not in flows:
+        raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s binds browserFlow to %r but declares no such flow"
+                         % (IMPORT_FILE, browser_flow))
+    # Every referenced subflow must be declared, or the reconciler's flattening walks
+    # into a hole and the audit silently covers less than it claims.
+    for alias, spec in flows.items():
+        for ex in spec["executions"]:
+            if ex["kind"] == "flow" and ex["name"] not in flows:
+                raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s flow %r references subflow %r, which is not "
+                                 "declared" % (IMPORT_FILE, alias, ex["name"]))
+
+    # ---- authenticator configs, copied verbatim ------------------------------------
+    configs: dict[str, dict] = {}
+    for cfg in realm.get("authenticatorConfig") or []:
+        alias = cfg.get("alias")
+        if not isinstance(alias, str) or not alias:
+            raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s has an authenticatorConfig with no alias"
+                             % IMPORT_FILE)
+        body = cfg.get("config") or {}
+        if not isinstance(body, dict) or not body:
+            raise SystemExit("FATAL: %s authenticatorConfig %r has no config body"
+                             % (IMPORT_FILE, alias))
+        # Values are stringified because Keycloak stores authenticator config values as
+        # strings. `negate: "false"` in the import and a stored "false" are the same
+        # declaration, and a YAML-unquoted `false` must not become a Python bool that
+        # then never matches.
+        configs[alias] = {k: str(v) for k, v in sorted(body.items())}
+
+    # Every configAlias a flow references must be defined, else the reconciler reports
+    # "git declares config X but defines no key/value for it" on every run forever.
+    for alias, spec in flows.items():
+        for ex in spec["executions"]:
+            ca = ex.get("configAlias")
+            if ca and ca not in configs:
+                raise SystemExit(
+                    "FATAL: %s flow %r execution %r references authenticatorConfig %r, "
+                    "which is not declared" % (IMPORT_FILE, alias, ex["name"], ca))
+
+    # ---- the enrolment required action, DERIVED (see the header) -------------------
+    offers_passkey = any(
+        ex["kind"] == "authenticator" and ex["name"] == PASSKEY_AUTHENTICATOR
+        for spec in flows.values() for ex in spec["executions"])
+    if not offers_passkey:
+        raise SystemExit(
+            "FATAL: %s declares a webAuthnPolicyPasswordless* policy but no %r execution "
+            "in any flow. The policy decides what a passkey must BE; without that "
+            "execution nothing ever OFFERS one, so the policy is unreachable "
+            "configuration and this desired state would be meaningless"
+            % (IMPORT_FILE, PASSKEY_AUTHENTICATOR))
+
+    want = {
+        "realm": realm_name,
+        "webAuthnPolicyPasswordless": policy,
+        # enabled: passkey enrolment must be possible, since the flow offers passkeys.
+        # defaultAction FALSE: enrolment stays OPT-IN. True would force every user to
+        # enrol a passkey at next login — the platform-wide lock-out the realm import's
+        # "additive and optional" posture exists to avoid. Derived, not copied; see the
+        # header for why the import cannot declare this itself.
+        "requiredAction": {"alias": ENROL_ACTION, "enabled": True,
+                           "defaultAction": False},
+        "browserFlow": browser_flow,
+        "flows": flows,
+        "authenticatorConfig": configs,
+    }
+
+    body = json.dumps(want, indent=2, sort_keys=True, ensure_ascii=False)
+    indented = "\n".join(("    " + ln) if ln else "" for ln in body.splitlines())
+    return (HEADER + BIND_BLOCK % (BIND_KEY, committed_bind(root))
+            + "  %s: |\n" % DATA_KEY + indented + "\n")
+
+
+HEADER = """---
+# =============================================================================
+# GENERATED FILE — DO NOT EDIT BY HAND, except the one bind-browser-flow line below.
+#
+#   source:      platform/keycloak/keycloak-realm-import.yaml (spec.realm)
+#   regenerate:  python3 ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy.py --write
+#   gated by:    conformance/tests/l0-static/keycloak-passkey-reconciler
+#                (runs this renderer with --check on every merge)
+#
+# WHAT THIS IS: the DESIRED STATE for the `homelab` realm's PASSKEY configuration —
+# the WebAuthn passwordless policy, the enrolment required action, and the declared
+# browser authentication flow tree. platform/keycloak/passkey-reconciler.yaml mounts
+# it and (a) converges the policy and the required action onto it, (b) builds the
+# declared flow tree BLUE/GREEN under a new alias and verifies it by readback, never
+# writing the flow users are logging in through, and (c) BINDS that verified flow as
+# the realm's browserFlow ONLY when `bind-browser-flow` below is "true".
+#
+# EVERYTHING HERE IS GENERATED EXCEPT ONE LINE: `bind-browser-flow`. That is an
+# operator decision, carried through by the renderer from this committed file (see
+# ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy.py). It defaults to "false".
+#
+# WHY IT IS A SEPARATE OBJECT: the realm import is a ONE-SHOT that never re-runs
+# once Done=True, so a realm-level field or a flow edited in git never reaches the
+# realm. Measured on prod 2026-10-18, hours after the passkey declaration merged:
+# Done=True / Started=False, with the whole passkey block inert. The reconciler is
+# the level-triggered loop that closes that; this file is what it reconciles
+# TOWARDS.
+#
+# WHY IT IS GENERATED AND NOT AUTHORED: a hand-written copy of the RP ID, the
+# user-verification requirement and the flow tree would be a second source of truth,
+# free to disagree with the realm import — the same "two declarations that can
+# disagree" shape as the bug being closed. It is rendered from the import and the
+# render is gated, so the two cannot drift.
+#
+# STRINGS ARE VERBATIM: webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessRpId is the ${BASE_DOMAIN}
+# substitution token exactly as the realm import writes it. Both files are rendered
+# by the SAME Flux Kustomization (./platform-config), so the token resolves to the
+# same value in both and the domain is decided in exactly one place.
+#
+# `requiredAction` is the ONE entry that is DERIVED rather than copied: the realm
+# import deliberately declares no `requiredActions` block, because Keycloak 26.0.6
+# treats that as REPLACE and declaring one action would delete CONFIGURE_TOTP and
+# nine more (a hard lock-out of every platform-admin). It is derived instead from
+# the presence of a webauthn-authenticator-passwordless execution in the flow:
+# passkeys are offered, therefore enrolment must be enabled — and defaultAction is
+# false, so enrolment stays opt-in.
+#
+# A field NOT declared on the realm in the import is simply ABSENT here, and the
+# reconciler leaves it alone. Absence means UNMANAGED, never "force to a default".
+# =============================================================================
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: ConfigMap
+metadata:
+  name: %s
+  namespace: %s
+  labels:
+    app.kubernetes.io/name: %s
+    app.kubernetes.io/part-of: keycloak
+data:
+""" % (CONFIGMAP_NAME, NAMESPACE, CONFIGMAP_NAME)
+
+BIND_BLOCK = """  # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+  # THE BIND SWITCH -- the ONLY hand-edited line in this file. Exactly "true" or
+  # "false", QUOTED.
+  #
+  #   "false"  the reconciler builds and verifies the candidate browser flow and
+  #            logs `WOULD BIND <alias>`, but NEVER changes the realm's browserFlow.
+  #            Whatever the realm is bound to -- including a rollback -- is left alone.
+  #   "true"   it binds the verified candidate in one atomic PUT, and keeps the
+  #            realm bound to it: a binding changed by hand is changed back.
+  #
+  # GO LIVE: test the candidate in a browser first (platform/keycloak/README.md,
+  # "Passkeys"), then a PR setting this to "true".
+  # ROLL BACK: a PR setting this to "false" FIRST (or the next run rebinds), then
+  # one write setting browserFlow back to the previous alias from the Job log.
+  # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+  %s: "%s"
+"""
+
+
+def main() -> int:
+    ap = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__)
+    g = ap.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
+    g.add_argument("--write", action="store_true", help="write %s" % OUT_FILE)
+    g.add_argument("--check", action="store_true",
+                   help="exit 1 if the committed file has drifted from the source")
+    args = ap.parse_args()
+
+    want = render(ROOT)
+    target = ROOT / OUT_FILE
+
+    if args.write:
+        target.write_text(want, encoding="utf-8")
+        print("wrote %s" % OUT_FILE)
+        return 0
+
+    if args.check:
+        if not target.is_file():
+            print("CHECK FAIL: %s does not exist. Run: python3 "
+                  "ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy.py --write" % OUT_FILE,
+                  file=sys.stderr)
+            return 1
+        have = target.read_text(encoding="utf-8")
+        if have == want:
+            print("passkey-desired-state.yaml is in sync with %s" % IMPORT_FILE)
+            return 0
+        print("CHECK FAIL: %s has DRIFTED from %s — the reconciler would converge the "
+              "realm on a passkey policy the realm import does not declare, and build "
+              "the login flow from a tree nobody authored.\n"
+              "Regenerate with: python3 ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy.py --write\n"
+              % (OUT_FILE, IMPORT_FILE), file=sys.stderr)
+        for line in difflib.unified_diff(have.splitlines(True), want.splitlines(True),
+                                         fromfile="committed " + OUT_FILE,
+                                         tofile="rendered from " + IMPORT_FILE):
+            sys.stderr.write(line)
+        return 1
+
+    sys.stdout.write(want)
+    return 0
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    raise SystemExit(main())
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+---
+# Flux Kustomization -> ./platform/buildkit — rootless BuildKit, the image builder CI uses
+# (.gitea/workflows/images.yaml). Its own Kustomization so a stuck Certificate or a failing
+# builder can never stall any other tier (Flux health-checks Certificates under wait:true).
+apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
+kind: Kustomization
+metadata:
+  name: buildkit
+  namespace: flux-system
+spec:
+  interval: 10m
+  retryInterval: 2m
+  timeout: 5m
+  prune: true
+  wait: true
+  dependsOn:
+    - name: platform   # cert-manager CRDs (Issuer/Certificate) come from its HelmRelease
+  sourceRef:
+    kind: GitRepository
+    name: flux-system
+  path: ./platform/buildkit
@@ -101,7 +101,8 @@ data:
  # tier that lists it), crafty (CRAFTY_L4_VIP), apps-wave-0 (nextcloud-db + semaphore-db:
  # S3_BACKUP_ENDPOINT, CNPG_BACKUP_PATH; pihole + pihole-dns: PIHOLE_DNS_VIP, LAN_CIDR, plus
  # GATEWAY_VIP/UNIFI_L4_VIP/CRAFTY_L4_VIP read BY pihole to author its LAN split-horizon answers;
-  # plex-remote: PLEX_L4_VIP),
+  # plex-remote + pihole: PLEX_L4_VIP),
+  # vpn-ingress (WG_CLIENT_CIDR),
  # velero (S3_BACKUP_ENDPOINT, S3_BACKUP_REGION,
  # VELERO_BACKUP_BUCKET, VELERO_BACKUP_PREFIX), apps-vms (UNIFI_L4_VIP). A ${TOKEN} in an
  # UNSUBSTITUTED path would ship the literal string into the cluster.
@@ -189,6 +190,13 @@ data:
  # dev  -> 192.168.1.57  (base default; next free after pihole-dns .56 in dev's .53-.60 pool)
  # prod -> 192.168.2.24  (next free after pihole-dns .23 in prod's .20-.30 pool; see clusters/prod)
  PLEX_L4_VIP: "192.168.1.57"                # Plex: tcp/32400 remote access (NOT the web UI, which is L7)
+  # SECOND CONSUMER since 2026-10-04: catalog/pihole.yaml reads this knob to answer
+  # plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN} on the LAN, which is the local half of the single hostname Plex
+  # advertises to plex.tv. Without that per-host answer the zone wildcard sends the name to
+  # ${GATEWAY_VIP}, where nothing listens on 32400. So this value is now typed into THREE places
+  # that must agree: this knob, the WAN port-forward on the SOHO router (off-repo), and PiHole's
+  # answer -- and only the first two were true before.
+

  # The FLAT LAN this cluster's nodes and LB VIPs live on, in CIDR form. Consumed as the ingress
  # peer of the PiHole DNS CiliumNetworkPolicy (apps/wave-0/pihole-dns.yaml): a resolver reachable
@@ -200,27 +208,54 @@ data:
  # prod -> 192.168.2.0/24  (prod LAN; nodes .10/.11/.12)
  LAN_CIDR: "192.168.1.0/24"                 # ingress scope for the PiHole DNS listener

+  # --- Remote-access VPN client subnet (platform/vpn-ingress, WireGuard) --------------------------
+  # The tunnel subnet handed to REMOTE VPN clients. `.1` is the server (the hostNetwork DaemonSet,
+  # on every node); `.2`-`.254` are devices, allocated one /32 each in
+  # platform/vpn-ingress/peers.yaml. Consumed twice in the pod's config-assembly script: to derive
+  # the server's own address, and as the `-s` match of the MASQUERADE rule that makes LAN replies
+  # routable.
+  #
+  # IT IS A KNOB RATHER THAN A LITERAL FOR ONE REASON: it is the only address range in this cluster
+  # that must be checked against EVERY OTHER range at once, so it belongs where those are declared.
+  # 10.90.0.0/24 was chosen to collide with none of them:
+  #     10.0.0.0/16     Cilium cluster-pool pod CIDR     (${CLUSTER_POD_CIDR})
+  #     10.43.0.0/16    k3s service CIDR                 (measured live 2026-10-05: kubernetes svc
+  #                                                       clusterIP 10.43.0.1)
+  #     10.72.192.0/18  the PIA tunnel's pushed addresses (platform/vpn-egress)
+  #     192.168.1.0/24  dev LAN / pfSense LAN            (${LAN_CIDR} base default)
+  #     192.168.2.0/24  prod LAN                         (${LAN_CIDR} on prod)
+  #
+  # NO PER-ENVIRONMENT OVERRIDE, and that is deliberate rather than an omission: unlike every VIP
+  # above, this range is NOT drawn from the LAN. It is private to the tunnel, so the same value is
+  # correct in both environments and a prod patch would be a no-op that implies otherwise.
+  #
+  # IF YOU CHANGE IT, every already-issued client profile breaks (its `Address` is from this range)
+  # and must be re-rendered — so treat it as fixed once the first device is enrolled.
+  WG_CLIENT_CIDR: "10.90.0.0/24"             # remote VPN clients; .1 = server. NOT a LAN range
+
  # --- Bulk (external NFS) storage host (docs/04 bulk tier) ---------------------------------------
-  # THE address of the Proxmox host whose ZFS datasets back every `class: bulk` volume: the media
-  # library (Storage/plex, 8.33 T — plex, sonarr, radarr) and the legacy Nextcloud archive
+  # THE address of the NAS whose ZFS datasets back every `class: bulk` volume: the media library
+  # (Storage/plex, 8.33 T — plex, sonarr, radarr, qbittorrent) and the legacy Nextcloud archive
  # (Storage/nextcloud, 270 G). The renderer emits it into each static NFS PersistentVolume's
  # `spec.nfs.server` (catalog/render.py, BULK_NFS_SERVER); the export PATH is per-dataset and is
  # declared in the ServiceDefinition, because the path is identical in every environment and only
  # the ADDRESS is not.
  #
-  # WHY THIS IS A KNOB AND NOT A LITERAL — the two clusters are on OPPOSITE SIDES of pfSense.
-  # The storage host has exactly one interface, vmbr0 192.168.1.9/24, on pfSense's LAN.
-  #   dev  nodes are 192.168.1.40/.41/.42 — the SAME L2 segment. They reach it directly, and one
-  #        NFS export to them already exists on that host (/mnt/Storage/k8s-volumes in
-  #        /etc/exports), so this path is proven, not theoretical. Base default = the dev value,
-  #        per the convention of the LAN block above.
-  #   prod nodes are 192.168.2.10/.11/.12 — pfSense's WAN. tcp/2049 does NOT traverse that today;
-  #        22 and 8006 answer only because pfSense port-forwards them via 192.168.2.102. Opening
-  #        the storage path is a PENDING OPERATOR DECISION with two candidate outcomes that give
-  #        DIFFERENT values here: 192.168.2.102 (another port-forward) or 192.168.1.9 (a route).
-  # So prod holds a loud TBD-PROD-* placeholder — see clusters/prod/kustomization.yaml for the
-  # blast radius of shipping it unset, which is NOT the usual "fails to apply".
-  BULK_NFS_SERVER: "192.168.1.9"
+  # IT IS NO LONGER A CROSS-NETWORK KNOB (2026-10-07). This used to read "the two clusters are on
+  # OPPOSITE SIDES of pfSense": the datasets lived on a Proxmox host whose only interface was
+  # vmbr0 192.168.1.9/24 on pfSense's LAN, which prod (192.168.2.0/24, pfSense's WAN) could reach
+  # only through a DNAT at 192.168.2.102. Both pools were physically moved onto a standalone
+  # TrueNAS at 192.168.2.30 — prod's OWN /24 — so there is no crossing to arrange and no candidate
+  # values to choose between. Measured 2026-10-07: 192.168.2.102:2049 no longer answers;
+  # 192.168.2.30:2049 and :111 do. There is now exactly ONE storage host and one correct value;
+  # this stays a knob only because the renderer reads it per-environment.
+  #
+  # *** CHANGING THIS VALUE IS NOT A PLAIN RECONCILE. *** A bound PersistentVolume's spec.nfs is
+  # immutable — measured by server dry-run 2026-10-07:
+  #     spec.persistentvolumesource: Forbidden: spec.persistentvolumesource is immutable after creation
+  # so Flux's apply FAILS rather than updating, and the pods keep their old mount. The PVs must be
+  # deleted and recreated; the operator sequence is docs/BULK-NFS-STORAGE.md §10.
+  BULK_NFS_SERVER: "192.168.2.30"

  # Off-cluster S3 backup target (R-STATE-03, R-IDP-05) — the on-Proxmox MinIO, plain HTTP, path-style.
  # Consumed by BOTH backup paths: every CNPG Cluster's barmanObjectStore.endpointURL (keycloak-db,
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+---
+# Flux Kustomization: kured (Kubernetes Reboot Daemon) — reconciles ./platform/kured.
+# Performs the cordon / drain / reboot / uncordon of a node that has a pending OS reboot, strictly
+# one node at a time, inside a nightly window, gated on Longhorn volume health. Design rationale,
+# every tuned value, and the honest list of what is NOT mitigated: platform/kured/helmrelease.yaml.
+#
+# WHY ITS OWN KUSTOMIZATION, AND NOT ONE LINE IN platform/kustomization.yaml
+#
+# The same argument the Cilium split-out recorded in platform/kustomization.yaml and intel-gpu-plugin
+# reused, except the consequence is worse here than for either of them:
+#
+#   * `platform` is `wait: true` over twelve-plus components, so its Ready condition cannot tell you
+#     "the reboot daemon is wedged" from "longhorn is slow".
+#   * The only emergency valve would be `flux suspend kustomization platform` — freezing storage,
+#     TLS, DNS, ingress, monitoring, Keycloak and KubeVirt in order to stop touching a DaemonSet.
+#   * That tier's 10m interval / 5m timeout are called out there as WRONG for a 3-node DaemonSet
+#     rollout. This is a 3-node DaemonSet rollout.
+#   * And `platform` gates platform-config, which gates apps-wave-0 (wait:true), which gates
+#     apps-wave-1. A reboot daemon that failed to go healthy inside that tier would stall EVERY
+#     APPLICATION in the cluster on "dependency not ready". A component added to make maintenance
+#     safer must not acquire the ability to cause an outage; that trade is the whole argument.
+#
+# dependsOn: [platform] — AND THIS ONE IS A REAL EDGE, NOT CONVENTION
+#
+# Not `cilium` (what intel-gpu-plugin uses) and not `platform-config` (what the leaf UIs use). It is
+# `platform`, for two independent reasons:
+#
+#   1. CRD ORDERING (F-MON1). platform/kured ships a PrometheusRule, and the chart generates a
+#      ServiceMonitor. Both are CRs whose CRDs (monitoring.coreos.com) are installed by
+#      kube-prometheus-stack INSIDE the `platform` tier. Flux dry-runs every object in a pass before
+#      applying any of them, so a pass containing an unknown kind ABORTS — the failure that made the
+#      CDI StorageProfiles a true deadlock on prod on 2026-09-05 (see
+#      clusters/base/platform-config-cdi.yaml). Depending on `platform` guarantees the CRDs exist
+#      before this pass is attempted.
+#   2. FUNCTIONAL PREREQUISITE. kured's reboot gate QUERIES Prometheus
+#      (`prometheusUrl` in the HelmRelease). Prometheus lives in platform/monitoring. If kured ran
+#      first it would get connection errors, treat the gate as unevaluable and skip every reboot —
+#      the correct fail-safe direction, but silent. Longhorn, whose volume health IS the gate, is
+#      also in that tier.
+#
+# It does NOT need platform-config: no Keycloak, no TLS, no split-horizon DNS, no Gateway, no
+# HTTPRoute. kured serves no HTTP to users.
+#
+# wait: true — A HEALTH SIGNAL, NOT A GATE. Following intel-gpu-plugin rather than the leaf-UI
+# template. A leaf UI is legitimately not-Ready for long stretches of a cold start while it waits on
+# Keycloak and DNS, so its health is uninformative; kured has no such dependency — it is a DaemonSet
+# that opens a socket and watches a file, so on healthy nodes it is Ready in seconds and not-Ready
+# genuinely means BROKEN. This turns `flux get kustomization kured` into a one-line answer to "is
+# reboot automation live on all three nodes", which is the question the operator must be able to
+# answer before trusting a kernel upgrade to it.
+#
+# NOTHING IN THE GRAPH dependsOn THIS, so wait:true gates nothing — the blast radius of an unhealthy
+# kured is this Kustomization's own Ready condition. Do not add `dependsOn: [kured]` anywhere: that
+# would hand a node-rebooting DaemonSet the power to stall whatever depends on it, which is precisely
+# what the placement above exists to prevent.
+#
+# prune: true is safe and deliberate. If this Kustomization is deleted, kured's DaemonSet goes with
+# it and reboots simply stop happening — nodes are left uncordoned and running. The one caveat is
+# that pruning mid-reboot would leave a node CORDONED with no daemon to uncordon it; that is a
+# `kubectl uncordon` away and is covered in runbooks/node-reboot-automation.md.
+apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
+kind: Kustomization
+metadata:
+  name: kured
+  namespace: flux-system
+spec:
+  # A HelmRelease plus five static manifests, nothing to re-render; kustomize-controller is
+  # source-triggered, so this is only the drift-correction floor.
+  interval: 10m
+  retryInterval: 2m
+  # 10m, not the 5m the `platform` tier uses: a 3-node DaemonSet rollout under `wait: true` can
+  # exceed 5m on a cold start (image pull on three nodes), which is one of the reasons the Cilium
+  # split-out gave for leaving that tier.
+  timeout: 10m
+  prune: true
+  # See the header: a health SIGNAL for a component nothing depends on, not a gate.
+  wait: true
+  dependsOn:
+    - name: platform   # monitoring CRDs + Prometheus + Longhorn; see the header, this is load-bearing
+  sourceRef:
+    kind: GitRepository
+    name: flux-system
+  path: ./platform/kured
+  # REQUIRED, not boilerplate. platform/kured/alerts.yaml renders `${BASE_DOMAIN}` into the
+  # `runbook_url` annotation of all three rules. Without this block that token becomes the EMPTY
+  # STRING and the Kustomization still reports Ready — Flux's substitution fails OPEN — so every
+  # alert would ship a dead link to `https:///runbooks/node-reboot-automation`. The gate stage
+  # `flux-postbuild-substitution` asserts the converse (a rendered token implies this block), and
+  # BASE_DOMAIN is declared in clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml.
+  #
+  # Nothing else in this path contains `${...}` or a bare `$`: the HelmRelease's alertFilterRegexp is
+  # a plain anchored alternation, and there are no shell snippets anywhere in the component — which
+  # is deliberate, because envsubst would eat a braced shell variable and `$$` would trip the
+  # dollar-collapse assertion in the same check.
+  postBuild:
+    substituteFrom:
+      - kind: ConfigMap
+        name: cluster-vars
@@ -71,4 +71,32 @@ resources:
  # controller must NEVER gate the platform chain; same non-gating rationale as headlamp/oauth2-proxy.
  # Carries velero-cloud.sops.yaml, so clusters/dev adds a SOPS decryption patch for it (by name).
  - backup.yaml          # Flux Kustomization -> ./platform/velero (dependsOn platform-config)
+  # WireGuard remote-access VPN (north-south INGRESS, udp/51820) — POST-platform tier
+  # (dependsOn platform-config, wait:false). NOT the same thing as platform/vpn-egress, which sends
+  # pods OUT through PIA; this lets remote CLIENTS IN. Non-gating is load-bearing rather than
+  # conventional here: its DaemonSet cannot start until the operator creates the out-of-band
+  # `wg-server-key` Secret, so in the gating `platform` tier an unfinished manual step would have
+  # stalled every apps wave. Carries no SOPS secret, so neither overlay adds a decryption patch.
+  - vpn-ingress.yaml     # Flux Kustomization -> ./platform/vpn-ingress (dependsOn platform-config)
+  # PM agent — reads Gitea issues and runs one worker agent per assignment that authors a
+  # change, gates it and opens a pull request. POST-APP tier (dependsOn apps-wave-0,
+  # wait:false): what it needs is GITEA, not Keycloak or the Gateway, and it must never gate
+  # anything — it CrashLoops by design while its credentials are still placeholders. Carries
+  # pm-agent-credentials.sops.yaml, so both overlays add a SOPS decryption patch for it (by
+  # name). See clusters/base/pm-agent.yaml and platform/pm-agent/README.md.
+  - pm-agent.yaml        # Flux Kustomization -> ./platform/pm-agent (dependsOn apps-wave-0)
+  # kured (Kubernetes Reboot Daemon) — its OWN Kustomization (dependsOn platform, wait:true), NOT a
+  # line in platform/kustomization.yaml. Same reasoning as the Cilium and intel-gpu-plugin
+  # split-outs, with a sharper consequence: `platform` gates platform-config and every apps wave, so
+  # a wedged reboot DaemonSet placed in that wait:true tier could stall every application in the
+  # cluster — a component added to make maintenance SAFER must not be able to cause an outage.
+  # wait:true here is a HEALTH SIGNAL, not a gate: nothing dependsOn it, and nothing should.
+  # The `platform` edge is load-bearing rather than conventional — it supplies the
+  # monitoring.coreos.com CRDs this component's PrometheusRule/ServiceMonitor need (F-MON1), and
+  # Prometheus itself, which kured QUERIES before every reboot to gate on Longhorn volume health.
+  # It reboots a node only when /var/run/reboot-required exists, which on these nodes only a
+  # deliberate operator kernel upgrade creates — the human gate is the sentinel, not the daemon.
+  # See clusters/base/kured.yaml and platform/kured/helmrelease.yaml.
+  - kured.yaml           # Flux Kustomization -> ./platform/kured (dependsOn platform)
+  - buildkit.yaml        # Flux Kustomization -> ./platform/buildkit (dependsOn platform)
  - cluster-vars.yaml    # overlay knob surface (base defaults)
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+---
+# Flux Kustomization: the PM agent service — reconciles ./platform/pm-agent.
+#
+# POST-APP TIER (dependsOn apps-wave-0). What this service actually depends on is GITEA: the
+# dispatcher authenticates to it at startup, reads issue threads from it, and every worker
+# clones and pushes to it. Gitea is in apps-wave-0, so that is the dependency — not
+# platform-config, which brings up the Keycloak realm, the wildcard certificate, the Gateway
+# and the L2 pool. This service has no UI, serves no traffic, takes no ingress and holds no
+# certificate, so none of those are prerequisites and claiming them would be a lie that
+# delays its reconcile behind four things it does not use.
+#
+# NON-GATING (wait:false), and here that is not merely prudent — the pod is EXPECTED to be
+# unhealthy for a while:
+#   * the committed credentials are PLACEHOLDERS, so until the operator replaces them the
+#     dispatcher fails its Gitea authentication at startup and CrashLoops, by design
+#     (platform/pm-agent/pm-agent-credentials.sops.yaml.example);
+#   * the image digest is likewise a placeholder until the operator pushes the image, so
+#     before that the pod cannot even pull.
+# Either of those inside a wait:true tier would stall everything downstream of it. wait:false
+# guarantees this service's health can NEVER gate anything, even if some future resource is
+# mistakenly pointed dependsOn it. Same non-gating leaf rationale as
+# headlamp/homepage/crafty/backup — with a stronger reason than any of them.
+#
+# PRUNE: true. The whole namespace is disposable — the dispatcher keeps no durable state (the
+# Gitea issue thread is its state) and worker Jobs are ephemeral by construction. So removing
+# this service from git really should remove it from the cluster, with nothing to orphan.
+apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
+kind: Kustomization
+metadata:
+  name: pm-agent
+  namespace: flux-system
+spec:
+  interval: 10m
+  retryInterval: 2m
+  timeout: 5m
+  prune: true
+  wait: false
+  dependsOn:
+    - name: apps-wave-0   # Gitea: the repository this service reads issues from and pushes to
+  sourceRef:
+    kind: GitRepository
+    name: flux-system
+  path: ./platform/pm-agent
+  # cluster-vars is substituted for parity with every other tier. NOTE for anyone editing
+  # platform/pm-agent/: envsubst runs over the WHOLE rendered manifest, comments included, so
+  # a `${...}` meant for a shell would be replaced with the empty string before the container
+  # starts (the hazard catalog/README.md documents at length — it silently killed gitea's and
+  # nextcloud's OIDC registration for days). Nothing under platform/pm-agent/ uses a `${}`
+  # token today, and the two scripts that DO contain shell live in the image, not in a
+  # manifest, which is one more reason they are baked in rather than mounted from a ConfigMap.
+  postBuild:
+    substituteFrom:
+      - kind: ConfigMap
+        name: cluster-vars
+  # SOPS decryption for pm-agent-credentials.sops.yaml is layered per-environment by the
+  # overlay (clusters/prod and clusters/dev patch THIS Kustomization by name), identical to
+  # crafty/headlamp/oauth2-proxy/backup.
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+---
+# Flux Kustomization: WireGuard remote-access VPN — reconciles ./platform/vpn-ingress.
+#
+# POST-PLATFORM TIER (dependsOn platform-config), NON-GATING (wait:false). Not a line in
+# platform/kustomization.yaml, for the standard reason plus one specific to this component:
+#
+#   * STANDARD: a leaf must never sit in the gating `platform` tier. While `platform` is not-Ready
+#     NOTHING downstream reconciles — the incident behind the headlamp/oauth2-proxy/homepage moves
+#     (DECISIONS-LOG: "Headlamp gating stall").
+#   * SPECIFIC, AND THE REASON THIS IS NOT A JUDGEMENT CALL: this DaemonSet cannot start until the
+#     operator replaces the `REPLACE-ME` placeholder in platform/vpn-ingress/wg-server-key.sops.yaml
+#     with a real key (runbooks/vpn-remote-access.md step 2). That is the correct fail-closed state — an unenrolled VPN must not come up — but in
+#     the gating tier it would have been a self-inflicted platform-wide outage ON MERGE, with the
+#     cause (a missing manual step) invisible from any Flux condition.
+#
+# WHY dependsOn platform-config AND NOT cilium. This component needs no Gateway, no TLS cert, no
+# Keycloak and no LB-IPAM pool — it has no HTTPRoute and no LoadBalancer Service, and hostNetwork
+# means it does not even need a Cilium endpoint. It could legally reconcile much earlier. It is
+# pinned behind platform-config anyway so that the ONE thing remote clients actually consume
+# through it — split-horizon DNS and the shared Gateway — exists by the time the tunnel does.
+# A tunnel that comes up before the things on the far side of it is a support call, not a feature.
+#
+# wait:false: nothing in the graph dependsOn this, and its pods are legitimately not-Ready whenever
+# the server key is absent or the `wireguard` kernel module has not been loaded on a node. Neither
+# condition should be able to gate anything else, even if a future resource is mistakenly pointed
+# at it.
+apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
+kind: Kustomization
+metadata:
+  name: vpn-ingress
+  namespace: flux-system
+spec:
+  interval: 10m
+  retryInterval: 2m
+  timeout: 5m
+  prune: true
+  wait: false
+  dependsOn:
+    - name: platform-config
+  sourceRef:
+    kind: GitRepository
+    name: flux-system
+  path: ./platform/vpn-ingress
+  # REQUIRED, not boilerplate: platform/vpn-ingress/daemonset.yaml renders ${WG_CLIENT_CIDR} into
+  # the config-assembly script. Without this block that token becomes the EMPTY STRING and the
+  # Kustomization still reports Ready (Flux's substitution fails OPEN — ci:
+  # flux-postbuild-substitution), leaving an initContainer that derives a server address of ".1/"
+  # and a MASQUERADE rule with no source. Both fail loudly at pod start, but the Kustomization
+  # would look healthy.
+  postBuild:
+    substituteFrom:
+      - kind: ConfigMap
+        name: cluster-vars
+  # SOPS decryption is layered per-environment by the overlay (clusters/dev and clusters/prod each
+  # patch THIS Kustomization by name), identical to headlamp/crafty/velero — this path carries
+  # platform/vpn-ingress/wg-server-key.sops.yaml, the WireGuard server private key. The `sops-age`
+  # Secret is created out of band and referenced by NAME only. Without the overlay patch the Secret
+  # applies cleanly full of ENC[...] and only the tunnel is broken, so the patch is as load-bearing
+  # as the encrypted file itself.
@@ -122,6 +122,43 @@ patches:
          provider: sops
          secretRef:
            name: sops-age
+  # vpn-ingress (the WireGuard remote-access VPN, clusters/base/vpn-ingress.yaml) carries
+  # platform/vpn-ingress/wg-server-key.sops.yaml — the WireGuard SERVER private key, the one
+  # secret in that component. Without this stanza kustomize hands Flux the raw ciphertext and the
+  # Secret applies full of ENC[...]: the APPLY SUCCEEDS and every Flux condition stays green, and
+  # the only symptom is a VPN that no client can handshake with. The DaemonSet's init container
+  # validates the value with `wg pubkey` specifically so that state is a named CrashLoop instead.
+  # The `sops-age` Secret is out-of-band (name only).
+  - patch: |-
+      apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
+      kind: Kustomization
+      metadata:
+        name: vpn-ingress
+        namespace: flux-system
+      spec:
+        decryption:
+          provider: sops
+          secretRef:
+            name: sops-age
+  # pm-agent (the Program Manager agent service, clusters/base/pm-agent.yaml) carries
+  # pm-agent-credentials.sops.yaml — the Gitea write token for the dedicated non-admin bot
+  # account and the Anthropic subscription token from `claude setup-token`. Without this
+  # stanza kustomize hands Flux the raw SOPS document and the Secret applies full of
+  # ciphertext: the APPLY SUCCEEDS, and the only symptom is a dispatcher that cannot
+  # authenticate to Gitea — so this stanza is as load-bearing as the file it decrypts (same
+  # silent-failure shape as the apps-vms note below/above). The `sops-age` Secret is created
+  # out-of-band (name only).
+  - patch: |-
+      apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
+      kind: Kustomization
+      metadata:
+        name: pm-agent
+        namespace: flux-system
+      spec:
+        decryption:
+          provider: sops
+          secretRef:
+            name: sops-age
  # apps-vms (the KubeVirt VM tier, clusters/base/apps-vms.yaml) gained its FIRST encrypted Secret
  # on 2026-09-14: apps/vms/unifi/unifi-uos-installer.sops.yaml, the operator's UOS installer URL,
  # which 30-virtualmachine.yaml mounts into the guest as a disk. Without this stanza kustomize
@@ -242,15 +279,15 @@ patches:
      - op: replace
        path: /data/CRAFTY_L4_VIP
        value: "192.168.1.55"
-      # Bulk (external NFS) storage host: the Proxmox host itself, on the SAME LAN as dev's nodes
-      # (192.168.1.40/.41/.42), which already hold an NFS export from it (/mnt/Storage/k8s-volumes).
-      # Restated verbatim rather than inherited, per this overlay's "supply every knob" convention.
-      # Dev is therefore the environment in which the bulk manifests can actually be VALIDATED
-      # end-to-end before prod's network path exists — provided the additive `zfs set sharenfs=`
-      # change described in docs/BULK-NFS-STORAGE.md is applied for the dev node addresses.
+      # Bulk (external NFS) storage host. THIS VALUE IS INERT — dev is decommissioned, its nodes
+      # (192.168.1.40/.41/.42) no longer exist, and the Proxmox host this used to name (192.168.1.9)
+      # went with the pools it held. It is restated per this overlay's "supply every knob"
+      # convention, not because anything consumes it. It carries the real address so that no file
+      # in the tree renders a host that is gone; it has NOT been proven from a dev node, because
+      # there is no dev node to prove it from.
      - op: replace
        path: /data/BULK_NFS_SERVER
-        value: "192.168.1.9"
+        value: "192.168.2.30"
      # Off-cluster backup target: the on-Proxmox MinIO (plain HTTP, path-style) that every CNPG
      # barmanObjectStore and Velero's backupStorageLocation write to.
      #
@@ -113,6 +113,43 @@ patches:
          provider: sops
          secretRef:
            name: sops-age
+  # vpn-ingress (the WireGuard remote-access VPN, clusters/base/vpn-ingress.yaml) carries
+  # platform/vpn-ingress/wg-server-key.sops.yaml — the WireGuard SERVER private key, the one
+  # secret in that component. Without this stanza kustomize hands Flux the raw ciphertext and the
+  # Secret applies full of ENC[...]: the APPLY SUCCEEDS and every Flux condition stays green, and
+  # the only symptom is a VPN that no client can handshake with. The DaemonSet's init container
+  # validates the value with `wg pubkey` specifically so that state is a named CrashLoop instead.
+  # The `sops-age` Secret is out-of-band (name only).
+  - patch: |-
+      apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
+      kind: Kustomization
+      metadata:
+        name: vpn-ingress
+        namespace: flux-system
+      spec:
+        decryption:
+          provider: sops
+          secretRef:
+            name: sops-age
+  # pm-agent (the Program Manager agent service, clusters/base/pm-agent.yaml) carries
+  # pm-agent-credentials.sops.yaml — the Gitea write token for the dedicated non-admin bot
+  # account and the Anthropic subscription token from `claude setup-token`. Without this
+  # stanza kustomize hands Flux the raw SOPS document and the Secret applies full of
+  # ciphertext: the APPLY SUCCEEDS, and the only symptom is a dispatcher that cannot
+  # authenticate to Gitea — so this stanza is as load-bearing as the file it decrypts (same
+  # silent-failure shape as the apps-vms note below/above). The `sops-age` Secret is created
+  # out-of-band (name only).
+  - patch: |-
+      apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
+      kind: Kustomization
+      metadata:
+        name: pm-agent
+        namespace: flux-system
+      spec:
+        decryption:
+          provider: sops
+          secretRef:
+            name: sops-age
  # apps-vms (the KubeVirt VM tier, clusters/base/apps-vms.yaml) gained its FIRST encrypted Secret
  # on 2026-09-14: apps/vms/unifi/unifi-uos-installer.sops.yaml, the operator's UOS installer URL,
  # which 30-virtualmachine.yaml mounts into the guest as a disk. Without this stanza kustomize
@@ -503,60 +540,48 @@ patches:
        path: /data/LAN_CIDR
        value: "192.168.2.0/24"
      # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-      # BULK (EXTERNAL NFS) STORAGE HOST — *** NOT YET DECIDED. THIS PLACEHOLDER IS LOAD-BEARING. ***
+      # BULK (EXTERNAL NFS) STORAGE HOST — the TrueNAS at 192.168.2.30.
      # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      # Backs every `class: bulk` volume: the 8.33 T media library (Storage/plex — plex, sonarr,
-      # radarr) and the 270 G legacy Nextcloud archive (Storage/nextcloud).
+      # radarr, qbittorrent) and the 270 G legacy Nextcloud archive (Storage/nextcloud).
      #
-      # THE STORAGE HOST IS NOT REACHABLE FROM PROD AT ALL RIGHT NOW. It has one interface,
-      # vmbr0 192.168.1.9/24, on pfSense's LAN; prod's nodes are on 192.168.2.0/24, pfSense's WAN.
-      # 22 and 8006 answer from prod only because pfSense port-forwards them via 192.168.2.102;
-      # 2049 and 111 do not. Opening that path is an OPERATOR decision, and the two candidate
-      # outcomes give DIFFERENT values here:
-      #     port-forward 192.168.2.102:2049 -> 192.168.1.9:2049   =>  "192.168.2.102"
-      #     a WAN->LAN route to 192.168.1.0/24                    =>  "192.168.1.9"
-      # Guessing either one authors a prod cluster that mounts nothing, or — worse, if the guess
-      # ever became reachable — mounts something unintended. So it stays a placeholder.
+      # THIS WAS THE REPO'S ONE LOAD-BEARING PLACEHOLDER, AND THE REASON IT COULD BE IS NOW GONE.
+      # The datasets lived on a Proxmox host with a single interface on pfSense's LAN
+      # (192.168.1.9), which prod could reach only through a DNAT at 192.168.2.102 — so the correct
+      # value here depended on an undecided operator choice, and guessing it would have authored a
+      # cluster that mounts nothing. Both pools were physically moved onto a standalone TrueNAS at
+      # 192.168.2.30, prod's OWN /24. No crossing to arrange, no candidates to choose between.
+      # Measured 2026-10-07: 192.168.2.102:2049 no longer answers; 192.168.2.30:2049 and :111 do.
      #
-      # WHICH PORTS THE DECISION MUST OPEN: exactly ONE, tcp/2049. The PVs mount nfsvers=4.1, and
-      # NFSv4 carries mount and lock in-protocol — no rpcbind/111, no mountd, no statd. Choosing v4
-      # over v3 was in part this decision's cost: v3 would have needed four ports and three of them
-      # on ephemeral numbers.
-      #
-      # WHAT THE EXPORT MUST ALLOW IS ALREADY SETTLED, and it is the same under BOTH outcomes.
-      # Measured 2026-09-07 from this workstation (192.168.2.132) through the existing port-forward:
-      # the storage host logged the connection as coming FROM 192.168.2.132, not from a pfSense LAN
-      # address (`ss -tn` peer 192.168.2.132, and the host's only route off-LAN is its default via
-      # 192.168.1.1). pfSense DNATs WITHOUT source NAT, so the NFS server will see prod's REAL node
-      # addresses either way. The additive `zfs set sharenfs=` values are in docs/BULK-NFS-STORAGE.md.
-      #
-      # *** BLAST RADIUS — READ BEFORE MERGING THIS TO A BRANCH PROD RECONCILES. ***
-      # A PersistentVolume's spec.nfs.server is an unvalidated string: the API server ACCEPTS this
-      # placeholder, the PV is created and the PVC BINDS to it (binding is pure control-plane). The
-      # failure surfaces only when a pod mounts — MountVolume.SetUp "Failed to resolve server
-      # TBD-PROD-BULK-NFS-SERVER" — so plex, sonarr, radarr and nextcloud would sit in
-      # ContainerCreating on prod. Unlike the LAN knobs above, this placeholder does NOT fail at
-      # apply time and there is no CRD validation to lean on. Set this value BEFORE prod reconciles
-      # a revision containing the bulk volumes; the dev overlay renders a working value, which is
-      # where these manifests are meant to be proven first.
+      # ONE PORT IS STILL ALL IT NEEDS: tcp/2049. The PVs mount nfsvers=4.1 and NFSv4 carries mount
+      # and lock in-protocol — no rpcbind/111, no mountd, no statd. The NAS advertises
+      # `+3 +4 +4.1 +4.2` (/proc/fs/nfsd/versions, measured), so 4.1 negotiates.
      - op: replace
        path: /data/BULK_NFS_SERVER
-        # 192.168.2.102 is pfSense's WAN address, which DNATs tcp/2049 through to the Proxmox
-        # host's REAL address 192.168.1.9 on pfSense's LAN. Prod sits on the WAN side and cannot
-        # reach 192.168.1.9 directly, so the cluster mounts the NAT address. Dev is on the LAN and
-        # keeps the base value 192.168.1.9.
+        # VERIFIED ON THE NAS 2026-10-07, before any cluster touched it (`exportfs -v`):
+        #   /mnt/Storage/plex       192.168.2.10/.11/.12  rw,sec=sys,secure,root_squash,no_all_squash
+        #   /mnt/Storage/nextcloud  192.168.2.10/.11/.12  ro,sec=sys,secure,root_squash,no_all_squash
        #
-        # PROVEN from k3s-prod-1 on 2026-09-12, not inferred:
-        #   - mount of 192.168.2.102:/mnt/Storage/plex negotiated nfs4 vers=4.1 proto=tcp
-        #   - a write as uid 1000 succeeded. Tested as 1000 and NOT root deliberately: the export
-        #     carries no_root_squash, so a root write would have passed and proved nothing, while
-        #     LSIO images default to PUID 911 and would have gone Ready then failed every import
-        #     with EACCES. The tree is 0755 1000:3000, so uid 1000 is the only writer.
-        #   - ln() across downloads/ -> tv/ returned link count 2 (same inode), so the arrs get
-        #     real atomic moves instead of silently degrading to copy-then-delete on EXDEV.
-        # pfSense DNATs WITHOUT source NAT (the host logs prod's own node addresses as the peer),
-        # so the ZFS export ACL names 192.168.2.10/.11/.12 directly rather than one translated IP.
-        value: "192.168.2.102"
+        # no_all_squash is the flag the entire permission model rests on: client uids pass through
+        # untouched, so the arrs' PUID=1000 arrives as the owner of a 0755 1000:3000 tree. sec=sys
+        # keeps that numeric rather than principal-mapped. The export deliberately does NOT carry
+        # no_root_squash, which the Proxmox one did: nothing here needs it, because every write to
+        # the tree happens after the LSIO drop to uid 1000 and the images only chown their Longhorn
+        # /config. Both subPath directories (plex/downloads, nextcloud/nextcloud) already exist at
+        # 0755 1000:3000, so a squashed root can still traverse them for subPath resolution.
+        #
+        # The ro= posture on the archive is now SERVER-enforced, which the old export also managed.
+        # The media tree's read-only half (plex) stays a CLIENT-side guarantee — all four media pods
+        # can land on any node, so the server sees the same three addresses for reader and writers
+        # alike and cannot tell them apart. Unchanged by the move; see docs/BULK-NFS-STORAGE.md §5.
+        #
+        # *** CHANGING THIS VALUE REQUIRES DELETING AND RECREATING THE PVs. *** A bound PV's
+        # spec.nfs is immutable — measured by server dry-run 2026-10-07:
+        #     spec.persistentvolumesource: Forbidden: spec.persistentvolumesource is immutable after creation
+        # so Flux's apply FAILS rather than updating and the pods keep their old, dead mount. The
+        # operator sequence is docs/BULK-NFS-STORAGE.md §10. Retain + the renderer's pre-set
+        # claimRef make it safe: no data is touched and each recreated PV rebinds its own PVC.
+        value: "192.168.2.30"
      # ==========================================================================================
      # OFF-CLUSTER DR TARGET — Cloudflare R2 (operator, 2026-09-05; bucket + token 2026-09-07).
      # ==========================================================================================
@@ -98,7 +98,10 @@ RUN set -eux; \

 # --- runtime -----------------------------------------------------------------
 ARG FEDORA_VERSION=44
-FROM registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora-minimal:${FEDORA_VERSION}
+# Stage `conformance-runner` is the image that ships; stage `verify` (end of file) is a TEST stage
+# built FROM it that only runs assertions and is never pushed. build-image.sh and the CI
+# pipeline build `--target verify` to prove it and `--target conformance-runner` for the image.
+FROM registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora-minimal:${FEDORA_VERSION} AS conformance-runner

 ARG CHAINSAW_VERSION=
 ARG KUBECTL_VERSION=
@@ -198,3 +201,86 @@ WORKDIR /workspace
 # prepend something the policy cannot see. `bash` is the interactive fallback for a human
 # debugging the image locally.
 CMD ["/bin/bash"]
+
+# =============================================================================
+# verify — a TEST stage, never shipped. Every assertion conformance/incluster/build-image.sh used
+# to make with `run --user 65532 --read-only --tmpfs /workspace` now runs here, at build time,
+# because CI builds on rootless BuildKit where no container runtime exists.
+#
+# WHAT A BUILD STEP CAN AND CANNOT REPRODUCE:
+#   * uid 65532 ............ exact (USER inherited from the conformance-runner stage).
+#   * no network ........... exact: RUN --network=none, and the first check proves it.
+#   * --read-only rootfs ... NOT reproducible (a RUN step always has a writable layer).
+#                            Approximated by permission: everything uid 65532 can write must lie
+#                            under /workspace, /tmp or /var/tmp. In the Job only /workspace (and
+#                            /results) are writable — the image points HOME and TMPDIR there — and
+#                            readOnlyRootFilesystem is enforced by
+#                            platform/kyverno/admission/conformance-trigger-job-shape.yaml.
+# =============================================================================
+FROM conformance-runner AS verify
+RUN --network=none /bin/bash -euo pipefail <<'VERIFY'
+echo "--- no network (the build-time stand-in for the Job's isolation) ---"
+if getent hosts gitea.home.keithjackson.dev >/dev/null 2>&1 || timeout 3 bash -c '</dev/tcp/1.1.1.1/443' 2>/dev/null; then
+  echo "UNEXPECTED: network reachable in the verify stage"; exit 1
+fi
+echo "confirmed: no network"
+echo "--- id ---";             id
+echo "--- HOME ---";           echo "HOME=${HOME}"
+echo "--- bash ---";           bash --version | head -1
+echo "--- python3 ---";        python3 --version
+echo "--- git ---";            git --version
+echo "--- kubectl ---";        kubectl version --client
+echo "--- chainsaw ---";       chainsaw version
+echo "--- baked versions ---"; cat /etc/conformance-runner-versions
+echo "--- conformance-clone: fixed path, root-owned, NOT writable by the runner ---"
+stat -c "%n %U:%G %a" /usr/local/bin/conformance-clone
+if [ -w /usr/local/bin/conformance-clone ]; then
+  echo "UNEXPECTED: uid $(id -u) can write the one executable the policy will trust"; exit 1
+fi
+echo "confirmed: not writable by uid $(id -u)"
+# Each of these MUST fail. Assert the non-zero exit as well as the message: a check that only
+# greps stderr would pass a build where the guard had stopped rejecting.
+expect_fail() {
+  local label="$1"; shift
+  local out rc=0
+  out="$(env "$@" 2>&1)" || rc=$?
+  echo "--- ${label} ---"
+  printf "%s\n" "${out}" | head -2
+  if [ "${rc}" -eq 0 ]; then
+    echo "UNEXPECTED: that should have failed, but it exited 0"; exit 1
+  fi
+  echo "(rejected, exit ${rc})"
+}
+expect_fail "conformance-clone rejects arguments (that is where an injection would live)" \
+  conformance-clone --layer l2
+expect_fail "conformance-clone rejects a missing SHA" \
+  conformance-clone
+expect_fail "conformance-clone rejects a branch name instead of a SHA (no silent run of the tip)" \
+  CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA=main conformance-clone
+expect_fail "conformance-clone rejects an UNRENDERED placeholder" \
+  CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA=@@CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA@@ conformance-clone
+expect_fail "conformance-clone rejects a HOME off the workspace volume" \
+  CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 \
+  HOME=/etc conformance-clone
+expect_fail "conformance-clone refuses a REDIRECTED repository URL (the env-injection hole)" \
+  CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 \
+  CONFORMANCE_REPO_URL=https://evil.invalid/x.git conformance-clone
+expect_fail "conformance-clone refuses a clone target off the workspace volume" \
+  CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 \
+  CONFORMANCE_SRC=/etc/src conformance-clone
+echo "--- the root filesystem is not writable by the runner (expected: a failure) ---"
+if touch /should-fail 2>/dev/null; then echo "UNEXPECTED: / is writable by uid $(id -u)"; exit 1; fi
+echo "confirmed: / is not writable"
+echo "--- everything uid $(id -u) CAN write lies under /workspace, /tmp or /var/tmp ---"
+stray="$(find / -xdev \( -path /proc -o -path /sys -o -path /dev \) -prune -o -writable ! -type l -print 2>/dev/null \
+         | grep -vE '^/(workspace|tmp|var/tmp)(/|$)' || true)"
+if [ -n "${stray}" ]; then echo "UNEXPECTED: writable outside the allowed paths:"; printf '      %s\n' ${stray} | head -20; exit 1; fi
+echo "confirmed: no writable path outside /workspace, /tmp, /var/tmp"
+echo "--- HOME is writable (the workspace emptyDir) ---"
+touch "${HOME}/.probe" || { echo "UNEXPECTED: ${HOME} not writable"; exit 1; }
+echo "confirmed: ${HOME} is writable"
+echo "--- uid is non-zero ---"
+[ "$(id -u)" -ne 0 ] || { echo "UNEXPECTED: running as root"; exit 1; }
+echo "confirmed: running as uid $(id -u), not root"
+echo "CONFORMANCE-RUNNER VERIFIED"
+VERIFY
@@ -61,10 +61,15 @@ credentials — the Job's own scoped ServiceAccount does (R-SEC-02).
  > digest-pinned to the conformance-runner image, `command` exactly
  > `/usr/local/bin/conformance-clone`, and **no `args` at all**. `ephemeralContainers` and
  > `env`/`envFrom` were the same shape of hole and are closed in the same policy.
- `build-image.sh` — builds the above, **verifies the toolchain by running it** inside the
-  image as uid 65532 with `--read-only`, and prints the digest. It **never pushes**: it
-  prints the exact `podman push --digestfile …` command for the operator instead. See
-  `conformance/versions.env` `CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE` for the post-push pin.
+- `build-image.sh` — builds the above and **verifies the toolchain by running it**: the
+  Containerfile's `verify` stage executes every tool and every `conformance-clone` refusal as
+  uid 65532 with no network, at build time. It **never pushes**, and neither does anyone from a
+  workstation: CI (`.gitea/workflows/images.yaml`) builds the same Containerfile and `verify`
+  stage on rootless BuildKit (`platform/buildkit/`), and on a push to `main` publishes the
+  verified image under `sha-<commit>` and `main`. Renovate then moves
+  `CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_DIGEST` in `conformance/versions.env` onto the registry-returned
+  digest in a pull request (that file is a sensitive path, so the bump needs an
+  administrator's `/approve-override`).
  `--verify-clone` additionally has `conformance-clone` really clone this repo at a real SHA
  and asserts the checkout matches (opt-in, because it needs the Gitea host reachable — the
  default verify stays offline so an air-gapped build is fully checked, not half-checked).
@@ -1,43 +1,49 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 ###############################################################################
 # conformance/incluster/build-image.sh — build the pinned `conformance-runner`
-# image and print its digest. Closes docs/plans/l2-l3-conformance-ci-wiring.md §3 item 1.
+# image and prove it works. Closes docs/plans/l2-l3-conformance-ci-wiring.md §3 item 1.
 #
-#   ./build-image.sh                 # build + verify + print the digest and push command
+#   ./build-image.sh                 # build the verify target, then the image
+#   ./build-image.sh --print-build-args   # print KEY=VALUE build args (what CI consumes)
 #   ./build-image.sh --no-verify     # build only (skip the in-image tool proof)
 #   ./build-image.sh --verify-clone  # ALSO really clone this repo with conformance-clone.
 #                                    #   Opt-in because it needs the Gitea host reachable; the
 #                                    #   default verify is offline so an air-gapped build is
 #                                    #   still fully checked rather than half-checked.
 #   ENGINE=docker ./build-image.sh   # build with docker instead of podman
+#   IMAGE_TAG=foo ./build-image.sh   # override the local tag (CI uses this)
 #
-# THIS SCRIPT NEVER PUSHES. Publishing is an operator action: the registry credential is
-# not an agent's to hold, and the pushed digest is what a fail-closed admission policy
-# then trusts. So this builds locally, proves the toolchain works INSIDE the image as the
-# non-root uid the policy demands, and prints the exact `podman push` line for a human.
+# THIS SCRIPT NEVER PUSHES — and nobody pushes this image from a workstation either.
+# Publishing is done by CI: .gitea/workflows/images.yaml builds the SAME Containerfile on
+# rootless BuildKit (platform/buildkit/), taking its build args from `--print-build-args`, and
+# on a push to `main` pushes it to the Gitea registry and records the registry-returned digest
+# in the job summary; Renovate then opens the pull request that moves conformance/versions.env
+# onto that digest. The proof that the image works is the Containerfile's `verify` stage, which
+# this script (podman locally) and CI both build.
 #
 # VERSIONS ARE NOT DEFINED HERE. They are read from infra/devcontainer/versions.env, the
 # single source of truth (CHAINSAW_VERSION, KUBECTL_VERSION, FEDORA_VERSION) — the same
 # pins the toolbox gate runs with. Nothing in this file invents a version.
 #
-# THE DIGEST CAVEAT — read it before pasting a digest into anything.
-# The digest printed here is the LOCAL manifest digest. It is normally identical to the
-# registry digest (podman pushes the manifest it already has rather than recompressing),
-# but that is a property of the push, not a guarantee. So the push command below uses
-# `--digestfile`: the digest the registry actually returns is the authoritative one, and
-# that is the one that goes into conformance/versions.env.
+# NO DIGEST IS PRINTED. A manifest digest does not exist until a registry holds the manifest,
+# and the only digest anything may pin is the one the REGISTRY returns. CI captures that at
+# push time (.gitea/workflows/scripts/images.sh) and Renovate carries it into
+# conformance/versions.env.
 ###############################################################################
 set -euo pipefail

 HERE="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
 REPO_ROOT="$(cd "${HERE}/../.." && pwd)"
 ENGINE="${ENGINE:-podman}"
+TAG_OVERRIDE="${IMAGE_TAG:-}"

 VERIFY=1
 VERIFY_CLONE=0
+PRINT_ARGS=0
 for arg in "$@"; do
  case "$arg" in
    --no-verify) VERIFY=0 ;;
+    --print-build-args) PRINT_ARGS=1 ;;
    --verify-clone) VERIFY_CLONE=1 ;;
    -h|--help) sed -n '2,/^####/p' "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" | sed '$d' | sed 's/^# \{0,1\}//'; exit 0 ;;
    *) echo "unknown argument: $arg" >&2; exit 2 ;;
@@ -48,8 +54,6 @@ log()  { printf '\n\033[1m==> %s\033[0m\n' "$*"; }
 info() { printf '    %s\n' "$*"; }
 die()  { printf '\033[31mERROR: %s\033[0m\n' "$*" >&2; exit 1; }

-command -v "${ENGINE}" >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "'${ENGINE}' not on PATH (set ENGINE=docker to use docker)"
-
 # --- pins: sourced, never invented -------------------------------------------
 TOOLCHAIN_ENV="${REPO_ROOT}/infra/devcontainer/versions.env"
 [ -f "${TOOLCHAIN_ENV}" ] || die "missing ${TOOLCHAIN_ENV} — the pins live there, not here"
@@ -59,14 +63,21 @@ source "${TOOLCHAIN_ENV}"
 : "${KUBECTL_VERSION:?KUBECTL_VERSION not set in ${TOOLCHAIN_ENV}}"
 : "${FEDORA_VERSION:?FEDORA_VERSION not set in ${TOOLCHAIN_ENV}}"

+# THE build args, in ONE place; `--print-build-args` hands them to the CI pipeline, which builds
+# this Containerfile on rootless BuildKit.
+BUILD_ARGS=("CHAINSAW_VERSION=${CHAINSAW_VERSION}" "KUBECTL_VERSION=${KUBECTL_VERSION}" "FEDORA_VERSION=${FEDORA_VERSION}")
+if [ "${PRINT_ARGS}" -eq 1 ]; then printf '%s\n' "${BUILD_ARGS[@]}"; exit 0; fi
+
+command -v "${ENGINE}" >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "'${ENGINE}' not on PATH (set ENGINE=docker to use docker)"
+
 # --- image name: fixed by the admission policy -------------------------------
 # platform/kyverno/admission/conformance-trigger-job-shape.yaml admits ONLY
 # gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:*. The repository path
 # is therefore not a preference; a different path is a DENIED Job. Do not "improve" it here.
 IMAGE_REPO="gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner"
-# The tag is build convenience only (a human-readable handle for the push). Admission
-# ignores it: only the digest is ever referenced from a Job.
-IMAGE_TAG="chainsaw${CHAINSAW_VERSION}-kubectl${KUBECTL_VERSION}-fc${FEDORA_VERSION}"
+# The tag is a local handle only. CI re-tags what it publishes (git SHA + `main`), and
+# admission ignores tags entirely: only the digest is ever referenced from a Job.
+IMAGE_TAG="${TAG_OVERRIDE:-chainsaw${CHAINSAW_VERSION}-kubectl${KUBECTL_VERSION}-fc${FEDORA_VERSION}}"
 IMAGE_REF="${IMAGE_REPO}:${IMAGE_TAG}"

 log "Building ${IMAGE_REF}"
@@ -76,86 +87,31 @@ info "  CHAINSAW        ${CHAINSAW_VERSION}"
 info "  KUBECTL         ${KUBECTL_VERSION}"
 info "  FEDORA          ${FEDORA_VERSION}"

-"${ENGINE}" build \
-  --file "${HERE}/Containerfile" \
-  --tag "${IMAGE_REF}" \
-  --build-arg "CHAINSAW_VERSION=${CHAINSAW_VERSION}" \
-  --build-arg "KUBECTL_VERSION=${KUBECTL_VERSION}" \
-  --build-arg "FEDORA_VERSION=${FEDORA_VERSION}" \
-  "${HERE}"
+# Provenance: CI passes the commit it is building, so a pulled image names its source tree.
+LABEL_ARGS=()
+[ -z "${BUILD_REVISION:-}" ] || LABEL_ARGS+=(--label "org.opencontainers.image.revision=${BUILD_REVISION}")
+
+ARG_FLAGS=()
+for a in "${BUILD_ARGS[@]}"; do ARG_FLAGS+=(--build-arg "$a"); done

 # --- verify: the point of the whole exercise ---------------------------------
-# The stock chainsaw image "had" chainsaw and still could not run ./run.sh. So prove the
-# tools EXECUTE, and prove they execute as the NON-ROOT uid with a READ-ONLY root
-# filesystem — the shape the admission policy forces. A pass here is the only evidence
-# this image is usable; a build that merely succeeded is not.
+# The stock chainsaw image "had" chainsaw and still could not run ./run.sh. So the proof is that
+# the tools EXECUTE, as the NON-ROOT uid, with no network, that conformance-clone is not writable
+# by that uid and refuses every hostile input, and that nothing outside /workspace is writable.
+# That proof is the Containerfile's `verify` stage, built here and in CI alike (CI has no
+# container runtime — rootless BuildKit only). See the stage's header for what a build step can
+# and cannot reproduce of the Job's shape. A build that merely succeeded is not evidence.
 if [ "${VERIFY}" -eq 1 ]; then
-  log "Verifying the toolchain inside the image (non-root, read-only rootfs)"
-  "${ENGINE}" run --rm \
-    --user 65532:65532 \
-    --read-only \
-    --tmpfs /workspace:rw,mode=1777 \
-    --entrypoint "" \
-    "${IMAGE_REF}" \
-    /bin/bash -euo pipefail -c '
-      echo "--- id ---";             id
-      echo "--- HOME ---";           echo "HOME=${HOME}"
-      echo "--- bash ---";           bash --version | head -1
-      echo "--- python3 ---";        python3 --version
-      echo "--- git ---";            git --version
-      echo "--- kubectl ---";        kubectl version --client
-      echo "--- chainsaw ---";       chainsaw version
-      echo "--- baked versions ---"; cat /etc/conformance-runner-versions
-      echo "--- conformance-clone: fixed path, root-owned, NOT writable by the runner ---"
-      stat -c "%n %U:%G %a" /usr/local/bin/conformance-clone
-      if [ -w /usr/local/bin/conformance-clone ]; then
-        echo "UNEXPECTED: uid $(id -u) can write the one executable the policy will trust"; exit 1
-      fi
-      echo "confirmed: not writable by uid $(id -u)"
-      # Each of these MUST fail. Assert the non-zero exit as well as the message: a check
-      # that only greps stderr would pass a build where the guard had stopped rejecting.
-      # (`|| true` inside the capture keeps `set -e`/`pipefail` from aborting on the
-      # expected failure — without it the verify dies at the first negative case.)
-      expect_fail() {
-        local label="$1"; shift
-        local out rc=0
-        out="$(env "$@" 2>&1)" || rc=$?
-        echo "--- ${label} ---"
-        printf "%s\n" "${out}" | head -2
-        if [ "${rc}" -eq 0 ]; then
-          echo "UNEXPECTED: that should have failed, but it exited 0"; exit 1
-        fi
-        echo "(rejected, exit ${rc})"
-      }
-      expect_fail "conformance-clone rejects arguments (that is where an injection would live)" \
-        conformance-clone --layer l2
-      expect_fail "conformance-clone rejects a missing SHA" \
-        conformance-clone
-      expect_fail "conformance-clone rejects a branch name instead of a SHA (no silent run of the tip)" \
-        CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA=main conformance-clone
-      expect_fail "conformance-clone rejects an UNRENDERED placeholder" \
-        CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA=@@CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA@@ conformance-clone
-      expect_fail "conformance-clone rejects a HOME off the workspace volume" \
-        CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 \
-        HOME=/etc conformance-clone
-      expect_fail "conformance-clone refuses a REDIRECTED repository URL (the env-injection hole)" \
-        CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 \
-        CONFORMANCE_REPO_URL=https://evil.invalid/x.git conformance-clone
-      expect_fail "conformance-clone refuses a clone target off the workspace volume" \
-        CONFORMANCE_GIT_SHA=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 \
-        CONFORMANCE_SRC=/etc/src conformance-clone
-      echo "--- rootfs is read-only (expected: a failure) ---"
-      if touch /should-fail 2>/dev/null; then echo "UNEXPECTED: rootfs is writable"; exit 1; fi
-      echo "confirmed: / is read-only"
-      echo "--- HOME is writable (the workspace emptyDir) ---"
-      touch "${HOME}/.probe" && echo "confirmed: ${HOME} is writable"
-      echo "--- uid is non-zero ---"
-      [ "$(id -u)" -ne 0 ] && echo "confirmed: running as uid $(id -u), not root"
-    '
+  log "Verifying the toolchain (Containerfile target: verify)"
+  "${ENGINE}" build "${ARG_FLAGS[@]}" --target verify --file "${HERE}/Containerfile" "${HERE}"
  log "Toolchain verified"
 fi

+"${ENGINE}" build "${LABEL_ARGS[@]}" "${ARG_FLAGS[@]}" --target conformance-runner \
+  --file "${HERE}/Containerfile" --tag "${IMAGE_REF}" "${HERE}"
+
 # --- verify the clone helper against the REAL repository (opt-in: needs network) ----
+# LOCAL ONLY: this one `run`s the image, which needs a container engine, so CI does not do it.
 # The negative cases above prove conformance-clone refuses bad input. This proves the
 # positive case: it lands the EXACT commit asked for and can prove it did. Without this, the
 # rev-parse assertion is only an unexercised line of shell.
@@ -184,46 +140,12 @@ if [ "${VERIFY_CLONE}" -eq 1 ]; then
  log "conformance-clone verified against the real repository"
 fi

-# --- digest ------------------------------------------------------------------
-DIGEST="$("${ENGINE}" image inspect --format '{{.Digest}}' "${IMAGE_REF}")"
+# --- result ------------------------------------------------------------------
 IMAGE_ID="$("${ENGINE}" image inspect --format '{{.Id}}' "${IMAGE_REF}")"
 SIZE="$("${ENGINE}" image inspect --format '{{.Size}}' "${IMAGE_REF}")"

 log "Built ${IMAGE_REF}"
-info "local manifest digest  ${DIGEST}"
-info "image id               ${IMAGE_ID}"
-info "size                   $(( SIZE / 1024 / 1024 )) MiB"
-
-cat <<EOF
-
-================================================================================
-NOT PUSHED. Publishing is an operator action — this script holds no registry
-credential and will never acquire one.
-
-OPERATOR: run these two commands, then paste the digest from the digestfile into
-conformance/versions.env (CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE) via a PR:
-
-    ${ENGINE} login gitea.home.keithjackson.dev
-
-    ${ENGINE} push --digestfile /tmp/conformance-runner.digest \\
-      ${IMAGE_REF}
-
-Then:
-
-    cat /tmp/conformance-runner.digest
-    # -> sha256:....  THIS is the authoritative digest, not the local one above.
-
-    # conformance/versions.env
-    CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE="${IMAGE_REPO}@\$(cat /tmp/conformance-runner.digest)"
-
-WHY THE DIGEST AND NOT THE TAG: platform/kyverno/admission/conformance-trigger-job-shape.yaml
-is a fail-closed Enforce policy. It DENIES any conformance-trigger Job whose image is not
-${IMAGE_REPO}@sha256:<digest>. A tag reference is denied,
-and so is any other repository path.
-
-TIGHTEN THE BOUNDARY AFTERWARDS: that policy's header asks for the wildcard
-\`${IMAGE_REPO}@sha256:*\` to be replaced with the
-LITERAL digest once the image exists, closing the "anyone who can push to this path" gap.
-That is a separate, human-reviewed PR against the security boundary.
-================================================================================
-EOF
+info "image id  ${IMAGE_ID}"
+info "size      $(( SIZE / 1024 / 1024 )) MiB"
+info "Not pushed. CI publishes this image from main (.gitea/workflows/images.yaml) and"
+info "Renovate moves conformance/versions.env onto the registry-returned digest."
@@ -363,6 +363,54 @@ SCRAPE_OWNERS: list[dict] = [
        "why": "velero_* powers VeleroBackupFailure / PartialFailure / NoRecentBackup — the rules "
               "that failed to notice prod running with zero volume backups",
    },
+    # ── ADDED 2026-10-17 (feat/automated-upgrades). A NEW OWNER, NOT A RELAXED ASSERTION. ──────
+    # This entry is purely additive: it registers a new metric family and its enablement, and it
+    # changes nothing about how any existing owner is evaluated. It makes the check STRICTER for the
+    # component it covers, not looser — it adds two `require` patterns plus a `companion` obligation
+    # that platform/kured must keep satisfying, so a future edit that disables kured's Service,
+    # ServiceMonitor or NetworkPolicy FAILS the gate instead of silently re-inerting three alerts.
+    #
+    # WHY THE CHECK HAD TO BE TOUCHED AT ALL, rather than the manifest being wrong: assertion (3)
+    # fails any alert over a metric no owner claims, and the escape hatch (KNOWN_UNWIRED_METRICS) is
+    # SHRINK-ONLY, so declaring `kured_*` as accepted debt is not permitted and would be the wrong
+    # answer anyway — the scrape genuinely IS wired here. The only two honest options were to
+    # register the owner (this) or to ship the reboot automation with no alerting at all, which for a
+    # component whose every failure mode is silent would have been the worse engineering choice.
+    # `conformance/**` is a sensitive approval path precisely so that this reasoning gets read.
+    {
+        "owner": "kured: service.create + metrics.create in the HelmRelease",
+        "prefixes": ("kured_",),
+        "file": "platform/kured/helmrelease.yaml",
+        # BOTH keys are required and the chart defaults BOTH to false. `metrics.create` makes the
+        # ServiceMonitor; `service.create` makes the Service it selects. Enable only the monitor and
+        # it selects nothing, so the single kured metric is never scraped — and a PrometheusRule over
+        # a series no target produces is INERT, which for this component means its own liveness
+        # alarm is the thing that breaks. Matched as two separate anchored blocks rather than one
+        # pattern because they are separate top-level values keys, not nested.
+        "require": [
+            r"service:\s*\n\s*create:\s*true",
+            r"metrics:\s*\n\s*create:\s*true",
+        ],
+        "forbid": [],
+        "why": "kured_reboot_required is the ONLY metric kured exposes (one GaugeVec, "
+               "cmd/kured/main.go:92-96) and it powers all three platform-health.node-reboots "
+               "rules. Those rules are the only way to learn that OS reboot automation has stalled: "
+               "kured stays 1/1 Running while rebooting nothing, so a missed scrape here is "
+               "indistinguishable from a cluster that needed no reboots",
+        # The ServiceMonitor ALONE is not sufficient — the same NetworkPolicy trap Longhorn hit.
+        "companion": {
+            "file": "platform/kured/kustomization.yaml",
+            "require": [r"^\s*-\s*networkpolicy\.yaml\s*$"],
+            "why": "platform/kured/networkpolicy.yaml ships a default-deny baseline (the kured "
+                   "namespace is a platform namespace, so Kyverno's app-namespace-scoped generator "
+                   "does not cover it) AND the ingress allow that lets Prometheus reach :8080 "
+                   "through it. Drop the networkpolicy from this kustomization and the deny-all "
+                   "goes too, so this currently fails SAFE — but reinstating the baseline without "
+                   "the allow reproduces Longhorn's measured failure exactly: targets DISCOVERED, "
+                   "every scrape 'context deadline exceeded', TSDB empty, all three rules quiet. "
+                   "Keeping the two in one file makes that pair inseparable",
+        },
+    },
 ]

 # `up` is produced by EVERY scrape target, so no owner can meaningfully claim it and assertion (1)
@@ -29,7 +29,8 @@
 # THEN  (1) promtool is a PINNED member of the toolchain: PROMTOOL_VERSION is declared in BOTH
 #           infra/devcontainer/versions.env and ci/versions.env and the two AGREE (the repo's
 #           lockstep rule), the Containerfile takes it as a build ARG, installs it from the
-#           pinned prometheus release and records it for provenance, dev.sh passes it, and the
+#           pinned prometheus release and records it for provenance, build-image.sh (the one
+#           recipe `dev.sh build` and CI both use) passes it, and the
 #           CI runner installs it for the l0 stage;
 #       (2) the promtool ACTUALLY IN USE reports exactly that pinned version — a unit test is
 #           evidence only if the engine matches the one prod evaluates rules with;
@@ -246,10 +247,12 @@ check('echo "promtool=${PROMTOOL_VERSION}"' in cf_text,
      "infra/devcontainer/Containerfile does not record promtool in /etc/dev-toolchain-versions — "
      "that provenance line is how an operator tells a stale image from a current one")

-DEVSH = ROOT / "infra/devcontainer/dev.sh"
-check(DEVSH.is_file() and "--build-arg PROMTOOL_VERSION=" in DEVSH.read_text(),
-      "infra/devcontainer/dev.sh does not pass --build-arg PROMTOOL_VERSION — the ARG would be "
-      "empty and the build would fetch a bogus URL")
+# The build recipe moved from dev.sh into build-image.sh on 2026-10-29, so that `dev.sh build`
+# and the CI image pipeline (.gitea/workflows/images.yaml) share ONE recipe. Check the recipe.
+BUILDSH = ROOT / "infra/devcontainer/build-image.sh"
+check(BUILDSH.is_file() and '"PROMTOOL_VERSION=$PROMTOOL_VERSION"' in BUILDSH.read_text(),
+      "infra/devcontainer/build-image.sh does not pass PROMTOOL_VERSION in its BUILD_ARGS — the ARG "
+      "would be empty and the build would fetch a bogus URL")

 INSTALL = ROOT / ".gitea/workflows/scripts/install-tools.sh"
 if INSTALL.is_file():
@@ -445,8 +445,21 @@ join = re.search(r"--server https://\{\{\s*k3s_api_host", K3S_TEXT)
 check(join is not None,
      "roles/k3s_server does not join secondaries with `--server https://{{ k3s_api_host }}` "
      "— without a join target the servers are separate single-node clusters")
-join_when = re.search(r"--server https://.*?\n(?:.*\n){0,10}?\s*when:\s*k3s_server_mode\s*==\s*'secondary'",
-                      K3S_TEXT, re.S)
+# LINE-BOUNDED ON PURPOSE -- DO NOT "SIMPLIFY" BACK TO `.*` + re.S.
+# This was `--server https://.*?\n(?:.*\n){0,10}?\s*when:...` with re.S, which made every `.`
+# match newlines too. That is nested unbounded repetition (a `{0,10}` of a quantifier that can each
+# swallow the whole document), so a FAILED or late match backtracks exponentially. It cost
+# **19m54s of CPU in CI** (measured 2026-10-18 via `docker top` on the live job container) and made
+# the whole merge gate take ~28 minutes instead of ~2 on any change touching `infra/**` -- because
+# `ci/touched-requirements.sh` maps `infra/*` to R-ENV-01, which pulls in this whole-repo check.
+# It was latent for as long as the regex existed and only crossed the threshold when
+# roles/k3s_server grew by ~100 lines (the kubelet graceful-shutdown config, PR #71): K3S_TEXT is
+# every *.yml in that role concatenated, so the role growing is the input growing.
+# `[^\n]*` cannot cross a line, so the `{0,10}` is a genuine ten-line window with nothing to
+# backtrack into. Measured on the same input: 0.2 ms, same verdict (match found).
+join_when = re.search(
+    r"--server https://[^\n]*\n(?:[^\n]*\n){0,10}?[ \t]*when:[ \t]*k3s_server_mode[ \t]*==[ \t]*'secondary'",
+    K3S_TEXT)
 check(join_when is not None,
      "the join install task is not gated on k3s_server_mode == 'secondary' — the founder "
      "would also try to join itself")
@@ -26,7 +26,10 @@
 #       KNOWN_NON_CATALOG_PUBLISHERS — shrink-only, stale entries FAIL;
 #   (7) the check is LOAD-BEARING: whole-repo scope declared in chainsaw-test.yaml, honoured by
 #       ci/l0.sh's --include-scope union, and ci/gate.sh blocks on an l0 failure. NO hand-written
-#       ci/l0.sh stage (whole-repo-invariants-wired fails the gate if one appears).
+#       ci/l0.sh stage (whole-repo-invariants-wired fails the gate if one appears);
+#   (8) the external-dns HelmRelease declares `annotationPrefix` explicitly and it matches the
+#       prefix of EVERY external-dns annotation in the tree and in catalog/render.py — added after
+#       the 2026-11-07 v0.23.0 default-prefix change silently voided (1)-(3) at runtime.
 #
 # WHAT THIS DOES *NOT* PROVE (honest gaps — it is STATIC, offline, cluster-free):
 #   - That the record is gone from Cloudflare. Live read; belongs beside
@@ -90,9 +93,18 @@ CHECKS = 0
 #   ControllerValue = "dns-controller"                  -> the value that CLAIMS an object
 # source/annotations/processors.go IsControllerMismatch skips a source object when the key is
 # PRESENT and the value is NOT ControllerValue. So "disowned" == key present, value != claimed.
-CONTROLLER_KEY = "external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/controller"
+#
+# THE PREFIX IS NOT A CONSTANT OF NATURE. Every key external-dns reads is `<annotationPrefix><name>`,
+# and the prefix is a runtime flag whose DEFAULT moved in v0.22.0 (#6424: alpha -> GA, "with no
+# fallback"). On 2026-11-07 the chart bump to v0.23.0 made every key below invisible to the running
+# controller while this check — which only asserted the keys were PRESENT — stayed green. (8) now
+# ties ANNOTATION_PREFIX to the HelmRelease's explicit `annotationPrefix`.
+ANNOTATION_PREFIX = "external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/"
+CONTROLLER_KEY = ANNOTATION_PREFIX + "controller"
 CONTROLLER_CLAIMED = "dns-controller"
-HOSTNAME_KEY = "external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname"
+HOSTNAME_KEY = ANNOTATION_PREFIX + "hostname"
+# Any key that looks like an external-dns annotation, under ANY prefix variant (alpha, GA, typos).
+EXTERNAL_DNS_KEY_RE = re.compile(r"^external-dns(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*\.kubernetes\.io/")


 def check(cond, msg):
@@ -231,9 +243,7 @@ for sub in SCAN_DIRS:
            ann = md.get("annotations") or {}
            if kind == "HTTPRoute":
                routes.append((rel, d))
-            elif kind == "Service" and any(
-                a.startswith("external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/") for a in ann
-            ):
+            elif kind == "Service" and any(EXTERNAL_DNS_KEY_RE.match(a) for a in ann):
                dns_services.append((rel, d))

 check(len(routes) > 0, "inventory: no HTTPRoute found under apps/ platform/ runbooks/ — parse "
@@ -444,6 +454,67 @@ check(
    "and the whole-repo-invariants-wired meta-test fails the gate on a hand-written stage.",
 )

+# =============================================================================================
+# (8) THE RUNNING CONTROLLER READS THE PREFIX THIS TREE WRITES.
+#     (a) the external-dns HelmRelease sets `values.annotationPrefix` EXPLICITLY (an upstream
+#         default is exactly what moved under us) and it equals ANNOTATION_PREFIX;
+#     (b) it does not ALSO enable `--enable-legacy-annotation-prefix` (dual-read hides a
+#         half-migration; upstream says the flag will be removed);
+#     (c) every external-dns-looking annotation key on any object under apps/ platform/ runbooks/
+#         uses ANNOTATION_PREFIX — a key under another prefix is silently ignored at runtime;
+#     (d) catalog/render.py emits no external-dns key under another prefix.
+#     Migrating to the GA prefix = change ANNOTATION_PREFIX, the HelmRelease value, the renderer
+#     and every manifest in ONE commit; this assertion fails on any partial state.
+# =============================================================================================
+HR_PATH = ROOT / "platform/externaldns/helmrelease.yaml"
+hr = next((d for d in docs_of(HR_PATH) if d.get("kind") == "HelmRelease"
+           and (d.get("metadata") or {}).get("name") == "external-dns"), None)
+check(hr is not None, f"(8) {HR_PATH.relative_to(ROOT)} holds no HelmRelease `external-dns` — "
+                      f"cannot prove which annotation prefix the controller reads")
+values = ((hr or {}).get("spec") or {}).get("values") or {}
+hr_prefix = values.get("annotationPrefix")
+check(
+    hr_prefix == ANNOTATION_PREFIX,
+    f"(8a) external-dns HelmRelease `values.annotationPrefix` is {hr_prefix!r}, but every "
+    f"external-dns annotation in this tree uses {ANNOTATION_PREFIX!r}. A mismatch (or relying on "
+    f"the upstream default, which changed in v0.22.0) makes the controller IGNORE `controller: "
+    f"none`, the Gateway `target` and Service `hostname` — internal names go public, public names "
+    f"answer RFC1918 (incident 2026-11-07).",
+)
+extra = values.get("extraArgs") or []
+extra_s = " ".join(f"{k}={v}" for k, v in extra.items()) if isinstance(extra, dict) \
+    else " ".join(map(str, extra))
+check("enable-legacy-annotation-prefix" not in extra_s and "annotation-prefix" not in extra_s,
+      "(8b) external-dns extraArgs must not set --annotation-prefix or "
+      "--enable-legacy-annotation-prefix; the prefix is declared ONLY via values.annotationPrefix "
+      "so this check can see it")
+
+foreign: list[str] = []
+seen_keys = 0
+for sub in SCAN_DIRS:
+    base = ROOT / sub
+    if not base.is_dir():
+        continue
+    for p in sorted(base.rglob("*.yaml")):
+        rel = p.relative_to(ROOT).as_posix()
+        for d in docs_of(p):
+            for k in annotations_of(d):
+                if isinstance(k, str) and EXTERNAL_DNS_KEY_RE.match(k):
+                    seen_keys += 1
+                    if not k.startswith(ANNOTATION_PREFIX):
+                        foreign.append(f"{rel}:{'/'.join(ident(d))} {k}")
+check(seen_keys > 0, "(8c) no external-dns annotation found anywhere — parse contract broken "
+                     "(the Gateway target alone guarantees at least one)")
+check(not foreign,
+      f"(8c) external-dns annotations under a prefix the controller does NOT read "
+      f"({ANNOTATION_PREFIX!r} is configured): {foreign}")
+render_src = read(CATALOG / "render.py")
+bad_render = sorted({m for m in re.findall(r"external-dns(?:\.[a-z0-9-]+)*\.kubernetes\.io/",
+                                           render_src) if m != ANNOTATION_PREFIX})
+check(not bad_render,
+      f"(8d) catalog/render.py emits external-dns keys under {bad_render}, but the controller "
+      f"reads {ANNOTATION_PREFIX!r}")
+
 # =============================================================================================
 if FAILURES:
    for f in FAILURES:
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+# =============================================================================
+# L0 STATIC — the passkey configuration is derived from one declaration, continuously
+# reconciled, and the browser login flow converges BLUE/GREEN: the BOUND flow is
+# unwritable, and binding a new one is git's explicit decision (bind-browser-flow)
+# Catalog: docs/14 L0 row ("Pre-apply, in CI") — runs WITHOUT a cluster.
+#
+# R-IDP-03 (identity config is declarative) and R-IDP-04 (MFA available) are both
+# implemented through a mechanism that FAILS OPEN: the KeycloakRealmImport is a ONE-SHOT.
+# Measured on prod 2026-10-18, hours after the passkey declaration merged:
+#
+#   kubectl -n keycloak get keycloakrealmimport homelab -o jsonpath='{.status}'
+#   Done=True  Started=False  HasErrors=False
+#
+# Once it rests at Done=True the operator never re-runs it, so the WebAuthn passwordless
+# policy and the restructured `browser-mfa` flow that keycloak-realm-import.yaml declares
+# are INERT — in git, applied by Flux, reported Ready, reaching the realm never. Merging
+# them changed nothing about how anyone logs in, and nothing anywhere said so.
+# Declarative config that silently does not apply is not declarative config.
+#
+# GIVEN the repository as authored,
+# THEN  the reconciler's desired state is GENERATED from the realm import (so the RP ID —
+#       which is baked into every passkey at enrolment and can NEVER be re-keyed — is
+#       declared exactly once); both files are rendered by the SAME Flux Kustomization, so
+#       their ${BASE_DOMAIN} token cannot resolve to two values; the renderer's exported
+#       policy keys and the reconciler's writable keys are the SAME tuple; the realm
+#       import declares NO requiredActions block (26.0.6 treats it as REPLACE, which would
+#       delete CONFIGURE_TOTP and lock out every platform-admin); the enrolment action is
+#       enabled but NOT a defaultAction, so enrolment stays opt-in; the reconciler carries
+#       no ServiceAccount token, mounts only what it needs, passes no mode flag, and
+#       contains no dollar sign; the endpoint allow-list contains NO delete, NO
+#       single-execution or config-edit write, and NO required-action write for any alias
+#       other than the one named literally; the protected-subtree guard exists, is wired
+#       into the single request choke point and is fail-closed; the SIBLING client-secret
+#       reconciler's allow-list is NOT widened; and the reconciler's own `--selftest`
+#       (extracted from the shipped ConfigMap and executed) proves compare-then-write,
+#       idempotence, strict read-modify-write, the RpEntityName gate, the bound flow and
+#       its sub-flows unwritable, the git bind switch and a rollback that sticks, the
+#       conditional-OTP regression and fail-closed — with mutations.py proving that
+#       selftest can FAIL.
+#
+# WHY THE FLOW IS BUILT BLUE/GREEN AND BOUND ONLY ON GIT'S SAY-SO, asserted here rather
+# than only argued: converging a five-flow, ten-execution restructure needs
+# create-subflow, create-execution, set-requirement and bind-config as SEPARATE admin API
+# calls with no transaction. Doing that to the BOUND flow means a run that dies between
+# them leaves a HALF-BUILT FLOW AS THE LOGIN PATH for Grafana, Gitea, Nextcloud, Headlamp,
+# Semaphore, PiHole, Crafty, the *arr stack AND kubectl — this repo has had a total SSO
+# outage from a realm change (2026-09-06), and the conditional-OTP sub-flow once 403'd
+# every platform-admin. So every multi-call write lands on a NEW, unused candidate flow,
+# which is verified by readback before anything is bound. Binding it is then ONE atomic
+# PUT of browserFlow, made only when passkey-desired-state.yaml sets
+# bind-browser-flow: "true" (default "false"): an untested login flow never goes live on
+# a schedule tick, and with the switch off an operator's rollback is never undone.
+#
+# STATUS: EXECUTABLE. `check.sh` is a pure offline assertion script (git + PyYAML +
+# stdlib); conformance/run.sh --layer l0 and ci/l0.sh run it directly, and this Chainsaw
+# Test wraps the SAME script.
+#
+# NOT proven here: that the LIVE realm's policy, enrolment action or browser flow match
+# git (that is cluster state — the reconciler's `--audit` mode is the read-only probe for
+# it, and NO L2 test is added by this change, so the live realm is UNVERIFIED by CI);
+# that a passkey ceremony actually completes or that the ALTERNATIVE fork degrades to the
+# password form (needs a real browser against a real realm); that the five flow-building
+# admin-API calls behave against a live Keycloak the way the 26.0.6 source says they do
+# (every proof here is against an in-process stub); or that the CronJob's schedule fires.
+# =============================================================================
+apiVersion: chainsaw.kyverno.io/v1alpha1
+kind: Test
+metadata:
+  name: keycloak-passkey-reconciler
+  labels:
+    conformance.home.k3s/R-IDP-03: "true"
+    conformance.home.k3s/R-IDP-04: "true"
+  annotations:
+    conformance.home.k3s/requirements: "R-IDP-03, R-IDP-04"
+    conformance.home.k3s/layer: "L0"
+    # WHOLE-REPO SCOPE, for the same reason the sibling keycloak-client-secret-reconciler
+    # check declares it: this invariant spans platform/ (the realm import, the reconciler,
+    # the generated desired state), platform-config/ (which Flux Kustomization renders
+    # them, and therefore which substitution pass they share), ci/ (the renderer) and
+    # clusters/ (that both are reachable from both entrypoints). A change that breaks it
+    # need not attribute R-IDP-03/04 at all, and the requirement-scoped selection would
+    # then filter this check out of exactly the change that introduces the bug — which is
+    # how 12 unusable prod OIDC clients sat behind an entirely green cluster on
+    # 2026-09-06.
+    conformance.home.k3s/scope: "whole-repo"
+    # Not safety-critical in the harness's sense (it mutates nothing and needs no
+    # cluster), but it guards a component that holds WRITE access to the identity
+    # provider's realm settings.
+    conformance.home.k3s/safety-critical: "false"
+    conformance.home.k3s/executable: "true"
+    conformance.home.k3s/intent: >-
+      The realm's passkey configuration — policy, enrolment action AND browser login
+      flow — is declared once in the realm import, derived from it by a gated renderer,
+      and continuously reconciled; the flow converges blue/green, so a one-shot import
+      that never re-runs can neither leave the configuration inert nor let a reconciler
+      half-rewrite the login path of the whole platform.
+spec:
+  steps:
+    - name: audit-passkey-declaration-renderer-and-reconciler
+      description: >-
+        Assert the desired state is derived from the realm import and shares its
+        substitution pass, that the reconciler cannot write the bound flow or delete
+        anything and binds only on git's bind-browser-flow, that the sibling reconciler
+        is unwidened, and run the reconciler's own selftest plus the mutation suite that
+        proves it can fail.
+      try:
+        - script:
+            content: bash ./check.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,754 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# =============================================================================
+# L0 static check (offline, no cluster) — keycloak-passkey-reconciler
+# Serves: R-IDP-03 ("Identity config (realms, clients, groups, roles) is declarative."
+#                   — spec docs/15-identity-and-access.md)
+#         R-IDP-04 ("IdP secrets SOPS-encrypted; MFA available."
+#                   — spec docs/15-identity-and-access.md)
+#
+# WHY THIS EXISTS — THE REALM IMPORT IS A ONE-SHOT THAT FAILS OPEN
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------
+# platform/keycloak/keycloak-realm-import.yaml declares the WebAuthn PASSWORDLESS
+# policy and a restructured `browser-mfa` browser flow. Measured on prod 2026-10-18,
+# hours after that declaration merged:
+#
+#   kubectl -n keycloak get keycloakrealmimport homelab -o jsonpath='{.status}'
+#   Done=True  Started=False  HasErrors=False
+#
+# A KeycloakRealmImport is a ONE-SHOT. Once it rests at Done=True the operator never
+# re-runs it, so every realm-level field and every flow declared after the FIRST
+# import is inert — in git, applied by Flux, reported Ready, reaching the realm
+# never. The same shape as the 2026-09-06 client-secret incident (12 prod clients
+# holding the literal `(env:...)` placeholder behind an entirely green cluster), and
+# the same fix: a level-triggered reconciler. This check is the static half.
+#
+# THE RECONCILER HOLDS WRITE ACCESS TO THE IDENTITY PROVIDER. That is the reason this
+# check is unusually thorough about its BLAST RADIUS rather than only its behaviour.
+#
+# GIVEN the repository as authored,
+# THEN  (1) THE DESIRED STATE IS DERIVED, NOT DECLARED TWICE: the reconciler's input
+#           (platform/keycloak/passkey-desired-state.yaml) is GENERATED from the realm
+#           import by ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy.py, and this check RUNS the
+#           renderer with --check, so a hand edit that makes the two disagree is
+#           unmergeable. The RP ID is the sharpest case: it is baked into every passkey
+#           at enrolment and can NEVER be re-keyed, so two declarations that can skew
+#           about the domain is an unrecoverable-credential bug, not a cosmetic one.
+#       (2) BOTH FILES ARE RENDERED BY THE SAME FLUX KUSTOMIZATION.
+#           postBuild.substituteFrom is per-Kustomization, so a split would let the
+#           ${BASE_DOMAIN} token in the realm import and the one in the desired state
+#           resolve to two different values — and an RP ID mismatch invalidates every
+#           enrolled passkey with no error the user can act on.
+#       (3) THE DESIRED STATE USES NO SUBSTITUTION TOKEN THE REALM IMPORT DOES NOT, and
+#           declares no realm key outside the reconciler's write surface.
+#       (4) THE TWO WRITE SURFACES AGREE: the renderer's exported policy keys and the
+#           reconciler's POLICY_FIELDS are the SAME tuple. If they drifted, the renderer
+#           could emit a key the reconciler refuses (fail-closed forever) or the
+#           reconciler could accept a key the renderer never emits (dead surface).
+#       (5) THE RECONCILER MANIFEST IS SAFE AND WIRED: reconciled from BOTH cluster
+#           entrypoints, mounts exactly the ConfigMaps its code defaults to, carries NO
+#           ServiceAccount token, and contains no dollar sign (it ships inside a
+#           SUBSTITUTED Flux path, where an unescaped dollar-brace expansion is
+#           rewritten before any container runs).
+#       (6) THE CURRENTLY BOUND FLOW IS STRUCTURALLY UNWRITABLE — asserted against the
+#           SOURCE, not the comments. The flow converges BLUE/GREEN (build under a new
+#           alias, verify, flip browserFlow in one atomic PUT), so flow-create and
+#           execution-add endpoints ARE on the allow-list and their presence is not the
+#           hazard. What is asserted instead: nothing is DELETABLE (the superseded flow
+#           is the rollback target); the execution- and config-id-scoped write endpoints
+#           stay off the list because they carry no flow alias and so cannot be screened;
+#           no required-action write reaches any alias but the one named literally; and
+#           the guard the allow-list CANNOT express exists in the source and is wired
+#           into the single request choke point, FAIL-CLOSED until the live binding has
+#           been read. That last one is what the whole design rests on: a reconciler that
+#           half-rewrites the BOUND browser flow is a total SSO outage on a loop, and
+#           this repo has had one (2026-09-06).
+#      (6b) THE BIND IS GIT'S DECISION: the desired-state ConfigMap carries
+#           bind-browser-flow as exactly "true" or "false", the script reads it from the
+#           SAME mount, and the CronJob passes no flag that could widen it. With "false"
+#           (the default) the reconciler builds and verifies but never PUTs browserFlow,
+#           so an operator's rollback sticks; the selftest proves that end to end.
+#       (7) THE SIBLING RECONCILER IS UNTOUCHED: client-secret-reconciler.yaml's
+#           allow-list is NOT widened by this work. Its --selftest asserts it refuses
+#           /users, /groups, /roles, /authentication and the whole-realm endpoint, and
+#           its guarantee that prod's real user and the media-users / platform-admins /
+#           viewers groups survive every run must stay LITERALLY true.
+#       (8) THE RECONCILER'S BEHAVIOUR IS PROVEN, NOT ASSERTED: this check EXTRACTS the
+#           script from the ConfigMap and executes its `--selftest`, which drives the
+#           real code paths against an in-process stub Keycloak that MODELS the three
+#           Keycloak 26.0.6 behaviours that bite — the RpEntityName gate on the
+#           passwordless policy, the all-or-nothing policy rebuild that defaults every
+#           omitted key, and the required-action representation replace.
+#      (8b) AND THAT PROOF IS FALSIFIABLE: mutations.py injects plausible regressions
+#           one at a time and requires --selftest to CATCH every one. A passing suite
+#           proves nothing if it cannot fail, and "reported success while the realm was
+#           broken" is the exact failure this component exists to end.
+#   AND (9) THIS CHECK IS LOAD-BEARING: it DECLARES
+#           `conformance.home.k3s/scope: whole-repo` so ci/l0.sh runs it unconditionally
+#           via --include-scope, ci/gate.sh blocks the merge when the l0 stage fails, and
+#           ci/touched-requirements.sh maps platform/keycloak/ to these requirement IDs.
+#           An unreferenced test is precisely the "looks applied and isn't" failure this
+#           repo keeps hitting.
+#
+# NOT proven here (named honestly, in the style of the sibling L0 checks):
+#   - that the LIVE realm's policy, enrolment action or browser flow match git. That is
+#     cluster state. The reconciler's own `--audit` mode is the read-only probe for it
+#     and is what an L2 test should run; no such L2 test is added by this change, so the
+#     live realm is UNVERIFIED by CI.
+#   - that the declared browser flow actually WORKS as a login path. Nothing offline can
+#     prove that a passkey ceremony completes, that the ALTERNATIVE fork degrades to the
+#     password form, or that a platform-admin is still asked for TOTP. Those need a real
+#     browser against a real realm.
+#   - that the reconciler's first real run against prod will succeed. The flow is built
+#     through five admin-API endpoints whose request shapes were read from the 26.0.6
+#     source but never exercised against a live Keycloak.
+#   - that the admin credential decrypts to a usable password. Key PRESENCE is checkable
+#     offline; the plaintext is not, and must not be.
+#   - that the CronJob's image can be pulled or its schedule fires.
+# =============================================================================
+set -euo pipefail
+DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
+ROOT="$(cd "${DIR}/../../../.." && pwd)"        # repo root
+PYTHON="${PYTHON:-python3}"
+
+IMPORT_FILE="platform/keycloak/keycloak-realm-import.yaml"
+RECON_FILE="platform/keycloak/passkey-reconciler.yaml"
+STATE_FILE="platform/keycloak/passkey-desired-state.yaml"
+RENDERER="ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy.py"
+SIBLING_FILE="platform/keycloak/client-secret-reconciler.yaml"
+
+# Honest SKIP (never green) if the thing under test is absent entirely.
+for f in "$IMPORT_FILE" "$RECON_FILE" "$STATE_FILE" "$RENDERER"; do
+  if [ ! -f "${ROOT}/${f}" ]; then
+    echo "check SKIPPED: ${f} absent — nothing to audit" >&2
+    exit 3
+  fi
+done
+
+cd "${ROOT}"
+"${PYTHON}" - "${ROOT}" <<'PY'
+"""Static audit of the Keycloak passkey declaration, the renderer that derives the
+reconciler's desired state from it, and the reconciler's blast radius. PyYAML parses the
+manifests; lib/status.py is IMPORTED for the Flux graph walk rather than forked, so there
+is one definition of "what a Flux path renders" in the harness."""
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import ast
+import json
+import re
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import tempfile
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import yaml
+
+ROOT = Path(sys.argv[1])
+# This body is fed to `python3 -` on stdin, so there is no __file__ to derive from; the
+# test directory is named relative to the repo root the wrapper passes in.
+DIR_PATH = (ROOT / "conformance" / "tests" / "l0-static"
+            / "keycloak-passkey-reconciler")
+sys.path.insert(0, str(ROOT / "conformance" / "lib"))
+import status as st  # noqa: E402
+
+IMPORT_FILE = "platform/keycloak/keycloak-realm-import.yaml"
+RECON_FILE = "platform/keycloak/passkey-reconciler.yaml"
+STATE_FILE = "platform/keycloak/passkey-desired-state.yaml"
+RENDERER = "ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy.py"
+SIBLING_FILE = "platform/keycloak/client-secret-reconciler.yaml"
+STATE_CM_NAME = "keycloak-passkey-desired-state"
+STATE_DATA_KEY = "passkey-desired-state.json"
+BIND_KEY = "bind-browser-flow"
+SCRIPT_KEY = "reconcile-keycloak-passkeys.py"
+ENROL_ACTION = "webauthn-register-passwordless"
+DOLLAR = chr(36)
+
+failures: list[str] = []
+
+
+def check(cond, msg):
+    if not cond:
+        failures.append(msg)
+
+
+def load(rel):
+    return list(yaml.safe_load_all((ROOT / rel).read_text()))
+
+
+# ================================================== (1) the desired state is DERIVED
+proc = subprocess.run([sys.executable, str(ROOT / RENDERER), "--check"],
+                      capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=120)
+check(proc.returncode == 0,
+      f"{STATE_FILE} has DRIFTED from {IMPORT_FILE} (ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy"
+      f".py --check failed). The reconciler would converge the realm on a passkey policy "
+      f"the realm import does not declare, and audit the login flow against a tree "
+      f"nobody authored. The RP ID is the sharpest case: it is baked into every passkey "
+      f"at enrolment and can NEVER be re-keyed, so two declarations that skew about the "
+      f"domain is an unrecoverable-credential bug.\n        "
+      + "\n        ".join((proc.stdout + proc.stderr).strip().splitlines()[-12:]))
+
+# The realm import must actually declare the things the renderer derives from. If it
+# stops, the renderer fails -- but say so HERE too, because a SKIP-shaped failure in the
+# renderer would otherwise be the only signal.
+imp_docs = [d for d in load(IMPORT_FILE) if d]
+imp = next((d for d in imp_docs if d.get("kind") == "KeycloakRealmImport"), None)
+check(imp is not None, f"{IMPORT_FILE}: no KeycloakRealmImport document")
+realm = ((imp or {}).get("spec") or {}).get("realm") or {}
+policy_keys_in_import = sorted(k for k in realm
+                               if k.startswith("webAuthnPolicyPasswordless"))
+check(policy_keys_in_import,
+      f"{IMPORT_FILE} declares no webAuthnPolicyPasswordless* field, so there is no "
+      f"passkey policy for the reconciler to converge")
+check(realm.get("browserFlow"),
+      f"{IMPORT_FILE} declares no spec.realm.browserFlow — a perfect flow that is not "
+      f"BOUND changes nothing about how anyone logs in")
+
+# THE requiredActions TRAP, enforced rather than only commented. The realm import's own
+# header explains it at length: Keycloak 26.0.6 treats requiredActions in a realm
+# representation as REPLACE, not merge, so declaring ONE action imports exactly that
+# action plus delete_account and skips DefaultRequiredActions.addActions entirely --
+# deleting CONFIGURE_TOTP, UPDATE_PASSWORD, VERIFY_EMAIL and seven more. Losing
+# CONFIGURE_TOTP is a hard lock-out of every platform-admin, because auth-otp-form in the
+# browser flow still demands a TOTP they could then never enrol. The comment saying "DO
+# NOT ADD ONE" is advice; this is the gate.
+check("requiredActions" not in realm,
+      f"{IMPORT_FILE} declares spec.realm.requiredActions. Keycloak 26.0.6 treats that "
+      f"as REPLACE, not merge: declaring any action imports exactly those plus "
+      f"delete_account and NEVER runs DefaultRequiredActions.addActions, so "
+      f"CONFIGURE_TOTP, UPDATE_PASSWORD, VERIFY_EMAIL and seven more are DELETED. That "
+      f"is a permanent lock-out of every platform-admin, because auth-otp-form in this "
+      f"realm's browser flow still demands a TOTP they could no longer enrol. The "
+      f"enrolment action is already registered by default (priority 80, enabled, "
+      f"defaultAction false) and the passkey reconciler converges it through the "
+      f"per-alias admin API, which has no such hazard")
+
+# ============================== (2)(3) the two files share one substitution pass
+state_docs = [d for d in load(STATE_FILE) if d]
+state_cm = next((d for d in state_docs if d.get("kind") == "ConfigMap"), None)
+check(state_cm is not None, f"{STATE_FILE}: no ConfigMap")
+desired = {}
+if state_cm is not None:
+    check(state_cm["metadata"]["name"] == STATE_CM_NAME,
+          f"{STATE_FILE}: the ConfigMap is named "
+          f"{state_cm['metadata']['name']!r}, but the CronJob mounts {STATE_CM_NAME!r}")
+    data = state_cm.get("data") or {}
+    check(sorted(data) == sorted([STATE_DATA_KEY, BIND_KEY]),
+          f"{STATE_FILE}: expected exactly the data keys {STATE_DATA_KEY!r} and "
+          f"{BIND_KEY!r}, got {sorted(data)} — the reconciler's PASSKEY_STATE_FILE / "
+          f"PASSKEY_BIND_FILE defaults would not resolve")
+    # THE BIND SWITCH. An unquoted true/false is a YAML BOOLEAN, which a ConfigMap rejects
+    # at apply time -- failing the whole platform-config Kustomization, realm import
+    # included. The renderer refuses it too; asserted here so the reason is on record.
+    check(data.get(BIND_KEY) in ("true", "false"),
+          f"{STATE_FILE}: data.{BIND_KEY} is {data.get(BIND_KEY)!r}; it must be the QUOTED "
+          f"string \"true\" or \"false\"")
+    raw = data.get(STATE_DATA_KEY, "")
+    try:
+        desired = json.loads(raw)
+    except ValueError as e:
+        check(False, f"{STATE_FILE}: the {STATE_DATA_KEY} payload is not valid JSON "
+                     f"({e}) — the reconciler would fail closed on every run")
+
+# Both files must be rendered by ONE Flux Kustomization. substituteFrom is
+# per-Kustomization, so a split lets the same ${BASE_DOMAIN} token resolve to two
+# different values -- and an RP ID mismatch invalidates every enrolled passkey silently.
+import_owners = set()
+state_owners = set()
+recon_owners = set()
+for env in ("dev", "prod"):
+    entry = f"clusters/{env}"
+    if not (ROOT / entry).is_dir():
+        continue
+    applied, _ = st.reconciled_files(ROOT, entry)
+    check(RECON_FILE in applied,
+          f"{RECON_FILE} is not reachable from the {entry} entrypoint — the passkey "
+          f"healer would exist on one cluster only")
+    check(STATE_FILE in applied,
+          f"{STATE_FILE} is not reachable from the {entry} entrypoint — the reconciler "
+          f"would fail closed on that cluster forever")
+    check(IMPORT_FILE in applied, f"{IMPORT_FILE} is not reachable from {entry}")
+
+# Which Kustomization DIRECTORY lists each file. Asserted structurally: both must be
+# listed as resources of the same kustomization.yaml.
+for kpath in ROOT.glob("*/kustomization.yaml"):
+    try:
+        k = yaml.safe_load(kpath.read_text()) or {}
+    except Exception:
+        continue
+    res = [str(r) for r in (k.get("resources") or [])]
+    base = kpath.parent.name
+    if any(r.endswith("keycloak-realm-import.yaml") for r in res):
+        import_owners.add(base)
+    if any(r.endswith("passkey-desired-state.yaml") for r in res):
+        state_owners.add(base)
+    if any(r.endswith("passkey-reconciler.yaml") for r in res):
+        recon_owners.add(base)
+check(import_owners and import_owners == state_owners,
+      f"{IMPORT_FILE} is rendered by {sorted(import_owners)} but {STATE_FILE} by "
+      f"{sorted(state_owners)}. They MUST be the same Flux Kustomization: "
+      f"postBuild.substituteFrom is per-Kustomization, so a split would let the "
+      f"{DOLLAR}{{BASE_DOMAIN}} token in each resolve to a different value. An RP ID is "
+      f"baked into every passkey at enrolment and can never be re-keyed, so a domain the "
+      f"two files disagree about is an unrecoverable credential, not a cosmetic drift")
+check(recon_owners == state_owners,
+      f"{RECON_FILE} is rendered by {sorted(recon_owners)} but its desired state by "
+      f"{sorted(state_owners)} — the reconciler could be applied without its input")
+
+# (3) no substitution token the realm definition does not also use.
+import_text = (ROOT / IMPORT_FILE).read_text()
+TOKEN = re.compile(re.escape(DOLLAR) + r"\{([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)")
+state_tokens = set(TOKEN.findall((ROOT / STATE_FILE).read_text()))
+import_tokens = set(TOKEN.findall(import_text))
+# The renderer's own HEADER mentions ${BASE_DOMAIN} in prose; that is the same token the
+# policy uses, so a subset check is the right assertion rather than an exact match.
+check(state_tokens <= import_tokens,
+      f"{STATE_FILE} uses substitution token(s) {sorted(state_tokens - import_tokens)} "
+      f"that {IMPORT_FILE} does not. A token the realm definition never uses is either a "
+      f"hand edit or a renderer bug, and an UNDEFINED one renders as the EMPTY STRING "
+      f"silently — which for an RP ID means every passkey ceremony fails")
+
+# ======================================= (4) the two write surfaces are the SAME tuple
+recon_docs = [d for d in load(RECON_FILE) if d]
+cm = next((d for d in recon_docs if d.get("kind") == "ConfigMap"), None)
+cj = next((d for d in recon_docs if d.get("kind") == "CronJob"), None)
+check(cm is not None, f"{RECON_FILE}: no ConfigMap carrying the reconciler script")
+check(cj is not None, f"{RECON_FILE}: no CronJob running the reconciler")
+
+script = ""
+if cm is not None:
+    data = cm.get("data") or {}
+    check(len(data) == 1,
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: the reconciler ConfigMap must carry exactly one script key "
+          f"(found {sorted(data)}) — a second copy would be untested by this gate")
+    check(SCRIPT_KEY in data,
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: expected the script under {SCRIPT_KEY!r}, got {sorted(data)}")
+    script = next(iter(data.values()), "")
+    check(len(script.splitlines()) > 200,
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: the extracted script is implausibly short "
+          f"({len(script.splitlines())} lines) — the ConfigMap shape changed and the "
+          f"selftest below would prove nothing")
+    # THE nextcloud TRAP. This file is rendered by a Flux Kustomization with
+    # postBuild.substituteFrom, so envsubst rewrites it before any container runs.
+    check(DOLLAR not in script,
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: the reconciler script contains a dollar sign. It ships inside "
+          f"a SUBSTITUTED Flux path, where a dollar-brace expansion is rewritten at "
+          f"reconcile time (see apps/wave-1/nextcloud.yaml). Rewrite without it — Python "
+          f"never needs one; chr(36) spells it where a literal is genuinely required")
+
+
+def tuple_literal(src, name):
+    """The value of a module-level tuple assignment, via ast. Parsing the SOURCE rather
+    than importing it keeps this check offline and side-effect free, and means the thing
+    asserted is the text that ships."""
+    try:
+        tree = ast.parse(src)
+    except SyntaxError:
+        return None
+    for node in tree.body:
+        if isinstance(node, ast.Assign):
+            for t in node.targets:
+                if isinstance(t, ast.Name) and t.id == name:
+                    try:
+                        return ast.literal_eval(node.value)
+                    except ValueError:
+                        return None
+    return None
+
+
+renderer_src = (ROOT / RENDERER).read_text()
+
+
+# POLICY_FIELDS is a CONCATENATION of other tuples in both files, so literal_eval of the
+# assignment itself cannot evaluate it. Resolve it from its parts instead. Both files name
+# their parts from the same vocabulary; a part present in one and not the other simply
+# contributes nothing, which is why the comparison below is of the resolved SETS.
+def resolve_policy(src):
+    parts = ("POLICY_STR_FIELDS", "POLICY_ORDERED_LIST_FIELDS",
+             "POLICY_UNORDERED_LIST_FIELDS", "POLICY_LIST_FIELDS", "POLICY_INT_FIELDS",
+             "POLICY_BOOL_FIELDS")
+    out = []
+    for p in parts:
+        v = tuple_literal(src, p)
+        if v:
+            out.extend(v)
+    return sorted(set(out))
+
+
+recon_keys = resolve_policy(script)
+rend_keys = resolve_policy(renderer_src)
+check(recon_keys and recon_keys == rend_keys,
+      f"the reconciler's writable policy keys {recon_keys} and the renderer's exported "
+      f"keys {rend_keys} DISAGREE. If the renderer emits a key the reconciler refuses, "
+      f"every run fails closed forever; if the reconciler accepts a key the renderer "
+      f"never emits, that is dead write surface on the identity provider")
+# Every exported key must actually be a passwordless key. The two-factor
+# webAuthnPolicy* family is a silent no-op for passkeys (the passwordless authenticator
+# reads getWebAuthnPolicyPasswordless() only), so exporting one would be a write surface
+# with no effect.
+check(all(k.startswith("webAuthnPolicyPasswordless") for k in recon_keys),
+      f"the reconciler's writable keys include a non-passwordless field: "
+      f"{[k for k in recon_keys if not k.startswith('webAuthnPolicyPasswordless')]}. "
+      f"The two-factor webAuthnPolicy* family is never consulted by a passkey login, so "
+      f"writing it is a silent no-op")
+# And the desired state must declare only those.
+if isinstance(desired.get("webAuthnPolicyPasswordless"), dict):
+    extra = sorted(set(desired["webAuthnPolicyPasswordless"]) - set(recon_keys))
+    check(not extra,
+          f"{STATE_FILE} declares policy key(s) {extra} outside the reconciler's write "
+          f"surface — it would fail closed on every run")
+    # The 26.0.6 gate: the policy is applied ONLY when RpEntityName is non-empty.
+    check(desired["webAuthnPolicyPasswordless"].get(
+              "webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessRpEntityName"),
+          f"{STATE_FILE} carries no non-empty "
+          f"webAuthnPolicyPasswordlessRpEntityName. Keycloak 26.0.6 applies the "
+          f"passwordless policy only when that field is set "
+          f"(DefaultExportImportManager.updateRealm), so every realm PUT would be "
+          f"accepted with 204 and change nothing")
+
+# THE ENROLMENT POSTURE. defaultAction true would force every user to enrol a passkey at
+# next login -- a platform-wide lock-out risk, and the exact opposite of the realm
+# import's stated "additive and optional" decision. It is one boolean, so it is gated.
+ra = desired.get("requiredAction") or {}
+check(ra.get("alias") == ENROL_ACTION,
+      f"{STATE_FILE}: requiredAction.alias is {ra.get('alias')!r}, expected "
+      f"{ENROL_ACTION!r} — the reconciler's allow-list names that alias literally, so "
+      f"any other value is unreachable and the pass would fail closed")
+check(ra.get("enabled") is True,
+      f"{STATE_FILE}: requiredAction.enabled must be true, else passkey ENROLMENT is "
+      f"impossible while the login flow offers passkeys")
+check(ra.get("defaultAction") is False,
+      f"{STATE_FILE}: requiredAction.defaultAction is {ra.get('defaultAction')!r}, which "
+      f"must be false. True forces EVERY user to enrol a passkey at next login — this "
+      f"IdP gates Grafana, Gitea, Nextcloud, Headlamp, Semaphore, PiHole, Crafty, the "
+      f"*arr stack AND kubectl, so a misfiring mandatory enrolment is a total platform "
+      f"lock-out. The realm import's whole stated posture is additive and OPTIONAL")
+
+# ========================================= (5) the reconciler manifest is safe + wired
+if cj is not None:
+    pod = cj["spec"]["jobTemplate"]["spec"]["template"]["spec"]
+    ctr = pod["containers"][0]
+    vols = {v["name"]: v for v in pod.get("volumes", [])}
+    mounts = {m["name"]: m for m in ctr.get("volumeMounts", [])}
+    env = {e["name"]: e for e in ctr.get("env", [])}
+
+    # NO KUBERNETES API ACCESS. This is what makes the mounted-ConfigMap design strictly
+    # narrower than reading the KeycloakRealmImport CR through the API: no Role, no
+    # RoleBinding, no token. It is also why this change adds no **/rbac.yaml.
+    check(pod.get("automountServiceAccountToken") is False,
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: the reconciler must set automountServiceAccountToken: false. "
+          f"It talks only to the Keycloak admin API and reads a mounted ConfigMap, so a "
+          f"ServiceAccount token is pure blast radius (R-SEC-02)")
+    check("serviceAccountName" not in pod,
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: the reconciler must not name a ServiceAccount")
+
+    cm_vols = {n: v for n, v in vols.items() if "configMap" in v}
+    names = {(v["configMap"] or {}).get("name") for v in cm_vols.values()}
+    check(STATE_CM_NAME in names,
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: the CronJob does not mount the {STATE_CM_NAME} ConfigMap, so "
+          f"the reconciler would fail closed on every run. Mounted: {sorted(names)}")
+    check(cm["metadata"]["name"] in names,
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: the CronJob does not mount its own script ConfigMap")
+    # NO SECRET IS MOUNTED AS A VOLUME. The admin credential is consumed via
+    # secretKeyRef only; projecting it as a file would widen what a readable mount leaks.
+    check(not [v for v in vols.values() if "secret" in v],
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: the reconciler mounts a Secret as a volume. The admin "
+          f"credential is referenced by secretKeyRef only; it must never be projected "
+          f"as a file here")
+
+    # The mount paths must be the ones the code DEFAULTS to, or the container starts and
+    # fails closed forever while every manifest looks correct.
+    state_vol = next((n for n, v in cm_vols.items()
+                      if (v["configMap"] or {}).get("name") == STATE_CM_NAME), None)
+    if state_vol:
+        mp = (mounts.get(state_vol) or {}).get("mountPath")
+        check(mp == "/etc/keycloak-passkey",
+              f"{RECON_FILE}: the desired-state ConfigMap is mounted at {mp!r}, but the "
+              f"script's PASSKEY_STATE_FILE default is "
+              f"/etc/keycloak-passkey/{STATE_DATA_KEY}")
+        check(f'"/etc/keycloak-passkey/{STATE_DATA_KEY}"' in script,
+              f"{RECON_FILE}: the script's PASSKEY_STATE_FILE default no longer matches "
+              f"the mount path — they are a pair and must move together")
+        check((mounts.get(state_vol) or {}).get("readOnly") is True,
+              f"{RECON_FILE}: the desired-state mount must be readOnly")
+        check(f'"/etc/keycloak-passkey/{BIND_KEY}"' in script,
+              f"{RECON_FILE}: the script's PASSKEY_BIND_FILE default is not "
+              f"/etc/keycloak-passkey/{BIND_KEY}. An unresolved bind file reads as \"false\" "
+              f"(safe, but git's \"true\" would then silently never take effect)")
+        check(not (state_vol and (cm_vols[state_vol]["configMap"] or {}).get("items")),
+              f"{RECON_FILE}: the desired-state volume selects `items`, so one of its two "
+              f"keys may not be projected")
+
+    # The bind decision belongs to git. A container arg could only NARROW it today
+    # (--no-bind), but nothing in the CronJob may carry a mode flag at all: the shipped
+    # behaviour must be readable from passkey-desired-state.yaml alone.
+    cmd = [str(x) for x in (ctr.get("command") or []) + (ctr.get("args") or [])]
+    check(not [x for x in cmd if x.startswith("--")],
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: the CronJob passes {[x for x in cmd if x.startswith('--')]} to "
+          f"the reconciler. Its mode is decided by git (bind-browser-flow), not by flags")
+    # Retries burn the bounded candidate-alias budget on a deterministic failure.
+    check(cj["spec"]["jobTemplate"]["spec"].get("backoffLimit") == 0,
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: backoffLimit must be 0 — every failure here is deterministic "
+          f"within a tick, and each retried build consumes another candidate alias")
+
+    # The admin credential, referenced BY NAME. Never decrypted, never a literal.
+    for key in ("KEYCLOAK_ADMIN_USER", "KEYCLOAK_ADMIN_PASSWORD"):
+        e = env.get(key) or {}
+        ref = ((e.get("valueFrom") or {}).get("secretKeyRef") or {})
+        check(ref.get("name") == "keycloak-admin-credentials",
+              f"{RECON_FILE}: {key} must come from the keycloak-admin-credentials "
+              f"Secret by secretKeyRef, got {e!r}")
+        check("value" not in e,
+              f"{RECON_FILE}: {key} carries a literal `value`. A credential in a "
+              f"manifest is a plaintext secret in git")
+    check((env.get("KEYCLOAK_REALM") or {}).get("value") == desired.get("realm"),
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: KEYCLOAK_REALM is "
+          f"{(env.get('KEYCLOAK_REALM') or {}).get('value')!r} but the desired state "
+          f"declares realm {desired.get('realm')!r}. The reconciler would converge the "
+          f"wrong realm, or none")
+
+    check(ctr["securityContext"]["readOnlyRootFilesystem"] is True,
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: readOnlyRootFilesystem must be true")
+    check(ctr["securityContext"]["allowPrivilegeEscalation"] is False,
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: allowPrivilegeEscalation must be false")
+    check(pod["securityContext"].get("runAsNonRoot") is True,
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: runAsNonRoot must be true")
+    check(cj["spec"].get("concurrencyPolicy") == "Forbid",
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: concurrencyPolicy must be Forbid — two concurrent reconcilers "
+          f"would double the write attempts against the IdP during an outage recovery")
+    check(re.fullmatch(r"\S+ \S+ \S+ \S+ \S+", cj["spec"].get("schedule", "")),
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: schedule {cj['spec'].get('schedule')!r} is not a 5-field cron")
+
+# ===== (6) THE BOUND FLOW IS STRUCTURALLY UNWRITABLE — asserted against the SOURCE
+#
+# This component converges the browser flow BLUE/GREEN: it builds the target structure
+# under a NEW, unused alias, verifies it, then flips the realm's browserFlow in ONE
+# atomic PUT. It therefore NEEDS flow-create and execution-add endpoints, so unlike the
+# first design of this check the mere presence of a flow write is no longer the thing to
+# forbid. What must hold instead is narrower and stronger:
+#
+#   (a) nothing may be DELETED, ever — the superseded flow is the rollback target;
+#   (b) the single-execution and config-edit endpoints stay off the list — requirements
+#       are set through the flow-scoped endpoint, which the guard in (d) screens;
+#   (c) no required-action write may reach any alias but the one named LITERALLY;
+#   (d) and the guard the allow-list CANNOT express must exist in the source: a
+#       method-aware screen that refuses any flow write targeting the CURRENTLY BOUND
+#       flow's subtree, FAIL-CLOSED until that binding has been read.
+#
+# (d) is the load-bearing one. Without it the reconciler could mutate the flow users are
+# logging in through, and a run dying mid-restructure would leave a HALF-BUILT FLOW BOUND
+# AS THE LOGIN PATH for Grafana, Gitea, Nextcloud, Headlamp, Semaphore, PiHole, Crafty,
+# the *arr stack AND kubectl. This repo has already had a total SSO outage from a realm
+# change (2026-09-06).
+allow = tuple_literal(script, "_ALLOWED") or ()
+check(bool(allow),
+      f"{RECON_FILE}: could not parse the _ALLOWED endpoint allow-list out of the "
+      f"script. This check's central assertions about the write surface cannot be made, "
+      f"so it must FAIL rather than pass silently")
+if allow:
+    check(all(isinstance(e, tuple) and len(e) == 2 for e in allow),
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: _ALLOWED is not a tuple of (method, path) pairs. A path-only "
+          f"allow-list cannot distinguish reading a flow from writing one, which this "
+          f"component's whole safety argument rests on")
+    writes = [(m, p) for m, p in allow if m in ("PUT", "POST", "PATCH", "DELETE")]
+    # (a) nothing is ever deleted.
+    check(not [(m, p) for m, p in allow if m == "DELETE"],
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: the allow-list contains a DELETE method. Nothing this program "
+          f"does requires deleting anything: a superseded flow is left unbound as the "
+          f"ROLLBACK TARGET, and DELETE /admin/realms/<realm> deletes the realm")
+    # (b) the endpoints that would let it edit live objects in place.
+    banned = [(m, p) for m, p in writes
+              if re.fullmatch(r"/admin/realms/\[\^/\]\+/authentication/executions/"
+                              r"\[\^/\]\+", p)
+              or re.fullmatch(r"/admin/realms/\[\^/\]\+/authentication/config/\[\^/\]\+",
+                              p)
+              or p.endswith("/authentication/register-required-action")]
+    check(not banned,
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: the allow-list permits {banned}. The single-execution update "
+          f"and config-edit endpoints must stay off it: requirements are set through the "
+          f"FLOW-SCOPED endpoint, which carries the flow alias in its path and is "
+          f"therefore screenable against the bound subtree. An execution- or "
+          f"config-id-scoped write is not, so it would be an unscreened hole")
+    # (c) no required-action write may reach any other alias.
+    ra_writes = [(m, p) for m, p in writes if "required-actions" in p]
+    check(all(p.endswith("required-actions/" + ENROL_ACTION) for _, p in ra_writes),
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: the allow-list permits a required-action write to an alias "
+          f"other than {ENROL_ACTION!r}: {ra_writes}. Disabling CONFIGURE_TOTP is a "
+          f"permanent lock-out of every platform-admin, because auth-otp-form in the "
+          f"browser flow still demands a TOTP that could no longer be enrolled")
+    check(not [p for _, p in ra_writes if "[^/]+" in p.split("required-actions/")[-1]],
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: a required-action write path uses a WILDCARD alias. The alias "
+          f"must be named LITERALLY so no other action is writable by construction")
+    # Nothing outside the realm + authentication surface at all.
+    stray = [(m, p) for m, p in allow
+             if "/users" in p or "/groups" in p or "/roles" in p or "/clients" in p]
+    check(not stray,
+          f"{RECON_FILE}: the allow-list reaches {stray}. Users, groups and roles must "
+          f"be unreachable (prod's real user and the media-users / platform-admins / "
+          f"viewers groups must survive every run); clients are the SIBLING "
+          f"reconciler's surface and the two must not overlap")
+
+# ---- (d) THE PROTECTED-SUBTREE GUARD EXISTS, IS WIRED, AND IS FAIL-CLOSED ----------
+# Asserted against the SOURCE, because this is the property the blue/green design rests
+# on and a comment claiming it is worth nothing. Three things must all be true.
+check(re.search(r"^def _screen_write\(", script, re.M) is not None,
+      f"{RECON_FILE}: the script has no _screen_write() function. That is the guard "
+      f"that refuses any flow write targeting the CURRENTLY BOUND flow's subtree — the "
+      f"one thing the allow-list cannot express, because its write entries are "
+      f"alias-parameterised. Without it this component can mutate the live login path")
+# It must be CALLED from the single choke point, not merely defined.
+check(re.search(r"_screen_write\(method, path", script) is not None,
+      f"{RECON_FILE}: _screen_write() is defined but never called from _http() with the "
+      f"request's method and path. A guard that is not on the request path is decoration")
+# FAIL-CLOSED: the protected sets must start undetermined, and the reset that runs at
+# the top of every run must put them back there.
+reset_fn = re.search(r"def _reset_protected\(\):(.*?)(?=\n\S)", script, re.S)
+check(reset_fn is not None
+      and "_PROTECTED_FLOW_ALIASES = None" in reset_fn.group(1)
+      and "_PROTECTED_EXECUTION_IDS = None" in reset_fn.group(1),
+      f"{RECON_FILE}: _reset_protected() does not set both protected sets to None. They "
+      f"must start each run UNDETERMINED, because while they are, every flow write is "
+      f"refused — that is the fail-closed half of the guard, and it is what stops a "
+      f"build running before the live binding has been read")
+check(re.search(r"_reset_protected\(\)", script.split("def _selftest")[0]) is not None,
+      f"{RECON_FILE}: _reset_protected() is never called outside the selftest, so the "
+      f"protected sets are not reset per run and a previous run's binding could be "
+      f"trusted for this one")
+# The create-flow endpoint carries NO alias in its path, so it must be screened on its
+# BODY or it escapes the guard entirely. (Found by the selftest; recorded here so a
+# future edit cannot silently undo it.)
+check("_FLOW_CREATE_PATH" in script,
+      f"{RECON_FILE}: there is no separate screen for POST .../authentication/flows. "
+      f"That endpoint carries no alias in its path — the alias is in the request BODY — "
+      f"so without a body-based screen it bypasses the protected-subtree guard "
+      f"altogether")
+# And the one function allowed to change the live binding must be distinct from the
+# policy write, which must refuse to.
+# FINDING 2026-10-29: sub-flows are named by displayName in 26.0.6 (recurseExecutions
+# never sets `alias` on a sub-flow row). Reading `alias` shrank the protected subtree to
+# the top-level flow alone while every selftest passed against a stub that returned it.
+check(re.search(r'^def subflow_alias\(ex\):\n(?:.*\n)*?    name = ex\.get\("displayName"\)',
+                script, re.M) is not None,
+      f"{RECON_FILE}: subflow_alias() no longer reads displayName. Keycloak 26.0.6's "
+      f"executions listing names a sub-flow ONLY by displayName; reading `alias` yields "
+      f"None and the protected subtree silently shrinks to the top-level flow")
+# FINDING 2026-10-29: the requirement PUT's real target is body["id"].
+check("_EXEC_UPDATE_PATH" in script and "_BUILD_EXECUTION_IDS" in script,
+      f"{RECON_FILE}: the requirement PUT (PUT /flows/<alias>/executions) is no longer "
+      f"screened on its body id. updateExecutions resolves the execution realm-wide by id "
+      f"and ignores the path alias, so a path-only screen lets it write the bound flow")
+check("def declared_bind(" in script and "BIND_FILE" in script,
+      f"{RECON_FILE}: the reconciler no longer reads git's bind-browser-flow switch")
+check("def bind_browser_flow(" in script,
+      f"{RECON_FILE}: there is no bind_browser_flow() function. The atomic flip must be "
+      f"one named, auditable operation, not an incidental field in some other write")
+check(re.search(r"never rebinds the browser flow", script) is not None,
+      f"{RECON_FILE}: the policy write no longer refuses to change browserFlow. "
+      f"PUT /admin/realms/<realm> DOES read rep.getBrowserFlow(), so the policy pass "
+      f"can rebind the login path by accident — to an UNVERIFIED flow")
+
+# ======================================== (7) the SIBLING reconciler is NOT widened
+if (ROOT / SIBLING_FILE).is_file():
+    sib_docs = [d for d in load(SIBLING_FILE) if d]
+    sib_cm = next((d for d in sib_docs if d.get("kind") == "ConfigMap"), None)
+    sib_script = next(iter((sib_cm.get("data") or {}).values()), "") if sib_cm else ""
+    sib_allow = tuple_literal(sib_script, "_ALLOWED") or ()
+    check(bool(sib_allow),
+          f"{SIBLING_FILE}: could not parse its _ALLOWED list, so this check cannot "
+          f"prove the sibling was not widened")
+    if sib_allow:
+        # The sibling's list is PATH-ONLY by design. Its selftest asserts it refuses the
+        # whole-realm endpoint and the /authentication tree; assert the same here so a
+        # future edit that "just adds the realm endpoint there instead" is caught.
+        bad = [p for p in sib_allow
+               if isinstance(p, str)
+               and (re.fullmatch(r"/admin/realms/\[\^/\]\+", p)
+                    or "authentication" in p or "/users" in p or "/groups" in p
+                    or "/roles" in p)]
+        check(not bad,
+              f"{SIBLING_FILE}: its allow-list was WIDENED to {bad}. That reconciler's "
+              f"stated guarantee — prod's real user and the media-users / "
+              f"platform-admins / viewers groups survive every run — is expressed as "
+              f"endpoints it CANNOT reach, and its own --selftest asserts the refusal of "
+              f"/users, /groups, /roles, /authentication and the whole-realm endpoint. "
+              f"The passkey work is a SIBLING program with its own narrow list precisely "
+              f"so that guarantee stays literally true. Revert the widening")
+
+# ============================== (8) the reconciler's BEHAVIOUR, proven by its selftest
+if script:
+    with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as td:
+        p = Path(td) / "reconcile.py"
+        p.write_text(script)
+        proc = subprocess.run([sys.executable, str(p), "--selftest"],
+                              capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=300)
+        tail = (proc.stdout + proc.stderr).strip().splitlines()
+        check(proc.returncode == 0,
+              "the passkey reconciler's --selftest FAILED (compare-then-write / "
+              "idempotence / strict read-modify-write / the RpEntityName gate / "
+              "flow-is-unwritable / the conditional-OTP regression / fail-closed):\n"
+              "        " + "\n        ".join(tail[-14:]))
+        if proc.returncode == 0:
+            print("  passkey reconciler --selftest: " + (tail[-1] if tail else "(none)"))
+
+        # ---- (8b) THE SELFTEST IS FALSIFIABLE, not decorative ----------------------
+        # A passing suite proves nothing unless it can be shown to FAIL. mutations.py
+        # injects plausible regressions one at a time -- a partial policy PUT, a
+        # rebind of browserFlow, a widened allow-list that makes the flow writable, a
+        # fail-open on an unreadable input -- and requires --selftest to catch every
+        # one. This matters more than usual here: the whole incident class is a
+        # component that REPORTED SUCCESS while the realm was broken, and a green test
+        # that cannot fail is the same lie one level up.
+        mut = DIR_PATH / "mutations.py"
+        if mut.is_file():
+            mproc = subprocess.run([sys.executable, str(mut), str(p)],
+                                   capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=900)
+            mtail = (mproc.stdout + mproc.stderr).strip().splitlines()
+            check(mproc.returncode == 0,
+                  "the passkey reconciler's --selftest is NOT FALSIFIABLE — at least "
+                  "one injected regression survived it, so the suite does not prove "
+                  "what it claims:\n        " + "\n        ".join(mtail[-16:]))
+            if mproc.returncode == 0:
+                print("  passkey reconciler mutations: "
+                      + (mtail[-1] if mtail else "(no output)"))
+        else:
+            check(False,
+                  "conformance/tests/l0-static/keycloak-passkey-reconciler/mutations.py "
+                  "is missing — nothing proves the --selftest can fail, and an "
+                  "unfalsifiable proof is the failure mode this component exists to end")
+
+# ======================================================= (9) this check is load-bearing
+L0 = (ROOT / "ci" / "l0.sh").read_text() if (ROOT / "ci" / "l0.sh").is_file() else ""
+GATE = (ROOT / "ci" / "gate.sh").read_text() if (ROOT / "ci" / "gate.sh").is_file() else ""
+TOUCHED = ((ROOT / "ci" / "touched-requirements.sh").read_text()
+           if (ROOT / "ci" / "touched-requirements.sh").is_file() else "")
+SELF_YAML = DIR_PATH / "chainsaw-test.yaml"
+SELF = SELF_YAML.read_text() if SELF_YAML.is_file() else ""
+check(re.search(r'^\s*conformance\.home\.k3s/scope:\s*["\']?whole-repo', SELF, re.M)
+      is not None,
+      "keycloak-passkey-reconciler/chainsaw-test.yaml does not declare "
+      'conformance.home.k3s/scope: "whole-repo", so the merge gate selects this check '
+      "only when a change happens to attribute one of the requirements it is labelled "
+      "with. This invariant spans platform/, platform-config/, ci/ and clusters/, so a "
+      "change that breaks it need not attribute R-IDP-03/04 — which is how 12 unusable "
+      "prod OIDC clients sat behind an entirely green cluster on 2026-09-06")
+check("--include-scope" in L0,
+      "ci/l0.sh no longer passes --include-scope to the conformance runner, so the L0 "
+      "stage is a purely requirement-scoped run again and the scope annotation is inert "
+      "decoration — this check would then run only by coincidence")
+check(re.search(r"^for s in .*\bl0\b.*; do", GATE, re.M)
+      and re.search(r"fail\).*BLOCK=1", GATE),
+      "ci/gate.sh does not set the merge block when the l0 stage fails")
+check(re.search(r"^\s*platform/keycloak/\*\)", TOUCHED, re.M),
+      "ci/touched-requirements.sh has no platform/keycloak/* arm, so editing the realm "
+      "import or the reconciler would attribute NO requirement and the keycloak tests "
+      "would be filtered out of the merge gate's touched subset")
+
+# =============================================================================
+if failures:
+    print("CHECK FAIL: %d assertion(s) failed" % len(failures), file=sys.stderr)
+    for f in failures:
+        print("  FAIL %s" % f, file=sys.stderr)
+    raise SystemExit(1)
+print("keycloak-passkey-reconciler: all assertions passed "
+      "(desired state derived from the realm import, one substitution pass, write "
+      "surfaces agree, the BOUND flow is unwritable and fail-closed, nothing is "
+      "deletable, sibling allow-list unwidened, selftest green and falsifiable)")
+PY
@@ -0,0 +1,456 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# =============================================================================
+# mutations.py -- prove the passkey reconciler's --selftest IS FALSIFIABLE.
+#
+# WHY THIS EXISTS
+# ---------------
+# A selftest that passes proves nothing on its own: a selftest asserting `True ==
+# True` also passes. This reconciler exists because a one-shot realm import
+# REPORTED SUCCESS while the realm was never converged (Done=True / Started=False
+# with the whole passkey block inert, measured on prod 2026-10-18), and the same
+# trap applies one level up -- a green test suite that cannot fail is the same lie
+# in a different place.
+#
+# It matters more here than for the sibling client reconciler, because this program
+# CONSTRUCTS AUTHENTICATION FLOWS and then REBINDS THE REALM'S LOGIN PATH. An
+# untested safety property on that surface is not a documentation gap, it is an
+# outage waiting for a schedule tick.
+#
+# So this injects a series of PLAUSIBLE regressions into the shipped script, one at
+# a time, and requires that --selftest FAILS for every one. A mutation that
+# SURVIVES means the suite does not actually check that property, and the check
+# fails, naming it.
+#
+# THE FIRST SIX ARE THE BLUE/GREEN SAFETY ARGUMENT ITSELF. The design builds a new
+# flow under an unused alias, verifies it, and flips `browserFlow` in one atomic
+# write -- never mutating the flow users are logging in through. Each of those
+# properties is enforced in code; these mutations are the proof that the enforcement
+# is load-bearing rather than commentary. Several model the obvious "simplification"
+# someone will propose:
+#   * "just build it under the declared alias, the suffix is ugly"
+#   * "bind it first, then check -- the check is just belt and braces"
+#   * "the protected-alias screen is redundant, the allow-list covers it"
+# Every one of those would be a total SSO outage waiting to happen.
+#
+# ANCHORS ARE AUTHORED AGAINST THE EXTRACTED SCRIPT, not against the YAML manifest.
+# The sibling mutations.py dedents by four because its anchors are copied out of the
+# ConfigMap block scalar; these are copied out of the script as `python3 -` sees it,
+# which is one less transformation to get wrong. check.sh passes the extracted file,
+# so what is proven falsifiable is byte-for-byte what runs on the cluster either way.
+#
+#   python3 mutations.py <path-to-extracted-reconciler.py>
+#
+# Runtime is ~60s (one subprocess per mutation, each running the full selftest
+# against an in-process stub Keycloak; no network, no cluster).
+# =============================================================================
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import re
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import tempfile
+from pathlib import Path
+
+# (name, the mistake being modelled, anchor, replacement)
+MUTATIONS: list[tuple[str, str, str, str]] = [
+    # ---------------------------------------------------------------- blue/green safety
+    ("build INTO the currently bound flow",
+     "'the suffix is ugly, just build under the declared alias' -- every "
+     "create-execution and set-requirement call would then land on the flow users are "
+     "logging in through, and a run dying part-way leaves a HALF-BUILT LOGIN PATH for "
+     "every SSO app and kubectl. This is the single regression the whole design exists "
+     "to make impossible",
+     "    def mapped(alias):\n"
+     "        return \"%s-%s\" % (alias, suffix)",
+     "    def mapped(alias):\n        return alias"),
+
+    ("the protected-subtree screen is never called",
+     "'the allow-list already covers it' -- it does not: the allow-list's write entries "
+     "are alias-parameterised, so only this screen can say 'but not the flow that is "
+     "bound'. Without it the reconciler may write anywhere in the authentication tree",
+     "    _screen_write(method, path, body if isinstance(body, dict) else None)",
+     "    pass"),
+
+    ("the per-run reset makes the protected sets EMPTY, not UNDETERMINED",
+     "reset them to frozenset() so the code reads more simply -- it silently removes "
+     "the fail-closed property, so a build that ran before the live binding had been "
+     "read would be PERMITTED, and could write straight into the live flow. (The "
+     "module-level initial value is deliberately NOT the anchor here: run() resets "
+     "these at the start of every run, so the initialiser is unreachable and mutating "
+     "it would prove nothing.)",
+     "    global _PROTECTED_FLOW_ALIASES, _PROTECTED_EXECUTION_IDS, _BUILD_EXECUTION_IDS\n"
+     "    _PROTECTED_FLOW_ALIASES = None\n"
+     "    _PROTECTED_EXECUTION_IDS = None",
+     "    global _PROTECTED_FLOW_ALIASES, _PROTECTED_EXECUTION_IDS, _BUILD_EXECUTION_IDS\n"
+     "    _PROTECTED_FLOW_ALIASES = frozenset()\n"
+     "    _PROTECTED_EXECUTION_IDS = frozenset()"),
+
+    ("bind BEFORE verifying the build",
+     "'bind it first, the readback is just belt and braces' -- it is not: the readback "
+     "is what catches a build that was accepted but came out wrong, including the "
+     "conditional-OTP config landing under the wrong key. Binding first makes that the "
+     "live login path before anyone notices",
+     "    verify = compare_shape(final_shape, expected, base, realm, token, configs,\n"
+     "                           \"the newly built flow %r\" % target)",
+     "    verify = []"),
+
+    ("a failed build is reported as SUCCESS",
+     "swallow the build error and return a converged result -- the realm is then left "
+     "on the old flow (which blue/green makes safe) but the run says it converged, so "
+     "nobody ever learns the passkey flow was never built. That is the one-shot "
+     "import's fail-open, reintroduced. NOTE: simply removing the early return here "
+     "is NOT a regression -- verify-before-bind catches a half-built flow anyway, which "
+     "is defence in depth working as intended -- so the mutation targets the reporting",
+     "            problems.append(\n"
+     "                \"flow: building %r FAILED (%s). Nothing was bound, so login is \"\n"
+     "                \"UNAFFECTED -- the old flow is still live. The partial flow is left in \"\n"
+     "                \"place, unbound and harmless\" % (candidate, e))\n"
+     "            return 0, problems",
+     "            return 1, []"),
+
+    ("an existing candidate flow is reused WITHOUT verifying it",
+     "'if the alias exists we already built it' -- a half-built leftover from a crashed "
+     "run lives under exactly that alias, so this binds a partially constructed login "
+     "path",
+     "            if cand_shape is not None and not compare_shape(\n"
+     "                    cand_shape, expected, base, realm, token, configs,\n"
+     "                    \"the existing flow %r\" % candidate):",
+     "            if cand_shape is not None:"),
+
+    # ------------------------------------- 2026-10-29 review findings, each made falsifiable
+    ("sub-flows identified by `alias` again",
+     "read `alias` off a sub-flow row, as the first version did -- Keycloak 26.0.6's "
+     "recurseExecutions sets only displayName (and flowId) on a sub-flow row, so every "
+     "sub-flow resolves to nothing and the protected subtree is the top-level flow alone: "
+     "a write into browser-mfa-forms would NOT be refused",
+     "    name = ex.get(\"displayName\")\n"
+     "    return name if isinstance(name, str) and name else None",
+     "    name = ex.get(\"alias\")\n"
+     "    return name if isinstance(name, str) and name else None"),
+
+    ("an unnameable sub-flow is tolerated",
+     "carry on when a sub-flow row has no displayName -- the protected subtree is then "
+     "SMALLER than the live tree, which is the fail-open the guard exists to prevent",
+     "            if name is None:\n"
+     "                return None, None",
+     "            if name is None:\n"
+     "                name = \"\""),
+
+    ("the requirement PUT is screened on its path only",
+     "trust the alias in PUT /flows/<alias>/executions -- updateExecutions resolves "
+     "body.id realm-wide and never checks it belongs to <alias>, so a candidate alias in "
+     "the path can carry a BOUND execution's id in the body",
+     "        targets.append((\"execution\", (body or {}).get(\"id\")))",
+     "        pass"),
+
+    ("execution-addressed writes are not held to the build tree",
+     "'outside the bound subtree is enough' -- it is not: every OTHER flow in the realm is "
+     "outside it too, so a stray id would edit an unrelated flow",
+     "        if what == \"execution\" and (_BUILD_EXECUTION_IDS is None\n"
+     "                                    or target not in _BUILD_EXECUTION_IDS):",
+     "        if False:"),
+
+    ("the requirement PUT may carry any key",
+     "let the body carry flowId / displayName -- the same handler then RENAMES whatever "
+     "flow flowId names, bound or not",
+     "        if extra:\n"
+     "            raise Refused(",
+     "        if False:\n"
+     "            raise Refused("),
+
+    ("git's bind switch is ignored",
+     "bind whenever verification passes, as the first version did -- the first live use of "
+     "an untested login flow becomes a schedule tick, and an operator's rollback is "
+     "undone within 15 minutes, forever",
+     "    bind = git_bind and not no_bind",
+     "    bind = not no_bind"),
+
+    ("bind=false still binds inside the flow pass",
+     "keep the flag but forget to honour it where the bind happens",
+     "    if not bind:\n"
+     "        # THE BIND SWITCH IS OFF.",
+     "    if False:\n"
+     "        # THE BIND SWITCH IS OFF."),
+
+    ("an absent bind switch means bind",
+     "default to true when the key is missing -- a ConfigMap predating the switch, or a "
+     "deleted line, would silently put an untested flow live",
+     "    except FileNotFoundError:\n"
+     "        return False",
+     "    except FileNotFoundError:\n"
+     "        return True"),
+
+    ("an invalid bind switch is guessed at",
+     "read anything that is not \"true\" as false -- a typo then passes silently instead of "
+     "stopping the run, and the operator believes the flow is live",
+     "    if raw == \"false\":\n"
+     "        return False\n"
+     "    raise ValueError(",
+     "    return False\n"
+     "    raise ValueError("),
+
+    ("bind=false rebuilds beside a hand-edited bound flow",
+     "treat the hand-edited bound candidate as a 'half-built leftover' -- with the switch "
+     "off this builds an -r2 next to the operator's hotfix on every tick",
+     "        if candidate in have and candidate == bound and not bind:",
+     "        if False:"),
+
+    # ------------------------------------------------------------------- idempotence
+    ("sub-flow aliases are compared as names",
+     "compare the sub-flow alias like any other field -- the flows this program builds "
+     "carry a hash suffix on every alias, so a built flow could NEVER be recognised as "
+     "converged: it would be rebuilt and the login path reflipped every fifteen "
+     "minutes, forever",
+     "            out.append((level, ex[\"kind\"], \"\" if is_flow else ex[\"name\"],\n"
+     "                        ex[\"requirement\"], ex.get(\"configAlias\") or \"\", ex[\"name\"]))",
+     "            out.append((level, ex[\"kind\"], ex[\"name\"],\n"
+     "                        ex[\"requirement\"], ex.get(\"configAlias\") or \"\", ex[\"name\"]))"),
+
+    ("the converged short-circuit is removed",
+     "drop the 'bound flow already matches git' early return -- every run rebuilds and "
+     "reflips, which is a permanent write loop against the IdP and churns the realm's "
+     "login path on a schedule",
+     "        if not drift:\n"
+     "            log(\"flow     ok (the bound flow %r matches git: %d execution(s), no \"\n"
+     "                \"write)\" % (bound, len(expected)))\n"
+     "            return 0, problems",
+     "        if False:\n            return 0, problems"),
+
+    ("the execution priority is dropped from the requirement write",
+     "omit `priority` from the body -- Keycloak's updateExecutions deserialises a "
+     "missing int as 0 and compares it against the stored priority, so this RESHUFFLES "
+     "the execution order while only a requirement change was intended. The passkey "
+     "branch would end up in the wrong place in the tree",
+     "            body={\"id\": ex.get(\"id\"), \"requirement\": want_req,\n"
+     "                  \"priority\": ex.get(\"priority\") or 0})",
+     "            body={\"id\": ex.get(\"id\"), \"requirement\": want_req})"),
+
+    ("the alias budget is unbounded",
+     "loop forever looking for a free alias -- a persistently failing build then creates "
+     "unbounded flow sprawl in the realm, and nothing here can delete any of it",
+     "    for attempt in range(1, MAX_BUILD_ATTEMPTS + 1):",
+     "    for attempt in range(1, 10000):"),
+
+    ("fail-open when the bound flow cannot be read",
+     "carry on when the live flow's executions are unreadable -- the program then cannot "
+     "know which flows are live, so it cannot prove a build would miss them, and it "
+     "would build with the protected sets still undetermined",
+     "            return 0, [\n"
+     "                \"flow: the realm binds browserFlow to %r but its executions could not \"\n"
+     "                \"be read, so this program cannot establish which flows are live. Flow \"\n"
+     "                \"writes stay FAIL-CLOSED for this run -- nothing was built or bound\"\n"
+     "                % bound]",
+     "            _set_protected(set(), set())\n            bound_shape, bound_raw = None, None"),
+
+    # ------------------------------------------------------- the conditional-OTP regression
+    ("authenticator config contents no longer compared",
+     "check only that a config is BOUND, not what it says -- this is THE conditional-OTP "
+     "regression: the original bug wrote the role under "
+     "`condition.evaluated.user.role` instead of `condUserRole`, so the role resolved "
+     "to null, the REQUIRED conditional step threw 'Invalid role name submitted: null' "
+     "and every platform-admin got a 403 from every SSO-gated app",
+     "            if str(have_cfg.get(key)) != str(want_cfg[key]):",
+     "            if False:"),
+
+    ("undeclared config keys are ignored",
+     "stop reporting keys the realm holds and git does not -- the stale "
+     "`condition.evaluated.user.role` key is the signature of the original null-role "
+     "bug, and a flow carrying both keys would look correct",
+     "        extra = sorted(k for k in have_cfg if k not in want_cfg)",
+     "        extra = []"),
+
+    ("flow structure divergence detected but not reported",
+     "leave the per-step comparison out -- the realm's login flow could be the old "
+     "pre-passkey shape forever and every run would report the realm converged, which "
+     "is the exact fail-open of the one-shot import this program replaces",
+     "        if observed[idx][:4] != expected[idx][:4]:",
+     "        if False:"),
+
+    ("the browserFlow BINDING is no longer compared",
+     "stop noticing that a correct flow is not the one bound -- a perfect, fully-built "
+     "passkey flow that nothing logs in through changes nothing at all",
+     "    if bound_shape is not None:\n"
+     "        drift = compare_shape(bound_shape, expected, base, realm, token, configs,",
+     "    if False:\n"
+     "        drift = compare_shape(bound_shape, expected, base, realm, token, configs,"),
+
+    # ------------------------------------------------------------- realm / policy writes
+    ("partial policy PUT instead of read-modify-write",
+     "send only the drifted policy keys -- Keycloak 26.0.6 rebuilds the WHOLE "
+     "passwordless policy from the representation and substitutes its own DEFAULT for "
+     "every key the body omits, so a partial PUT silently resets everything it did not "
+     "mention while returning 204",
+     "    body = dict(realm_rep)\n"
+     "    for key in drift:\n"
+     "        body[key] = wanted[key]",
+     "    body = {RP_ENTITY_NAME: realm_rep.get(RP_ENTITY_NAME),\n"
+     "            BROWSER_FLOW: realm_rep.get(BROWSER_FLOW)}\n"
+     "    for key in drift:\n"
+     "        body[key] = wanted[key]"),
+
+    ("the policy pass rebinds browserFlow as a side effect",
+     "'while we are here, let the policy write fix the flow binding too' -- the realm "
+     "PUT does read rep.getBrowserFlow(), so this is genuinely in reach, and it would "
+     "rebind the login path to an UNVERIFIED flow from a pass whose stated surface is "
+     "the passkey policy",
+     "    if body.get(BROWSER_FLOW) != realm_rep.get(BROWSER_FLOW):\n"
+     "        raise RuntimeError(",
+     "    body[BROWSER_FLOW] = \"browser\"\n"
+     "    if False:\n"
+     "        raise RuntimeError("),
+
+    ("the RpEntityName gate removed from desired-state validation",
+     "accept a desired state with an empty RpEntityName -- Keycloak 26.0.6 applies the "
+     "passwordless policy ONLY when that field is non-empty, so every realm PUT would "
+     "be accepted with 204 and change nothing: reported success, zero convergence",
+     "    if not policy.get(RP_ENTITY_NAME):\n"
+     "        raise ValueError(",
+     "    if False:\n        raise ValueError("),
+
+    ("the RpEntityName gate removed from the write path",
+     "drop the second, defence-in-depth guard -- it is unreachable while the "
+     "desired-state validation holds, which is exactly why deleting it would otherwise "
+     "be an invisible regression",
+     "    if not body.get(RP_ENTITY_NAME):\n"
+     "        raise RuntimeError(",
+     "    if False:\n        raise RuntimeError("),
+
+    ("no readback verification on the policy write",
+     "trust the 204 -- a server that accepts the PUT and does not apply it is reported "
+     "as REPAIRED, which is 'reports success while the realm never converged' again, "
+     "and it is precisely what the RpEntityName gate does when it is missed",
+     "    still = policy_drift(after, wanted)",
+     "    still = {}"),
+
+    ("AAGUID comparison made order-sensitive",
+     "compare the AAGUID allow-list in the order Keycloak returns it -- an allow-list "
+     "is a set membership test, so an order-sensitive comparison rewrites a CONVERGED "
+     "realm on every run forever while every run still reports success",
+     "            if stored != sorted(declared_value):\n"
+     "                drift[key] = (stored, sorted(declared_value))",
+     "            if stored != declared_value:\n"
+     "                drift[key] = (stored, declared_value)"),
+
+    ("signature-algorithm order treated as insignificant",
+     "sort the signature algorithms before comparing -- it is a PREFERENCE LIST handed "
+     "to the authenticator, so ES256-then-RS256 is not the same declaration as "
+     "RS256-then-ES256, and a reorder in the realm would never be corrected",
+     "            if stored != list(declared_value):",
+     "            if sorted(stored) != sorted(declared_value):"),
+
+    ("unmanaged policy keys forced to a value",
+     "iterate every writable key instead of only the declared ones -- a "
+     "webAuthnPolicyPasswordless field the realm holds and git does not declare would "
+     "be overwritten, turning 'not declared' into 'must equal my default'",
+     "    for key in sorted(wanted):\n        declared_value = wanted[key]",
+     "    for key in POLICY_FIELDS:\n        declared_value = wanted.get(key, \"\")"),
+
+    # ------------------------------------------------------------------ required actions
+    ("required-action PUT sends only the two drifted fields",
+     "a minimal body looks safer -- but updateRequiredAction REPLACES the provider from "
+     "the representation, so name, priority and config are all blanked: the enrolment "
+     "action keeps working but loses its priority and display name",
+     "    body = dict(rep)\n    for key in drift:\n        body[key] = wanted[key]",
+     "    body = {}\n    for key in drift:\n        body[key] = wanted[key]"),
+
+    ("the guarded default required actions are no longer audited",
+     "stop checking that CONFIGURE_TOTP / UPDATE_PASSWORD / delete_credential still "
+     "exist -- their disappearance is the signature of a requiredActions block in the "
+     "realm import, which 26.0.6 treats as REPLACE, and it is a silent permanent "
+     "lock-out of every platform-admin",
+     "    missing = [a for a in GUARDED_ACTIONS if a not in aliases]",
+     "    missing = []"),
+
+    # ----------------------------------------------------------------- inputs / coupling
+    ("the three passes are coupled",
+     "abort the run at the first failing pass -- a policy write that fails for an "
+     "unrelated reason would then suppress the browser-flow pass, which is the most "
+     "safety-critical thing here",
+     "        problems.extend(found)\n        if found:\n            rc = 1",
+     "        problems.extend(found)\n        if found:\n            rc = 1\n"
+     "            break"),
+
+    ("policy-key validation removed from the desired state",
+     "accept any realm key from the ConfigMap -- an arbitrary realm attribute becomes "
+     "writable through a file edit, so a hand-edited ConfigMap could set sslRequired, "
+     "bruteForceProtected or any other top-level realm field on the live IdP",
+     "        if key not in POLICY_FIELDS:",
+     "        if False:"),
+
+    ("fail-open on an unreadable desired state",
+     "treat a missing ConfigMap as 'nothing declared' -- the run reports success while "
+     "reconciling nothing, which is precisely the fail-open of the realm import this "
+     "whole component exists to replace",
+     "    if not isinstance(raw, dict) or not raw:\n"
+     "        raise ValueError(\"%s does not hold a non-empty JSON object\" % path)",
+     "    if not isinstance(raw, dict) or not raw:\n        return {}"),
+
+    ("an undeclared authenticatorConfig reference is tolerated",
+     "stop validating that every configAlias a flow references is actually declared -- "
+     "the build then fails at the config-binding step, AFTER flows and executions have "
+     "already been created, leaving leftovers on every run",
+     "            if ca and ca not in configs:\n"
+     "                raise ValueError(",
+     "            if False:\n                raise ValueError("),
+
+    ("the flow-cycle guard is removed",
+     "drop the `seen` check -- a cyclic flow declaration then recurses until the "
+     "interpreter dies, in a CronJob that retries",
+     "        if alias in seen:\n"
+     "            raise ValueError(\"flow %r is cyclic in the desired state\" % alias)",
+     "        if False:\n"
+     "            raise ValueError(\"flow %r is cyclic in the desired state\" % alias)"),
+]
+
+
+def main() -> int:
+    if len(sys.argv) != 2:
+        print("usage: mutations.py <extracted-reconciler.py>", file=sys.stderr)
+        return 2
+    src = Path(sys.argv[1]).read_text()
+
+    problems: list[str] = []
+    killed = 0
+    for name, why, old, new in MUTATIONS:
+        # An anchor that no longer matches is a FAILURE, not a skip: it means the code
+        # moved and this mutation silently stopped proving anything.
+        n = src.count(old)
+        if n != 1:
+            problems.append("%s: anchor matches %d times (expected exactly 1) -- the "
+                            "code moved and this mutation no longer proves anything. "
+                            "Re-anchor it against the current source." % (name, n))
+            continue
+        with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile("w", suffix=".py", delete=False) as fh:
+            fh.write(src.replace(old, new, 1))
+            path = fh.name
+        try:
+            proc = subprocess.run([sys.executable, path, "--selftest"],
+                                  capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=300)
+        finally:
+            Path(path).unlink(missing_ok=True)
+        if proc.returncode == 0:
+            problems.append("%s SURVIVED -- --selftest still passed with this regression "
+                            "applied, so nothing in the suite actually checks it. The "
+                            "mistake it models: %s" % (name, why))
+            continue
+        killed += 1
+        out = proc.stdout + proc.stderr
+        m = re.search(r"SELFTEST FAIL: (\d+) of \d+", out)
+        how = ("%s assertion(s) caught it" % m.group(1) if m
+               else "the selftest aborted (caught, less cleanly)")
+        print("  killed  %-54s %s" % (name, how))
+
+    print()
+    if problems:
+        print("MUTATION CHECK FAIL: %d of %d mutation(s) not proven"
+              % (len(problems), len(MUTATIONS)), file=sys.stderr)
+        for p in problems:
+            print("  FAIL %s" % p, file=sys.stderr)
+        return 1
+    print("MUTATION CHECK OK: all %d injected regressions were caught by --selftest "
+          "(the suite is falsifiable, not decorative)" % killed)
+    return 0
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    raise SystemExit(main())
@@ -42,6 +42,19 @@
 #           whose every solver is an automated challenge type (dns01 / http01) — the
 #           same code path serves issuance AND renewal, so a solver a human must
 #           complete would defeat both;
+#       (5b) the ONE exception to (5) — WORKLOAD mTLS, added 2026-10-29 — is a Certificate
+#           annotated `homelab.keithjackson.dev/tls-scope: workload-mtls`. The spec's TLS
+#           requirements are about EXTERNALLY REACHABLE services (R-TLS-01; docs/08), and
+#           ADR-0006 says outright that "mTLS between workloads is a separate concern … not
+#           covered here". A public ACME CA cannot issue for a `*.svc.cluster.local` name or a
+#           client-auth certificate at all. The annotation is NOT trusted: an exempt
+#           Certificate must PROVE it is workload-internal — its Secret is served by NO Gateway
+#           listener, every DNS name / commonName is cluster-internal (a bare label or
+#           `*.svc[.cluster.local]`), it carries no IP/URI/email SANs, and its issuer is a
+#           NAMESPACED Issuer in its own namespace whose spec is `selfSigned` or a `ca` backed
+#           by a Secret that a tracked, likewise-exempt Certificate produces. Issuance and
+#           renewal stay unattended (cert-manager renews CA-issued certs itself), and (9)
+#           still applies. Every exemption is printed. First user: platform/buildkit.
 #       (6) each dns01 solver's provider credential is referenced BY NAME and that
 #           Secret is delivered SOPS-encrypted from git via a kustomization — the
 #           operator's one-time token hand-off (docs/08 OQ-4), never a per-cert step;
@@ -265,6 +278,7 @@ CERT_SECRETS: dict[tuple[str, str], str] = {           # (namespace, secretName)
    for rel, d in CERTS
 }
 listeners_checked = 0
+GATEWAY_SECRETS: set[tuple[str, str]] = set()          # every (namespace, Secret) a listener serves
 for rel, gw in of_kind("Gateway", "gateway.networking.k8s.io/"):
    gw_ns = ns_of(gw)
    for lis in ((gw.get("spec") or {}).get("listeners") or []):
@@ -280,6 +294,7 @@ for rel, gw in of_kind("Gateway", "gateway.networking.k8s.io/"):
        for r in refs:
            kind = str(r.get("kind", "Secret"))
            key = (str(r.get("namespace") or gw_ns), str(r.get("name")))
+            GATEWAY_SECRETS.add(key)
            check(kind == "Secret",
                  f"{rel}: listener {lis.get('name')!r} certificateRef kind is {kind!r}; only "
                  "Secret refs can be traced to a cert-manager Certificate")
@@ -324,8 +339,61 @@ CM_NS = ns_of(cm_releases[0][1], "cert-manager") if cm_releases else "cert-manag
 ISSUER_INDEX = {(d.get("kind"), name_of(d)): (rel, d) for rel, d in ISSUERS}
 solver_creds: list[tuple[str, str, str, str]] = []     # (issuer, ns, secretName, ref field)
 issuers_verified: set[str] = set()
+
+# (5b) workload-mTLS exemption — see the header. Proven, never taken on trust.
+SCOPE_ANN = "homelab.keithjackson.dev/tls-scope"
+INTERNAL_NAME = re.compile(r"^[a-z0-9]([a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?(\.[a-z0-9]([a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?)*$")
+NS_ISSUERS = {(ns_of(d), name_of(d)): (rel, d) for rel, d in of_kind("Issuer", "cert-manager.io/")}
+EXEMPT_SECRETS = {(ns_of(d), str((d.get("spec") or {}).get("secretName", "")))
+                  for _, d in CERTS
+                  if ((d.get("metadata") or {}).get("annotations") or {}).get(SCOPE_ANN) == "workload-mtls"}
+exempted: list[str] = []
+
+def workload_mtls_ok(rel: str, cert: dict) -> bool:
+    """True if `cert` claims the workload-mTLS scope AND proves it; records failures."""
+    ann = ((cert.get("metadata") or {}).get("annotations") or {}).get(SCOPE_ANN)
+    if ann is None:
+        return False
+    cns, cname = ns_of(cert), name_of(cert)
+    spec = cert.get("spec") or {}
+    ok = True
+    def need(cond, msg):
+        nonlocal ok
+        check(cond, f"{rel}: Certificate {cns}/{cname} claims {SCOPE_ANN}={ann!r} but {msg}")
+        ok = ok and bool(cond)
+    need(ann == "workload-mtls", "the only accepted value is 'workload-mtls'")
+    need((cns, str(spec.get("secretName", ""))) not in GATEWAY_SECRETS,
+         "its Secret is served by a Gateway listener — that is external TLS, which must be ACME (R-TLS-01)")
+    names = [str(n) for n in (spec.get("dnsNames") or [])]
+    if spec.get("commonName"):
+        names.append(str(spec["commonName"]))
+    for n in names:
+        internal = INTERNAL_NAME.match(n) and ("." not in n or n.endswith(".svc") or n.endswith(".svc.cluster.local"))
+        need(bool(internal), f"name {n!r} is not cluster-internal (bare label or *.svc[.cluster.local])")
+    for f in ("ipAddresses", "uris", "emailAddresses"):
+        need(not spec.get(f), f"it carries {f}, which a workload-internal certificate has no use for")
+    ref = spec.get("issuerRef") or {}
+    need(str(ref.get("kind", "Issuer")) == "Issuer",
+         "its issuer is not a NAMESPACED Issuer — a ClusterIssuer could sign for any namespace")
+    hit = NS_ISSUERS.get((cns, str(ref.get("name", ""))))
+    need(hit is not None, f"its Issuer {ref.get('name')!r} is not tracked in namespace {cns!r}")
+    if hit is not None:
+        ispec = hit[1].get("spec") or {}
+        kinds = sorted(ispec)
+        need(kinds in (["selfSigned"], ["ca"]),
+             f"its Issuer is {kinds} — only selfSigned or ca are accepted for workload mTLS")
+        if kinds == ["ca"]:
+            need((cns, str((ispec.get("ca") or {}).get("secretName", ""))) in EXEMPT_SECRETS,
+                 "its CA Issuer's Secret is not produced by a tracked workload-mtls Certificate "
+                 "in the same namespace — the CA itself would have to be minted by hand")
+    if ok:
+        exempted.append(f"{cns}/{cname}")
+    return ok
+
 for rel, cert in CERTS:
    spec = cert.get("spec") or {}
+    if workload_mtls_ok(rel, cert):
+        continue          # (5b): proven workload-internal; (9) below still applies
    ref = spec.get("issuerRef") or {}
    kind = str(ref.get("kind", "Issuer"))
    per_env = resolve_per_env(str(ref.get("name", "")))
@@ -379,6 +447,8 @@ for rel, cert in CERTS:
                            solver_creds.append((iname, want_ns, n, f"{provider}.{field}"))

 check(len(issuers_verified) > 0, "no issuer was reachable from any Certificate — (5) proved nothing")
+if exempted:
+    print(f"  (5b) workload-mTLS certificates exempted from ACME after proving it: {', '.join(exempted)}")

 # (6) the solver credential is delivered, SOPS-encrypted, from git — never per-cert by hand.
 check(len(solver_creds) > 0,
@@ -171,6 +171,27 @@ spec:
      - port: '4180'
        protocol: TCP
 ---
+# CiliumNetworkPolicy monitoring scrape ingress allow (R-NET-02/R-OBS-01): paas-demo-allow-monitoring-scrape
+apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
+kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
+metadata:
+  name: paas-demo-allow-monitoring-scrape
+  namespace: paas-demo
+  labels:
+    app.kubernetes.io/name: paas-demo
+spec:
+  endpointSelector:
+    matchLabels:
+      app.kubernetes.io/name: paas-demo
+  ingress:
+  - fromEndpoints:
+    - matchLabels:
+        k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace: monitoring
+    toPorts:
+    - ports:
+      - port: '44180'
+        protocol: TCP
+---
 # CiliumNetworkPolicy world egress allow (egress class governs the path; R-NET-05): paas-demo-allow-internet-egress
 apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
 kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
@@ -198,6 +198,27 @@ spec:
      - port: '4180'
        protocol: TCP
 ---
+# CiliumNetworkPolicy monitoring scrape ingress allow (R-NET-02/R-OBS-01): sonarr-allow-monitoring-scrape
+apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
+kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
+metadata:
+  name: sonarr-allow-monitoring-scrape
+  namespace: sonarr
+  labels:
+    app.kubernetes.io/name: sonarr
+spec:
+  endpointSelector:
+    matchLabels:
+      app.kubernetes.io/name: sonarr
+  ingress:
+  - fromEndpoints:
+    - matchLabels:
+        k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace: monitoring
+    toPorts:
+    - ports:
+      - port: '44180'
+        protocol: TCP
+---
 # CiliumNetworkPolicy world egress allow (egress class governs the path; R-NET-05): sonarr-allow-internet-egress
 apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
 kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
@@ -198,6 +198,27 @@ spec:
      - port: '4180'
        protocol: TCP
 ---
+# CiliumNetworkPolicy monitoring scrape ingress allow (R-NET-02/R-OBS-01): sonarr-allow-monitoring-scrape
+apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
+kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
+metadata:
+  name: sonarr-allow-monitoring-scrape
+  namespace: sonarr
+  labels:
+    app.kubernetes.io/name: sonarr
+spec:
+  endpointSelector:
+    matchLabels:
+      app.kubernetes.io/name: sonarr
+  ingress:
+  - fromEndpoints:
+    - matchLabels:
+        k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace: monitoring
+    toPorts:
+    - ports:
+      - port: '44180'
+        protocol: TCP
+---
 # CiliumNetworkPolicy world egress allow (egress class governs the path; R-NET-05): sonarr-allow-internet-egress
 apiVersion: cilium.io/v2
 kind: CiliumNetworkPolicy
@@ -40,32 +40,29 @@ PYTHON_MIN="3.9"
 #   gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner@sha256:*
 # Any other path, and any TAG reference, is DENIED at admission. Do not "tidy" these values.
 CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_REPO="gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner"
-# Build handle only. Admission never sees the tag; a Job must reference the digest.
+# Local build handle only. Admission never sees the tag; a Job must reference the digest.
+# CI publishes under `sha-<commit>` and `main` instead (.gitea/workflows/images.yaml).
 CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_TAG="chainsaw0.2.12-kubectl1.36.4-fc44"
 #
 # ############################################################################
-# # DIGEST DELIBERATELY EMPTY — THE IMAGE HAS NOT BEEN PUBLISHED YET.        #
+# # THE DIGEST IS WRITTEN BY RENOVATE, NOT BY HAND.                          #
 # ############################################################################
-# The image has been BUILT and its toolchain verified locally (non-root uid 65532,
-# read-only rootfs: bash 5.3.9, Python 3.14.7, git 2.55.0, kubectl v1.36.4, chainsaw 0.2.12,
-# and `./run.sh --layer l2 --no-cluster` completing with rc 0). It has NOT been pushed:
-# pushing needs a registry credential, and publishing the artifact a fail-closed security
-# boundary then trusts is an OPERATOR action, not an agent's.
+# CI builds and verifies the image (non-root uid 65532, read-only rootfs, the
+# conformance-clone refusals) and, on a push to main, publishes it and prints the digest the
+# REGISTRY returned (.gitea/workflows/images.yaml). Renovate follows the image's `main` tag
+# through the marker below and opens the pull request that moves this value. Nobody pushes
+# this image from a workstation, and nobody pastes a digest here.
 #
-# OPERATOR, to complete the pin:
-#   1. ./conformance/incluster/build-image.sh          # rebuild, verify, print the commands
-#   2. podman login gitea.home.keithjackson.dev
-#   3. podman push --digestfile /tmp/conformance-runner.digest \
-#        "${CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_REPO}:${CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_TAG}"
-#   4. Set CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_DIGEST below to `cat /tmp/conformance-runner.digest`
-#      — the digest the REGISTRY returned, not the local manifest digest the build printed.
-#   5. Land steps 4 in a PR (this file is GitOps input, not a live edit).
-#
-# UNTIL THEN: this is empty on purpose, NOT a placeholder to be guessed at. An empty value
-# makes any consumer that renders the Job fail visibly; a fake or stale digest would instead
-# produce an ImagePullBackOff that looks like a cluster fault. Do not invent one.
-CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_DIGEST=""
-CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE="${CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_DIGEST:+${CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_REPO}@${CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_DIGEST}}"
+# ALL-ZERO UNTIL THE FIRST PUBLISH. Before 2026-10-29 this was EMPTY, so that a consumer
+# rendering the Job would fail visibly. It is now the same impossible all-zero digest
+# platform/pm-agent/ uses, because Renovate can only replace a digest that is there to match.
+# A consumer MUST treat the all-zero value as "not published" (no consumer exists yet: the
+# L2/L3 trigger is unwired, docs/plans/l2-l3-conformance-ci-wiring.md). Note also that
+# chainsaw-job.yaml's @@CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_DIGEST@@ takes the 64 hex digits WITHOUT the
+# `sha256:` prefix this value carries — the trigger must strip it.
+# renovate-digest: image=gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/conformance-runner tag=main
+CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_DIGEST="sha256:65cc7c1ab576fe8cdf45e7f68c7cf4eb5ce7e0db46e62191f6190c51610b20d9"
+CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE="${CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_REPO}@${CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_DIGEST}"
 #
 # AFTERWARDS, TIGHTEN THE BOUNDARY: the header of conformance-trigger-job-shape.yaml asks for
 # its `@sha256:*` wildcard to be replaced with the LITERAL digest once the image exists —
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-03
+branch: fix/cilium-cgroup-hostroot
+title: Cilium socket-LB never covered host processes — cgroup.hostRoot pointed at an unmounted path
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+`cgroup.hostRoot` changes from `/run/cilium/cgroupv2` to `/sys/fs/cgroup` in all three parity
+copies: `platform/cilium/helmrelease.yaml` (authoritative), `platform/cilium/values.yaml`
+(mirror) and `infra/ansible/roles/cilium/templates/cilium-values.yaml.j2` (bootstrap).
+`autoMount` stays `false`.
+
+**The defect.** With `autoMount: false`, the Cilium chart only bind-mounts whatever exists at
+`hostRoot`, and expects the operator to have mounted cgroup2 there (cilium 1.20.1 values.yaml).
+The repo's rationale was "k3s provides the cgroupv2 mount". That is true only for
+`/sys/fs/cgroup`. Nothing mounts cgroup2 at `/run/cilium/cgroupv2` on these nodes; it is an
+empty `DirectoryOrCreate` hostPath. So the agent mounted cgroup2 there itself, from inside its
+own private cgroup namespace, and that mount's root is the agent container's own leaf cgroup.
+The socket-LB programs (`cil_sock4_connect` etc.) were attached to it and covered only the
+agent.
+
+**The consequence.** Every other host-netns process got no Service/LB translation:
+- Service ClusterIPs were unreachable from every node's host.
+- The node holding the Gateway's L2 lease could not reach the Gateway VIP (`no route to host`).
+  Other nodes reached it only because their packets crossed the wire to the lease holder, where
+  the tc datapath handles them.
+- k3s-prod-1 holds both the Gateway lease and the kube-vip API VIP. Its apiserver could not reach
+  the OIDC issuer, logging `oidc: authenticator not initialized` since at least 2026-09-12
+  (899 occurrences by 2026-10-03). kubectl SSO through the VIP therefore failed, and in-cluster
+  OIDC clients failed on whichever calls landed on that apiserver.
+- Webhooks and aggregated APIs were unaffected only because k3s runs
+  `--enable-aggregator-routing=true` (endpoint IPs, not ClusterIPs).
+
+Cilium's own source (v1.20.1 `bpf/bpf_sock.c`, `__sock4_xlate_fwd`) handles exactly this case
+when the hook does run: a host-netns connect to an L7-LB Service (the Gateway) is rewritten to
+`127.0.0.1:<l7_lb_proxy_port>`, the local Envoy listener. The fix is to make the hook cover the
+host.
+
+## What I verified
+
+- `cilium-dbg status --verbose` on k3s-prod-1: `Socket LB: Enabled`, `Coverage: Hostns-only`.
+  The live cilium-config shows `bpf-lb-sock=false`, but socket LB is implied by kube-proxy
+  replacement. The Gateway Service frontends `192.168.2.20:{80,443}` and
+  `10.43.225.79:{80,443}` map to `127.0.0.1:14337`.
+- Host: `findmnt /run/cilium/cgroupv2` is empty on all three nodes, and `/sys/fs/cgroup` is
+  `cgroup2`.
+- In the agent: `/run/cilium/cgroupv2` is a `cgroup2 none` mount, the agent's own cgroup reads
+  `0::/`, the mount has 0 child cgroups, and `bpftool cgroup show /run/cilium/cgroupv2` lists all
+  `cil_sock*` programs. k3s runs in `0::/system.slice/k3s.service`, and the agent container in
+  `/kubepods.slice/…/cri-containerd-3ad04cde….scope`.
+- **The decisive test**, run on k3s-prod-1 in the same netns: raw TCP connect to
+  `192.168.2.20:443`, `10.43.225.79:443` and `10.43.59.141:8080` CONNECTED from inside the agent
+  container (covered cgroup) and FAILED from the host (`No route to host` / timeout).
+- Blast radius: host-network pods are cilium, cilium-envoy, cilium-operator (API via
+  `192.168.2.9:6443`, not a Service), kube-vip (`127.0.0.1:6443`, `svc_enable=false`) and
+  node-exporter (no outbound). Nothing depends on host Service translation being absent; the
+  change only makes Service/LB addresses reachable from the host where they currently fail.
+- `helm template cilium/cilium --version 1.20.1` with the new values, in the toolbox: the
+  DaemonSet bind-mounts hostPath `/sys/fs/cgroup` into `cilium-agent` and `clean-cilium-state`,
+  the cilium-config shows `cgroup-root: "/sys/fs/cgroup"`, and the init containers are unchanged
+  (no `mount-cgroup`).
+- Toolbox gate: see the PR description.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **The rollout itself.** After merge, the agent DaemonSet rolls one node at a time
+  (`maxUnavailable: 1`). On each node, afterwards: host TCP connects to the three targets above
+  must succeed. On k3s-prod-1, the apiserver's background OIDC init retry must stop logging
+  `authenticator not initialized` with no k3s restart.
+- That the old programs, attached to the previous agent container's cgroup, disappear with it.
+  Expected, because cgroup BPF attachments die with the cgroup, but not observed.
+- An end-to-end kubectl OIDC login (needs a browser).
+- No regression test was added. A natural one is an L2 conformance check that a host-netns
+  connect to the Gateway VIP succeeds on the lease holder, but `conformance/**` is a sensitive
+  path. Left as a follow-up.
@@ -0,0 +1,157 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-04
+branch: feat/hubble-flow-export-plex
+title: Record the pre-SNAT client address for Plex via Hubble static flow export, instead of breaking externalTrafficPolicy to get it
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+Operator requirement, narrowed explicitly: **this is 100% about log visibility** — knowing which
+address connected to Plex. Not bandwidth metering, which does not matter here.
+
+**The problem, measured.** Plex's own log cannot show it. Every LoadBalancer Service in this cluster
+is `externalTrafficPolicy: Cluster`, so the node holding the L2 lease for the VIP SNATs the client
+before forwarding to the backend pod:
+
+| Measured 2026-10-04 | Value |
+|---|---|
+| Node announcing `192.168.2.24` | `k3s-prod-3` (also holds `.20` Gateway, `.23` pihole-dns) |
+| Node running the Plex pod | `k3s-prod-1` (`10.0.0.135`) |
+| Sources in Plex's log | **3,214 × `10.0.1.x`**, 105 × `10.0.2.x`, 120 × loopback |
+| `192.168.x` sources in Plex's log, ever | **0** |
+| `X-Forwarded-For` in Plex's log | **0** (it serves raw tcp/32400, not HTTP via the Gateway) |
+| `10.0.1.78` identity (`cilium-dbg bpf ipcache`) | `identity=1` → `reserved:host` = prod-3 itself |
+
+**Nothing on the router is involved** — the operator correctly pointed out there is no hairpin NAT
+here. The rewrite is entirely in-cluster, done by Cilium's BPF load-balancer on the lease holder,
+because the backend pod is on a different node.
+
+**The address is not lost, only unrecorded.** Cilium observes the flow at ingress, *before* its own
+translation, so Hubble already holds the true source:
+
+    192.168.2.133 -> 10.0.0.135    (real LAN client -> the Plex pod)
+    10.0.1.78     -> 10.0.0.135    (the same traffic post-SNAT — what Plex sees)
+
+What was missing is **retention**: the ring buffer was **4095/4095 flows at ~303 flows/s — about
+thirteen seconds of history** — with hubble metrics disabled and no exporter configured.
+
+So: enable the static flow exporter, scoped to Plex's port, writing to the agent's stdout.
+
+- **`platform/cilium/helmrelease.yaml`** (authoritative): `hubble.export.static.enabled: true`,
+  `filePath: stdout`, `allowList` of `{"destination_port":["32400"]}` and
+  `{"source_port":["32400"]}`.
+- **`platform/cilium/values.yaml`** (reference mirror) and
+  **`infra/ansible/roles/cilium/templates/cilium-values.yaml.j2`** (the `[parity]` source of truth):
+  the same block, so a bootstrap render does not differ from what Flux reconciles — a mismatch would
+  be a permanent Helm diff and an avoidable agent rollout.
+
+**`filePath: stdout`, not a file,** because Grafana Alloy already runs as a DaemonSet tailing every
+pod's logs into Loki (`platform/monitoring/alloy.yaml`). stdout therefore reaches Loki with **no new
+hostPath mount, no file-rotation handling, and no Alloy change at all**. Upstream documents the
+value: *"To get Hubble flows directly exported to the logs instead of written to a rotated file,
+`stdout` can be defined as `hubble-export-file-path`."* Query:
+
+    {namespace="kube-system", app="cilium"} |= "32400"
+
+**SCOPED BY PORT, NOT BY NAMESPACE — a measured decision, not a preference.** A
+`--to-namespace plex` query returned **only the post-SNAT flows**; the flow carrying the real client
+address did not match it, because at the point of observation the destination identity is not yet
+resolved to the plex pod. A namespace filter would have dropped exactly the record this change
+exists to capture.
+
+**WHY NOT FIX THE SNAT INSTEAD — both alternatives rejected on evidence.**
+- `externalTrafficPolicy: Local` would put the real address in Plex's own log, but cilium 1.20's L2
+  announcer is **explicitly incompatible** with it. Upstream docs for this exact version:
+  *"incompatible with the `externalTrafficPolicy: Local` on services as it may cause service IPs to
+  be announced on nodes without pods causing traffic drops"* and *"L2 announcements isn't currently
+  aware of this setting"*. Live proof it is not theoretical: the VIP is announced by prod-3 while the
+  pod runs on prod-1, so the flip would black-hole tcp/32400 **immediately**. Making it safe means
+  pinning both the pod and the announcement to one node and surrendering Plex's ability to
+  reschedule — a real availability loss to buy a log field. Same trap
+  `platform/crafty/service-l4.yaml` documents from an 8-day Minecraft outage.
+- **DSR** also preserves the client address, but `routing-mode` here is **vxlan**, not
+  native/geneve, and DSR returns bypass the ingress node, which breaks the SOHO router's stateful
+  NAT on the remote path. Cluster-wide blast radius across all eight LB Services for one service's
+  logging.
+
+**A correction to the repo's own record.** `decisions/2026-10-03-plex-remote-access-l4.md` states the
+SNAT puts the client inside `192.168.0.0/16` (the ingress node's LAN address), and I repeated that in
+the previous entry. **It is wrong**: measured, the SNAT source is `10.0.1.x` — the node's
+`cilium_host` inside the pod CIDR. This matters, because it means `LanNetworksBandwidth` can never
+discriminate local from remote while eTP is `Cluster`: `10.0.0.0/8` must be in the LAN set for the
+in-cluster consumers (Seerr) to count as local, and every external client arrives in that same range.
+PR #48's LAN definition therefore fixes the Remote badge by making *everything* local — acceptable
+only because metering is explicitly not a goal here.
+
+## What I verified
+
+Live prod, 2026-10-04, read-only.
+
+- **Every measurement in the table above**, including the VIP-lease-to-node map
+  (`cilium-dbg shell -- db/show l2-announce` on all three agents) and the pod's node.
+- **Hubble already carries the pre-SNAT source** — the single finding this whole approach rests on:
+  `hubble observe --port 32400` on the lease holder returned `192.168.2.133 -> 10.0.0.135` **and**
+  its return flow, alongside the post-SNAT `10.0.1.78 -> 10.0.0.135`.
+- **The retention gap is real:** `cilium-dbg status` reported `Hubble: Ok  Current/Max Flows:
+  4095/4095 (100.00%), Flows/s: 303.62  Metrics: Disabled`, and the `cilium-config` ConfigMap
+  contains no `hubble-export-*` key at all.
+- **The namespace-filter trap**, directly: `--to-namespace plex` returned only `10.0.1.78` and
+  `10.0.1.71`; the `192.168.2.133` flow was absent. This is why the allowList is port-scoped.
+- **All eight LoadBalancer Services are `eTP=Cluster`** (crafty ×2, gateway, pihole-dns ×2, plex,
+  unifi ×2) — so this is a cluster-wide pattern, not a Plex-specific choice.
+- **The eTP:Local incompatibility is upstream-documented for v1.20 specifically**, quoted above from
+  the docs for the running version — not inferred from the crafty incident.
+- **`routing-mode: tunnel`** and **`bpf-lb-mode-annotation: false`** in the live `cilium-config`,
+  which is what rules DSR out.
+- **The chart's value paths and defaults**, read from cilium v1.20.1's own `values.yaml`:
+  `hubble.export.static.{enabled,filePath,fieldMask,fieldAggregate,aggregationInterval,allowList,denyList,fileMaxSizeMb,fileMaxBackups,fileCompress}`,
+  with `filePath` defaulting to `/var/run/cilium/hubble/events.log`. The keys used here exist.
+- **Alloy's pipeline shape**, read from `platform/monitoring/alloy.yaml`: a DaemonSet with
+  `loki.source.kubernetes "pods"` → `loki.process` → `loki.write` at
+  `http://loki.monitoring.svc.cluster.local:3100`. It already tails kube-system pods, which is why
+  stdout needs no Alloy change.
+- **All three value files agree** (one `destination_port` occurrence each) and both YAML files parse,
+  with `export.static` resolving to the intended object.
+- **Toolbox gate**: **rc 3**, with `spec-immutability`, `decisions-log`, `lint`, `l0`,
+  `render-golden`, `l1` and `approval-policy` all **pass**; rc 3 is the two known environmental skips
+  (`gitea-settings` — no local `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN`; `conformance` L2/L3 — `CLUSTER_AVAILABLE`
+  unset). **Not green. Reported as rc 3.**
+- **No sensitive paths touched** — `platform/cilium/**` and `infra/ansible/**` are not in
+  `infra/gitea/approval-policy.json`, so this needs no approval override, unlike PR #48.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **THE OUTCOME. Nothing has been reconciled and no flow has ever been exported.** `cilium-config`
+  still has no `hubble-export-*` key. Every claim is about inputs.
+- **Whether `filePath: stdout` is accepted as written.** This is the single largest risk. The value
+  comes from a verbatim upstream doc sentence (*"`stdout` can be defined as
+  `hubble-export-file-path`"*), but I did not confirm the exact notation in cilium 1.20.1's source,
+  and the chart default is a real filesystem path. If the literal string is not special-cased, the
+  agent may create a FILE named `stdout` in its working directory and nothing reaches Loki — a
+  silent no-op, not a crash. **Fallback if so:** leave `filePath` at the chart default and add a
+  `local.file_match` + `loki.source.file` target to Alloy with a hostPath mount for
+  `/var/run/cilium/hubble`.
+- **Whether the FlowFilter JSON is accepted.** `{"destination_port":["32400"]}` follows the proto
+  (`destination_port` is a repeated string) and the documented shape (`'{"verdict":["DROPPED"]}'`),
+  but upstream gives **no port example** and I did not validate it against the running agent. A
+  malformed filter could be rejected — or, worse, be silently treated as "no match" and export
+  nothing.
+- **THIS CHANGE ROLLS CILIUM.** Editing the HelmRelease restarts the agent DaemonSet across all
+  three nodes. BPF maps are preserved so established traffic should survive, but prod-3 currently
+  announces the Gateway VIP, **PiHole's DNS VIP** and Plex's VIP, so a lease change during the
+  rollout could briefly interrupt LAN DNS for the whole house. Not measured, and worth doing at a
+  quiet moment.
+- **Log volume in practice.** Estimated "a few hundred to a few thousand lines a day" from the
+  observed request counts; never measured as flows. Both directions are exported and no `fieldMask`
+  is set, so each record is a full flow object. If it is noisy, narrow with `fieldMask` rather than
+  by dropping a filter.
+- **Loki's retention for this data**, and whether the `{namespace="kube-system", app="cilium"}` label
+  set actually matches (it depends on the cilium pods carrying
+  `app.kubernetes.io/name`, which Alloy maps to `app` — I did not confirm that label exists on the
+  cilium DaemonSet pods). The query in the comment may need adjusting to `pod=~"cilium-.*"`.
+- **That the exported flow actually contains the pre-SNAT address.** Hubble's *live* stream does
+  (measured). I am assuming the exporter sees the same flow objects; I did not confirm the exporter
+  is not fed a post-translation view.
+- **The parity convention has no automated check.** I kept all three files in sync by hand because
+  the comments demand it; nothing in `ci/` or `conformance/` verifies cilium Helm↔Ansible parity, so
+  a future edit can still drift them silently.
@@ -0,0 +1,155 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-04
+branch: fix/oauth2-sidecar-metrics-scrape-netpol
+title: The forward-auth gate sidecars' /metrics was NetworkPolicy-blocked — the renderer now opens 44180 to ns monitoring
+---
+
+> **Added 2026-10-05, after merge:** the top item under *What I did NOT verify* below — "that the
+> scrape now succeeds" — **has since been verified on prod**. All 6 targets read `up == 1`. The
+> original text is left exactly as written; the measurements are in
+> [[2026-10-05-oauth2-sidecar-scrape-verified]].
+
+## What changed
+
+`catalog/render.py`'s `r_monitoring_ingress_policy` now emits its CiliumNetworkPolicy for a
+**second** reason: the forward-auth gate sidecar's own `/metrics` port (44180), keyed on
+`_needs_oauth2_sidecar(s)`. Previously it fired only from `observability.metricsEndpoint`.
+
+That matters more than it sounds, because **no ServiceDefinition in this catalog declares a
+`metricsEndpoint`** (measured: zero grep hits across `catalog/*.yaml`). So the function was wired
+in at the call site and had **never emitted a single object on any branch** — correct, and
+entirely latent. Its presence in the tree read as "scrape ingress is handled". It was not.
+
+Re-rendered `apps/` from that change: five new CNPs, one per forward-auth app
+(`jackett`, `pihole`, `qbittorrent`, `radarr`, `sonarr`), each opening **only** 44180 to **only**
+`fromEndpoints: [k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace: monitoring]`.
+
+The bug being fixed: `platform/oauth2-proxy/podmonitor.yaml` landed 2026-10-02T04:58:44Z and
+discovered 6 targets that have **never once scraped successfully**. Each app namespace ships a
+`default-deny` NetworkPolicy with `policyTypes: [Ingress, Egress]` and **no `ingress` key at all**
+— deny-all-ingress in NetworkPolicy semantics — and the only ingress allowance is
+`<app>-allow-gateway-ingress`: `fromEntities: [ingress]` to port 4180. Prometheus matched no
+clause, so its packets were dropped.
+
+Two deliberate choices, both recorded in the function's docstring:
+
+- **Clause 2 keys on `_needs_oauth2_sidecar`, not on `observability.metrics`.** It has to match
+  the condition the *scrape* keys on: `podmonitor.yaml` selects pods by the
+  `homelab.keithjackson.dev/auth-mode: forward-auth` pod label and nothing else, so a target
+  exists iff the sidecar exists. Keying on `observability.metrics` would let `metrics: false`
+  produce a discovered-but-blocked target — the same "two halves authored apart" failure this
+  function exists to prevent, moved one field over.
+- **The policy is rendered here, not added to `platform/oauth2-proxy/`.** podmonitor.yaml's own
+  header records why that tier cannot host it: it would name app namespaces created by the
+  *sibling* `apps-wave-0/1` tiers, so it would apply on a running cluster and fail on a cold
+  bootstrap. Rendered per-app it ships in the same tier that creates the namespace.
+
+## What I verified
+
+Measured on prod 2026-10-04, read-only, via the pinned toolbox:
+
+- **The cause, not a guess.** All 6 sidecar targets in pool
+  `podMonitor/oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy-sidecars/0`: `health=down`,
+  `lastError: context deadline exceeded`, `lastScrapeDuration` exactly `10.0s` — the configured
+  `scrapeTimeout`. Hitting the timeout precisely means packets **dropped, not refused**.
+- **The listener is fine.** jackett's `oauth2-proxy` container carries
+  `--metrics-address=0.0.0.0:44180` and a named port `metrics: 44180`.
+- **The deny is universal.** All six namespaces (`jackett radarr sonarr qbittorrent pihole
+  crafty`): `default-deny` with `ingress` key absent, `nIngress=0`; the only ingress CNP allowance
+  is 4180 `fromEntities: [ingress]`. **Zero** namespaces had any `-allow-monitoring-scrape` object.
+- **Frequency.** Single continuous episode, no flapping: `ALERTS_FOR_STATE` = 229343s (63.7h),
+  firing since 2026-10-02 05:09 UTC — 11 minutes after the PodMonitor was created, i.e. TargetDown's
+  `for: 10m`. A 15-day `query_range` shows **1 episode** per namespace, not many. Alertmanager:
+  `group_by: [alertname, namespace]`, `repeat_interval: 12h` on `email-warning` → 5 TargetDown
+  groups = 10 emails/day, plus 6 `OAuth2ProxyGateUnobserved` groups = 12/day, ~22/day total.
+  0 silences.
+- **The re-render is deterministic and the diff is exactly the intended one.** `apps/` is
+  byte-identical to `render.py --all catalog -o apps --wave-layout --no-image-automation`
+  (12/12 SAME before my edit; the 11-file "drift" against a default render is solely the
+  ImageRepository/ImagePolicy pair, which `apps/` is generated without). After the edit:
+  5 files changed, +21 lines each, nothing else touched.
+- `render.py --selftest`: **PASS**.
+- **Three L1 goldens needed regenerating, and the diff is +63 lines / -0.** The first gate run
+  caught `container-workload-render` (R-PLAT-02) and `egress-class-render` (R-NET-05/06/07) as
+  FAIL with exactly the new CNP as the drift. Regenerated with the same invocations the checks
+  use (`render.py <fixture>`, no flags). Evidence the regen is faithful rather than a rubber
+  stamp: `default-deny-baseline-render`'s golden came back **byte-identical** (its fixture is not
+  forward-auth), and the other three gained only the one CNP, port 44180, ns monitoring.
+- Toolbox gate `./infra/devcontainer/dev.sh run bash -c './ci/gate.sh'`: **rc 3 — UNDETERMINED,
+  NOT rc 0, and I am not reporting it as green.** Every stage that ran is green
+  (spec-immutability, approval-policy, decisions-log, lint, l0, render-golden, l1); `l1` went
+  FAIL -> pass once the goldens were regenerated. The gate's own words: "Stages that did not run:
+  gitea-settings" — skipped for want of `GITEA_SETTINGS_TOKEN`, which is an environment gap on
+  every local run and unrelated to this change. L2/L3 conformance is a `[warn]`, not a not-run
+  stage: UNVERIFIED for all 8 touched requirements (R-GITOPS-02 R-IDP-02 R-IDP-06 R-NET-01
+  R-NET-05 R-NET-06 R-NET-07 R-PLAT-02), no cluster.
+- `--emit-waves` was **not** run (it re-onboards `vm-demo` + `keycloak`); only the per-service
+  render path was used, so no wave kustomization changed.
+
+## This PR needs a human approval (sensitive path) — MEASURED, not predicted
+
+CI run #230 on PR #49, head `f9446be3`: **`MERGE GATE: BLOCKED`, and `approval-policy` is the ONLY
+failing stage.** Read from the job log, not from the status tick:
+
+    [skip] stage spec-immutability: SKIPPED (not run)   <- sibling spec repo absent in CI; expected
+    [ ok ] stage decisions-log: pass
+    [ ok ] stage lint: pass
+    [ ok ] stage l0: pass
+    [ ok ] stage render-golden: pass
+    [ ok ] stage l1: pass
+    [fail] stage approval-policy: FAIL
+    [ ok ] stage gitea-settings: pass                   <- could NOT run locally; green in CI
+    [skip] stage conformance: SKIPPED (not run)
+
+    sensitive paths touched:
+      conformance/tests/l1-rendering/container-workload-render/golden/expected.yaml
+      conformance/tests/l1-rendering/egress-class-render/golden/egress-internet.expected.yaml
+      conformance/tests/l1-rendering/egress-class-render/golden/egress-vpn.expected.yaml
+
+Exactly the three regenerated goldens, nothing else. `l1` and `render-golden` both pass in CI,
+which is the independent confirmation that the regenerated goldens are right rather than merely
+self-consistent with my local run.
+
+One local-reproduction note worth recording, because it wasted a step: running
+`PR_NUMBER=49 SETTINGS_API_TOKEN=... ci/approval-policy.sh` with the credential from
+`git credential fill` reports `could not determine PR author — BLOCKING`. That is an **artifact**,
+not a finding — `~/.git-credentials` holds a *password*, and `Authorization: token <password>`
+returns 401 `user does not exist [uid: 0]`. The stage needs a real API token. I nearly reported
+that 401 as the CI failure; the job log is what settled it.
+
+Regenerating the L1 goldens means this branch touches `conformance/**`, which is in
+`sensitive_paths` in `infra/gitea/approval-policy.json` ("the tests and the harness; changing them
+changes what green MEANS"). So `ci/approval-policy.sh` will require an approving review from a
+non-author, and the local gate **cannot** see that: it reports `approval-policy: green` because
+offline it evaluates N/A.
+
+The golden update is not optional — a renderer change that adds an object necessarily drifts the
+goldens that pin the renderer's output — but it does mean the gate correctly refuses to
+self-approve this one. **An agent must not clear this with `/approve-override`**, even though the
+`gitea-admin` account holds `owner`: that is precisely the self-approval the stage exists to
+prevent. The operator posts the override as a PR *review* of type "Comment", or approves normally.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **That the scrape now succeeds.** This is a git-only change and nothing is applied until Flux
+  reconciles `main`. The 5 CNPs have never existed on the cluster, so `up == 1` for those targets
+  is **UNVERIFIED** — it is a prediction from the measured drop signature, not an observation.
+  After merge, confirm `up{container="oauth2-proxy"}` goes to 1 for all 6 targets and that the 11
+  alerts resolve. `send_resolved: true` is set, so expect ~11 resolved emails.
+- **That the CNP `endpointSelector` matches pihole's pods.** It selects
+  `app.kubernetes.io/name: pihole`, identical to the shape of `pihole-allow-gateway-ingress`
+  which demonstrably works for 4180 — so this is inference from a working sibling, not a
+  measurement of the new object.
+- **`crafty` is still unobserved and will keep firing `OAuth2ProxyGateUnobserved`.** It is
+  hand-managed under `platform/crafty`, outside the renderer, and has **no `--metrics-address`
+  at all** — so there is no port to open and this change cannot help it. Separate work.
+- **Whether 44180 is reachable in the Cilium data path once allowed.** Only the policy was
+  reasoned about; no L2 probe was run (CI has `vars.CLUSTER_AVAILABLE` unset, so L2/L3 did not
+  run here either — the gate proves the L0/L1 offline subset only).
+- **Why `OAuth2ProxyGateUnobserved` started at 2026-10-04 06:44** rather than 10-02 with
+  TargetDown. Alertmanager did not restart (TargetDown's `startsAt` is still 10-02) and the rule's
+  `for` is 1h, so neither explains it. Something changed on the monitoring side that morning which
+  I did not identify. It does not affect this fix.
+- I did not re-run a port-forward to 44180 to prove the endpoint serves *today*; I confirmed the
+  flag and named port on the live pod spec. The 200/10208-byte measurement is podmonitor.yaml's,
+  from 2026-10-01.
@@ -0,0 +1,139 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-04
+branch: fix/plex-advertise-plexdirect
+title: Plex vanished from the plex.tv account — every advertised connection was uncompletable; advertise the plex.direct name instead of the bare VIP
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+Reported symptom: the server no longer appears on the operator's plex.tv account; `plex.home.keithjackson.dev`
+shows "not authorized"; connecting straight to the VIP + port works.
+
+**Root cause, measured: `customConnections` held two hand-typed URLs and NEITHER could ever complete,
+so Plex had nothing publishable.** Because `customConnections` OVERRIDES Plex's own connection
+publishing, the server ended up advertising only dead endpoints. Live `Preferences.xml`, 2026-10-04:
+
+    customConnections="https://plex.home.keithjackson.dev:32400/,https://192.168.2.24:32400/"
+    ManualPortMappingMode="1"   ManualPortMappingPort=<ABSENT>
+
+- `https://192.168.2.24:32400` — **TLS can never validate.** Plex serves 32400 with
+  `CN=*.130072f20c334d6c8f63d0dfef87309b.plex.direct` and **no IP SAN**, so a bare-IP https URL fails
+  for every client. Not theoretical: Plex's log carries a continuous storm of
+  `CERT: incomplete TLS handshake from <node> ... sslv3 alert certificate unknown`, every few seconds,
+  from **real LAN clients** arriving through the new `plex-l4-tcp` VIP.
+- `https://plex.home.keithjackson.dev:32400` — **nothing listens.** The shared Gateway serves that host
+  on 443; measured `http=000` (connect failed) against `192.168.2.20:32400`.
+
+Consequence chain, each link measured: no completable connection -> plex.tv could publish nothing
+(`MyPlex: mapping state set to 'Mapped - Not Published'`, repeatedly) -> Plex fell back to **Plex Relay**
+(`startRelay`, remote forward to 127.0.0.1:32401) -> **the server disappeared from the account**, and
+clients reported "not authorized".
+
+The fix advertises Plex's own `<dashed-ip>.<serverhash>.plex.direct` form, which is public DNS resolving
+to the embedded address — so it points at the LAN VIP *and* matches the wildcard cert.
+
+- **`catalog/plex.yaml`:** `ADVERTISE_IP: ${PLEX_ADVERTISE_URL}` added, replacing the long-standing
+  DEFERRAL note. The deferral had weighed only the L7 Gateway URL; the operator chose the native L4 path
+  on 2026-10-03, so the open question was never "Gateway or not" but "which URL has a valid cert".
+- **`clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml`:** new `PLEX_ADVERTISE_URL` knob (+ substitution-inventory comment
+  updated to name `plex: PLEX_ADVERTISE_URL`). The base default is an explicit **non-functional
+  placeholder** — dev is decommissioned and has no claimed server, and
+  `StrictPostBuildSubstitutions` makes an undefined var a hard failure, so the default only has to exist
+  and be correctly shaped.
+- **`clusters/prod/kustomization.yaml`:** prod value
+  `https://192-168-2-24.130072f20c334d6c8f63d0dfef87309b.plex.direct:32400`.
+- **`apps/wave-0/plex.yaml`:** re-rendered with the canonical command
+  (`python3 catalog/render.py --all catalog -o apps --wave-layout --no-image-automation`). Two added
+  lines, nothing else.
+
+**Why a whole-URL cluster-var and not something built from `${PLEX_L4_VIP}`:** postBuild substitution is
+plain envsubst and cannot turn `192.168.2.24` into `192-168-2-24`, and `<serverhash>` is the server's
+certificate identity, derivable from nothing in this tree. The dashed IP and `${PLEX_L4_VIP}` are two
+halves of one address and **nothing checks that they agree** — noted in both files.
+
+**SENSITIVE PATHS — this PR touches `clusters/**` (two files), so `ci/approval-policy.sh` will BLOCK it.**
+It needs the operator's `/approve-override <reason>` posted as a PR **review** of type "Comment".
+Deliberately not posted here: CLAUDE.md §1 forbids an agent clearing this on its own PR, and the agent
+account holds `owner`, so the prohibition is a rule rather than a limit.
+
+## What I verified
+
+All measurements against live prod, 2026-10-04, read-only. Secrets handled per CLAUDE.md §6: preference
+attributes were read by name-scoped grep, never by dumping `Preferences.xml` (it holds `PlexOnlineToken`),
+and the token was reported only as `<PRESENT,len=22>`.
+
+- **THE FIX ITSELF, with full TLS verification (no `curl -k`)** — the one measurement the whole change
+  rests on:
+  - `https://192-168-2-24.130072f20c334d6c8f63d0dfef87309b.plex.direct:32400/identity` -> **`http=200`, TLS verify OK**
+  - `https://192.168.2.24:32400/identity` -> **`http=000`, cert validation FAILED**
+  - that name resolves to `192.168.2.24` (`getent hosts`), confirming the dashed-IP mechanism works from
+    inside this network and is not blocked by DNS-rebinding protection on the resolver path tested.
+- **The server is still claimed — this was never a lost claim.** `/identity` -> `claimed="1"` with the real
+  `machineIdentifier`; `PlexOnlineToken` present, `PlexOnlineUsername="jakman85"`.
+- **The certificate, read off the live listener:** exactly one SAN,
+  `DNS:*.130072f20c334d6c8f63d0dfef87309b.plex.direct`. No IP SAN. This is why the bare-IP URL fails.
+- **The publish payload Plex actually sent to plex.tv**, which is what proves the connection list was the
+  problem rather than a guess: `PUT https://servers.plex.tv/devices/<id>?Connection[][uri]=https://plex.home.keithjackson.dev:32400&Connection[][uri]=https://192.168.2.24:32400&Connection[][uri]=http://136.51.115.252:32400&Connection[][uri]=http://10.0.2.136:32400&httpsEnabled=1...`
+  — all four unreachable from a LAN client or from plex.tv.
+- **`Mapped - Not Published`** at every reachability check across the whole log, and an active **Plex Relay**
+  session — the documented fallback when nothing is directly publishable.
+- **The `certificate unknown` TLS failures come from real client traffic, not a probe.** The source
+  `10.0.1.78` resolves via `cilium-dbg bpf ipcache get` to **identity 1 = `reserved:host`**, i.e. LAN
+  clients SNAT'd through `plex-l4-tcp` (`externalTrafficPolicy: Cluster`) on prod-3.
+- **The Gateway is NOT broken, and my first reading of it was wrong.** A 403 `Access denied` from
+  `server: envoy` on the Gateway path turned out to be an artifact of probing from inside the plex pod:
+  **all 16** Gateway hostnames return 403 from there, because Cilium's Gateway preserves the original
+  source identity and enforces the destination's ingress policy. Plex's own log shows a concurrent,
+  **working, signed-in** browser session through the Gateway returning 200s. The HTTPRoute is
+  `Accepted=True`/`ResolvedRefs=True` with no filters, and it is the only route claiming that hostname.
+- **Cilium is not denying the Gateway->Plex hop:** `cilium-dbg bpf policy get 3796` shows
+  `Allow Ingress reserved:ingress 32400/TCP`, PROXY PORT `NONE`, with 141k packets counted. No L7/HTTP
+  rules and no CCNPs exist anywhere in the cluster.
+- **In-cluster consumers were never affected:** Seerr's recently-added scans and watchlist syncs complete
+  cleanly with no auth errors; there are **zero** HTTP 401s in Plex's log (the five ` 401 ` hits are
+  transcoder segment numbers).
+- **`ADVERTISE_IP`'s mechanism, in the running image rather than from docs:**
+  `/etc/cont-init.d/40-plex-first-run` line 127 does `setPref "customConnections" "${ADVERTISE_IP}"`,
+  outside the claim guard, and `/.firstRunComplete` (lines 9/139) is on the container overlay, not the
+  `/config` PVC — so it re-applies on every pod start. Editing the env rolls the Deployment, which applies it.
+- **Toolbox gate** (`./infra/devcontainer/dev.sh run bash -c './ci/gate.sh'`): **rc 3**, with
+  `spec-immutability`, `decisions-log`, `lint`, `l0`, `render-golden`, `l1` and `approval-policy` all
+  **pass**. The rc 3 is the two known environmental skips — `gitea-settings` (no local
+  `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN`) and `conformance` L2/L3 (`CLUSTER_AVAILABLE` unset). **Not green. Reported as rc 3.**
+- **`render-golden` passing is the specific proof** that the catalog edit and the committed golden agree;
+  the rendered diff is exactly two lines and no other service's manifest moved.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **THE OUTCOME. Nothing here has been observed to put the server back on the plex.tv account.** The
+  change is unreconciled: `ADVERTISE_IP` is absent from the live Deployment, the live
+  `customConnections` still holds the two broken URLs, and Plex has not been restarted. What is proven is
+  that the *new URL answers 200 with a valid certificate* and that *every currently advertised URL cannot
+  complete* — a necessary-and-plausibly-sufficient argument, not a demonstrated fix.
+- **Whether plex.tv will publish and list the server once this lands.** plex.tv's decision is made
+  off-network and cannot be measured from here. A LAN-only connection may still leave the account showing
+  the server as remotely unreachable even when local clients work.
+- **REMOTE (off-LAN) ACCESS IS NOT FIXED BY THIS, and may still be fully broken.** The advertised URL
+  resolves to an RFC1918 address, so it serves LAN clients only. The off-repo WAN tcp/32400 port-forward
+  (`runbooks/plex-remote-access.md`) is still **unverified** — `http://136.51.115.252:32400` was
+  unreachable from inside the LAN, but 2026-10-03 established there is no NAT hairpin here, so that is
+  **inconclusive**, not proof of absence. This repo has no off-LAN vantage point.
+- **`ManualPortMappingMode="1"` with `ManualPortMappingPort` ABSENT is left as-is.** Manual public-port
+  mapping is enabled with no port set — a half-configured state I did not change and whose exact effect on
+  publishing I did not isolate. There is **no GitOps path** to it (2026-10-03: the image supports no
+  `PLEX_PREFERENCE*` of any kind), so it is an operator UI step.
+- **Whether the operator intended the hand-typed URLs** to override the 2026-10-03 native-L4 design, or
+  typed them while debugging. I did not alter live preferences; the env var will overwrite
+  `customConnections` on the next pod start, which is a deliberate transfer of ownership from the web form
+  to git and will **silently discard** anything typed there since.
+- **The `plex.direct` hash's stability.** Treated as server identity and read once from the live cert. I
+  did not establish what reissues it, so this URL could go stale with no alert; nothing in CI or the
+  conformance suite checks that the dashed IP still matches `${PLEX_L4_VIP}` or that the hash is current.
+- **Resolver behaviour for the whole LAN.** `plex.direct` resolved correctly from a *pod* (cluster DNS
+  path). LAN clients resolve via PiHole, and dnsmasq's `stop-dns-rebind` would reject a public answer
+  carrying a private address. I did **not** test resolution from a LAN client, and this is the most likely
+  way the fix still fails.
+- **The CI approval-policy outcome.** The local stage reported green, but that is an offline N/A, not a
+  verdict: this PR touches `clusters/**`, so CI will block pending the operator's override.
+- **Why PMS restarted.** The process came up at 05:26 UTC while the pod is 2d2h old with 0 restarts, so
+  something restarted Plex inside the container. Unexplained and not investigated.
@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-04
+branch: fix/plex-unblock-app-tier
+title: Unblock the app tier — my Certificate stalled apps-wave-0, and the advertised https URL had no servable certificate
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+**I broke the app tier with PR #48 and this reverts the part that did it.** Two faults, both mine,
+both measured after the merge:
+
+1. **Kyverno blocks cert-manager in app namespaces.** The temporary private-key Secrets
+   (`plex-vip-<random>`) were denied by `secret-provenance/secrets-must-be-flux-managed`:
+
+       resource Secret/plex/plex-vip-rp4qj was blocked due to the following policies
+       secret-provenance:
+         secrets-must-be-flux-managed: Secrets in application namespaces must be delivered by
+         Flux from SOPS-encrypted git ... or be exempt controller-generated Secrets.
+
+   The policy matches every Secret in a namespace labelled
+   `homelab.keithjackson.dev/app-namespace: true` and excludes only Secrets labelled
+   `homelab.keithjackson.dev/secret-managed-by: controller` or carrying a Flux label. **The `plex`
+   namespace has that label; the `gateway` namespace — where the working wildcard cert lives — does
+   NOT.** That asymmetry is why the existing Certificate was never affected and mine was, and I did
+   not check it. cert-manager's temp key Secrets carry neither exempting label, and `secretTemplate`
+   cannot label them (the keymanager controller creates them, not the Certificate template). Result:
+   **no CertificateRequest, Order or Challenge was ever created.**
+
+2. **Flux health-checks the Certificate — guarding the pod was not enough.** `optional: true` did
+   exactly what it was designed to do: Plex rolled and ran fine without the Secret (verified). But
+   `apps-wave-0` is `wait: true`, so Flux waits on every applied object with a known health type:
+
+       health check failed after 5m0.045564329s: timeout waiting for:
+       [Certificate/plex/plex-vip status: 'InProgress']
+
+   apps-wave-0 never went Ready, and apps-wave-1/-2 plus everything downstream of platform-config
+   sat in `DependencyNotReady` behind it. I reasoned about the pod and missed the object.
+
+A third, independent problem the same PR introduced: **the advertised URL was `https://` with no
+servable certificate.** Plex answers 32400 with its `*.<serverhash>.plex.direct` cert, which cannot
+cover `plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}` — the precise failure mode of the outage earlier that day.
+
+- **`apps/wave-0/plex-cert.yaml` DELETED**, and `plex-cert.yaml` removed from
+  `apps/wave-0/kustomization.yaml` `resources`, so Flux prunes the stuck Certificate and the health
+  gate clears. **Deleted rather than merely unregistered** — my first attempt kept the file as
+  "tracked but not onboarded" (the shape `keycloak.yaml` and `vm-demo.yaml` use) and **the repo's own
+  gate rejected it**: `tls-lifecycle-automated` (R-TLS-02) fails any Certificate in the tree that no
+  Flux path reconciles — *"nothing reconciles it, so a deleted Certificate/issuer/controller would
+  stay deleted until a human re-applied it."* That pattern is legal for a Deployment and not for a
+  TLS object, which is a distinction I had not known.
+- **`catalog/render.py`:** the now-dangling `plex-cert` EXTRA_UNITS entry removed.
+- **The re-enable recipe is recorded at the call site** — in `catalog/plex.yaml` beside the scheme
+  it is coupled to — rather than in the deleted file: the Kyverno exemption, the non-gating
+  Kustomization, and the `https` flip, as one change.
+- **`catalog/plex.yaml`:** `ADVERTISE_IP` → **`http://`**`plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}:32400`, explicitly
+  temporary, with the restore condition written at the call site.
+
+**Everything else from PR #48 is kept and working** — the hostname design, the PiHole split-horizon
+answer, the `LanNetworksBandwidth` hook, the `optional` schema field, and the TLS env (inert without
+the Secret, so re-enabling is additive).
+
+## What I verified
+
+Live prod, 2026-10-04, read-only, after the #48/#50 merges.
+
+- **The stall and its exact cause**: the health-check timeout message above, and the full dependency
+  cascade (`cilium` → "dependency 'flux-system/flux-system' revision is not up to date", everything
+  else `DependencyNotReady`). The root `cilium` wait was a normal revision-gated cascade; the
+  *Certificate* was the real blocker.
+- **The Kyverno denial text, verbatim**, from the cert-manager controller log, repeating every ~30s
+  across at least 15 distinct Secret names.
+- **The policy's own structure**, read from `platform/kyverno/admission/secret-provenance.yaml`:
+  match = Secrets in `app-namespace: true` namespaces; exclude = `secret-managed-by: controller` OR
+  a `kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/name` label; validate = unconditional `deny`.
+- **The namespace-label asymmetry**: `plex` carries
+  `homelab.keithjackson.dev/app-namespace: "true"`; `gateway` does not.
+- **cert-manager's controller ServiceAccount is `cert-manager`** in namespace `cert-manager` — the
+  identity a future exemption should name.
+- **`optional: true` worked**: the new pod (`plex-c4f87c84d-zgjq5`) is `1/1 Running` with no Secret
+  present, and `/config/certs` was never created.
+- **The postStart hook RAN and took effect** — the thing the whole hook was written for:
+  `LanNetworksBandwidth="10.0.0.0/8,192.168.0.0/16"` is now set in the live `Preferences.xml`, and
+  `customConnections="https://plex-vip.home.keithjackson.dev:32400"` was applied from the env. The
+  certificate prefs are correctly **ABSENT**, i.e. the hook's "no bundle → leave them alone" guard
+  behaved as designed.
+- **PiHole's split-horizon answer is correct**, asked of `pihole-0` directly:
+  `plex-vip.home.keithjackson.dev -> 192.168.2.24`, alongside `plex -> .20` and `crafty-mc -> .22`,
+  and the live `/etc/pihole/dnsmasq.conf` carries
+  `address=/plex-vip.home.keithjackson.dev/192.168.2.24`. **This corrects my own earlier check**,
+  which read `.20` and which I nearly reported as a failure — that test resolved via CLUSTER DNS
+  (CoreDNS) from inside a pod and never consulted PiHole at all.
+- **The gate caught my first attempt and I fixed it rather than working around it.** Keeping the
+  file unregistered produced `MERGE GATE: BLOCKED` (rc 1) with
+  `CHECK FAIL (tls-lifecycle-automated): 1 of 612 assertions failed`. After deleting the file and
+  the dangling EXTRA_UNITS entry: **rc 3**, with `spec-immutability`, `decisions-log`, `lint`, `l0`,
+  `render-golden`, `l1` and `approval-policy` all **pass** — the rc 3 being only the two known
+  environmental skips (`gitea-settings`, `conformance` L2/L3). **Not green. Reported as rc 3.**
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **Whether this actually unblocks the tier.** Unreconciled at time of writing. The reasoning is
+  that pruning the Certificate removes the only failing health check, but I have not seen
+  apps-wave-0 go Ready.
+- **Whether `http://` restores client connectivity.** PiHole resolves the name and Plex serves 32400
+  (both measured), but I have not watched a Plex client complete a connection over the advertised
+  URL, and I did not re-check whether plex.tv publishes it.
+- **THE REMOTE BADGE — the symptom that started this.** `LanNetworksBandwidth` is set, but the log
+  still tags traffic `Allowed Network (WAN)`: **82 WAN, 0 LAN**, with entries continuing after the
+  pref was written. So either Plex needs a restart for it to take effect, or that log tag is not
+  driven by this pref at all. **I do not know which, and the user-visible badge is the only real
+  test** — it is in the Plex client, which I cannot see.
+- **The Hubble flow export is NOT active.** The cilium agents are still the pre-merge pods, so the
+  `filePath: stdout` question is still open and no flow has been exported. The Cilium rollout — and
+  its LAN-DNS risk, since prod-3 holds the Gateway, PiHole-DNS and Plex VIPs — is still AHEAD.
+- **Whether a cert-manager exemption is the right shape**, or whether it widens
+  `secret-provenance` more than the operator wants. It is `platform/kyverno/**`, a sensitive path,
+  and deliberately not attempted here.
+- **Whether the pruned Certificate leaves residue** — I did not check for orphaned
+  `plex-vip-<random>` Secrets or CertificateRequests after the prune. Note Kyverno DENIED every one
+  of those Secrets, so there may be nothing to clean, but that is an inference, not a check.
+- **Whether `tls-lifecycle-automated` would also have objected to the Certificate living in a
+  `wait: false` Kustomization** (the recommended re-enable shape). It demands a reconciling Flux
+  path, which that provides, but I did not test it.
+- **The unencrypted advertised URL.** `http://` is tolerable only while remote access does not work
+  (no WAN forward). Nothing enforces that assumption, and nothing will complain if `http` is still
+  there the day the port-forward appears.
@@ -0,0 +1,151 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-04
+branch: feat/plex-vip-hostname-and-lan-networks
+title: Plex — one advertised hostname for local and remote, its own LE certificate, and a LAN definition so LAN clients stop being reported as remote
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+Two operator-reported symptoms, after the 2026-10-04 "server missing from the account" fix
+(decisions/2026-10-04-plex-advertise-plexdirect.md) had restored publishing:
+
+1. **LAN clients were shown as Remote.** Root cause, measured: `LanNetworksBandwidth` was **ABSENT**,
+   so Plex had no definition of a local network and classified *everything* as WAN — **468 requests
+   logged `Allowed Network (WAN)` and ZERO `(LAN)`**, including Seerr dialling from inside the
+   cluster. `allowedNetworks` (the `ALLOWED_NETWORKS` env) only waives **auth**; it does not make a
+   client local. Two different settings, and only one of them has an env hook.
+2. **The advertised URL was a single-purpose, fragile value.** The previous fix advertised
+   `https://<dashed-ip>.<serverhash>.plex.direct:32400`, which works, but hard-codes the VIP *and*
+   the server's certificate hash into a cluster-var — two values nothing could keep in sync.
+
+**Operator design adopted (2026-10-04): ONE hostname, `plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}`, serving both
+audiences by split-horizon DNS** — PiHole answers it with `${PLEX_L4_VIP}` on the LAN, Cloudflare
+answers it publicly with the WAN address, NATed to the same VIP.
+
+- **`catalog/plex.yaml`:** `ADVERTISE_IP` → `https://plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}:32400`. New
+  `lifecycle.postStart` hook (level-triggered, same idiom as pihole's and qbittorrent's) that
+  re-asserts on **every** start: `LanNetworksBandwidth`, and the three `customCertificate*` prefs
+  after converting the PEM to the PKCS#12 bundle Plex requires. New `PLEX_TLS_CRT`/`PLEX_TLS_KEY`
+  env from the `plex-vip-tls` Secret, both `optional: true`.
+- **`apps/wave-0/plex-cert.yaml` (new, hand-written):** a cert-manager `Certificate` for exactly
+  `plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}` from ClusterIssuer `letsencrypt-prod`. Non-catalog because the schema has
+  no field for a Certificate. A single name, not the wildcard: the wildcard's Secret lives in
+  `gateway` and Secrets are not readable across namespaces, and re-requesting `*.${BASE_DOMAIN}`
+  would burn a duplicate-certificate slot for no benefit.
+- **`schemas/servicedefinition.schema.json` → 1.11.0:** adds `optional` to
+  `env.valueFrom.secretKeyRef` / `configMapKeyRef`. **This is load-bearing, not tidiness.** The
+  Certificate must be issued into the `plex` namespace, and that namespace is created by the
+  rendered `apps/wave-0/plex.yaml` itself — so it cannot be issued in an earlier tier and lands in
+  the *same* reconcile as the workload. With hard refs, Plex would sit in
+  `CreateContainerConfigError` until a certificate issued, and `apps-wave-0` is `wait: true` with
+  `apps-wave-1` dependsOn it, so a slow or failed DNS01 challenge would have **stalled the whole app
+  tier** — the hazard `catalog/plex.yaml` already documents for its GPU resource.
+- **`catalog/pihole.yaml`:** `address=/plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${PLEX_L4_VIP}` added to
+  `FTLCONF_misc_dnsmasq_lines`. Required, not cosmetic: measured 2026-10-04,
+  `plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}` resolved to **`192.168.2.20`** (the Gateway VIP) via the zone wildcard,
+  and a connect to `:32400` there returned **`http=000`**.
+- **`clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml` + `clusters/prod/kustomization.yaml`:** `PLEX_ADVERTISE_URL`
+  **deleted** — the hostname makes it unnecessary, which removes the cert-hash fragility outright.
+  `PLEX_L4_VIP`'s note now records its second consumer (pihole).
+- **`catalog/render.py`:** `plex-cert` EXTRA_UNITS entry; **`apps/wave-0/kustomization.yaml`:**
+  `plex-cert.yaml` hand-added (NOT via `--emit-waves`, which would also onboard `keycloak` and
+  `vm-demo` — the pre-existing drift recorded on 2026-10-03).
+
+**A correction to my own earlier reasoning, recorded because it was wrong in the handoff log.** The
+previous entry asserted a bare-IP URL "can NEVER validate" and treated a SAN match as a
+*requirement*. The operator pointed out it is not: `httpsRequired=0` and `secureConnections` default
+to Preferred, so clients can fall back to cleartext. The measurements still stand (a validating
+client did fail, and real clients did send `certificate unknown`) — but the correct framing is that a
+matching certificate keeps the remote leg **encrypted**, not that it is required for Plex to
+function. That is why this branch obtains a real certificate for the advertised name rather than
+choosing the name to suit Plex's built-in one.
+
+**SENSITIVE PATHS — touches `clusters/**` (two files), so `ci/approval-policy.sh` will BLOCK until an
+approving review (or the operator's `/approve-override <reason>` posted as a PR *review* of type
+"Comment"). Deliberately not self-posted: CLAUDE.md §1.**
+
+## What I verified
+
+Live prod, 2026-10-04, read-only. Secrets per CLAUDE.md §6: prefs were read by name-scoped grep,
+the server token was used inside the pod and never printed, and no `Preferences.xml` was dumped.
+
+- **The LAN-classification root cause, directly:** `LanNetworksBandwidth=<ABSENT>`, and request
+  tagging of **468 × `Allowed Network (WAN)` vs 0 × `(LAN)`** — including `10.0.2.33` (Seerr), an
+  in-cluster pod. This is the measurement the whole hook rests on.
+- **All four prefs the hook sets EXIST on this build**, read from the server's own `/:/prefs`
+  (token-authenticated, output filtered to ids): `LanNetworksBandwidth`, `customCertificatePath`,
+  `customCertificateKey`, `customCertificateDomain`, all `type="text"`. I had earlier been unable to
+  confirm this (an unauthenticated `GET /:/prefs` returns **401**) and said so rather than assuming.
+- **There is NO env path for these settings** — the reason the hook exists. Grep of the image's
+  entire init surface: `setPref` is called for exactly six prefs (`MachineIdentifier`,
+  `ProcessedMachineIdentifier`, `PlexOnlineToken`, `customConnections`, `allowedNetworks`,
+  `TranscoderTempDirectory`) and the only `PLEX_*` env it reads are CLAIM/CLAIM_FILE/UID/GID/
+  UPDATE_CHANNEL and five INFO/HOME vars. No `PLEX_PREFERENCE*` of any kind; zero files mention
+  `LanNetworks`.
+- **The DNS gap was real:** `plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}` resolved to `192.168.2.20` (Gateway VIP), and
+  `https://192.168.2.20:32400` returned `http=000` (nothing listening). PiHole's wildcard is why.
+- **`openssl` is present in the image** (`/usr/bin/openssl`, 3.0.13) — the hook's PEM→PKCS#12
+  conversion has a tool to run.
+- **The issuer exists and works:** ClusterIssuer `letsencrypt-prod` `READY=True` (28d), and the
+  existing `gateway/wildcard-home` Certificate is `Ready`/not-expired, which is what makes a DNS01
+  issuance for a new name in this zone a reasonable expectation.
+- **The renderer's substitution guard caught a real defect in my own work**, which is recorded
+  because it is the second time this class of bug has appeared here: my hook's explanatory comment
+  contained brace-wrapped names, and `assert_substitution_safe` refused to emit
+  (`'PX' is not a declared cluster-vars key — envsubst will replace it with the EMPTY STRING`).
+  Reworded; the rendered hook now contains exactly one brace-wrapped name, `BASE_DOMAIN`, verified
+  by parsing the emitted manifest.
+- **A `set -u` bug I introduced and then removed.** With `optional: true` the TLS env vars are
+  genuinely UNSET when no certificate has issued; under `set -u` the first `[ -n ... ]` would abort
+  the hook, and a postStart hook exiting non-zero makes kubelet KILL the container — the exact
+  failure `optional` exists to prevent. Verified by parsing the rendered manifest that no `set -u`
+  **command** remains (only two mentions in comments).
+- **Toolbox gate** (`./infra/devcontainer/dev.sh run bash -c './ci/gate.sh'`): **rc 3**, with
+  `spec-immutability`, `decisions-log`, `lint`, `l0`, `render-golden`, `l1` and `approval-policy` all
+  **pass**; the rc 3 is the two known environmental skips (`gitea-settings` — no local
+  `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN`; `conformance` L2/L3 — `CLUSTER_AVAILABLE` unset). **Not green. Reported as
+  rc 3.** `l0` passing is the specific proof the schema edit admits `optional` and still validates
+  every catalog file; `render-golden` passing is the proof catalog and committed goldens agree.
+- **Only plex and pihole goldens moved.** No other service's manifest changed, and no service was
+  silently onboarded.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **THE OUTCOME, ENTIRELY. Nothing in this branch has been observed working.** It is unreconciled:
+  no Certificate exists in prod, `plex-vip` still resolves to the Gateway VIP, `LanNetworksBandwidth`
+  is still absent, and the hook has NEVER RUN. Every claim above is about the inputs, not the result.
+- **Whether the certificate will actually ISSUE.** DNS01 for a new name in this zone is inferred from
+  the wildcard's success, not demonstrated. If the Cloudflare credential or solver is scoped in a way
+  that fails for this name, Plex will start (by design) with no TLS and the advertised `https://` URL
+  will be unservable — i.e. **this branch could leave the advertised URL broken in a new way**. First
+  reconcile must be watched.
+- **Whether `openssl pkcs12 -export` produces a bundle PLEX ACCEPTS.** OpenSSL 3 defaults to AES-256
+  + SHA-256, which some consumers reject. Untested against Plex. If it is rejected, Plex may fail to
+  load its TLS listener — the hook guards against a *missing* file, NOT against a present-but-
+  unreadable one. **This is the single largest unverified risk in the change.**
+- **Whether the certificate prefs take effect without a restart.** Plex may need to re-initialise its
+  listener after `customCertificatePath` changes. If so, the first reconcile applies the prefs and
+  the SECOND start serves the cert. Converges either way, but the first start may look wrong.
+- **Whether `LanNetworksBandwidth` actually flips the Remote badge.** It is the correct setting by
+  Plex's own documentation and the measured absence explains the symptom exactly, but I did not set it
+  live and observe a client reclassify.
+- **SNAT makes the LAN definition coarser than it looks.** With `externalTrafficPolicy: Cluster`, Plex
+  sees the ingress NODE's address for everything arriving via the VIP, so once `10.0.0.0/8` and
+  `192.168.0.0/16` are LAN, GENUINE REMOTE clients arriving that way will ALSO be classified local
+  and remote bandwidth limits will not bind on them. This is the metering consequence already
+  accepted on 2026-10-03, now made stronger rather than weaker. Not measured.
+- **The public Cloudflare record for `plex-vip` is off-repo and absent from this branch**, as is the
+  WAN tcp/32400 port-forward. Remote access cannot work until the operator creates both; nothing here
+  can verify either, and this repo has no off-LAN vantage point.
+- **The private key is exposed in the container's environment** (`/proc/1/environ`) because the schema
+  and renderer support no secret VOLUME — measured: `storage` accepts only
+  [class, export, mountPath, name, readOnly, size, subPath] with `additionalProperties: false`, and
+  no rendered app mounts a Secret. A volume would be the better shape; adding secret-volume support
+  is the clean follow-up and I did not do it.
+- **The PKCS#12 passphrase is a hardcoded literal** (`plexvip`) in the rendered manifest. It protects
+  nothing — Plex needs it in cleartext in `customCertificateKey` and it sits beside the bundle on the
+  same PVC — but it is worth knowing it is not a secret and was never treated as one.
+- **Four places must agree and nothing enforces it:** `ADVERTISE_IP`, the hook's
+  `customCertificateDomain`, `plex-cert.yaml`'s `dnsNames`, and PiHole's answer. No gate stage or
+  conformance test checks that they match, or that PiHole's `plex-vip` answer still equals
+  `${PLEX_L4_VIP}`.
@@ -0,0 +1,147 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-05
+branch: docs/agents-work-in-their-own-workspace
+title: One workspace per agent run — the shared checkout is now documented as off-limits
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+Agents have been doing their work in the operator's checkout at
+`/var/home/keith/source/home-network-k3s-impl` and clobbering each other. Nothing in the tree
+told them not to: worktrees appeared in CLAUDE.md only as §3's *gate workarounds*, i.e. as an
+awkward edge case, and `decisions/README.md` asserted worktree isolation as a fact about how
+agents already behave rather than as a rule they must follow. Nowhere was the rule stated.
+
+Documentation only — no code, no manifests, no pipeline logic.
+
+- **`CLAUDE.md`: new `## 0. Work in your OWN workspace. Never in the shared checkout.`**
+  Placed before §1 so the section numbers every other file and handoff entry cites (§1, §2b,
+  §3, §7) all keep their meaning. It gives the three commands (`git fetch origin main`;
+  `git worktree add -b <type>/<slug> <path outside the repo> origin/main`; `cd`), an explicit
+  do-not list for the shared checkout (no `checkout`/`switch`, no edits, no
+  `add`/`commit`/`stash`/`restore`, no removing others' worktrees), a measurement table, the
+  "put it outside the repo root" rule, cleanup, what to do if you are already standing in the
+  shared checkout with edits, and what a PM must put in a brief it writes for another agent.
+- **`CLAUDE.md` intro** now says "Start with §0", with the reason: it is the rule you can
+  break before you have read anything else.
+- **`CLAUDE.md` §3** retitled "Running the gate from a worktree" and reframed as the normal
+  path rather than an edge case, since §0 now makes every gate run a worktree run. Its list
+  grew from two breakages to three: `spec-immutability`'s skip is *avoidable*, not merely
+  tolerated, if the `ENGINE` shim also mounts the sibling spec repo read-only and passes
+  `-e SPEC_REPO=/home-network-k3s`.
+- **`CLAUDE.md` §4** gained "One branch, one workspace, one PR".
+- **`README.md`**: a fourth non-negotiable rule ("No work in a shared checkout"), and
+  "Working on this repo" now opens with how to get out of the checkout before describing the
+  dev container that runs in it.
+- **`decisions/README.md`**: the worktree-isolation sentence now cites §0 as the requirement
+  instead of describing it as something agents happen to do.
+
+I did this work the way the new §0 requires — a worktree at
+`<session scratchpad>/wt-workspace-rule`, outside the repo root, branched from `origin/main`,
+with the shared checkout left on the branch and with the untracked files I found in it.
+
+## What I verified
+
+Every number in the new §0 table was measured in the shared checkout on 2026-10-05, not
+recalled:
+
+| Claim | Command | Value |
+|---|---|---|
+| shared HEAD is yanked between branches | `git reflog \| grep -c 'checkout: moving'` | **107** |
+| it is not sitting on `main` | `git worktree list` | `feat/pm-agent-issue-to-pr` |
+| other runs' uncommitted work is in it | `git status --porcelain` | **2** trees: `infra/agent/` (22:04), `platform/pm-agent/` (22:09) — `stat -c %y` |
+| its `main` is stale | `git rev-parse main` vs `origin/main` | `4386d14` vs `22c94ef`, **2 behind** |
+| worktrees registered / already merged | `git worktree list --porcelain` + `git merge-base --is-ancestor <b> main` | **42** branches, **31** merged |
+| nested worktrees are a gate hazard | `grep -rl '\.claude' conformance/tests platform/monitoring/tests` | **9** scripts carry an explicit exclusion |
+| the 18× double-count | read `platform/monitoring/tests/run.sh:115-123` | in-tree comment, observed 2026-09-12 |
+
+**The failure mode was observed live, mid-session, not just reconstructed.** The two untracked
+trees I measured at 22:04 and 22:09 were committed at 22:20 by another run — `5334abe`
+`feat(pm-agent): an in-cluster AI Program Manager...`, 1,000+ lines across `infra/agent/`,
+`clusters/`, `catalog/`, `apps/`, `docs/plans/` and its own `decisions/` entry — onto the shared
+checkout's checked-out branch. Measured after the fact: the shared checkout's HEAD moved
+`22c94ef` → `5334abe` and its working tree went clean between my first `git status` and my last,
+with `git log -1` naming a commit that is not mine. That is §0's "shared HEAD" row happening
+during the session that wrote §0, and it is now cited in the doc.
+
+**A claim of mine was wrong and is corrected in the doc.** I had it recorded that
+`git worktree remove` is blocked by the agent sandbox. Provoked rather than assumed: created
+a throwaway detached worktree in the scratchpad and removed it — **rc 0**, and
+`git worktree list` no longer shows it. §0 therefore tells agents to remove their own, and
+scopes the "blocked" note to what it actually covers: *other* sessions'
+`.claude/worktrees/agent-*`, some of which are additionally `locked` on git's own terms. The
+`rework/<pr-number>` escape hatch is now scoped to someone else's stale worktree holding a
+branch, which is a real and separate problem (31 of them). Both of my own worktrees in this
+session were removed cleanly at rc 0 after pushing.
+
+`spec-immutability` is avoidable-not-tolerated: taken from
+`decisions/2026-10-01-render-selftest-runs-in-gate.md`, which records
+`stage spec-immutability: pass` under the two-mount shim plus `-e SPEC_REPO=/home-network-k3s`.
+
+**Gate — `rc 3`, UNDETERMINED, and I am not calling it green.** Pinned toolbox, from this
+worktree, `DEV_KUBECONFIG=/dev/null` and an `ENGINE` shim bind-mounting both the main
+checkout's `.git` (at its own host path) and the sibling spec repo read-only with
+`-e SPEC_REPO=/home-network-k3s`:
+
+    ENGINE=<two-mount shim> DEV_KUBECONFIG=/dev/null       ./infra/devcontainer/dev.sh run bash -c './ci/gate.sh'   # rc 3
+
+| stage | result |
+|---|---|
+| spec-immutability | **pass** — it genuinely RAN; the second mount is what makes it run from a worktree |
+| approval-policy | pass, but **N/A**: `event='none'`. It cannot see a PR locally, so this green says nothing. See below |
+| decisions-log | pass — the three required headings and the frozen-archive pin |
+| lint · l0 · render-golden · l1 | pass (L1: 3 offline checks, 0 failures, 0 skips, 0 unwired) |
+| gitea-settings | **SKIPPED** — `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN` unset; it exists only in CI |
+| conformance (L2/L3) | SKIPPED — `CLUSTER_AVAILABLE!=true`; the decision notes no cluster-needing requirement was touched |
+
+`gitea-settings` is the *only* stage that did not run, and it cannot be made to run from a
+workstation, so rc 3 is the ceiling for any local run — not a defect in this branch. The
+first gate attempt returned rc 3 for a different and real reason (`HEAD is not ahead of
+origin/main`: I had not committed yet, so the touched-requirement set was empty by default
+rather than by verification); it was re-run after committing, and the table above is the
+post-commit run. §3 now records both expected skips, because it previously named only
+`spec-immutability`.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **GATE: UNVERIFIED at the time of writing.** The pinned-toolbox result for this branch and
+  its exit code are reported in the PR, not predicted here. **A local rc 3 is not green** and
+  will not be described as one.
+- **CI gate: RED, measured — `MERGE GATE: BLOCKED`, one failing stage.** Run 245 on PR #56,
+  head `b988da8b`, 1m47s. The only failure is `approval-policy`: *"a sensitive change lacks a
+  non-author approval"*, `sensitive paths touched: CLAUDE.md`, author `gitea-admin`. Every other
+  stage passed — `decisions-log`, `lint`, `l0`, `render-golden`, `l1`, and `gitea-settings`
+  (which can only run in CI, and reported `required_approvals = 0`,
+  `dismiss_stale_approvals = true`). `spec-immutability` SKIPPED in CI (no sibling spec repo in
+  the CI workspace — the inverse of the local run, where the two-mount shim made it pass) and
+  `conformance` SKIPPED. **Note `gate / conformance (pull_request)` reports status `success`
+  with description "Has been skipped"** — CLAUDE.md §2b's trap, live on this very PR. Nothing
+  in this branch is broken; the red is the structural human gate, below. *Measured at
+  `b988da8b`; this entry was then amended to record it, so the head SHA in the PR is newer than
+  the run quoted here and CI re-ran on the amended commit.*
+- **This PR is a sensitive-path PR and is CI-RED on `approval-policy` until a human acts.**
+  `CLAUDE.md` is in `infra/gitea/approval-policy.json`'s `sensitive_paths` ("the delivery
+  contract agents follow"), so the stage requires an approving review from someone who is not
+  the author, or an `/approve-override <reason>` posted by an administrator **as a PR review
+  of type "Comment"**, not in the plain comment box. `ci/approval-policy.sh` run locally
+  reports N/A (it cannot see a PR), so the local gate cannot catch this and a green local run
+  says nothing about it. **I have not posted an override and must not** — CLAUDE.md §1 forbids
+  an agent clearing this on its own PR even though `gitea-admin` holds `owner` and could.
+- **Nothing here is enforced.** §0 is prose. There is no gate stage that detects work done in
+  the shared checkout, no check that a worktree is outside the repo root, and no check that a
+  branch was cut from `origin/main`. Every other rule in CLAUDE.md that agents kept breaking
+  (`DECISIONS-LOG.md` appends, the three handoff headings) ended up as a gate stage, and that
+  is the honest follow-up here. I did not write one: the ask was documentation, and an
+  enforcement stage lands in `ci/**`, which is itself a sensitive path and deserves its own PR.
+- **I did not clean up the 31 stale merged worktrees or the 35 nested under
+  `.claude/worktrees/`.** They are other sessions' workspaces; removing them is an operator
+  action, and §0 explicitly tells agents not to remove worktrees they did not create.
+- **I did not touch the untracked `infra/agent/` and `platform/pm-agent/` trees** sitting in the
+  shared checkout. They are another run's in-flight work. Whose, and whether they are wanted,
+  is unknown to me.
+- **`docs/plans/ssd-etcd-execution-runbook.md:18` still points at a `.claude/worktrees/` path**
+  inside the repo. Left as-is deliberately: that runbook is marked COMPLETED/historical and
+  describes the now-decommissioned dev cluster, so the path is a record of what was done, not
+  an instruction. It does mean a grep for in-repo worktree paths is not yet clean.
+- **No runtime, cluster or Flux behaviour was touched or checked.** This branch changes three
+  Markdown files; `kubectl` was not run.
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-05
+branch: feat/cilium-roll-out-on-config-change
+title: Cilium config changes were silently inert — roll the agents when cilium-config changes, which also finally activates the Hubble exporter
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+**A merged Cilium config change did nothing, and everything reported success.** The Hubble flow
+exporter (PR #50, merged 2026-10-04) wrote its settings into `cilium-config` and never took effect.
+
+| Measured 2026-10-05, over a day after the merge | |
+|---|---|
+| HelmRelease `cilium` | `Ready=True`, `UpgradeSucceeded`, *"Helm upgrade succeeded for release kube-system/cilium.v6"* |
+| `cilium-config` keys | `hubble-export-file-path: stdout`, `hubble-export-allowlist: {"destination_port":["32400"]} {"source_port":["32400"]}` — **all present** |
+| cilium agent pods | **all three still the PRE-MERGE pods**, `startTime 2026-10-04T07:11Z` |
+| exported flow lines in agent stdout | **0, 0, 0** |
+| Flux Kustomizations | all `Ready=True` |
+
+Cause: the chart's `rollOutCiliumPods` defaults to **`false`** (cilium 1.20.1 `values.yaml`: *"Roll
+out cilium agent pods automatically when configmap is updated"*), so Helm rewrites the ConfigMap and
+leaves the DaemonSet's pod template untouched — and **cilium-agent reads that ConfigMap only at
+startup**. The feature was merged, believed delivered, green everywhere, and doing nothing at all.
+
+That is the same class of failure this repo already guards against elsewhere: a green signal sitting
+over something that never ran.
+
+- **`platform/cilium/helmrelease.yaml`** (authoritative): `rollOutCiliumPods: true`.
+- **`platform/cilium/values.yaml`** (reference mirror) and
+  **`infra/ansible/roles/cilium/templates/cilium-values.yaml.j2`** (the `[parity]` source of truth):
+  the same, so a bootstrap render does not differ from what Flux reconciles.
+
+**The cost is real and is the point.** Every future Cilium config change now triggers a cluster-wide
+agent rollout instead of waiting for someone to remember a manual restart. That is strictly more
+honest — the change applies when merged, or it fails visibly — but it makes config edits disruptive
+by default, so they want a quiet moment. Mitigation already in place:
+`updateStrategy.rollingUpdate.maxUnavailable: 1` means the DaemonSet will not proceed past an unready
+agent, so a bad render costs one node rather than the cluster.
+
+**Merging this is itself one rollout**, because adding the ConfigMap checksum annotation changes the
+pod template — and that rollout is what finally activates the Hubble exporter.
+
+## What I verified
+
+- **Every row of the table above**, read from the live HelmRelease status, the live `cilium-config`
+  ConfigMap, the agent pods' `startTime`, and a grep for `"flow"` in each agent's stdout.
+- **The chart value name, default and semantics**, quoted from cilium **v1.20.1**'s own
+  `values.yaml` — the version actually running here (`quay.io/cilium/cilium:v1.20.1`), not a guess
+  from another release: `rollOutCiliumPods: false` with the comment *"Roll out cilium agent pods
+  automatically when configmap is updated."*
+- **All three value files carry the key** and both YAML files still parse, with
+  `spec.values.rollOutCiliumPods` resolving to `true`.
+- **The blast-radius mitigation is genuinely present**, not assumed:
+  `updateStrategy.rollingUpdate.maxUnavailable: 1` is already set in the HelmRelease, with a long
+  existing comment explaining that a CNI rollout has no healthy-peer fallback.
+- **THE MECHANISM IS CONFIRMED BY CONTRAST, not just reasoned.** The cgroup fix (PR #42,
+  2026-10-03) DID take effect: both the DaemonSet and the running pod mount
+  `cilium-cgroup hostPath=/sys/fs/cgroup`, matching what the HelmRelease declares. The difference is
+  exactly the one claimed above — #42 changed the POD TEMPLATE (a volume hostPath), which rolls the
+  DaemonSet on its own, while #50 changed ONLY the ConfigMap, which does not. It also explains the
+  agents' `startTime 2026-10-04T07:11Z`: that was #42's rollout, and nothing has rolled them since.
+  So the inertness is specific to ConfigMap-only changes, which is precisely what this flag fixes.
+- **Flux is healthy before this change** — every Kustomization `Ready=True`, so this lands on a clean
+  graph rather than into an existing cascade.
+- **Toolbox gate**: recorded in the PR.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **THE OUTCOME, ENTIRELY. Unreconciled.** No agent has rolled, no flow has been exported. This
+  change is an argument that the rollout will happen, not evidence that it did.
+- **Whether `filePath: stdout` actually works** — still the open question from #50, and it cannot be
+  answered until the agents restart. If the literal is not special-cased, the agent may create a
+  FILE named `stdout` and nothing reaches Loki: a silent no-op, not a crash. Fallback documented in
+  #50: keep the chart's default path and add a `loki.source.file` target to Alloy with a hostPath
+  mount. **Check for flow lines in the agent logs immediately after the rollout.**
+- **THE ROLLOUT'S IMPACT ON LAN DNS IS UNMEASURED AND IS THE MAIN RISK.** The node holding the L2
+  lease for the Gateway VIP, **PiHole's DNS VIP** and Plex's VIP loses them briefly as it cycles.
+  `maxUnavailable: 1` bounds it to one node at a time, and BPF maps persist across an agent restart,
+  but I have not measured how long a VIP is unreachable during a lease move, nor whether the two
+  PiHole replicas cover the gap. Merge it at a quiet moment.
+- **Whether enabling this is the operator's preferred trade.** The alternative — leaving it `false`
+  and restarting by hand — keeps config edits non-disruptive at the cost of them being silently
+  inert. I judged silent inertness the worse failure, but it is a judgement, not a measurement.
+- **Whether anything ELSE in `cilium-config` is currently inert.** I checked the one other recent
+  Cilium change and it is fine (see below), but I did not audit every key against the running
+  agents' actual state.
+- **`hubble.relay.rollOutPods` / `hubble.ui.rollOutPods`** are left at their `false` defaults. Both
+  have the same silently-inert property for their own ConfigMaps; not addressed here.
@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-05
+branch: docs/oauth2-sidecar-scrape-verified
+title: The gate-sidecar scrape is verified working on prod — and four places in the tree still said it wasn't
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+Documentation only. No manifest, no rendered output, no behaviour.
+
+PR #49 merged as `21c88b0` and the fix works, but four places in the tree still asserted the
+*pre-fix* state as current — in the present tense, in capitals, in the files a reader would consult
+first. This is the stale-documentation failure mode this repo has been burned by twice already
+(`git push origin main` in the runbooks, "append to DECISIONS-LOG.md" in the old handoffs), so:
+
+- **`platform/oauth2-proxy/podmonitor.yaml`** — the banner read *"READ THIS BEFORE BELIEVING THE
+  TARGETS ARE UP: THE SCRAPE IS CURRENTLY DENIED BY NETWORKPOLICY"* and *"SO THE TARGETS BELOW WILL
+  READ `up == 0` UNTIL AN INGRESS ALLOWANCE LANDS"*. Both now false, and the first one actively
+  instructs the reader to disbelieve a correct `up == 1`. Replaced with a `STATUS: THE SCRAPE WORKS`
+  block carrying the post-fix numbers; the diagnosis is kept below it under an explicit `HISTORY`
+  heading, because it is why the fix is shaped the way it is. Added the drop fingerprint to
+  recognise if it regresses — `lastScrapeDuration` pinned at *exactly* the `scrapeTimeout` with
+  `context deadline exceeded`, versus 1–6 ms when healthy.
+- **`catalog/render.py:159`** — *"THIS IS THE PREREQUISITE ONLY, AND IT IS NOT YET SCRAPED … Do not
+  read this flag as 'metrics are working'."* Rewritten to enumerate the three pieces a working
+  scrape needs and which PR landed each. The warning is **kept, deliberately**: the flag alone
+  really is insufficient, and "1 without 3" is exactly what caused the 63.7h outage. Only the
+  "not yet scraped" claim was false.
+- **`catalog/render.py:1365`** — the sidecar arg comment, same correction, one line.
+- **`platform/oauth2-proxy/README.md`** — its two observability subsections are *dated*
+  ("measured 2026-09-30", "Update 2026-10-01"), so they are honest records rather than lies. But a
+  reader hits the stale body long before any correction, so a `> SUPERSEDED` pointer now sits
+  directly under the heading, and an `### Update 2026-10-05` section at the end carries the
+  before/after table, the TSDB series counts and the alert outcome.
+
+Two substantive errors fixed while there, not just tense:
+
+1. The README's *"To close the gap for an app, three things are needed"* listed **a Service port
+   and a ServiceMonitor**. Wrong — a PodMonitor targets pod ports directly, which is the whole
+   reason no Service exposes 44180 and the renderer needed no Service change. Following that
+   paragraph would have sent someone to edit `catalog/render.py`'s Service rendering for no reason.
+2. `podmonitor.yaml` ended by deferring the fix to *"the catalog/renderer, which is in flight on
+   another branch"* — that branch does not exist and never did; the work happened in PR #49. It now
+   names `r_monitoring_ingress_policy` directly, and a new `CRAFTY` section explains why crafty is
+   the one namespace this file cannot help.
+
+## What I verified
+
+- **The fix itself, on prod 2026-10-05, read-only** (this is the evidence the docs now quote):
+  Flux applied `21c88b0` through the real path — `apps-wave-0` `lastAppliedRevision` at 21:37:01Z,
+  `apps-wave-1` at 21:37:46Z, in dependency order — and all five `<app>-allow-monitoring-scrape`
+  CNPs exist, each `ports=['44180']`, `from=[['monitoring']]`.
+- **All 6 targets `up == 1`**, `health=up`, `lastError=''`, `lastScrapeDuration` 0.001–0.006s —
+  against 10.0s and `context deadline exceeded` before.
+- **`oauth2_proxy_*` is in the TSDB for these namespaces for the first time:** 5 metric names,
+  148 series; `sum by (namespace) (oauth2_proxy_requests_total)` = qbittorrent 35072, radarr 23560,
+  sonarr 1284. (Queried with `count by (__name__)` plus a matcher, not label-values.)
+- **Alerts:** all 5 `TargetDown` and 5 of 6 `OAuth2ProxyGateUnobserved` resolved; one series
+  remains, `OAuth2ProxyGateUnobserved{namespace="crafty"}`, firing.
+- **The rendered output is byte-identical.** `catalog/render.py` changed only in comments, so this
+  branch touches no `apps/` file and no golden. Confirmed by `render-golden` and `l1` both passing
+  with no regeneration, and by `git status` showing nothing under `apps/`.
+- **This branch touches no sensitive path**, unlike PR #49: `platform/oauth2-proxy/**`,
+  `catalog/**` and `decisions/**` are none of them in `infra/gitea/approval-policy.json`. So it
+  should merge on a green gate with no human approval — the opposite of the PR it documents, and
+  the reason the two were kept apart.
+- `render.py --selftest`: PASS.
+- Toolbox gate: see the handoff's own rule — reported below rather than claimed here.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **I did not re-measure the 63.7h figure or the ~22 emails/day rate**; both are carried forward
+  from the 2026-10-04 measurements, now quoted inside the docs as historical. The 15-day
+  `query_range` that established "one episode, not flapping" was run once, on 2026-10-04.
+- **`oauth2_proxy_requests_total` is still absent for jackett and pihole.** I assert in the README
+  that this is because the counter is not created until the gate serves its first request. That is
+  the documented behaviour of a Prometheus counter with no initialisation, and it is consistent
+  with the other three namespaces having traffic — but I did not force a request through jackett's
+  gate and watch the series appear. If it is still absent after real use, that is a finding.
+- **The auth-churn rule is still unwritten.** The README now says it is "writable rather than
+  decorative"; that is a claim about the metrics being present, not a rule anyone has authored or
+  unit-tested. The thing the 2026-09-30 incident actually needed does not exist yet.
+- **crafty remains unobserved.** I read its container spec on 2026-10-05 and confirmed no
+  `--metrics-address`; I did not attempt the fix, and nothing here changes its alert.
+- **I did not audit the whole tree for other stale "metrics are not scraped" claims** beyond the
+  four sites a targeted grep found (`not yet reachable`, `UNTIL AN INGRESS`, `up == 0`,
+  `not reachable by Prometheus` and neighbours). `runbooks/oauth2-proxy-auth-failures.md` is
+  described in the README as "the by-hand substitute meanwhile" and I left it alone — the by-hand
+  log procedure still works and is not wrong, but whether it should now be rewritten against the
+  new metrics is unexamined.
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-05
+branch: fix/plex-resolver-independent-advertise
+title: Plex down LAN-wide — the advertised name existed only in PiHole, so clients that bypass it landed on the router's %D cert
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+**I took Plex down for the whole LAN.** Reported symptom: every internal client showed a certificate
+error with `%D` as the subject name and could not connect.
+
+**Root cause: the advertised connection depended on our own resolver.** `ADVERTISE_IP` was
+`http://plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}:32400` — a name that exists ONLY in PiHole's split-horizon answers
+and in no public zone. A Plex client resolves the advertised host *itself*, with whatever resolver it
+happens to use, and on a real LAN that is frequently not PiHole: browsers ship DoH on by default,
+phones have "private DNS", guest/IoT devices take the router's DNS. Those clients could not resolve
+the name, the SOHO router answered the failed lookup with **itself**, and they all landed on the
+router's web UI.
+
+| Measured 2026-10-05 | Result |
+|---|---|
+| `192.168.2.1:443` (router, LAN side) | `C = ZZ, ST = Somewhere, O = %D342e7e6b, CN = %D` |
+| `136.51.115.252:443` (router, WAN side) | the same `%D` cert |
+| PiHole **pihole-0** | `plex -> 192.168.2.20`, `plex-vip -> 192.168.2.24` ✅ |
+| PiHole **pihole-1** | identical ✅ (both behind the `.23` VIP) |
+| Gateway `.20:443` cert | `CN = *.home.keithjackson.dev`, valid to 2026-12-12 ✅ |
+| `http://192.168.2.24:32400/identity` | `200` ✅ |
+| Plex's published connections | all port **32400** — nothing on 443 |
+
+**The DNS was right; the dependency on it was the bug.** PiHole answered correctly from both
+replicas the entire time. And because nothing Plex advertises listens on 443, the clients had plainly
+left the Plex path altogether and were talking to the router.
+
+**The fix: go back to `<dashed-ip>.<serverhash>.plex.direct`, which is RESOLVER-INDEPENDENT.** This
+is Plex's own mechanism and the reason it exists — `plex.direct` is a public zone that returns the
+private address embedded in the label, so *every* resolver (PiHole, the router, 1.1.1.1, a DoH
+browser) answers `192-168-2-24.<hash>.plex.direct` with `192.168.2.24`. It needs no split-horizon
+entry, no Cloudflare record and no certificate work, because the wildcard cert Plex already serves on
+32400 covers exactly that name.
+
+- **`catalog/plex.yaml`:** `ADVERTISE_IP` →
+  `https://192-168-2-24.130072f20c334d6c8f63d0dfef87309b.plex.direct:32400`, with the
+  resolver-independence requirement written at the top of the block as the first thing to check
+  before anyone changes this field again.
+- **PiHole's `plex-vip` answer is KEPT.** It is harmless, costs nothing, and is useful for reaching
+  the VIP by name from a LAN shell. It is simply not what Plex advertises.
+
+**Why not keep the nicer hostname.** It cannot be made correct for clients that bypass PiHole: a
+public record for it resolves to the WAN address, and with no NAT hairpin on this router a LAN client
+sent there fails too. The name is right only for PiHole users and wrong for everyone else, and there
+is no configuration of it that is right for both. `plex.direct` is right for both.
+
+**The honest cost, restated rather than buried:** the value embeds both the VIP and the server's
+certificate hash as a literal — envsubst cannot dash an IP and nothing in the tree can derive the
+hash, so nothing checks that they still agree. That fragility is exactly why the hostname was tried.
+It is accepted because an unresolvable name is a *worse* failure: silent, LAN-wide, and it points
+users at their router.
+
+## What I verified
+
+Live prod, 2026-10-05, read-only.
+
+- **Every row of the table above**, including the router's `%D` cert on both its LAN and WAN sides —
+  which is what identifies the router as what the clients were reaching.
+- **THE FIX ITSELF, with full TLS validation (no `curl -k`)**: the plex.direct name resolves to
+  `192.168.2.24` and `/identity` returns **200, TLS verified**. Re-checked today, not carried over
+  from yesterday's measurement.
+- **Both PiHole replicas are identical and correct**, with the same five `address=` lines live in
+  `/etc/pihole/dnsmasq.conf`, and both IPs present behind the `pihole-dns-tcp`/`-udp` endpoints. I
+  checked only pihole-0 at first and deliberately went back for pihole-1, because a split-brain pair
+  would have produced exactly this intermittent-looking symptom.
+- **The cluster was never the problem:** all eight LoadBalancer VIPs still assigned, L2
+  announcements intact (prod-3 holds `.20`/`.23`/`.24`), `wildcard-home` Certificate `Ready=True`,
+  and PR #51 had reconciled (`customConnections="http://plex-vip.home.keithjackson.dev:32400"` was
+  live, confirming the bad value was in effect).
+- **`LanNetworksBandwidth="10.0.0.0/8,192.168.0.0/16"` is still set**, so the postStart hook survived
+  the roll and keeps re-asserting.
+- **The Cilium rollout from #50 STILL has not happened** — agents are unchanged since
+  2026-10-04T07:11, so the Hubble export is inactive and `filePath: stdout` remains unproven.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **THE OUTCOME. Unreconciled.** No client has been observed connecting after this change. The
+  argument is that the advertised name now resolves for every resolver and serves a matching
+  certificate — both measured — but I have not seen a Plex client complete a connection, and I
+  cannot see the user's clients at all.
+- **THE CLIENT-SIDE RESOLVER PATH IS INFERRED, NOT OBSERVED.** I could not query a public resolver
+  from here — my attempt returned NXDOMAIN even for a `plex.direct` name that certainly resolves, so
+  the probe was broken (egress policy or a missing tool) and I discarded it rather than report it.
+  The chain "client bypasses PiHole → NXDOMAIN → router answers with itself → `%D`" is the only
+  explanation consistent with all the measurements, but the NXDOMAIN-hijack step in particular is
+  deduced from the router serving `%D` on its LAN address, not from watching a lookup.
+- **Which clients bypass PiHole, or how many.** If in fact every client uses PiHole, then my
+  explanation is wrong and something else sent them to the router — in which case the next thing to
+  check is whether the clients were using `plex.home.keithjackson.dev` (port 443, the Gateway) rather
+  than an advertised connection at all.
+- **Whether plex.tv will re-publish promptly** after the value changes, and whether stale connection
+  lists are cached on clients. A client holding the old list may keep failing until it refreshes.
+- **Mixed content.** The previous `http://` value would also have been blocked by the browser for
+  anyone using `https://app.plex.tv`; that is fixed incidentally by returning to `https`, but I did
+  not test it.
+- **The Remote badge — the symptom that began this whole sequence — remains unconfirmed.**
+  `LanNetworksBandwidth` is set, but Plex still tags traffic `Allowed Network (WAN)`. Unchanged and
+  still unexplained.
+- **`ManualPortMappingMode="1"` with an absent port** is still there, untouched.
@@ -0,0 +1,259 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-05
+branch: feat/pm-agent-issue-to-pr
+title: An in-cluster AI Program Manager that turns Gitea issues into pull requests — authored, nothing deployed
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+A new service, `pm-agent`, that runs in the cluster, reads the issues of this Gitea
+repository, decides what to do about each thread **as the Program Manager persona this
+repository already works under**, and runs one worker agent per assignment that authors a
+change, runs the merge gate and opens a pull request. It reacts to issue creation and to
+comments; the assignment and all correspondence travel through the issue thread and the PR.
+It authenticates with an Anthropic **subscription** token. It never pushes to `main` and
+never merges.
+
+Design, alternatives and threat model: `docs/plans/pm-agent-issue-to-pr.md`. Operating
+surface: `platform/pm-agent/README.md`. Operator procedures:
+`runbooks/pm-agent.md`.
+
+**New — the agent itself** (`infra/agent/`): one image (`agent-runner`) layered on the pinned
+dev toolbox plus node and the Claude Code CLI, with two fixed entrypoints and no argument
+surface. `pm-dispatch` is the PM; `pm-worker` is one assignment. `pm-persona.md` is the PM
+persona, assembled from `CLAUDE.md`, the frozen log's PM guardrails and the spec repo's
+`agents/roles.md`. `worker-job-template.yaml` is the only Job shape the dispatcher may
+create, baked into the image rather than mounted, because that template *is* the shape the
+admission policy protects. `versions.env` pins only what the toolbox lacks — deliberately not
+a second copy of the toolchain pins. `build-image.sh` builds, verifies in-image as uid 65532
+on a read-only rootfs, and **never pushes**.
+
+**New — the deployment** (`platform/pm-agent/`): namespace (no `app-namespace` label — this
+is CI plumbing like `gitea-actions`; PodSecurity `restricted` is enforced), `rbac.yaml` (the
+dispatcher may `create/get/list/watch jobs` in its own namespace and nothing else; the worker
+identity is bound to **nothing** and mounts no token), the dispatcher Deployment (1 replica,
+`Recreate` — two dispatchers would double-trigger every thread), `configmap.yaml` (every knob,
+with its reasoning), `networkpolicy.yaml` (default-deny; egress to gitea:3000,
+kube-apiserver for the dispatcher only, tcp/443; **no ingress at all**), and
+`pm-agent-credentials.sops.yaml` holding **placeholders**.
+
+**New — the boundary** (`platform/kyverno/admission/pm-agent-job-shape.yaml`, `Enforce` +
+`failurePolicy: Fail`): Kubernetes places no `use` check on `serviceAccountName`, so "may
+create Jobs" is "may run arbitrary code as the namespace's most privileged identity". Six
+rules admit only the committed shape. It is listed in `platform-config/kustomization.yaml`,
+which is the only list that actually applies ClusterPolicies — adding it to
+`platform/kyverno/admission/kustomization.yaml` alone is a silent no-op, which is exactly how
+the conformance boundary shipped green and never reached the cluster on 2026-09-29.
+
+**Wiring:** `clusters/base/pm-agent.yaml` (dependsOn `apps-wave-0` — what it needs is Gitea,
+not Keycloak or the Gateway; `wait: false`, because the pod is *expected* to be unhealthy
+while its credentials and image digest are placeholders), its line in
+`clusters/base/kustomization.yaml`, a SOPS decryption patch in **both** overlays, and an
+`inClusterClients` entry for the `pm-agent` namespace on `catalog/gitea.yaml` with
+`apps/wave-0/gitea.yaml` re-rendered by the canonical command.
+
+Three design choices worth naming, with the alternatives recorded in the plan: it **polls**
+rather than receiving webhooks (Gitea's webhook SSRF guard, lost deliveries, and no need for
+inbound reach); it keeps **no state** — the trigger is "the newest thing in this thread was
+not written by me", so the thread is the state and there is no PVC and no backup obligation;
+and the **model holds no tools** — its reply is one JSON object that this code validates, so
+nothing in the path executes text.
+
+## What I verified
+
+All offline, in the pinned toolbox (`./infra/devcontainer/dev.sh run`), never on the host.
+
+- **`kyverno test platform/kyverno/tests/pm-agent` → 28 passed, 0 failed** under the pinned
+  CLI (v1.19.0). The first run was **27 passed, 1 failed** and caught a real defect: the
+  volume rule asserted `length(emptyDir) != 0`, which denies the valid `emptyDir: {}`. Fixed
+  by asserting the volume's **key set** instead, which also denies every other source type
+  without enumerating them. The suite includes the two cases a careless policy admits — a
+  second container while `containers[0]` is compliant, and a volume *named* `workspace` whose
+  source is a `hostPath`.
+- **`./ci/gate.sh` → exit 3, MERGE GATE: UNDETERMINED. Not green, and not reported as
+  green.** Per-stage, quoted from the run: spec-immutability **pass** (the spec repo is a
+  sibling of this checkout and is clean at the pinned SHA), decisions-log **pass**, lint
+  **pass**, l0 **pass**, render-golden **pass** (10 services reproduce), l1 **pass**,
+  approval-policy **pass** (N/A off a pull-request event), conformance **declared-skip** (no
+  cluster — Phase 0), and `gitea-settings` **SKIPPED**: `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN` is not set on
+  this workstation, so branch protection and runner registration are UNVERIFIED by this run.
+  The gate names that single stage as the reason for rc 3 ("Stages that did not run:
+  gitea-settings"), so nothing in the change is unexamined — but rc 3 is not a pass and this
+  entry does not call it one.
+- **The PR's OWN CI run, read from its log rather than from the status tick** (PR #57, head
+  `8b5e950b`, `.gitea/workflows/gate.yml` with `GATE_STRICT_SKIPS=true` and
+  `REQUIRE_GITEA_SETTINGS=true`): decisions-log **pass**, lint **pass**, l0 **pass**,
+  render-golden **pass**, l1 **pass**, **gitea-settings pass** — including
+  `block_admin_merge_override = true`, which is the one stage my workstation cannot run at
+  all — spec-immutability **SKIPPED** (the spec repo is absent in CI, as its own step
+  tolerates), conformance **SKIPPED**, and **approval-policy FAIL → MERGE GATE: BLOCKED**.
+  The failure is *only* the sensitive-path rule: "This PR changes the pipeline or the
+  security posture it rests on, and has NO approving review from anyone other than its author
+  ('gitea-admin')", over eleven paths — `clusters/{base,dev,prod}/*`,
+  `platform-config/kustomization.yaml`, `platform/kyverno/{admission,tests}/pm-agent*`,
+  `platform/pm-agent/rbac.yaml` and `platform/pm-agent/pm-agent-credentials.sops.yaml`.
+  **That is the gate working, not a defect in the change**, and it is the one thing an agent
+  must not clear for itself: the operator posts `/approve-override <reason>` as a PR *review*,
+  or a non-author reviews it. CI is therefore red and will stay red until a human acts.
+- **The commit-status API did not reflect any of that.** While the run completed and its log
+  carried the verdict above, `GET /commits/{sha}/status` still reported
+  `gate / gate (pull_request): pending — Waiting to run`. Worth knowing before anyone builds
+  automation on that endpoint: on this Gitea the status tick lagged the run indefinitely, so
+  the log is the source of truth. A fresh instance of §2b — "a green tick is not proof
+  anything ran"; here the tick was not even wrong, it was absent.
+- **The gate caught two real defects in this change before I did**, which is worth recording
+  because both were in the parts I was most confident about:
+  1. `flux-postbuild-substitution` → 1 UNDEFINED + 1 FATAL-PARSE. My ConfigMap's *comment*
+     explaining the envsubst hazard contained two dollar-brace tokens, and envsubst runs over
+     comment lines too — so the paragraph warning about the trap was itself the trap. Rewritten
+     without braces.
+  2. `no-plaintext-secrets` → the unencrypted `.example` template was read as REFERENCED by a
+     kustomization, because the kustomization's comment named it by filename. Correctly
+     refused: the distance between a filename in a comment and a line under `resources:` is
+     one careless edit. The comment now points at it in prose.
+- **`infra/agent/probe-validation.sh` → 17 refusals, 0 failures.** A new, committed
+  negative-path probe for `pm-worker`'s input guards — the things that stand between an
+  injected environment variable and a clone from the wrong host or a push to the wrong ref.
+  Each case asserts a non-zero exit AND the specific message, so a guard that stopped firing
+  cannot pass by failing somewhere else. It refuses: an argument on the pinned command;
+  `main`, a wrong prefix, `feat/x;id`, `../../etc/passwd`, too-short slugs, and a branch equal
+  to the base; a redirected git host, a real-and-reachable wrong one (`github.com` — the
+  egress policy permits tcp/443, so this one is genuinely reachable), and the right host with
+  a smuggled path; a malformed owner or repository; an unknown mode; a non-numeric and a zero
+  issue number; and each missing credential. `build-image.sh` also runs it inside the built
+  image, where the interpreter is the one that will run in the cluster.
+- **Writing that probe corrected an overclaim in the code.** The `PM_BRANCH != "main"` guard
+  is UNREACHABLE while the pattern check above it holds (`main` has no `feat|fix|docs|chore/`
+  prefix), so the comment claiming it as the defence against pushing to main was wrong about
+  which line does the work. It is kept — as an assertion that does not depend on the regex
+  being right — and the comment now says so.
+- **Two more defects found by self-review of the unattended paths, both fixed:** the worker's
+  `EXIT` trap ended in a failing test, which under `set -e` can replace the script's real exit
+  code with that failure; and a provenance *log line* read a file through a redirect that
+  `set -o pipefail` would have turned into a dead worker if the file were absent.
+- **A self-review of the trigger found and fixed one real defect** before any of this ran:
+  `last_activity()` compared RFC 3339 timestamp STRINGS to find the newest comment, which is
+  only correct while every offset Gitea returns is identical — and the failure mode is the
+  worst available one, the PM answering its own last comment in a loop. It now takes the last
+  element of the comments list, which is the order the endpoint returns, so there is nothing
+  about timezones to be right about.
+- **`check-jsonschema --schemafile schemas/servicedefinition.schema.json catalog/gitea.yaml`
+  → ok.**
+- **The golden reproduces:** `python3 catalog/render.py --all catalog -o apps --wave-layout
+  --no-image-automation` leaves `apps/wave-0/gitea.yaml` byte-identical to what is committed,
+  and the only diff versus `main` is the new `gitea-allow-pm-agent-ingress`
+  CiliumNetworkPolicy.
+- **Syntax:** `bash -n infra/agent/pm-worker` and `ast.parse` on `pm-dispatch.py` both clean.
+  `yaml.safe_load_all` parses every new manifest.
+- **The spec repo has no git remote** — `git remote -v` in `../home-network-k3s` prints
+  nothing. That is *why* a worker's gate can never run `spec-immutability` in-cluster, and it
+  is measured rather than assumed. The worker's acceptance rule names that stage and
+  `gitea-settings` explicitly and refuses any other skip.
+- **`PM_SELFTEST=1 python3 infra/agent/pm-dispatch.py` → exit 0, 26 assertions, all ok**
+  (run in the toolbox against the repository's own files, with `PM_WORKER_JOB_TEMPLATE` and
+  `PM_PERSONA_FILE` pointed at `infra/agent/`). It covers the branch vocabulary in both
+  directions (`feature/x`, `main`, `feat/AB`, `feat/x;rm -rf /` and `../../etc/passwd` all
+  refused), the five result-envelope shapes `extract_decision` has to survive plus three it
+  must reject, the committed Job template against its whole contract (pinned command, no
+  args, the powerless SA, no mounted token, the volume set, the security context, and every
+  env name inside the dispatcher's allowlist), and that the persona still says the four
+  things it must. `build-image.sh` runs the same selftest inside the image; that invocation
+  is the one that has not happened, because the image has not been built.
+- **Claude Code facts were read from the current documentation, not from memory:**
+  `claude setup-token` mints a one-year subscription OAuth token consumed via
+  `CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN`; `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`/`ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN` rank **above** it in
+  credential precedence (hence the unsets and the env-name allowlist); `--bare` does **not**
+  read it (hence neither entrypoint uses that flag); `--permission-prompts none` requires
+  >= 2.1.259, which is why the image asserts a version floor. The pin `2.1.285` is the npm
+  registry's `stable` dist-tag, measured on 2026-10-05.
+
+## Merged `main` in, after PR #55 and #56 landed
+
+One conflict, in `clusters/base/kustomization.yaml`: PR #55 (vpn-ingress) and this branch
+both appended a resource line to the same tail. Resolved by keeping both, main's first —
+`vpn-ingress` is a platform-config-tier leaf and `pm-agent` dependsOn `apps-wave-0`, which
+is later. Nothing else conflicted; `runbooks/kustomization.yaml` auto-merged with both
+entries, and the handoff entries are separate files with nothing to merge, which is exactly
+what `decisions/` being a directory buys.
+
+**PR #56 added `CLAUDE.md` §0 — work in your own worktree, never the shared checkout —
+while this branch was open, and it named this run's uncommitted directories as its
+measured example.** Two consequences were handled rather than noted:
+
+- This merge, and everything after it, was done in a worktree outside the repository root
+  (`/var/home/keith/source/wt-pm-agent`), per §0.
+- **§0 would have misled a worker agent, so `infra/agent/worker-rules.md` now says so
+  explicitly.** A worker reads `CLAUDE.md` first, and §0's instruction is to create a
+  worktree outside the shared checkout. There is no shared checkout in a worker's container
+  — it holds a fresh clone of its own, which is what §0 is actually asking for — and a
+  worker that obeyed §0 literally would `git worktree add`, edit somewhere the wrapper does
+  not look, and have its work committed by nobody while the issue got a "changed nothing"
+  report. The rules file now tells it §0 is already satisfied and not to make a worktree.
+
+**The operator's approving review goes STALE on each new head, and the gate does not care.**
+I first wrote here that it would need re-approving. That was wrong, and the correction is
+worth keeping because it is a fact about this repository's gate rather than about this
+change:
+
+- Measured on the live branch protection: `dismiss_stale_approvals = true`,
+  `ignore_stale_approvals = false` — so pushing the merge did stale `jakman85`'s review
+  (confirmed: `GET /pulls/57/reviews` → `APPROVED`, `stale: true`).
+- But `ci/approval-policy.sh` selects reviews on `.state == "APPROVED"` and
+  `.user.login != author` and reads **nothing about staleness** (line 147). So a stale
+  approval still satisfies the sensitive-path rule.
+- And `required_approvals = 0`, so Gitea's own merge button never required one either.
+
+Measured, not inferred: CI run **#257** on the merged head printed
+`approved by 'jakman85' (author 'gitea-admin') — sensitive change is human-reviewed.` →
+`stage approval-policy: pass`, with `gitea-settings: pass` as well. The job's own exit was
+`MERGE GATE: UNDETERMINED` (rc 3 — `spec-immutability` and `conformance` skipped, as the
+workflow tolerates with `|| [ $? -eq 3 ]`), so the required check
+`gate / gate (pull_request)` is **green** and PR #57 reports `mergeable: true`.
+
+Nothing is therefore waiting on the operator except **the merge itself**, which is theirs
+by CLAUDE.md §1 and never an agent's. Worth noting for whoever reads this later: the rule
+"push again and you must override again" applies to the `/approve-override` **directive**,
+which is staleness-checked against the head commit — not to an ordinary approving review,
+which this gate accepts stale.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+**Nothing in this change has run.** That is the headline, and everything below is a
+consequence of it.
+
+- **The image has never been built.** The nodejs module-stream install, the `npm i -g
+  @anthropic-ai/claude-code@2.1.285` layer, the version-floor assertion, the `COPY`
+  ownership assertions and `build-image.sh`'s whole in-image verification (including
+  `PM_SELFTEST=1 pm-dispatch`) are **unexercised**. Expect the build to need iteration.
+- **It has never been pushed,** so the committed image digests are the deliberate all-zero
+  placeholder. Nothing has pulled this image.
+- **No pod has started.** The dispatcher has never authenticated to Gitea, never polled,
+  never triaged an issue, never created a Job. No worker has cloned, branched, run a session,
+  run the gate in-cluster, pushed a branch, opened a pull request or commented on an issue.
+  Every claim about runtime behaviour is a design claim.
+- **The admission policy has not met a live API server.** 28 offline assertions prove the
+  policy *refuses*; nothing proves the API server *enforces* it here. That is an L2 test and
+  it needs a cluster. Note also that `CLAUDE.md` §2b applies to me as much as to anyone: I
+  did not query whether Kyverno is healthy, whether `pm-agent-job-shape` reconciles, or
+  whether `platform-config` is Ready.
+- **The network policies have not been exercised.** Whether `toEntities: kube-apiserver`
+  actually permits `kubectl` from this namespace on k3s, and whether `world:443` reaches
+  `api.anthropic.com` through this cluster's egress, are both unmeasured.
+- **Neither credential exists.** The Gitea bot account has not been created, so its
+  permission has not been measured — and *that measurement is the control* that keeps the
+  agent from clearing its own sensitive-path review. Do it before the first real run.
+- **Gitea's webhook `ALLOWED_HOST_LIST` was not queried.** It is cited as a reason webhooks
+  were rejected; it is not a measured fact about this Gitea.
+- **The `write`-can-merge gap is real and unclosed.** No Gitea token scope separates "push a
+  branch and open a pull request" from "merge it". The service issues no merge call, which is
+  a property of the code, not of the credential.
+- **The worker's credentials are inside the model session's reach.** Same container, same
+  uid; no isolation exists and none is claimed. Bounded by token scope and egress only.
+- **This branch touches sensitive paths** — `clusters/**`, `platform/kyverno/**`,
+  `platform-config/kustomization.yaml`, `**/rbac.yaml`, `**/*.sops.yaml` — so it needs an
+  approving review from a non-author, or an administrator's `/approve-override` **posted by
+  the operator**. An agent must not clear this one on its own PR; that is precisely the
+  self-approval the stage exists to prevent.
+- **No observability.** No metrics endpoint, no ServiceMonitor, no alert, and the namespace's
+  default-deny would drop a scrape from `monitoring` if one were added. Follow-ups are listed
+  in the plan, in the order they are worth doing.
@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-05
+branch: docs/pm-agent-registry-pull-prereq
+title: pm-agent reconciled exactly as designed — and is the first workload ever to pull from the in-cluster registry, which does not work yet
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+Documentation only. No manifest, no policy, no code.
+
+PR #57 merged and `pm-agent` reconciled. I measured what landed, and the measurement turned
+up **two prerequisites for the next operator step that nothing in this repository
+declares** — and that the handoff entry for #57 could not have known, because it listed the
+image pull as unverified and that is exactly where it bit.
+
+So this entry records the post-merge measurement, and
+`platform/pm-agent/README.md`, `docs/plans/pm-agent-issue-to-pr.md` and
+`runbooks/pm-agent.md` now name both prerequisites where they say "build, push, pin the
+digest". Before this, that step read as one action; it is three, and the two new ones are
+not an agent's to perform.
+
+**The finding is not specific to pm-agent.** `conformance-runner` has the identical
+registry path (`gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/...`), the identical "operator
+pushes, a digest goes in a PR" model, and has never been pulled either — so the same two
+blockers sit in front of the L2/L3 conformance wiring. Measured: **no pod anywhere in the
+cluster references that registry** except the pm-agent dispatcher, which is therefore the
+first workload ever to try it.
+
+## What I verified
+
+Read-only, through the pinned toolbox, against the live prod cluster.
+
+**The merge reconciled, completely and exactly as designed.**
+
+- `GitRepository/flux-system` artifact revision: `main@sha1:95597bd6883637…` — the merge
+  commit. `platform-config`, `pm-agent` and `apps-wave-0` all report that same
+  `lastAppliedRevision` with `Ready=True`. Compared field to field, per CLAUDE.md §2b,
+  rather than assumed from the merge.
+- **The security boundary is live.** `ClusterPolicy/pm-agent-job-shape`:
+  `validationFailureAction=Enforce`, `failurePolicy=Fail`, `Ready=True`, and all six rules
+  present (`worker-must-be-the-committed-shape`,
+  `worker-must-be-one-container-with-no-args`,
+  `worker-volumes-must-be-workspace-or-tmp-emptydirs`,
+  `worker-may-not-declare-init-or-ephemeral-containers`,
+  `worker-env-names-must-be-the-committed-set`, `worker-may-not-use-envfrom`). This is the
+  check that mattered most: a ClusterPolicy added to the wrong kustomization list ships
+  green and never reaches the cluster, which is what happened to the conformance boundary
+  on 2026-09-29.
+- Namespace contents: both ServiceAccounts, `pm-agent-config` (17 keys), the
+  `pm-agent-credentials` Secret, the `default-deny` NetworkPolicy, and both
+  CiliumNetworkPolicies with `VALID=True`.
+- **SOPS decryption works through the new overlay patch.** Checked by KEY NAMES and VALUE
+  LENGTHS only, never values (CLAUDE.md §6): keys `gitea-token`, `claude-code-oauth-token`,
+  lengths 76 and 52 bytes — which are the base64 lengths of the committed placeholder
+  strings, so the Secret holds the decrypted placeholders and not ciphertext. A
+  ciphertext apply succeeds silently and would have left `ENC[AES256_GCM,…]` values an
+  order of magnitude longer.
+- **`pm-agent-worker` really is bound to nothing.** The namespace has exactly one
+  RoleBinding (`pm-agent` → Role `pm-agent`, subject `ServiceAccount/pm-agent`), and no
+  ClusterRoleBinding anywhere names either pm-agent ServiceAccount.
+- `gitea-allow-pm-agent-ingress` is applied in the `gitea` namespace, matching
+  `io.kubernetes.pod.namespace: pm-agent`.
+- The dispatcher is `ImagePullBackOff` on the all-zero placeholder digest — the designed,
+  visible failure.
+
+**The two prerequisites, measured.**
+
+1. **The nodes cannot verify the registry's TLS certificate.** containerd's error on the
+   pull is not about the digest:
+
+       failed to resolve reference "gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/agent-runner@sha256:000…":
+       tls: failed to verify certificate: x509: certificate is not valid for any names,
+       but wanted to match gitea.home.keithjackson.dev
+
+   "not valid for **any** names" means the certificate presented to the node carries no
+   matching SAN at all. From the operator's workstation the same name is healthy: it
+   resolves to `192.168.2.20` and serves a Let's Encrypt certificate
+   `CN=*.home.keithjackson.dev` with SANs `*.home.keithjackson.dev, home.keithjackson.dev`
+   — and `Certificate gateway/wildcard-home` is `Ready=True` for exactly those names. So
+   the certificate that *should* be served is fine, and what the NODE reaches is not what
+   the workstation reaches. **Correcting the digest will not clear this.**
+2. **Anonymous pulls from this registry are refused.** Not inferred from a bare 401 — that
+   would have been wrong, because this Gitea answers 401 for *everything* anonymously:
+   `/v2/home-network/agent-runner/manifests/latest`, `/v2/home-network/conformance-runner/…`,
+   a randomly-named nonexistent repository, and `nosuchowner/nosuchimage` all return 401,
+   and `/api/v1/packages/Home-Network` returns `{"message":"token is required"}`. The
+   registry *does* issue a token to an anonymous client, but its `access` claim is `null` —
+   no pull scope. So the conclusion that holds is the simple one: **an unauthenticated
+   client gets nothing from this registry**, so a pull with no credential cannot succeed.
+   And `grep` over the tree finds **no `imagePullSecrets` anywhere** — not in
+   `platform/pm-agent/deployment.yaml`, not in `infra/agent/worker-job-template.yaml`, not
+   in `conformance/incluster/`.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **Why the node sees a nameless certificate.** I measured that it does, and that the LAN
+  does not. I did not diagnose it: I did not read the nodes' resolver or
+  `/etc/rancher/k3s/registries.yaml` (node files, not reachable read-only through the API),
+  and I did not check whether the node resolves the name to the same `192.168.2.20` the
+  workstation does or to something else.
+
+  **A correction to a remark I first wrote here:** I cited
+  `cluster-vars`'s `GATEWAY_VIP: 192.168.1.53` as suspicious next to the nodes'
+  `192.168.2.x`. That was noise — the operator confirms those base `cluster-vars` values are
+  **dev-era leftovers for a cluster that is decommissioned**, so the 192.168.1.x addresses in
+  that file say nothing about prod and should not be read as evidence about anything. The
+  measured facts stand on their own and none of them depended on that knob.
+- **Whether the package would be pullable once authenticated.** Nothing has ever been
+  pushed to that path, so "a credential is sufficient" is untested. The only thing
+  established is that no credential is insufficient.
+- **Which fix the operator wants.** Two routes, and they are not equivalent:
+  (a) an `imagePullSecret` — a `dockerconfigjson` holding a Gitea token, SOPS-encrypted
+  like `pm-agent-credentials`, referenced from the Deployment *and* from the committed
+  worker Job template; note the Job template's shape is pinned by admission, and
+  `imagePullSecrets` is a field that policy does not currently constrain, so adding one is
+  a template change that needs a deliberate look at whether the policy should pin it too.
+  (b) allowing anonymous reads of that package in Gitea — no manifest change at all, but it
+  makes the image world-readable to anything that can reach the host.
+  I have implemented neither: both need an operator action I must not take, and (b) is a
+  posture decision. The docs now present both.
+- **Everything the #57 entry listed as unverified about RUNTIME remains unverified.** The
+  image has still never been built or pushed. No dispatcher has authenticated to Gitea, no
+  issue has been triaged, no worker Job has been created — so the admission policy, though
+  now provably applied and Enforce, has still never refused or admitted a real Job. The
+  network policies have not carried traffic.
+- **I did not re-run the merge gate against `main` after the merge.** This branch's own gate
+  run is the evidence for this change; the merged state's is CI run on PR #57.
@@ -0,0 +1,225 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-05
+branch: feat/vpn-remote-access-wireguard
+title: Remote-access VPN — WireGuard on udp/51820, hostNetwork because a pod identity would 403 every Gateway hostname
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+New platform component `platform/vpn-ingress/`: a **WireGuard** remote-access VPN so the operator's
+Android / Linux / Windows / macOS devices can dial in from anywhere on the internet and behave like
+machines on the LAN — full reach to `192.168.2.0/24` plus internet egress out the house WAN.
+
+This is the **opposite direction** to the existing `platform/vpn-egress` (pods *out* through PIA,
+ADR-0015). They share nothing but the word "VPN"; both READMEs now say so, and `README.md`'s layout
+block labels the two.
+
+**Transport: WireGuard, and the security argument is the handshake's failure mode, not "it is
+encrypted".** WireGuard's first handshake message carries a MAC keyed with the responder's own
+public key, so a sender that does not already know it gets **no reply at all** — no error, no reset,
+no banner. From the internet, udp/51820 is indistinguishable from a closed port: nothing to
+brute-force, no version string, no amplification. That is what makes an unfiltered WAN port
+defensible here, and it is why there is deliberately no `loadBalancerSourceRanges`-style allowlist
+(which would also break roaming clients). It also has first-party clients on all four named
+platforms, which OpenVPN (needs a CA + per-device certs + a CRL) and IKEv2 do not.
+
+**`hostNetwork: true`, and this is THE decision — forced by a measured property of this cluster.**
+A pod-networked WireGuard server must SNAT client traffic to its own pod IP (Cilium drops a packet
+whose source is not the endpoint's address), so every remote client would have arrived wearing *that
+pod's* security identity. `decisions/2026-10-04-plex-advertise-plexdirect.md` measured what that
+costs: a request to the shared Gateway VIP **from inside a pod returns `403 Access denied` from
+Envoy for all 16 Gateway hostnames**, because Cilium's Gateway preserves the original source
+identity and enforces the *destination's* ingress policy, and every app admits `reserved:ingress`
+plus named peers — never an arbitrary pod. So the obvious build would have produced a tunnel that
+came up healthy, showed connected peers, routed packets, and 403'd every cluster web UI — and
+`*.home.keithjackson.dev` would not even have resolved, because `apps/wave-0/pihole-dns.yaml`'s
+ingress policy deliberately omits the `cluster` entity. In the host netns there is no pod identity
+to carry: forwarded traffic is SNATed to the node address and arrives as `host`/`remote-node`,
+byte-for-byte what a LAN client looks like. Three further problems vanish with it: `ip_forward` is
+already 1 on these nodes (so no `--allowed-unsafe-sysctls` kubelet change — it is *not* a safe
+sysctl); no LoadBalancer VIP, so no L2-announcement lease lottery and no `externalTrafficPolicy`
+trade-off; and no double encapsulation, which is what makes `MTU = 1420` simply correct.
+
+`hostNetwork` is permitted by `restrict-host-namespaces`' own stated carve-out (it matches
+`app-namespace=true` only, and names Cilium/node-exporter as the precedent); `namespace.yaml` is
+deliberately unlabelled. **The cost is stated, not buried:** a hostNetwork pod has no Cilium
+endpoint, so **no NetworkPolicy constrains this workload**. `networkpolicy.yaml` says that at
+length rather than shipping an `allow world → 51820` rule that would read as the control and
+enforce nothing; the real boundary is WireGuard's peer authentication.
+
+**A DaemonSet, not a Deployment.** The WAN forward names one node address by hand, off-repo (same
+shape as the plex tcp/32400 forward). A floating single replica would silently invalidate it on
+every reschedule; an identical listener on all three nodes makes **failover a one-line router
+change** with no cluster work and no re-issued client profiles. A pinned LoadBalancer VIP was the
+considered alternative and was rejected: it reintroduces the L2 lease, SNAT and an extra node hop
+into the one path whose failure mode is "I am away from home and cannot get in".
+
+**Authorisation is split so that it stays reviewable.** Peer **public** keys live in
+`platform/vpn-ingress/peers.yaml` in **plaintext** — a public key grants nothing by itself, and this
+makes "who can get into my house" a PR diff with `git log` as its audit trail. The only real secret,
+the server's private key, is the `wg-server-key` Secret, **created out of band by the operator**: an
+agent must not mint a long-lived private key (CLAUDE.md §6), and a key that passed through a session
+transcript would have to be treated as compromised. The two halves are joined only at pod start, by
+an init container, into a `medium: Memory` emptyDir — so the assembled config holding the key never
+touches a node's disk and dies with the pod.
+
+**There are no peers yet, and that is the correct initial state**, for the same reason. The VPN ships
+INERT-BUT-HEALTHY: a zero-peer interface listens and refuses every handshake.
+
+Files:
+
+- `platform/vpn-ingress/` (new): `namespace.yaml`, `peers.yaml` (the plaintext peer register),
+  `daemonset.yaml` (hostNetwork listener + config assembly), `networkpolicy.yaml` (namespace
+  baseline, with the honest caveat), `kustomization.yaml`, `README.md` (the design record).
+- `clusters/base/vpn-ingress.yaml` (new): its own **non-gating post-platform** Flux Kustomization
+  (`dependsOn platform-config`, `wait:false`). Non-gating is load-bearing rather than conventional
+  here: the DaemonSet *cannot* start until the operator creates the server key, so in the gating
+  `platform` tier an unfinished manual step would have stalled every apps wave on merge.
+- `clusters/base/kustomization.yaml`: the new tier added.
+- `clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml`: new `WG_CLIENT_CIDR` (`10.90.0.0/24`), declared next to
+  `LAN_CIDR` because it is the one range that must be collision-checked against every other; the
+  comment enumerates the five it avoids. **No prod override, deliberately** — unlike every VIP, this
+  range is private to the tunnel, so the same value is correct in both environments and a prod patch
+  would imply otherwise. Substitution inventory updated.
+- `infra/ansible/roles/node_baseline/defaults/main.yml`: `wireguard` added to
+  `node_baseline_kernel_modules`. The pod has `NET_ADMIN` but deliberately **not** `SYS_MODULE`, so
+  it cannot autoload the module — it CrashLoops with a clear error rather than quietly degrading to
+  userspace wireguard-go (which would need `/dev/net/tun`, a device a hostPath mount cannot actually
+  grant, as the `/dev/dri` attempt proved).
+- `infra/vpn-ingress/new-peer.sh` (new): enrols a device. Generates the keypair on the operator's
+  machine, writes a 0600 profile **outside** the checkout (it refuses to write into the repo),
+  prints a QR code for phones, and prints only the public `[Peer]` stanza. It also refuses a
+  duplicate address, because two devices on one address does not error anywhere — the server routes
+  to whichever handshook last, so both appear to work intermittently.
+- `runbooks/vpn-remote-access.md` (new) + its `kustomization.yaml` generator entry + `README.md`
+  index line: the three manual steps, the four off-LAN verification checks, revocation, and why no
+  connection alert exists.
+- `README.md`: `vpn-ingress` added to the layout, with the egress/ingress distinction spelled out.
+
+**THREE MANUAL STEPS REMAIN AND THE VPN DOES NOT WORK UNTIL ALL THREE ARE DONE** (all off-repo by
+necessity; `runbooks/vpn-remote-access.md`): run `node_baseline` to load the kernel module, create
+the `wg-server-key` Secret, and forward WAN udp/51820 to one node address on the SOHO router.
+
+**SENSITIVE PATHS — this PR touches `clusters/**` (three files), so `ci/approval-policy.sh` will
+BLOCK it.** It needs the operator's `/approve-override <reason>` posted as a PR **review** of type
+"Comment". I have deliberately not posted it: CLAUDE.md §1 forbids an agent clearing this on its own
+PR, and the agent account holds `owner`, so the prohibition is a rule, not a limit.
+
+## What I verified
+
+Live prod, read-only, 2026-10-05, plus the offline gate.
+
+- **Toolbox gate** (`./infra/devcontainer/dev.sh run bash -c './ci/gate.sh'`): **rc 3**, with
+  `spec-immutability`, `decisions-log`, `lint`, `l0`, `render-golden`, `l1` and `approval-policy` all
+  **pass**. The rc 3 is two environmental skips — `gitea-settings` (no local `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN`)
+  and `conformance` L2/L3 (`CLUSTER_AVAILABLE` unset). **Not green. Reported as rc 3, not as pass.**
+  Run from an isolated git worktree with both CLAUDE.md §3 workarounds applied
+  (`DEV_KUBECONFIG=/dev/null` plus an `ENGINE` shim bind-mounting the main checkout's `.git` and
+  the sibling spec repo) — which is why `spec-immutability` is **green here and skipped in CI**,
+  where the runner has no spec checkout. `approval-policy` passing locally is an offline N/A, not a
+  verdict; the real verdict is the CI run below.
+- **The CI gate ran on PR #55 (run 244, head `1a67fc1b`) and `approval-policy` is the ONLY failing
+  stage** — read from the job log, not from the red tick. Verbatim: "This PR changes the pipeline or
+  the security posture it rests on, and has NO approving review from anyone other than its author
+  ('gitea-admin')", naming exactly the three files I predicted:
+  `clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml`, `clusters/base/kustomization.yaml`,
+  `clusters/base/vpn-ingress.yaml`. Every other stage that ran reported green —
+  `gitea-settings`, `decisions-log`, `lint`, `l0`, `render-golden`, `l1`. So the branch is blocked
+  on the operator's `/approve-override <reason>` (posted as a PR **review** of type "Comment") and
+  on nothing else. **I have not posted it** — CLAUDE.md §1.
+- **Branch protection is live, measured by CI's own `gitea-settings` stage** (it has the token this
+  workstation lacks): `required_approvals = 0`, `enable_status_check = true`,
+  `status_check_contexts = ["gate / gate (pull_request)"]`, `block_admin_merge_override = true`,
+  `enable_push = false`, `dismiss_stale_approvals = true`, and **1 runner online**. That is the §2b
+  re-measurement of CLAUDE.md §2's table for this branch, not a restatement of it.
+- **`flux-postbuild-substitution` (L0) actually exercised the new wiring, and caught a real defect
+  in it.** On the first run it FAILED, naming `platform/vpn-ingress/daemonset.yaml:118` and
+  attributing it to "Flux Kustomization 'vpn-ingress' (clusters/base/vpn-ingress.yaml, path
+  ./platform/vpn-ingress)". Two things are proven by that message: the new tier's
+  `postBuild.substituteFrom` declaration is correctly detected (so `${WG_CLIENT_CIDR}` will be
+  substituted, not shipped literally), and the check reads comments as well as values — the hazard
+  was a comment that spelled out the forbidden braced form literally while claiming not to use it.
+  Fixed; the check now passes 444/444 with 0 hazards.
+- **The `wireguard` kernel module is available on these nodes by construction**: all three run
+  Debian 13 (trixie) on kernel `7.1.8+deb13-amd64` (measured), and WireGuard has been in-tree since
+  5.6, so it is present in the distro kernel and only needs loading.
+- **`net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1` is already written by `node_baseline`**
+  (`roles/node_baseline/tasks/main.yml`, `/etc/sysctl.d/99-k3s-cilium.conf`), and **no kubelet
+  carries `--allowed-unsafe-sysctls`** (grepped across `roles/k3s_server`, `roles/node_baseline` and
+  `group_vars`: zero hits). That pair is what makes the host netns the only option that does not
+  require a node-restart change.
+- **Cilium's datapath, measured from `cilium-config` rather than from the values file**:
+  `enable-ipv4-masquerade=true`, `enable-bpf-masquerade=true`, `routing-mode=tunnel`,
+  `tunnel-protocol=vxlan`, `ipv4-native-routing-cidr` EMPTY, Cilium `v1.20.1`. The vxlan underlay is
+  where `MTU = 1420` comes from, and the empty native-routing CIDR is why pod→LAN is masqueraded
+  today.
+- **`WG_CLIENT_CIDR` collides with nothing.** Pod CIDR `10.0.0.0/16` (`CLUSTER_POD_CIDR`), service
+  CIDR `10.43.0.0/16` (measured: `kubernetes` Service clusterIP is `10.43.0.1`), the PIA tunnel's
+  `10.72.192.0/18` (`platform/vpn-egress/README.md`), and both LANs `192.168.1.0/24` /
+  `192.168.2.0/24`. `10.90.0.0/24` is outside all five.
+- **The egress-class label matters and is set to `internet`.** Read live:
+  `CiliumEgressGatewayPolicy vpn-egress-steering` selects `podSelector:
+  homelab.keithjackson.dev/egress-class: vpn` with **no namespace scope**, so `vpn` here would have
+  steered every remote client's internet traffic out PIA.
+- **All three nodes are untainted** (`spec.taints: None` on each), so the DaemonSet covers the
+  cluster with no tolerations.
+- **`new-peer.sh` was run end to end** against a throwaway server key in the scratchpad (deleted
+  immediately after; it never existed in the repo). It rendered a correct profile — `Address
+  10.90.0.7/32`, `DNS 192.168.2.23`, `Endpoint wan.home.keithjackson.dev:51820`, `MTU 1420`,
+  `PersistentKeepalive 25`, `AllowedIPs 0.0.0.0/0` — at mode 0600, printed the matching public-key
+  stanza, and both argument-validation paths (missing name, out-of-range octet) refuse correctly.
+  The private key was redacted from every line I displayed.
+- **The endpoint name is resolver-independent, which is the specific trap this avoids.**
+  `wan.${BASE_DOMAIN}` is an unproxied public Cloudflare A record kept current by
+  `platform/externaldns/ddns.yaml` (checked every 5 min), so it resolves from a cellular connection
+  — unlike any name PiHole answers, which a remote client cannot resolve until it is already
+  connected. (This is the `plex.direct` lesson applied.)
+- **Velero does cover this namespace.** `platform/velero/helmrelease.yaml`'s `daily` schedule
+  excludes only `monitoring` and `unifi`, so `vpn-ingress` and the `wg-server-key` Secret are
+  captured off-cluster to R2. Read from the manifest, not from a backup listing.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **THE ACTUAL FIX. Nothing in this branch has been proven to carry a single packet.** The
+  DaemonSet has never been reconciled, no `wg0` has ever existed, and no handshake has ever been
+  attempted. Three blockers are off-repo and manual (kernel module, server key, WAN forward), and
+  this branch removes none of them — it only makes them the *only* remaining work.
+- **Outside-in reachability, at all.** This repo has **no off-LAN vantage point**, which is exactly
+  the gap the plex remote-access work hit. Step 6 of the runbook (a phone on cellular) is the only
+  honest test and it has not been run.
+- **The in-pod `iptables` → host-netfilter interaction, which is my biggest single doubt.** Debian 13
+  uses nf_tables; the container writes MASQUERADE/FORWARD rules into the **host's** tables via the
+  image's own `iptables`. If that binary is the legacy backend while the host is nft, the rules can
+  apply to a table the kernel does not consult — and the symptom would be the nastiest available:
+  handshakes succeed, `wg show` looks perfect, and every forwarded connection hangs. **Check this
+  first if the tunnel comes up but nothing is reachable:** `iptables-save -t nat | grep MASQUERADE`
+  and `nft list table ip nat` on the node, from the host, not from the pod.
+- **Whether `allowPrivilegeEscalation: false` is compatible with the image's s6 init.** It is the
+  correct posture and I set it, but this repo has already been bitten by `no-new-privileges`
+  misbehaving (`platform/externaldns/ddns.yaml`'s README note). If the pod fails before
+  `wg-quick` runs, that flag is the first thing to try flipping.
+- **Whether `NET_ADMIN` alone is sufficient.** Reasoned from what `wg-quick` does (create the link,
+  set a sysctl, write two netfilter rules), not measured. If `iptables` complains, `NET_RAW` is the
+  likely addition — deliberately not granted pre-emptively.
+- **The image's custom-config path.** `lscr.io/linuxserver/wireguard:1.0.20260223-r0-ls124` (tag
+  confirmed to exist and to be the current one, published 2026-10-01) is expected to bring up
+  whatever is in `/config/wg_confs/` when `PEERS` is unset. That is its documented behaviour; it has
+  not been run here, and the init container's assembly of that file has never executed.
+- **Whether the probe is right.** `wg show wg0` is asserted to exit non-zero when the interface is
+  absent. Not executed.
+- **Cilium's reaction to a new `wg0` in the host netns.** `platform/cilium/values.yaml` does not pin
+  `devices`, so Cilium auto-detects; whether it attaches to `wg0` — and whether that matters — is
+  unknown. `wg` interfaces are already filtered out by `node_health_collect.py`, so something in
+  the estate anticipates them, but that is not evidence about Cilium.
+- **Zero peers means the end-to-end authorisation path is untested**, including revocation. The
+  first enrolment is also the first test of `peers.yaml`'s format being what `wg-quick` accepts.
+- **No peer-level observability exists.** An exporter publishing
+  `wireguard_latest_handshake_seconds` is the top follow-up; until then "who is connected" is an
+  on-demand `wg show` and nothing alerts on an unexpected session. Pod-down is covered only by
+  kube-prometheus-stack's generic `KubePodNotReady` / `KubeDeploymentReplicasMismatch`, which I did
+  not confirm fire for a DaemonSet in this namespace.
+- **The security consequence I am most keen for a human to review rather than take from me:** an
+  enrolled device reaches the three k3s nodes themselves — apiserver 6443, kubelet 10250, SSH 22 —
+  because "reach the entire local network" includes them. That is stated in the README and the
+  runbook with the narrowing recipe, but it is a posture decision, not a verified fact, and it is
+  the right thing to argue about on this PR.
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-05
+branch: fix/vpn-runbook-ansible-command
+title: vpn-remote-access runbook — step 1 named a script that does not exist, and step 2 cited the wrong reason the key is gitignored
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+Two defects in `runbooks/vpn-remote-access.md` (merged in #55), both authored by me, both reported
+by the operator the first time they tried to follow it.
+
+**1. Step 1 named a command that does not exist.** It said:
+
+    cd infra/ansible && ./site.sh --tags system --limit k3s_prod
+
+There is **no `site.sh` anywhere in this repo** (`find . -name site.sh` → nothing). The invocation
+was wrong in four separate ways at once, which is what makes it worth recording rather than just
+patching: wrong kind of thing (this repo drives Ansible with `ansible-playbook <playbook>`, never a
+wrapper script — `playbooks/site.yml` exists and is the full bring-up chain, not this); wrong
+playbook (the module work lives in `playbooks/node-baseline.yml`); wrong targeting flag (`--limit`
+instead of this repo's `-e k3s_hosts=...` convention, which `infra/ansible/README.md` "Targeting
+prod" documents for every playbook); and no toolbox wrapper, though Ansible exists only inside the
+pinned container and `ansible.cfg` is only read from `infra/ansible`.
+
+Replaced with the real command, plus the three things about it that are load-bearing:
+
+    ./infra/devcontainer/dev.sh run bash -c \
+      'cd /work/infra/ansible && ansible-playbook playbooks/node-baseline.yml -e k3s_hosts=k3s_prod --tags system'
+
+- `-e k3s_hosts=k3s_prod` — the playbook defaults to `k3s_servers`, which is the **dev** group;
+  dev is decommissioned, so an unqualified run does nothing useful.
+- `--tags system`, never untagged — the two kernel-module tasks carry that tag, and an untagged run
+  would also hit the `disks` tasks, which assert on block-device variables prod deliberately leaves
+  as placeholders (the playbook's own header warns about this). `--tags system` is broader than the
+  modules alone (sysctls, iscsid, qemu-guest-agent, swap masking) but each is idempotent and
+  already in its desired state on a live node.
+
+**2. Step 2 gave the wrong reason the server key is safe from git — and the right reason is
+fragile.** It told the operator to stage the key at `/work/.cache/server.key` "inside the repo's
+gitignored cache". `.cache/` is **not** gitignored: `git check-ignore -v .cache/serverkey.txt`
+matches nothing. The file was ignored only incidentally, by `.gitignore` line 11 `*.key` — so the
+path happened to be safe for a reason I had not identified, and **any operator who renamed it
+(`server.pem`, `wg-server`, `privatekey`) would have had a committable WireGuard private key sitting
+in the checkout.** The gate would not have caught it either; `no-plaintext-secrets` does not
+recognise a bare WireGuard key.
+
+The step now states the real rule, marks the `.key` suffix as the thing doing the work, and gives
+the operator a verification they can run before trusting it (`git check-ignore -v` must print a
+rule, and `git status --short` must not list the file).
+
+Nothing outside `runbooks/vpn-remote-access.md` changed; no manifest, no behaviour.
+
+## What I verified
+
+- **`site.sh` does not exist**: `find . -name 'site.sh' -not -path './.git/*'` → no output.
+- **The real surface**: `infra/ansible/playbooks/` contains `node-baseline.yml` and `site.yml` (and
+  11 others); `node-baseline.yml`'s own header documents both
+  `-e k3s_hosts=k3s_prod` and the tag-scoping hazard. The `-e <playbook>_hosts=` convention is
+  confirmed by `infra/ansible/README.md` §"Targeting prod" and by the existing
+  `runbooks/node-memory-swap.md`, which invokes `ansible-playbook playbooks/node-health.yml -e
+  node_health_hosts=...`.
+- **`k3s_prod` is a real inventory group**: `[k3s_prod:children]` in `inventory/hosts.ini`, with
+  `[k3s_prod_primary]`/`[k3s_prod_secondary]`.
+- **`--tags system` covers the kernel-module tasks**: both "Persist kernel modules…" and "Load
+  kernel modules now" carry `tags: [system]` in `roles/node_baseline/tasks/main.yml`.
+- **The gitignore claim, measured both directions**:
+  `git check-ignore -v .cache/server.key` → `.gitignore:11:*.key`;
+  `git check-ignore -v .cache/serverkey.txt` → no match. So the suffix is the only thing ignoring it.
+- **Every path the component's docs reference resolves**: all six relative markdown links in
+  `platform/vpn-ingress/README.md` (checked from that file's own directory), and both Ansible
+  playbook paths.
+- **Toolbox gate** from an isolated worktree: **rc 3**, with `spec-immutability`, `decisions-log`,
+  `lint`, `l0`, `render-golden`, `l1` and `approval-policy` all **pass**; the rc 3 is the two
+  environmental skips (`gitea-settings` — no local token; conformance L2/L3 — no `CLUSTER_AVAILABLE`).
+  **Not green. Reported as rc 3, not as pass.**
+- **This branch touches NO sensitive path** (`runbooks/**` and `decisions/**` are not in
+  `infra/gitea/approval-policy.json`), so unlike #55 it needs no `/approve-override`.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **The corrected command has not been RUN.** Ansible is an operator action, and this is the
+  decisive gap: I have verified the playbook, the group, the tag and the flag all exist and are
+  the documented convention, but not that the run succeeds end to end or that
+  `lsmod | grep '^wireguard'` then reports the module. It is a better-evidenced command, not a
+  proven one.
+- **Whether `--tags system` is entirely side-effect-free on a live prod node.** Each task it runs is
+  idempotent by construction, but I did not dry-run it (`--check`) to confirm it reports zero
+  changes beyond the module load.
+- **The rest of the runbook's commands past step 2** are unchanged and still unexercised — in
+  particular `kubectl exec ds/wireguard -- wg show`, which cannot be reached while the pods sit in
+  `Init` waiting on the server key.
+- **Whether any OTHER document I wrote in #55 contains an invented command.** I re-checked every
+  file path and markdown link in the component (all resolve) and every script the docs tell an
+  operator to run, but "the referenced file exists" is weaker than "the command is correct" — which
+  is exactly the gap that produced `site.sh`.
+
+## Post-merge state of #55, recorded here since its own entry predates the merge
+
+Measured on live prod after #55 merged as `ad3f56e`:
+
+- Flux applied it by the real path: Kustomization `vpn-ingress` `lastAppliedRevision:
+  main@sha1:ad3f56e`, equal to the GitRepository's artifact revision, `Ready=True`.
+- All **18** Flux Kustomizations `Ready=True` — the new tier disturbed nothing, and `wait: false`
+  behaved as intended (`vpn-ingress` is Ready while its own pods are not, so nothing downstream
+  stalled on it).
+- **`hostNetwork` is confirmed in effect, not merely configured**: the three pods report pod IPs
+  `192.168.2.10/.11/.12` — the node addresses, one per node.
+- **It fails closed exactly as designed**, with a legible cause: all three pods `Init:0/1`,
+  `MountVolume.SetUp failed for volume "wg-server-key" : secret "wg-server-key" not found`, and no
+  Secret in the namespace. The #55 entry's "the DaemonSet has never been reconciled" is superseded
+  by this paragraph; its remaining unverified claims (the tunnel carrying a packet, the
+  iptables/nftables backend question) still stand.
@@ -0,0 +1,187 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-05
+branch: fix/vpn-server-key-in-sops
+title: VPN server key moves into SOPS-encrypted git — the out-of-band Secret broke R-SEC-01 and the DR story
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+**Operator correction (2026-10-05): "secrets are kept in source through sops".** They are right, and
+#55 shipped the WireGuard server private key the wrong way: as a Secret the operator was told to
+`kubectl create` out of band, referenced by name only. This branch moves it into the tree as
+`platform/vpn-ingress/wg-server-key.sops.yaml`, where every other secret in this repo lives.
+
+**Why the original choice was wrong, not merely unconventional.** Two concrete costs, both of which
+#55's own README half-admitted and then shipped anyway:
+
+1. **R-SEC-01 / spec docs/07 says secrets live in source, SOPS-encrypted, reaching the cluster only
+   through Flux.** An out-of-band Secret is outside the GitOps tree by construction.
+2. **It broke DR for the one credential that cannot be re-derived.** A cluster rebuild restores
+   everything in git; it does not restore a hand-made Secret. Losing this key means **re-enrolling
+   every device**, because each client profile pins its public half. #55 papered over this with
+   "keep a copy in your password manager", which is a workaround for a self-inflicted gap.
+
+Note `platform/kyverno/admission/secret-provenance.yaml` did **not** forbid the original shape —
+it scopes to `app-namespace=true` namespaces and `vpn-ingress` is deliberately a platform namespace,
+so admission would have accepted the hand-applied Secret. The rule it violated was the written
+requirement, not an enforced control. Recording that because "the gate let it through" was never
+evidence it was correct.
+
+**How the unfillable-key problem is solved.** An agent still must not mint a long-lived private key
+(CLAUDE.md §6), so the file is committed **already encrypted, with `privatekey: REPLACE-ME`**. That
+makes the wiring complete and the gate green from the first commit — the resource line and both
+overlay decryption patches are present — and leaves the operator exactly one act: replace the value.
+The alternative, a commented-out resource line to uncomment later, is precisely the "file in git with
+no generator entry: reviewed, merged, apparently done, still broken" shape this repo keeps getting
+bitten by (`alert-runbooks-resolvable` exists because of it).
+
+**The init-container guard is now a validation, not an emptiness check.** It was `[ -z "$key" ]`.
+Because the committed placeholder is non-empty, the likely failure is now a value that is present
+and *wrong*, so the guard pipes the value through `wg pubkey` — which accepts only a real 32-byte
+curve25519 private key — and names which of four cases it hit:
+
+| case | why it matters |
+|---|---|
+| `REPLACE-ME` placeholder | the expected fresh-install state |
+| empty | blanked value |
+| **starts with `ENC[`** | **the Secret reached the cluster UNDECRYPTED.** A missing overlay decryption patch applies cleanly and leaves every Flux condition green — this is the silent failure the guard exists for |
+| rejected, none of the above | mangled value, or a *public* key pasted by mistake |
+
+Files:
+
+- `platform/vpn-ingress/wg-server-key.sops.yaml` (new) — SOPS-encrypted to the repo's age recipient,
+  `stringData.privatekey` only, placeholder value.
+- `platform/vpn-ingress/wg-server-key.sops.yaml.example` (new) — plaintext template + operator
+  hand-off, following the `crafty-oauth2-proxy-credentials.sops.yaml.example` convention.
+- `platform/vpn-ingress/kustomization.yaml` — the resource added; the "DELIBERATELY ABSENT: a
+  Secret" block replaced with the overlay-patch warning.
+- `platform/vpn-ingress/daemonset.yaml` — the `wg pubkey` guard; volume comment rewritten.
+- `clusters/dev/kustomization.yaml`, `clusters/prod/kustomization.yaml` — **the `vpn-ingress`
+  `decryption:` patch, in both.** This is the load-bearing half: #55's own kustomization comment
+  predicted that forgetting it applies ciphertext cleanly.
+- `clusters/base/vpn-ingress.yaml` — its "NO decryption stanza is needed" comment was now false.
+- `platform/vpn-ingress/README.md`, `runbooks/vpn-remote-access.md` — step 2 rewritten.
+- `infra/vpn-ingress/new-peer.sh` — stale "step 1" pointer.
+
+**A second finding: `wg` and `sops` were not in the same place — and the first fix for that was
+also wrong.** Measured: `wg` existed only on the host (`/usr/bin/wg`), `sops` only in the dev
+container, `qrencode` on neither. So `sops -d … | wg pubkey` could not run in one shell, and #55's
+step 2 — which assumed it could — would have failed.
+
+My first fix was to **split every step by where it runs**, and to tell the operator to
+`dnf install qrencode` on their workstation. **Operator correction: "sop, wg, and any other tool
+requirement is supposed to be baked into the devcontainer."** That is CLAUDE.md §5 and the
+devcontainer README's "Don't install the toolchain on the host", and the split fix broke the
+invariant rather than honouring it — it also produced a procedure that could never be reproduced in
+CI, and which no one should have to follow.
+
+**The real fix:** `wireguard-tools` and `qrencode` are now distro packages in
+`infra/devcontainer/Containerfile`, alongside ansible/openssh/diffutils. Both are in Fedora 44's
+repos (`wireguard-tools` 1.0.20260223 — the same upstream version as the container image this
+component runs — and `qrencode` 4.1.1), unpinned like every other dnf package there, because the
+pinned thing is the Fedora base and neither is a gate tool whose version changes what green means.
+
+Three things got *simpler* rather than merely relocated, which is the tell that the operator's rule
+was the right one:
+
+1. **Step 2 is now one pipeline in one shell:** `sops set … "\"$(wg genkey)\""` generates the key
+   straight into the already-encrypted document. The plaintext never lands on disk, never reaches a
+   terminal, and there is no staged copy to shred. The previous version needed a copy in
+   `.cache/server.key`, a `git check-ignore` warning about the `*.key` suffix being the only thing
+   protecting it, and a sha256 comparison to prove the right bytes arrived. All of that is gone.
+2. **`new-peer.sh` now derives the server's public key from `wg-server-key.sops.yaml` itself**
+   (`sops -d --extract … | wg pubkey`), so there is no local key copy to keep in step with the
+   encrypted one. It previously required the operator to keep the private key at a magic host path.
+3. **`.cache/` is now gitignored at the repo root** (mirroring `infra/ansible/.gitignore`), so the
+   container has a persistent, non-committable scratch directory. `new-peer.sh` writes client
+   profiles to `.cache/wg-peers/` by default — necessary because the repo bind-mount is the
+   container's ONLY persistent read-write mount, so a profile written to `/tmp` in there is gone
+   before it can be moved to a desktop. Its old blanket "refuse to write inside the checkout" guard
+   is replaced by `git check-ignore`, which tests the actual property instead of a proxy.
+
+**SENSITIVE PATHS — this PR touches `clusters/**` (two overlays) AND adds a `**/*.sops.yaml`, so
+`ci/approval-policy.sh` will BLOCK it.** It needs the operator's `/approve-override <reason>` as a
+PR **review** of type "Comment". I have deliberately not posted it (CLAUDE.md §1).
+
+## What I verified
+
+- **The encrypted file is real and correctly targeted.** `sops -e -i` in the pinned toolbox
+  produced `stringData.privatekey: ENC[AES256_GCM,...]` with cleartext keys, `encrypted_regex
+  ^(data|stringData)$`, and exactly one age recipient:
+  `age175l8mdpdfu7hq0aml3exs3gykarwjmuvr23sq56s3wjejnyk44wsp4mfzg` — the recipient in the root
+  `.sops.yaml`, i.e. the key Flux holds as `sops-age`.
+- **Round-trip, without exposing anything**: `sops -d` then a Python read of key names only →
+  `stringData keys: ['privatekey']`, and `value is still the placeholder: True`.
+- **Both overlay patches are present and name the right Kustomization** (`name: vpn-ingress`,
+  `namespace: flux-system`, `decryption.secretRef.name: sops-age`), inserted after each overlay's
+  `velero` stanza, mirroring headlamp/crafty/velero.
+- **`kubectl kustomize platform/vpn-ingress` builds** and now emits five objects — Namespace,
+  ConfigMap, **Secret**, DaemonSet, NetworkPolicy — with `${WG_CLIENT_CIDR}` still an unexpanded
+  token for Flux.
+- **The tool gap, measured on both host and container before the fix**: `wg` host-only, `sops`
+  container-only, `qrencode` on neither.
+- **Both packages exist in the image's repos**, queried from inside the running container:
+  `wireguard-tools` 1.0.20260223 (repo `updates`) and `qrencode` 4.1.1 (repo `fedora`).
+- **The image REBUILDS with them and both tools resolve inside it** —
+  `./infra/devcontainer/dev.sh build` succeeded, and `wg --version` / `qrencode --version` /
+  `sops --version` all answer in the rebuilt container. This is the claim the change rests on, so
+  it was executed rather than reasoned.
+- **`new-peer.sh`'s new SOPS path fails correctly against the placeholder.** Run in the rebuilt
+  container it refused with "could not derive the server public key … it still holds the REPLACE-ME
+  placeholder", which is both the expected pre-key behaviour and a live test of the
+  `sops -d | wg pubkey` pipeline the whole design now depends on.
+- **`.cache/` is ignored regardless of filename** now: `git check-ignore -v .cache/anything.conf`
+  and `.cache/serverkey.txt` both match `.gitignore:46:.cache/`. Before this change only `*.key`
+  matched, which is the fragility the previous runbook had to warn about.
+- **Toolbox gate** from an isolated worktree: **rc 3**, with `spec-immutability`, `decisions-log`,
+  `lint`, `l0`, `render-golden`, `l1` and `approval-policy` all **pass**; rc 3 is the two
+  environmental skips (`gitea-settings` — no local token; conformance L2/L3 — no cluster).
+  **Not green. Reported as rc 3, not as pass.**
+- **The L0 gate caught THREE real defects in this branch before it could merge — including one
+  in the fix for another — and I had asserted one of them was fine without running it.** Both are recorded because the gate's value here is the
+  whole point of the exercise:
+  1. **`no-plaintext-secrets` FAILED**: "`wg-server-key.sops.yaml.example`: an unencrypted .example
+     template is referenced by a kustomization — it would be applied as a plaintext Secret". My
+     kustomization named the template in a *comment*, and the check matches comments too (correctly:
+     naming one is how a plaintext Secret gets applied by accident). `platform/crafty/kustomization.yaml`
+     never names its own example either — the convention was there to copy and I missed it. Fixed by
+     not naming the file; the hand-off lives inside the example, where it belongs.
+     **An earlier draft of this entry claimed this check passed. It did not. The claim was written
+     from expectation rather than from a run.**
+  2. **`flux-postbuild-substitution` FAILED** on `${key#ENC[}` in my new guard
+     (`daemonset.yaml:155`), flagged `[SILENT-EMPTY]`: envsubst consumes every `${...}`, so my
+     shell prefix-strip would have rendered to the empty string — the ciphertext branch of the guard
+     would never have fired, which is precisely the silent failure the guard was added to catch.
+     Rewritten with `case`, which uses no braces and so has nothing to escape.
+  3. **And then it failed a THIRD time, on the fix's own comment** — `[FATAL-PARSE]
+     daemonset.yaml:156 ${...}`, the prose explaining the rule, written with the literal form. That
+     class is worse than it looks: a `FATAL-PARSE` hazard fails the **entire** Kustomization, every
+     resource in the path, not just the line. Rewritten as "dollar-brace expansion". This is the
+     second time in this component that writing the hazard literally inside a comment about the
+     hazard has been the defect (the first was in #55), so the habit to build is: **in any
+     substituted path, describe the construct in words, never type it.**
+- **After both fixes, `no-plaintext-secrets` and `flux-postbuild-substitution` pass** (446 and 198
+  assertions respectively), and `l0` is green.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **That Flux decrypts this file on prod.** The overlay patches have never reconciled. This is the
+  whole risk of the change and it has exactly one observable outcome: after merge the pods should
+  CrashLoop reporting the **`REPLACE-ME` placeholder** (proving decryption worked), *not* reporting
+  **`ENC[`** (which would prove a patch is wrong). I built the guard to tell those apart because I
+  cannot test them.
+- **That `wg pubkey` accepts the operator's real key through this path.** The guard is reasoned from
+  `wg pubkey`'s behaviour and has never run — `wg` is absent from both this workstation's container
+  and the gate, so the first execution will be in the pod.
+- **The `sops set` command in the hand-off.** I verified `sops -e -i` and `sops -d` in the toolbox;
+  I did **not** run `sops set` with the quoting shown, and nested quoting inside
+  `dev.sh run bash -c` is exactly where a documented command tends to break. If it misbehaves, the
+  editor form (`sops <file>`) is the fallback and does not depend on quoting.
+- **The sha256 comparison in step 2 step 4** is untested end to end (it needs the real key).
+- **Whether anything else in #55 assumed a tool is available where it is not.** I checked `wg`,
+  `sops` and `qrencode` because step 2 depended on them. I did not audit every command in the
+  runbook the same way — and that class of defect has now produced two corrections in a row
+  (`site.sh`, then `sops | wg`), so assume more remain until each step has actually been run.
+- **The live VPN still carries no traffic**, and the earlier gaps stand unchanged: the
+  iptables-vs-nftables question, `allowPrivilegeEscalation: false` versus the image's s6 init, and
+  any off-LAN reachability.
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-06
+branch: fix/new-peer-ignores-template-comments
+title: new-peer.sh refused the first VPN address because its duplicate check matched its own commented-out example
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+The operator's first real enrolment failed:
+
+```
+$ ./infra/vpn-ingress/new-peer.sh keith-phone 2
+new-peer.sh: 10.90.0.2/32 is already allocated in platform/vpn-ingress/peers.yaml. Pick another octet.
+```
+
+**Nothing was allocated.** `peers.yaml` had zero peers — the pod's own init container reported
+`wg0.conf assembled: 0 peer(s)`. The duplicate-address check grepped the WHOLE file, and
+`peers.yaml` line 66 is a **commented-out example stanza** I wrote, containing literally
+`#   AllowedIPs = 10.90.0.2/32`. So `.2` — the first address anybody would ask for, and the one my
+own runbook uses in its example — was permanently un-allocatable, with a message asserting the
+opposite of the truth.
+
+Both halves fixed, because either alone leaves the trap half-set:
+
+- **`infra/vpn-ingress/new-peer.sh`**: the check strips comment lines before matching
+  (`grep -vE '^[[:space:]]*#' | grep -q …`). That is the correct predicate rather than a patch: a
+  real stanza's `AllowedIPs` line is never commented, while both the template and every peer's
+  `# <name> — <owner>` label always are.
+- **`platform/vpn-ingress/peers.yaml`**: the example now uses placeholders that cannot match
+  anything real — `# <device-name> — <owner>, enrolled <YYYY-MM-DD>` and
+  `AllowedIPs = 10.90.0.<octet>/32`. A future grep cannot be fooled by it either.
+
+The bug class is worth naming: **a documentation example that is byte-identical to real data will
+eventually be parsed as real data.** The same shape caused two earlier defects in this component —
+`flux-postbuild-substitution` flagged a `${...}` written inside a comment *explaining* that hazard,
+and `no-plaintext-secrets` flagged the `.sops.yaml.example` because the kustomization named it in a
+comment. Three instances now; the rule is to make examples structurally unmatchable, not merely
+commented out.
+
+No sensitive paths (`platform/vpn-ingress/**`, `infra/vpn-ingress/**`, `decisions/**`), so this
+merges on a green gate with no override.
+
+## What I verified
+
+Run in the pinned toolbox against the live tree, 2026-10-06.
+
+- **`.2` now works**, and it went through the REAL key path: `new-peer.sh keith-phone 2` rendered a
+  profile with `Address 10.90.0.2/32`, `AllowedIPs = 10.90.0.2/32` in the printed stanza, full
+  tunnel, at `.cache/wg-peers/keith-phone.conf` (0600). The throwaway keypair was deleted after.
+- **This incidentally closes a gap left open in #60**: the profile could only have been rendered by
+  deriving the server's public key via `sops -d --extract … | wg pubkey` from
+  `wg-server-key.sops.yaml` — so that pipeline is now proven **against the operator's real key**,
+  not just against a placeholder it was expected to reject.
+- **A real duplicate is still refused.** Appending an uncommented
+  `AllowedIPs = 10.90.0.5/32` stanza and asking for octet 5 produced the correct refusal; the tree
+  was restored afterwards and `git diff --stat` showed only the intended template edit.
+- **Zero active allocations remain**: `grep -vE '^[[:space:]]*#' peers.yaml | grep -c AllowedIPs`
+  → `0`.
+- **Toolbox gate**: rc 3, with `spec-immutability`, `decisions-log`, `lint`, `l0`, `render-golden`,
+  `l1` and `approval-policy` all pass; rc 3 is the two environmental skips (`gitea-settings`,
+  conformance L2/L3). **Not green. Reported as rc 3.**
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **No peer is enrolled by this branch.** The keypair I generated was a throwaway and was deleted;
+  the operator must run the script themselves, since the device's private key must exist only on
+  the device. So the end of the enrolment path — a stanza merged into `peers.yaml`, Flux rolling
+  the DaemonSet, and `wg show` listing a peer — is still unexercised.
+- **The duplicate-NAME warning** (`grep -qi "^ *# *${NAME} "`) deliberately still inspects
+  comments, because per-peer labels are comments. It is no longer tripped by the template, but I
+  did not test it against a real enrolled peer.
+- **Nothing about client traffic.** The WAN port-forward is still not configured and there is still
+  no off-LAN vantage point, so the tunnel has carried no packet.
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-06
+branch: fix/peers-configmap-content-hash
+title: A merged VPN peer never reached the tunnel — the peer register was a fixed-name ConfigMap, so nothing rolled the pods
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+The operator enrolled a phone, merged the peer, and **`wg show` listed no peers.** Measured on prod
+2026-10-06, with the peer already on `main`:
+
+| observation | value |
+|---|---|
+| peer stanza on `main` | present (`AllowedIPs = 10.90.0.2/32`) |
+| GitRepository artifact | `main@sha1:e1bebb8` — Flux had fetched it |
+| `vpn-ingress` Kustomization `lastAppliedRevision` | `main@sha1:5928d81` — **behind**, 10m interval |
+| live `wg-peers` ConfigMap, active `AllowedIPs` lines | **0** |
+| DaemonSet volume reference | `configMap.name: wg-peers` — a **fixed** name |
+| DaemonSet `generation` / `observedGeneration` | **1 / 1** — it had **never rolled** |
+| init container, all three pods | `wg0.conf assembled: 0 peer(s)` |
+
+The lag was only the reconcile interval. **The defect is the fixed name.** When Flux does update a
+fixed-name ConfigMap it updates it *in place*: the DaemonSet's pod template is byte-identical, so
+no rollout is triggered — and because the init container assembles `wg0.conf` **once at pod start**
+into a tmpfs, the running tunnel keeps the old peer list indefinitely. Adding or revoking a peer
+would have had **no effect at all** until something unrelated happened to restart the pods. For a
+*revocation* that is a security defect, not an inconvenience: the operator would delete a stanza,
+see a green PR, and the device would keep working.
+
+My runbook and README both asserted "PR → merge → Flux rolls the DaemonSet (~1 min)". That was
+never true.
+
+**This repo already documents the fix, and I had read the file.** `runbooks/kustomization.yaml`:
+*"The generated name carries kustomize's content hash, so editing any runbook rolls the server
+automatically and a stale projection is impossible."*
+
+So the register becomes a **content-hashed generator**:
+
+- `platform/vpn-ingress/peers.yaml` (inline ConfigMap) → **`platform/vpn-ingress/peers.conf`**, a
+  plain file, plus a `configMapGenerator` in `kustomization.yaml`. The operator's enrolled peer was
+  carried across verbatim. Every line is WireGuard config and `#` is a legal comment there, so the
+  documentation now travels *inside the mounted file* instead of in a YAML wrapper that gets
+  stripped.
+- **`namespace: vpn-ingress` added to the kustomization — REQUIRED, not tidiness.** A generated
+  ConfigMap inherits no namespace; every other object here declares `vpn-ingress`; and kustomize's
+  `nameReference` transformer will not rewrite a reference across a namespace boundary. Without it
+  the build emitted `ConfigMap wg-peers-m9kcckcb5t` while the DaemonSet still mounted the unhashed
+  `wg-peers`, which would not exist — the pods would wedge on a missing volume. I caught this only
+  by building the output and reading the volumes block.
+- **`infra/vpn-ingress/new-peer.sh`**: `PEERS_FILE` repointed to `peers.conf`, and a missing
+  register is now **fatal** instead of skipped. The old guard was
+  `[ -r "$PEERS_FILE" ] && grep …`, so after the rename the only symptom would have been
+  duplicate-address detection quietly never firing again — the silent-skip shape this repo treats
+  as a defect in its own right.
+- Stale `peers.yaml` references swept from the README, runbook, `daemonset.yaml`,
+  `networkpolicy.yaml`, the SOPS example, and the script's own **user-facing output** (it told the
+  operator to paste into "peers.yaml, under data.peers.conf", which would no longer exist).
+- The runbook gained the verification that actually distinguishes this failure — the DaemonSet's
+  `generation` must *increase* after the merge — and a troubleshooting row for `0 peer(s)` after a
+  merge.
+
+Flux's `prune: true` removes the orphaned fixed-name `wg-peers` ConfigMap on the next reconcile.
+
+No sensitive paths (`platform/vpn-ingress/**`, `infra/vpn-ingress/**`, `runbooks/**`,
+`decisions/**`), so this merges on a green gate with no override.
+
+## What I verified
+
+Built and run in the pinned toolbox, 2026-10-06 (kustomize v5.8.1 via `kubectl kustomize`).
+
+- **The reference is now rewritten end to end**: generated `ConfigMap wg-peers-m9kcckcb5t` in
+  namespace `vpn-ingress`, and the DaemonSet mounts **`wg-peers-m9kcckcb5t`**. Before adding
+  `namespace:` the same build mounted the unhashed `wg-peers` — so the namespace line is load
+  bearing, measured both ways.
+- **The hash tracks content, which is the whole mechanism.** `wg-peers-m9kcckcb5t` →
+  append a second peer → `wg-peers-dgg7ht9c74` → restore → `wg-peers-m9kcckcb5t`. Deterministic
+  and reversible, so an edit necessarily changes the pod template.
+- **The operator's enrolled peer survived the file conversion byte-for-byte**: the active stanza in
+  `peers.conf` (`PublicKey = pBRSHrRy…`, `AllowedIPs = 10.90.0.2/32`) is identical to the one on
+  `main`, compared directly against `git show origin/main:platform/vpn-ingress/peers.yaml`.
+- **The build still emits all five objects**: Namespace, ConfigMap, Secret, DaemonSet,
+  NetworkPolicy — and the `Namespace` object's own name is still `vpn-ingress` (the namespace
+  transformer did not rewrite it).
+- **`new-peer.sh` works against the new register**: `spare-laptop 7` renders a profile and prints
+  "append this to platform/vpn-ingress/peers.conf"; `dupe 2` is **refused** because the operator's
+  real `.2` now occupies it — the first time the duplicate check has been exercised against real
+  data rather than against its own example.
+- **Toolbox gate**: rc 3, with `spec-immutability`, `decisions-log`, `lint`, `l0`, `render-golden`,
+  `l1` and `approval-policy` all pass; rc 3 is the two environmental skips. **Not green. Reported
+  as rc 3.**
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **That the roll actually happens on the cluster.** The whole point of the change is unproven
+  until Flux applies it: the success criterion is the DaemonSet's `generation` increasing and
+  `wg0.conf assembled: 1 peer(s)` in the init log, followed by `wg show` listing the peer.
+- **That the tunnel then carries traffic.** No handshake has ever been observed. The WAN
+  port-forward is reportedly configured but has never been exercised by a packet I can see, and I
+  have no off-LAN vantage point — runbook step 6 from cellular remains the only honest test.
+- **Revocation**, which is the case where this defect was a security problem. Deleting a stanza
+  should now roll the pods and drop the peer; untested.
+- **Whether the orphaned fixed-name `wg-peers` ConfigMap is actually pruned.** Reasoned from
+  `prune: true` on the Kustomization, not observed.
@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-06
+branch: docs/pm-agent-registry-pull-prereq
+title: The nodes resolve gitea to the WAN, so the failing certificate is the router's — the second node process to need the issuer pin
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+The image pull for `pm-agent` failed TLS verification, and the previous entry on this branch
+honestly recorded it as **not diagnosed**. The operator asked for the diagnosis before any
+registry design. This is it, and the fix turns out to be a pattern this repository already
+has.
+
+`infra/ansible/inventory/group_vars/k3s_prod/vars.yml` now pins
+`gitea.{{ k3s_base_domain }}` → `192.168.2.20` in `node_baseline_hosts_pins`, beside the
+Keycloak issuer pin that is there for the identical reason.
+
+**It reaches the nodes the way every other node setting in this project does — through
+Ansible, from the inventory.** Node configuration is Ansible's (and, for the dev VMs,
+OpenTofu's); nothing here touches a node by hand. For prod specifically, Ansible is the
+*only* surface: `infra/PROD-PROVISIONING.md` records that prod is 3× bare metal and that the
+dev path (OpenTofu → Proxmox VM → cloud-init) does not apply, so there is no
+cloud-init/tofu half to keep in parity for this. The one scoped, idempotent command:
+
+    cd infra/ansible && ansible-playbook playbooks/node-baseline.yml \
+      -e k3s_hosts=k3s_prod --tags hosts
+
+`--tags hosts` runs ONLY the `/etc/hosts` task, so applying this pin cannot drift any other
+baseline setting. Running the play is an operator action (it has become/root on prod), but
+the configuration itself is declared, reviewed and version-controlled — not typed on a node.
+
+The docs that described this as an undiagnosed blocker now describe the cause and the fix:
+`platform/pm-agent/README.md`, `runbooks/pm-agent.md` (its symptom row now names the pin and
+the play), and `docs/plans/pm-agent-issue-to-pr.md`.
+
+Also recorded, in the two places an operator reads when creating the credential: **the agent
+authenticates to Gitea with a local account and a scoped PAT, by decision** (operator,
+2026-10-06), not with a federated identity. Written down because the alternative looks
+obviously better until you check whether it is possible — see below.
+
+## What I verified
+
+Every step measured, read-only, in this order.
+
+**The failing certificate is the router's, not the Gateway's.**
+
+- containerd's error names TLS, not the digest: `tls: failed to verify certificate: x509:
+  certificate is not valid for any names, but wanted to match gitea.home.keithjackson.dev`.
+  "not valid for **any** names" means the presented certificate carries no SANs at all.
+- `192.168.2.20` is the shared Gateway's own LoadBalancer VIP
+  (`gateway/cilium-gateway-shared`, from the Cilium pool `192.168.2.20-30`), and its `https`
+  listener serves `*.home.keithjackson.dev` with `wildcard-home-tls`. From the operator's
+  workstation the name resolves there and serves the real Let's Encrypt
+  `CN=*.home.keithjackson.dev` with correct SANs. **So the certificate and the Gateway are
+  healthy.**
+- **The node asks a different resolver and gets a different answer.** Prod's
+  `node_baseline_dns_servers` is the LAN gateway, not Pi-hole — deliberately, as that file
+  explains. Public DNS for this zone is a CNAME to `wan.home.keithjackson.dev`: measured via
+  both `1.1.1.1` and `8.8.8.8`, `gitea.home.keithjackson.dev` →
+  `wan.home.keithjackson.dev.` → `136.51.115.252`, and the apex answers the same.
+- **That address serves a certificate with no names.** Measured from the workstation against
+  the WAN address with the right SNI:
+
+      subject=C=ZZ, ST=Somewhere, L=Unknown, O=%D342e7e6b, CN=%D
+      issuer=C=ZZ, ST=Somewhere, L=Unknown, O=%D342e7e6b, CN=%D
+      No extensions in certificate
+
+  No extensions means no `subjectAltName`, which is exactly "not valid for any names". The
+  `CN=%D` is the router's placeholder.
+
+**This repository had already measured the same thing, for Keycloak, and I did not need to
+re-derive it.** `infra/ansible/inventory/group_vars/k3s_prod/vars.yml` says, above the pin:
+"Since platform/gateway/gateway.yaml set an external-dns `target`, every public name is a
+CNAME to wan.home.keithjackson.dev = the home WAN IP. The SOHO router does NOT hairpin: from
+the LAN, WAN:443 answers with the router's own self-signed placeholder cert (measured from
+k3s-prod-2/-3 2026-10-03: `curl` exit 60, ssl_verify_result=18)." Same cause, same symptom,
+one name later. The pin exists precisely for node processes that must reach the Gateway
+directly; containerd is one, and nobody had added it.
+
+**The parity the pin has to satisfy:** `192.168.2.20` equals the live
+`GATEWAY_VIP`, and `k3s_base_domain` equals the live `BASE_DOMAIN` — both read from the
+cluster, not from the comment that claims prod serves `prod.home.keithjackson.dev` (it does
+not; `flux-system/cluster-vars` reports `BASE_DOMAIN=home.keithjackson.dev` and
+`GATEWAY_VIP=192.168.2.20`, and Ansible's `k3s_base_domain` is `home.keithjackson.dev`).
+That comment is stale history.
+
+**The credential decision, and why the obvious alternative is not available.** Gitea's API
+accepts basic auth, PATs, SSH signatures and its own OAuth2 bearer tokens; as an OAuth2
+provider Gitea implements **only the Authorization Code Grant** (plus PKCE/OIDC), so there
+is no client-credentials grant, and nothing in Gitea validates a token issued by a
+third-party OIDC provider. A Keycloak service-account token therefore cannot authenticate to
+Gitea's API or to git-over-HTTP. Read from Gitea's own documentation
+(`docs.gitea.com/development/api-usage`, `/development/oauth2-provider`), not assumed.
+
+**Gate:** `./ci/gate.sh` in the pinned toolbox from a §0 worktree — see the branch's run; rc 3
+with `gitea-settings` the only stage that did not run.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **That the pin fixes the pull.** It is IaC, and nothing has applied it: `/etc/hosts` on the
+  nodes is written by the `node_baseline` play's `hosts`-tagged task, which is an operator
+  action. I did confirm the mechanism is not inert — `roles/node_baseline/tasks/main.yml`
+  renders `node_baseline_hosts_pins` into a marked `blockinfile` with `backup: true`, and
+  `state: absent` when the list empties, so a removed entry really leaves the node. Until that runs
+  and an image exists, "the node now reaches the Gateway" is a design claim. The evidence
+  that it *will* is the Keycloak pin working for the same cause — which I also did not
+  re-measure.
+- **Why public DNS answers at all for an `internal` service.** `catalog/gitea.yaml` sets no
+  `exposure`, so it inherits `internal`, and the renderer contract says an internal service's
+  HTTPRoute carries `external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/controller: none` and publishes no
+  public record. Yet `gitea.home.keithjackson.dev` resolves publicly to the WAN CNAME. I did
+  not chase that: it may be a zone-level wildcard rather than a published record, and it did
+  not change the diagnosis. It is worth someone's attention, because "internal services
+  publish no public DNS" is an L0-checked claim and this looks like a case where the *name*
+  resolves regardless of what the renderer withheld.
+- **Registry authentication.** Unchanged and still open: an unauthenticated client gets
+  nothing from this registry, and no `imagePullSecret` exists anywhere in the tree. With the
+  credential model now decided (local Gitea accounts with PATs) the shape is a
+  `dockerconfigjson` for an account whose token carries `read:package`, referenced from the
+  Deployment and the committed worker Job template — and the worker Job template's shape is
+  pinned by admission, so whether the policy should also pin `imagePullSecrets` deserves a
+  deliberate look rather than a quiet addition. Not built: minting that token is an operator
+  action, and I did not want to guess at a second credential's scope.
+- **Anything about runtime.** The image still does not exist. No dispatcher has
+  authenticated, no issue has been triaged, no worker Job has been created, and the admission
+  policy — live, `Enforce`, six rules — has still never admitted or refused a real Job.
@@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-06
+branch: feat/pm-agent-registry-pull-secret
+title: The kubelet's pull credential — the second half of making agent-runner pullable, and the seventh field the admission policy had not read
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+The registry had two blockers. The first — the nodes resolving the registry hostname to the
+non-hairpinned WAN and failing TLS against the router's `CN=%D` certificate — was diagnosed
+and fixed by an `/etc/hosts` pin, merged in #59 and applied by the operator. This is the
+second: **the pull is unauthenticated, and this registry refuses unauthenticated clients
+outright.**
+
+`pm-agent-registry` is a new `kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson` Secret, SOPS-encrypted with
+placeholder values, referenced by `imagePullSecrets` on both the dispatcher Deployment and
+the committed worker Job template. It is a **second Secret holding the same Gitea token** as
+`pm-agent-credentials`, because the two consumers need two formats: the application reads a
+raw token from env, the kubelet reads a dockerconfigjson before any container starts. That
+duplication is the established pattern here (the Keycloak client secret is mirrored the same
+way, for the same reason) and it is documented in both `.example` files.
+
+The operator's part is the value, and one scope: the Gitea token must now carry
+**`read:package`** alongside `write:repository` and `write:issue`. Steps are in
+`platform/pm-agent/pm-agent-registry.sops.yaml.example`, including the trap that
+`.dockerconfigjson`'s registry key must be the bare host as the image reference spells it —
+with a scheme or a port it matches nothing, the kubelet pulls anonymously, and the failure is
+indistinguishable from the Secret being absent.
+
+**The admission policy gained a seventh rule.** `imagePullSecrets` is a pod-spec field that
+no container references, which is exactly why it is easy to leave unread — the same shape of
+omission as `initContainers`, `ephemeralContainers`, `env` and `envFrom` before it. The
+kubelet reads the named Secret, in this namespace, before anything runs. Rule 1's pattern now
+REQUIRES the committed entry and rule 7 forbids any other or any second one; both halves are
+needed because a `foreach` over an absent list yields no result.
+
+The leverage is small and worth saying so: the image is digest-pinned, so a different pull
+credential cannot change *what* runs, and the only Secrets in this namespace are the agent's
+own. It is pinned anyway, because "only the committed shape" is this policy's whole premise
+and the rule costs four lines.
+
+## What I verified
+
+- **`kyverno test platform/kyverno/tests/pm-agent` → 33 passed, 0 failed** under the pinned
+  CLI (was 28 before this change). Three new fixtures, each a real path rather than a style
+  violation: `extra-pull-secret` (the committed entry PLUS a second one — rule 1's array
+  pattern is satisfied by the first element, which is why the count is asserted separately),
+  `wrong-pull-secret` (a different Secret in this namespace), and `no-pull-secret` (absent
+  entirely, refused by rule 1's pattern because rule 7's foreach cannot see it).
+- **`PM_SELFTEST=1 pm-dispatch` → exit 0**, now also asserting that the committed Job
+  template names exactly `pm-agent-registry` — so the template and the policy cannot drift
+  apart without the image build failing.
+- **`./ci/gate.sh` in the pinned toolbox, from a §0 worktree → exit 3 (UNDETERMINED)**, with
+  `gitea-settings` the only stage that did not run (no `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN` on this
+  workstation). Every other stage green, `spec-immutability` included. rc 3 is not a pass.
+- **The gate caught me shipping the Secret in plaintext.** I wrote the placeholder
+  `pm-agent-registry.sops.yaml` and never ran `sops -e -i` on it. `no-plaintext-secrets`
+  refused it with both halves named — "has no top-level `sops:` block with a mac" and
+  "Secret value '.dockerconfigjson' is not SOPS ciphertext" — which is exactly the check
+  earning its place: the file looked finished, and the value was a placeholder, so nothing
+  about reading the diff would have made it obvious. Encrypted, and the stage is green.
+- **The registry really does refuse anonymous clients**, measured before building this
+  (2026-10-05): the anonymous registry token's `access` claim is `null`, every `/v2/…`
+  path answers 401 whether it exists or not, and `/api/v1/packages/Home-Network` replies
+  `{"message":"token is required"}`. That is why this is a credential and not a posture
+  tweak.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **That the pull now works.** Nothing has been pushed to that registry and the committed
+  digest is still the all-zero placeholder, so neither half of the registry fix has been
+  exercised end to end. The first real pull is what proves both at once — and if it fails, the
+  error names which half: `x509 … not valid for any names` is the resolution pin, `401` /
+  `unauthorized` is this credential.
+- **That the `/etc/hosts` pin from #59 took effect.** The operator applied it; I could not
+  confirm the effect, because the dispatcher pod's retained events are all repeating
+  `BackOff` with no fresh `Pulling`, so the `x509` message still visible is the one from
+  before the play ran. Not evidence either way.
+- **Whether `read:package` is sufficient** for a pull from a Gitea package of this type. It is
+  the documented read scope for packages; nothing here has exercised it, because no package
+  exists yet.
+- **The dockerconfigjson placeholder is not a valid credential and is not meant to be.** Its
+  `auth` field is a `REPLACE-ME` string rather than base64, so a pull with it will fail at
+  authentication rather than be mistaken for working.
+- **Anything about runtime.** Unchanged from the previous entries: the image has never been
+  built or pushed, no dispatcher has authenticated to Gitea, no issue has been triaged, no
+  worker Job has ever been created, and the admission policy — live, `Enforce`, now seven
+  rules — has still never admitted or refused a real Job.
+
+**Addendum 2026-10-30 (rebased onto #81/#82/#83; see `decisions/2026-10-30-pm-agent-live.md`).**
+Three statements above are now out of date, and one was wrong when written:
+- *"Nothing has been pushed to that registry"* — no longer true. CI published agent-runner in
+  images run 340 (`sha-523cd9118f95` = `main`, digest `sha256:c4eba5b3…6eb42`), and this
+  branch now pins it.
+- *"That the `/etc/hosts` pin from #59 took effect"* — now measured: all three prod nodes
+  carry the line, resolve the name to `192.168.2.20`, and get `401` with `ssl_verify_result=0`
+  from `https://gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/v2/` (see the new entry).
+- *"Whether `read:package` is sufficient"* — the scope is necessary but not the whole answer:
+  org-package access is decided by account permission (team Packages unit, or org
+  visibility). Handled in the registry `.example`.
+- **Wrong when written:** the scope list. Gitea 1.24.3 puts `GET /api/v1/user` — the
+  dispatcher's first call — behind the `user` scope category, so a token with only
+  `write:repository`, `write:issue` and `read:package` CrashLoops the dispatcher on startup.
+  The token needs `read:user` too.
@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-06
+branch: fix/vpn-ingress-ip-forward
+title: The VPN tunnel never came up — a hostNetwork pod cannot write net.ipv4.ip_forward, and wg-quick treats a failed PostUp as fatal
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+The remote-access VPN reconciled for the first time with a real server key (#60 then #62) and
+**the tunnel did not come up**. One line in my own manifest was the whole cause.
+
+Measured in the `wireguard` container on prod, 2026-10-06:
+
+```
+[#] ip link add dev wg0 type wireguard
+[#] wg addconf wg0 /dev/fd/63
+[#] ip -4 address add 10.90.0.1/24 dev wg0
+[#] ip link set mtu 1420 up dev wg0
+[#] sysctl -q -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
+sysctl: permission denied on key "net.ipv4.ip_forward"
+[#] ip link delete dev wg0
+**** Tunnel /config/wg_confs/wg0.conf failed, will stop all others! ****
+```
+
+Everything up to that point worked. **The cause is not a missing capability.** With
+`hostNetwork: true` the runtime mounts `/proc/sys` **read-only** in the container — confirmed in the
+pod's own `/proc/mounts`: `proc /proc/sys proc ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime` — precisely because
+those sysctls are the *host's* globals and a container must not rewrite them. `CAP_NET_ADMIN` cannot
+lift a read-only mount, so this can never succeed from here. And `wg-quick` treats any failed
+`PostUp` as fatal, so it deleted the interface it had just finished building.
+
+**The line was never needed.** `node_baseline` writes `net.ipv4.ip_forward=1` to
+`/etc/sysctl.d/99-k3s-cilium.conf`, and reading the value from inside the pod returns `1`. I had
+written the header comment *correctly* — "ip_forward is ALREADY 1 on these nodes … so no pod sysctl
+is needed" — and then emitted the sysctl anyway, justified in its own comment as "re-asserted so
+this component does not silently depend on another role's sysctl file surviving". That defensive
+re-assertion is the entire outage. **The lesson is narrow and reusable: in a hostNetwork pod,
+verify host state, never write it.**
+
+Fix:
+
+- **`platform/vpn-ingress/daemonset.yaml`**: the `PostUp = sysctl …` line is gone, replaced by a
+  **read** in the init container — `grep -qx 1 /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward` — which fails closed
+  with a message naming the `node_baseline` role. Reading `/proc/sys` is permitted; only writing is
+  not. Fail-closed still matters: a tunnel that comes up but cannot forward would satisfy every
+  probe in this component and silently drop every client's traffic.
+- The header bullet that said "no pod sysctl is needed" now also says **do not attempt one**, with
+  the mechanism, so the next author does not re-add it for the same reason I did.
+- The `securityContext` comment claimed NET_ADMIN was for "create the wg0 link, set the host sysctl,
+  and write the netfilter rules". The middle clause was false; corrected.
+- The image's `chown: … Operation not permitted` startup run — plus its own "Permissions could not
+  be set … we will not provide support for it" — is now documented as **expected and harmless**, in
+  both the manifest and the runbook, so nobody chases it. Capabilities are dropped to `NET_ADMIN`
+  only, so its s6 init has no `CAP_CHOWN`; `/config` is a writable tmpfs, everything runs as root,
+  and `wg-quick` proceeds past it (as it did here — the failure was 30 lines later).
+- **`runbooks/vpn-remote-access.md`**: a "what a healthy start looks like" block with the real log
+  lines; `ip_forward is 0` added to the init-failure table; and the note that `0/1 Running` with
+  `Startup probe failed: Unable to access interface: No such device` is the signature of `wg-quick`
+  tearing the tunnel down — read the `[#]` line it died on.
+- **`platform/vpn-ingress/README.md`**: a table of what the first reconcile settled (below).
+
+No sensitive paths: `platform/vpn-ingress/**`, `runbooks/**` and `decisions/**` only. This merges on
+a green gate with no override.
+
+## What I verified
+
+Live prod, read-only, 2026-10-06. **Four questions this component's design rested on are now
+measured rather than assumed — three went the right way, one was the defect above.**
+
+- **The GitOps path is proven end to end.** `Kustomization vpn-ingress` `lastAppliedRevision:
+  main@sha1:cf7d5e4` equals the GitRepository artifact revision. The Secret carries
+  `kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/name: vpn-ingress`, so Flux delivered it.
+- **SOPS decryption works, proven by digest rather than by eye.** The value in
+  `platform/vpn-ingress/wg-server-key.sops.yaml` on `main`, decrypted, is 44 bytes, is **not** the
+  placeholder, and **`wg pubkey` accepts it**. Its SHA-256 equals the SHA-256 of the live Secret's
+  decoded `data.privatekey` (`d7c8f8de6f252649…` both sides). No key material was printed at any
+  point — lengths, booleans and digests only.
+- **The `wg pubkey` guard fired correctly, and its `ENC[` branch was never needed.** During the
+  kubelet window before the updated Secret propagated, all three pods reported *"It is still the
+  committed REPLACE-ME PLACEHOLDER"* — the guard distinguishing a stale/unfilled value from
+  ciphertext, exactly as designed. It cleared on its own once the mount refreshed; **a transient
+  `REPLACE-ME` CrashLoop for a minute or two after the key PR merges is expected, not a fault.**
+- **The kernel module reaches the pod**: `ip link add dev wg0 type wireguard` succeeded and
+  `/proc/modules` lists `wireguard`. So the `node_baseline` addition works and `CAP_SYS_MODULE` is
+  correctly not required.
+- **`allowPrivilegeEscalation: false` does NOT break the image's s6 init** — the container reaches
+  `wg-quick` normally. The flag stays; the fear recorded in #55 is closed.
+- **The iptables backends MATCH, which was my single biggest documented doubt.** The image ships
+  `iptables v1.8.13 (nf_tables)` via `/usr/sbin/xtables-nft-multi`, and Debian 13 is nf_tables. The
+  nightmare case — rules accepted into a table the kernel never consults, so handshakes succeed and
+  every forwarded connection hangs — cannot occur on this pairing.
+- **`net.ipv4.ip_forward` is `1`** in the host netns the pod shares, and `/proc/sys` is `ro` there.
+  Both read directly from the pod.
+- **Toolbox gate** from an isolated worktree: **rc 3**, with `spec-immutability`, `decisions-log`,
+  `lint`, `l0`, `render-golden`, `l1` and `approval-policy` all **pass**; rc 3 is the two
+  environmental skips (`gitea-settings`, conformance L2/L3). **Not green. Reported as rc 3.**
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **That the tunnel now comes up.** This fix has not reconciled. The next reconcile is the test, and
+  its success criterion is specific: pods `1/1 Running`, and `wg show` reporting `interface: wg0`
+  with `listening port: 51820`.
+- **That the MASQUERADE and FORWARD rules actually apply.** They are the next statements after the
+  one that failed, so **they have never executed**. The backends matching (above) removes the worst
+  failure mode but proves nothing about the rules themselves. First check after the pods go Ready:
+  `iptables -t nat -S POSTROUTING | grep 10.90.0.0/24` on a node.
+- **Anything about client traffic.** Still zero peers enrolled, still no WAN port-forward, still no
+  off-LAN vantage point. The VPN has carried no packet.
+- **Whether the transient `REPLACE-ME` window has an upper bound.** It cleared within ~2 minutes
+  here; I did not determine the kubelet refresh behaviour, so a longer stall after a key change is
+  uncharacterised.
+- **The `sops set` hand-off command**, still. The operator filled the key in by their own route
+  (#62), so the exact quoting I documented inside `dev.sh run bash -c` remains unexercised.
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-07
+branch: fix/bulk-nfs-truenas
+title: Repoint bulk NFS at the TrueNAS (192.168.2.30); the PVs must be recreated, not reconciled
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+Both ZFS pools were physically moved off the Proxmox host onto a standalone TrueNAS Community
+Edition at **192.168.2.30**, which sits on prod's own `192.168.2.0/24`. `BULK_NFS_SERVER` moves from
+`192.168.2.102` (the pfSense DNAT prod used to mount through) to `192.168.2.30`.
+
+- `clusters/prod/kustomization.yaml` — `BULK_NFS_SERVER` → `192.168.2.30`. The comment block that
+  justified the DNAT, and the "NOT YET DECIDED / THIS PLACEHOLDER IS LOAD-BEARING" banner, are
+  replaced with the measured export configuration and the recreate requirement below.
+- `clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml` — base default `192.168.1.9` → `192.168.2.30`. That host no
+  longer exists.
+- `clusters/dev/kustomization.yaml` — same; marked explicitly **inert**, since dev is decommissioned
+  and its nodes are gone. It carries the real address only so nothing in the tree renders a dead one.
+- `docs/BULK-NFS-STORAGE.md` — §1 and §5 rewritten for TrueNAS (exports, service settings, the ZFS
+  `sharenfs` properties that had to be cleared, and the ACL hazard); §7 rewritten now that the
+  placeholder is gone; §9 retargeted from dev to prod; **new §10** documents the PV
+  delete-and-recreate. §2/§3/§4/§6 are unchanged by the move.
+- `catalog/qbittorrent.yaml`, `platform/monitoring/node-pressure-dashboard.yaml` — two comment/prose
+  references to `192.168.2.102` as the live export address.
+
+**The headline operational fact: repointing this knob is NOT a plain reconcile.** A bound PV's NFS
+source is immutable, so Flux's apply fails rather than updating and the pods keep their old, dead
+mount. The five PVs must be deleted and recreated. That sequence is §10 and is an operator action;
+it is **not** performed by this PR.
+
+## What I verified
+
+**On the NAS (192.168.2.30), measured 2026-10-07 by the operator at my request:**
+
+- `zfs list` — `Storage` → `/mnt/Storage`, `Storage/plex` → `/mnt/Storage/plex`,
+  `Storage/nextcloud` → `/mnt/Storage/nextcloud`. The PV paths resolve unchanged.
+- Ownership intact: `/mnt/Storage/plex`, `tv/`, `downloads/`, `movies/`,
+  `downloads/complete/`, `nextcloud/nextcloud/` all `drwxr-xr-x 1000:3000`. `movies/` 1171 entries
+  and `tv/` 107, against 1165 / 107 measured on Proxmox.
+- `acltype=nfsv4` (SCALE's built-in default, `SOURCE: default`), `aclinherit=passthrough`, and no
+  non-trivial ACLs — mode bits still govern.
+- Three stale `sharenfs` dataset properties (`plex`, `nextcloud`, `docker-volumes`) carried over from
+  Proxmox; cleared with `zfs inherit`, re-checked empty.
+- `exportfs -v`: both shares to `192.168.2.10/.11/.12` with `sec=sys,secure,root_squash,no_all_squash`,
+  `rw` on plex and `ro` on nextcloud.
+- `/proc/fs/nfsd/versions` → `+3 +4 +4.1 +4.2`, so the PVs' `nfsvers=4.1` negotiates.
+- **A defect was found and fixed during setup:** the plex share listed `192.168.2.13` — an address no
+  node holds — and so omitted `192.168.2.12` (k3s-prod-3). Corrected and re-verified.
+
+**From the cluster:**
+
+- Node InternalIPs are `192.168.2.10/.11/.12` (`kubectl get nodes`), confirming `.13` was wrong.
+- All five NFS PVs currently name `192.168.2.102`.
+- `192.168.2.30:2049` and `:111` accept connections; `192.168.2.102:2049` does not.
+- **`spec.nfs` immutability, by server-side dry-run** — this is the finding that shapes the change:
+  `spec.persistentvolumesource: Forbidden: spec.persistentvolumesource is immutable after creation`.
+- The pods report `Ready` while their mounts are dead: a `stat /media` answers from attribute cache,
+  but a `readdir` blocks indefinitely (the PVs mount `hard`). Hence "scale to zero first" in §10.
+
+**Gate:** see the PR; run in the pinned toolbox from this worktree.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **Nothing has mounted 192.168.2.30.** No pod has touched the new server — the PVs still point at
+  the old address and cannot be updated in place. Every §9 probe (numeric-id passthrough, the uid-1000
+  write, the hardlink/EXDEV check, Plex's read-only posture) is **outstanding**, not passing. The
+  equivalents passed against the old host on 2026-09-12; that is not evidence about this one.
+- **The §10 sequence is reasoned, not executed.** Retain + the renderer's pre-set `claimRef` are read
+  from the manifests and from `catalog/render.py`; I have not watched a PVC rebind after a PV delete
+  in this cluster.
+- **`root_squash` is a behaviour change from the Proxmox export**, which carried `no_root_squash`. The
+  argument that nothing needs root on the tree (LSIO drops to 1000; the images chown only their
+  Longhorn `/config`; both subPath directories already exist at 0755) is reasoned from the images and
+  the measured permissions. It has not been exercised. If a mount or subPath resolution fails with
+  EACCES, Maproot `root:root` reproduces the old export and is the first thing to try.
+- **Whether NFSv3 can be disabled.** Enabled Protocols is `NFSv3, NFSv4`; the PVs only need v4.1, so
+  narrowing would close the rpcbind/mountd/statd surface. Not done — it is a change to make after the
+  cutover is proven, not during it.
+- **Whether pfSense / the legacy stack is actually retired.** I measured only that
+  `192.168.2.102:2049` stopped answering. The other legacy consumers of these datasets
+  (`192.168.1.6`, `10.123.1.10`, `192.168.1.18`) were dropped from the new exports; if any is still
+  live, it has lost access. Not checked.
+- **L2/L3 conformance.** `vars.CLUSTER_AVAILABLE` is unset, so CI proves the L0/L1 offline subset
+  only. Nothing in the gate exercises an NFS mount.
@@ -0,0 +1,300 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-17
+branch: feat/automated-upgrades
+title: Automated upgrades — kured + security-only unattended-upgrades, and Renovate finally gets a runner
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+Two halves of one process. Neither is useful alone and they must land together.
+
+### (a) OS upgrades and reboots
+
+**`platform/kured/`** — the Kubernetes Reboot Daemon, chart `6.1.0` / app `1.23.0`, in its own Flux
+Kustomization (`clusters/base/kured.yaml`, `dependsOn: [platform]`, `wait: true`), registered in
+`clusters/base/kustomization.yaml`. Not a line in `platform/kustomization.yaml`: that tier is
+`wait: true` and gates `platform-config` → every apps wave, so a wedged reboot daemon placed there
+could stall every application in the cluster. A component added to make maintenance safer must not
+be able to cause an outage.
+
+**`infra/ansible/roles/unattended_upgrades/`** + `playbooks/unattended-upgrades.yml`, enabled for
+prod in `inventory/group_vars/k3s_prod/vars.yml`. A **new** role rather than an extension of
+`node_baseline` — different lifecycle, and other open branches touch that role.
+
+**The design, and how it answers this repo's two standing objections to reboot automation.**
+`roles/node_baseline/tasks/main.yml:61-67` says "IT DOES NOT REBOOT" (k3s-prod-2 hung on a warm
+reboot 2026-09-03; physical power button required), and `docs/plans/cluster-upgrade-plan.md:291-299`
+rejected system-upgrade-controller for "automating away the human gate between nodes". Both still
+stand. **The human gate is the sentinel.** unattended-upgrades is security-only with the kernel
+blacklisted, so it essentially never produces `/var/run/reboot-required`; that file appears when an
+operator deliberately runs `node-baseline.yml --tags kernel`. kured then performs only the
+*mechanical* half the operator would otherwise type by hand — including the ordering rule
+`node_baseline`'s own output has to shout ("NEVER node 2 first"), which the operator keeps by
+running the kernel play with `--limit <host>` one node at a time. `cluster-upgrade-plan.md:329-330`
+names the condition under which its own rejection reverses (fast disks), and prod is that cluster.
+
+**Quorum: concurrent reboots are structurally impossible.** All three nodes are control-plane+etcd
+(quorum 2/3). `concurrency: 1` plus kured's single cluster-wide lock annotation on its own DaemonSet
+means a node reboots only while holding that lock, enforced by API-server optimistic concurrency
+rather than by timing. **`lockTtl: 0`** (expiry disabled) is the deliberate choice: a TTL exists so
+reboots continue after the lock holder dies, which on 3 etcd nodes is exactly the catastrophe — a
+hung node's lock expiring would let a second node take the cluster to 1/3. So a hang stops the cycle
+forever and pages a human. `lockReleaseDelay: 30m` holds the lock after a node returns.
+
+**The Longhorn gate.** Measured: 25 volumes, all `numberOfReplicas: 3`, one replica per node, with
+`replica-soft-anti-affinity: false` and `disable-scheduling-on-cordoned-node: true`. So every drain
+takes **all 25 volumes to degraded 2/3**, and recovery is serialized —
+`replica-replenishment-wait-interval: 600`, `concurrent-replica-rebuild-per-node-limit: 1`. Reboot
+the next node too early and volumes reach 1/3, where `node-drain-policy:
+block-if-contains-last-replica` can block a drain forever. The inter-node gate is therefore **volume
+robustness, not pod readiness**, and it is doubled: `lockReleaseDelay: 30m` (unconditional, covers
+the 600s wait) plus kured's Prometheus alert gate (semantic, covers a rebuild longer than 30m).
+
+**`alertFilterMatchOnly: true` is load-bearing.** The flag inverts the regexp's meaning: `false`
+(chart default) makes it an *ignore* list and kured blocks on **any** firing alert. Measured
+2026-10-17, five alerts were firing with no end in sight (`CNPGPrimariesCoLocated`,
+`KubeDeploymentReplicasMismatch`, `KubeDeploymentRolloutStuck`, `KubePodNotReady`,
+`OAuth2ProxyGateUnobserved` — the last three all tracing to `pm-agent`, ImagePullBackOff on a
+placeholder digest for 12 days). Under the default, kured would have been blocked on day one and
+never rebooted anything, indistinguishable from "no reboots needed". The allow-list is anchored:
+`^(LonghornVolumeDegraded|LonghornVolumeFaulted|KubeNodeNotReady|NodeExporterDown)$`.
+`NodeEtcdRequestsSlow` and the `NodeIOPressure*` family are **deliberately excluded** despite being
+exactly what you'd want to pause for — prod-1 has a documented etcd WAL I/O starvation history and
+including them risks a permanent wedge that looks like safety.
+
+**The kernel floor (the highest-risk item), handled with two independent exclusions.** Measured: all
+three nodes run `7.1.8+deb13-amd64` (`7.1.8-1~bpo13+1`, the backports metapackage), far above the
+6.13 memattr floor — **but `linux-image-6.12.107` and `linux-image-6.12.94` are also still
+installed, below the floor, bootable, and `apt-mark showhold` is empty on every node.** So: (1) the
+allowed-origins list is `label=Debian-Security` only, and the running kernel comes from
+`o=Debian Backports` (pin 100, the `NotAutomatic`+`ButAutomaticUpgrades` signature), so u-u cannot
+*see* a kernel upgrade; (2) `^linux-` is blacklisted anyway, so widening origins later — the most
+likely future edit — cannot re-arm the hazard. The role **asserts both against `apt-config dump`**,
+apt's own parse of the whole directory, rather than trusting the file it just wrote. Also blacklisted:
+`intel-microcode`, `amd64-microcode`, `grub-*`. `Remove-Unused-Kernel-Packages` is **false** against
+the Debian default, because those older kernels are the documented rollback path. None of this stops
+the kernel moving — the operator's deliberate Ansible run still does that, unchanged.
+
+**The silent-no-op trap this closes.** Measured: `update-notifier-common`, `needrestart` and
+`unattended-upgrades` were **absent on all three nodes**, so *nothing could create
+`/var/run/reboot-required`*. kured deployed alone would have been permanently idle while 1/1 Running
+and reporting `kured_reboot_required=0` — green forever. The role installs the sentinel writer and
+**asserts a hook exists** by discovery (not a hard-coded path), failing loudly if not.
+`needrestart` runs in auto mode with `k3s.service` blacklisted — auto-restart is what makes a
+security-only policy effective, but restarting the control plane unattended is worse than a delayed
+library fix. (k3s is not an apt package at all here: no `k3s`, no `containerd` in dpkg.)
+
+**Alerts + runbook.** `platform/kured/alerts.yaml` — three rules over kured's *only* metric
+(`kured_reboot_required`, one GaugeVec, read from `cmd/kured/main.go:92-96`) plus `kube_node_info`:
+`KuredNotReporting` (`absent()` — the pipeline is dead and the other two are inert),
+`KuredNodeCoverageGap` (`count(kured) < count(nodes)` — a node silently uncovered, which `absent()`
+cannot see), `KuredRebootPending` (`for: 36h` — a reboot was offered and blocked). Companion
+promtool suite `alerts.promtool-test.yaml` pins all three both ways, including that the rule
+**stops** when a reboot succeeds. `runbooks/node-reboot-automation.md` registered in
+`runbooks/kustomization.yaml`.
+
+**The window is DAILY 03:00-06:00, and that choice is driven by the alert.** A weekly window means a
+pending reboot legitimately waits 6 days, forcing `for: 8d`+ — longer than this cluster's 7d
+Prometheus retention and reset by any restart past the 1h for-outage-tolerance. Daily caps the
+legitimate wait under 24h and makes `for: 36h` both robust and meaningful.
+
+### (b) Image / dependency automation
+
+**Renovate was aspirational. It now has a runner.** `.gitea/workflows/renovate.yaml` — scheduled
+daily 03:15 UTC, `workflow_dispatch` with `dry_run` defaulting to **true** for a safe first run.
+Preflight **fails hard (exit 1)** if `RENOVATE_TOKEN` is missing rather than skipping, because a
+skipped Gitea job reports `success` and that is precisely how `renovate.json` stayed inert.
+
+**`renovate.json`: Renovate now owns both halves, and Flux image-automation is formally closed.**
+ADR-0009 gave container image tags to Flux image-automation; that cannot be delivered on this
+repo's terms. (1) `ImageUpdateAutomation` **pushes commits, it does not open PRs**, so it bypasses
+the CLAUDE.md §1 gate; pointed at a side branch instead, nothing opens the PR. (2) It cannot work
+here anyway: `main` is protected `user_can_push: false` and the `flux-system` GitRepository has **no
+`spec.secretRef`** — the source is anonymous and read-only. (3) Enabling it means an in-cluster git
+**write** credential for the repo that defines the cluster. So `docker`/`kubernetes` — disabled
+*only* to avoid fighting that controller — are enabled, with `kubernetes.managerFilePatterns`
+covering `platform/`, `platform-config/`, `apps/`, **`catalog/`** (apps are generated from it; a bump
+only to the rendered output is reverted by the next render and fails `ci/render-golden.sh`),
+`runbooks/serving/` and `infra/agent/`. Added a no-automerge `blast-radius` rule for `kured`,
+`longhorn`, `cilium`, `cloudnative-pg`, `kube-prometheus-stack`, because the gate is static and does
+not boot a node or form a quorum. `platform/kyverno/tests/**` added to `ignorePaths`.
+
+### Sensitive paths — this PR needs a non-author approving review
+
+It touches **`clusters/**`**, **`conformance/**`** and **`.gitea/**`**, all in
+`infra/gitea/approval-policy.json`. It will **not** merge on a green gate alone. Per CLAUDE.md §1 I
+have **not** posted `/approve-override` and must not — that is the self-approval the stage exists to
+prevent.
+
+**The `conformance/` edit, justified.** `+34/-0` in
+`alert-metrics-have-scrape-targets/check.sh`: one new `SCRAPE_OWNERS` entry claiming `kured_`. It
+**weakens nothing** — no existing owner's evaluation changes — and it *tightens* the check for my
+own component, adding two `require` patterns (`service.create: true`, `metrics.create: true`; the
+chart defaults **both** to false) plus a `companion` requirement that `networkpolicy.yaml` stay in
+the kustomization. It had to be touched: assertion (3) fails any alert over an unclaimed metric, and
+the escape hatch `KNOWN_UNWIRED_METRICS` is **shrink-only**, so declaring `kured_*` as debt was not
+permitted and would have been wrong anyway. The alternative was shipping reboot automation with no
+alerting, which for a component whose every failure mode is silent is the worse choice. The entry
+carries a dated comment saying all of this.
+
+## What I verified
+
+Measured against the live cluster and nodes, read-only, on 2026-10-17.
+
+- **Flux image-automation controllers ARE installed and idle.** `-n flux-system get deploy` shows
+  `image-automation-controller` and `image-reflector-controller` both `1/1`, age **43d**; all three
+  `image.toolkit.fluxcd.io` CRDs exist. And **zero** `ImageRepository`/`ImagePolicy`/
+  `ImageUpdateAutomation` objects — "No resources found" for each. The controllers have run for 43
+  days with nothing to do. `platform/kustomization.yaml:52` has the component commented out.
+- **Renovate is aspirational, confirmed three ways**: no workflow in `.gitea/` or `ci/` (grep),
+  no Renovate CronJob/Deployment/Job in any namespace, and `renovate.json` itself disabled the
+  `docker`+`kubernetes` managers — so every plain `image:` tag was maintained by **nothing**, while
+  **seven files** claim "Renovate maintains this pin".
+- **`flux-system` GitRepository has no `secretRef`** (empty), URL is the in-cluster Gitea, and its
+  artifact revision was `main@sha1:1a0b208…`, matching my base.
+- **Nodes**: 3× Debian 13 trixie, all `control-plane,etcd`, k3s `v1.36.4+k3s1`, kernel
+  `7.1.8+deb13-amd64`. `apt-mark showhold` **empty**; `/etc/apt/preferences.d/` **empty**;
+  `/var/run/reboot-required` absent; `unattended-upgrades`/`update-notifier-common`/`needrestart`
+  all **absent**; `linux-image-6.12.107` and `6.12.94` installed alongside the backports kernel;
+  no `k3s`/`containerd` apt package; `apt-cache policy` origins and pins as quoted above.
+- **No node taints** on any of the three (so no tolerations needed), and `system-node-critical`
+  exists.
+- **Longhorn**: 1.12.1; `node-drain-policy: block-if-contains-last-replica`;
+  `replica-soft-anti-affinity: false`; `disable-scheduling-on-cordoned-node: true`;
+  `replica-replenishment-wait-interval: 600`; `concurrent-replica-rebuild-per-node-limit: 1`;
+  25 volumes all 3-replica/healthy; 25 replicas per node.
+- **6 PDBs with 0 allowed disruptions**: 3× `longhorn-system/instance-manager-*` (structurally 0 —
+  single-node selector, `minAvailable: 1`) and 3× CNPG `*-primary`. All three Postgres primaries
+  were on `k3s-prod-1`.
+- **kured drain flags do not exist.** Read `cmd/kured/main.go:438-449`: `Force`,
+  `DeleteEmptyDirData` and `IgnoreAllDaemonSets` are **hardcoded true**. Passing
+  `--ignore-daemonsets`/`--delete-emptydir-data`/`--force` as extraArgs would CrashLoop the
+  DaemonSet. All three are genuinely needed (12 DaemonSets, 135 emptyDir pods measured).
+- **kured exposes exactly one metric** — the only `MustRegister` in the project.
+- **Prometheus selectors are all `{}`** (`serviceMonitorSelector`, `serviceMonitorNamespaceSelector`,
+  `ruleSelector`, `ruleNamespaceSelector`), so a `PrometheusRule`/`ServiceMonitor` in a new namespace
+  is picked up with no label plumbing.
+- **`count(kube_node_info) == 3`** and `count(longhorn_volume_robustness) == 100`, queried through a
+  read-only port-forward. The 5 chronically-firing alerts were read from `/api/v1/alerts`.
+- **`LonghornVolumeDegraded`** is `longhorn_volume_robustness{state="degraded"} == 1`, `for: 10m` —
+  shorter than Longhorn's own 600s replenishment wait, so degradation reliably outlasts the latch.
+- **kured chart 6.1.0 → appVersion 1.23.0** is the newest of 80 entries in the chart index.
+- **Kyverno/PSA will not block it**: every policy is scoped
+  `app-namespace: "true"`; the namespace sets it explicitly `"false"`, and
+  `restrict-host-namespaces.yaml`'s own header states that carve-out. No cluster-wide PSA baseline.
+- **`renovate.json` parses** as valid JSON after my edits (`json.load`).
+- **kured is not installed** and the string `kured` appears nowhere in the repo — greenfield.
+
+### CORRECTION 2026-10-18 — the first real run FAILED, and the sentinel design was wrong
+
+`ansible-playbook playbooks/unattended-upgrades.yml -e k3s_hosts=k3s_prod` failed on all three
+nodes at the package task:
+
+```
+fatal: [k3s-prod-1]: FAILED! => "No package matching 'update-notifier-common' is available"
+```
+
+**`update-notifier-common` is an UBUNTU package and does not exist in Debian.** Measured on trixie:
+`apt-cache policy update-notifier-common` → `Candidate: (none)`. The original entry asserted this
+package "owns the hook that creates /var/run/reboot-required" — true on Ubuntu, false here, and the
+role could never have worked. This was the exact risk the first version of this entry flagged ("the
+`find` patterns are a guess at which package ships what") landing in a worse place than predicted:
+not a wrong glob, a nonexistent package.
+
+Three further measurements settled what to do instead:
+
+* `/usr/share/update-notifier/notify-reboot-required` is **absent**.
+* **No `linux-image-*` postinst references `notify-reboot-required`** — invoking it is an Ubuntu
+  patch, so merely placing a script at that path would never be called.
+* No hook under `/etc/apt/apt.conf.d` or `/etc/kernel/` mentions `reboot-required`.
+
+So Debian trixie has **no stock mechanism at all**, and the role now ships the writer itself:
+`/usr/local/sbin/k3s-notify-reboot-required` (compares the running kernel against the newest
+installed via `linux-version`, from `linux-base`, which every `linux-image` depends on — measured
+`linux-base 4.12.1` present) plus a `DPkg::Post-Invoke` hook at
+`/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99-k3s-reboot-required`. `/run` is a tmpfs (measured), so the sentinel
+self-clears on boot and needs no cleanup task.
+
+The verify assert changed shape too: it was a `find` glob over `/etc/kernel/postinst.d` and
+`/etc/apt/apt.conf.d` for `*update-notifier*` / `*unattended-upgrades*`. That glob was **weaker
+than it looked** — it would have matched Debian's own `unattended-upgrades` apt conffile and
+reported "sentinel writer present" while no writer existed. It now stats the two exact paths this
+role owns and requires the script to be executable.
+
+**Newly verified (this correction):** the sentinel script was executed on prod-1 as the
+unprivileged `k3s` user under `sh -x`. It resolved `running=7.1.8+deb13-amd64`,
+`newest=7.1.8+deb13-amd64`, took the equal branch, exited 0 and wrote nothing — correct, since the
+running kernel *is* the newest. `sh -n` and `bash -n` clean.
+
+**Still NOT verified after this correction:** the *writing* half. Because running == newest on all
+three nodes, the `touch` path has never executed, so I have not seen the sentinel actually created,
+nor seen kured react to it. The honest test is the operator's next kernel upgrade. Also unverified:
+whether a `DPkg::Post-Invoke` hook fires in the `unattended-upgrades` code path specifically (it
+runs dpkg, so it should, but that is inference) — and whether `linux-version sort --reverse` orders
+a mixed backports/stable kernel set the way I assume when a 6.12 and a 7.1 are both installed. It
+produced the right answer with the current set; a future set could differ.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+The honest list. Most of this needs an actual upgrade cycle, which I did not and could not run.
+
+- **I never ran an OS upgrade, never rebooted a node, and never watched kured take a lock.** No part
+  of the runtime behaviour of either half has been observed. `sudo` needs a password I do not have,
+  so I could not run `apt`, `unattended-upgrade --dry-run`, or install anything. **Everything about
+  (a) working is inference from configuration and measured cluster state, not observation.**
+- **The Ansible role has never been executed.** Not syntax-checked by `ansible-playbook --syntax-check`
+  either (no inventory access from the gate). Its asserts, its `apt-config dump` parsing, and the
+  sentinel-hook discovery are all unproven. The `find` patterns for the sentinel hook are a *guess at
+  which package ships what* — I could not read `update-notifier-common`'s file list (packages.debian.org
+  returned no such package for that suite/arch), which is exactly why the role discovers rather than
+  hard-codes. **If no hook matches, the role fails loudly — but it may fail on a correct node.**
+- **Whether CNPG actually switches the primary in response to a drain-induced eviction.** All three
+  `*-primary` PDBs are structurally 0-disruption and `.spec.nodeMaintenanceWindow` is unset on all
+  three clusters. If the operator does not switch over, draining `k3s-prod-1` blocks on three PDBs at
+  once and hits `drainTimeout`. **This is the most likely way the first real reboot fails.** It
+  should be tested with one manual, watched `kubectl drain` before trusting the timer.
+- **Whether `drainTimeout: 15m` is long enough.** Unmeasured. The `unifi` VMI has
+  `evictionStrategy: LiveMigrate` with `migrationMethod: BlockMigration`, i.e. a full root-disk copy
+  over the network on every `k3s-prod-1` drain. I do not know how long that takes.
+- **Whether the alert gate actually blocks as intended.** I never saw kured query Prometheus. The
+  assumption that it treats a query error as "do not proceed" is from its documented behaviour, not
+  observed. The NetworkPolicy allowing kured→Prometheus:9090 and Prometheus→kured:8080 is
+  **unproven**; if either is wrong the symptom is silence, which is why `KuredNotReporting` exists —
+  but that alert is itself unproven against a live scrape.
+- **The alert expressions have not run against real `kured_*` data**, because the metric does not
+  exist in this cluster yet. They pass promtool unit tests against synthetic series whose shape I
+  read from kured's source. `absent()` and the `count() < count()` comparison are the two most
+  likely to behave differently against real label sets.
+- **`enabledManagers: ["regex"]` may be the wrong name.** Modern Renovate expects `custom.regex` for
+  `customManagers`. I left the pre-existing value alone rather than guess, but **the inline
+  `# renovate:` markers may simply not run.** Unverifiable without executing Renovate. Two markers
+  are additionally known-broken independent of this: `external-snapshotter`'s sits two comment lines
+  above its `newTag`, and Keycloak's `kustomization.yaml` has no marker at all despite a comment
+  claiming Renovate maintains it.
+- **Renovate has still never run.** I added the runner; `RENOVATE_TOKEN` does not exist yet, so the
+  first scheduled run **will fail** (by design). Nothing about the config is proven correct until a
+  `dry_run: true` dispatch is read by a human. Expect it to want to open ~30 PRs.
+- **No alert for "automatic patching silently stopped".** u-u's success lives in
+  `/var/log/unattended-upgrades/` on each node and nothing reads it. Likewise **no alert for the
+  Renovate schedule ceasing to fire**. Both are real gaps I did not close.
+- **`coredns` is 1 replica and I did not fix it.** It is k3s-managed, out of this PR's scope, and it
+  means every `k3s-prod-1` reboot causes a cluster-wide in-cluster DNS gap. Recommended follow-up.
+- **kured cannot honour "NEVER node 2 first".** It has no ordering control. The mitigation — run the
+  kernel play with `--limit` one host at a time — is a *procedure*, documented in the runbook, not an
+  enforced property. If the operator flags all three nodes at once, kured picks the order.
+- **kured cannot press a power button.** The 2026-09-03 warm-reboot hang is unmitigated. Bounded, not
+  prevented: quorum holds at 2/3, the lock is held forever so nothing cascades, and
+  `KuredRebootPending` eventually fires.
+- **Upstream version claims are a snapshot, partly from search results**, not all from authoritative
+  release APIs. I could not determine latest for versitygw, crafty, nginx-unprivileged, act_runner,
+  `virt-template-*`, the linuxserver wireguard date-tag, or the exact latest PostgreSQL 16 patch
+  (sources conflicted 16.10 vs 16.15). **The gitea `1.24.3 → v28.1.0` gap is almost certainly an
+  upstream versioning-scheme change, not 26 majors — do not act on that framing.**
+- **I did not verify Renovate's `kustomize` manager still processes `images:`/`newTag`** now that
+  `docker` is enabled, which decides whether `external-snapshotter` and `intel-gpu-plugin` are
+  managed at all.
+- **I did not raise any HelmRelease version ceiling**, so the 9 minor-locking ranges still cap
+  Renovate at patches. Bumping `kube-prometheus-stack` in particular will fail the gate until
+  `ci/versions.env`'s exact promtool/Prometheus `3.14.0` lockstep moves with it.
+- **L2/L3 conformance did not run** (`vars.CLUSTER_AVAILABLE` unset), so nothing here is proven
+  against a cluster by CI either.
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-17
+branch: feat/graceful-cluster-shutdown
+title: "Graceful node shutdown was never configured, and scaling a StatefulSet deleted its PVC"
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+All three nodes had to be powered off to move them onto a UPS. There was **no procedure for it**:
+`infra/cluster.sh stop` is `virsh`-based and only ever applied to the decommissioned dev cluster, so
+the whole sequence was improvised live. Two defects came out of doing it.
+
+**1. Kubelet graceful node shutdown was unconfigured on every prod node.** No `shutdownGracePeriod`
+anywhere in `infra/ansible/`, so `shutdown -h` stopped k3s, containerd went with it, and every pod
+was SIGKILLed where it stood — 9 CloudNativePG instances mid-checkpoint, the UniFi VM, and 25
+attached Longhorn volumes. `roles/k3s_server` now writes `kubelet-arg` into
+`/etc/rancher/k3s/config.yaml` with `shutdown-grace-period=90s` and
+`shutdown-grace-period-critical-pods=20s`.
+
+The half that is easy to miss and silently defeats the other half: **graceful node shutdown is
+enforced by logind, not by the kubelet.** The kubelet holds an inhibitor *delay* lock and systemd
+waits at most `InhibitDelayMaxSec` — **default 5 seconds** — before proceeding regardless. A grace
+period above that cap is truncated with no error, so the feature looks configured and still
+hard-kills pods. The role now ships a `logind.conf.d` drop-in setting it to 120, and **asserts**
+`k3s_logind_inhibit_delay_max_sec >= k3s_kubelet_shutdown_grace_period` rather than documenting the
+relationship, because the failure is invisible.
+
+**2. Scaling a StatefulSet to 0 DELETED its PVC and Longhorn volume.** `monitoring/loki` carries
+`persistentVolumeClaimRetentionPolicy: {whenDeleted: Delete, whenScaled: Delete}`, so the quiesce's
+`scale --replicas=0` destroyed `storage-loki-0` outright. Loki stores with `type: filesystem`, so
+that PVC was the only copy of its log data. This is the defect in this change set that actually
+destroyed something, and it was mine.
+
+New `infra/maintenance/quiesce.sh` (`quiesce` | `resume` | `status`) encodes the sequence that
+worked, and **refuses to scale any StatefulSet whose `whenScaled` is `Delete`** — it leaves it
+running, accepts that its volume hard-detaches at poweroff, and prints which volumes to expect
+`degraded`. A rebuild is a vastly better outcome than a deletion. Workload discovery is computed
+from the live cluster (every Deployment/StatefulSet whose pods mount a PVC, Longhorn or TrueNAS NFS)
+rather than hardcoded, so a newly onboarded service is covered without anyone remembering to add it.
+
+`runbooks/cluster-maintenance-shutdown.md` (new, registered in `runbooks/kustomization.yaml`) is the
+operator page: shutdown order, the TrueNAS-after-nodes constraint, power-on order, the
+un-hibernate-Postgres step Flux will not do for you, and a "what looks broken but is fine" section
+separating the `4/19`-Kustomizations-Ready cascade, the degraded-and-rebuilding volume and the
+self-recovering `keycloak-operator` from the one thing that genuinely needs a human (a stuck
+`oauth2-proxy` replica).
+
+## What I verified
+
+* **Graceful shutdown was genuinely absent**, not merely undocumented: `grep -rn
+  'shutdownGracePeriod|graceful-node-shutdown'` over `infra/ansible/` returns nothing, and no
+  `logind` or `InhibitDelay` setting exists anywhere in the tree.
+* **The whole shutdown/restart cycle was executed end to end on prod 2026-10-17** and the cluster
+  came back: 3/3 nodes Ready with etcd `healthz` ok, 19/19 Flux Kustomizations Ready,
+  `platform-config`'s `lastAppliedRevision` equal to the GitRepository artifact revision, all 3
+  CNPG clusters `healthy` with primaries elected, the UniFi VM `Running`, PiHole resolving
+  (`home.keithjackson.dev` → `192.168.2.20` via `192.168.2.23`), and the Gateway serving
+  `200/200/401` for apex/gitea/plex.
+* **The PVC-deletion mechanism is confirmed, not inferred:** `kubectl get sts loki -o
+  jsonpath={.spec.persistentVolumeClaimRetentionPolicy}` returns
+  `{"whenDeleted":"Delete","whenScaled":"Delete"}`, the PVC was `NotFound` after the cycle, and the
+  Longhorn volume count had gone 25 → 24.
+* **The damage was repaired and verified:** `scale sts loki --replicas=1` (restoring the replica
+  count the chart declares) recreated `storage-loki-0` as a fresh 50Gi Bound PVC, `loki-0` reached
+  `2/2 Running`, and the volume count returned to 25.
+* **The guard works against the live cluster**, tested both ways: `sts_deletes_pvc_on_scale
+  monitoring loki` returns true (would be skipped) and `pihole pihole` returns false (safe to
+  scale).
+* **The script's read-only paths run clean on prod:** `status` reports correctly, and the discovery
+  function returns the 13 workloads currently holding a PVC.
+* `bash -n` clean; the two edited Ansible YAML files parse.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+* **The kubelet change has NEVER BEEN APPLIED OR TESTED.** This is the significant gap. I did not
+  run the role, did not restart k3s, and have **not** observed a node actually drain on
+  `shutdown -h`. Everything about it is reasoning from kubelet/systemd semantics plus the measured
+  absence of the setting. Applying it needs a **rolling** k3s restart (`serial: 1` — kube-vip keeps
+  the API up, etcd holds at 2/3), which is an operator action (CLAUDE.md §5). **Verify by draining
+  one node for real:** apply, then `shutdown -h now` on a single node and watch whether pods
+  terminate gracefully instead of vanishing.
+* **Whether 90s/20s are the right numbers.** Chosen to comfortably cover a Postgres fast shutdown
+  and a Longhorn flush; not measured against either. The budget is spent on every reboot, so if a
+  node takes noticeably longer to go down, this is why.
+* **Whether k3s accepts `kubelet-arg` in `config.yaml` as written.** The file already carries
+  `kube-apiserver-arg` as a list and `kubelet-arg` is the documented sibling, but I did not render
+  or apply it, so a typo would surface only at k3s restart — and a bad `config.yaml` is exactly the
+  kind of thing that makes k3s fail to come up. **Review this one before applying.**
+* **The `assert` task's `regex_replace` on the grace period** assumes a plain `90s`-style value; a
+  value expressed as `1m30s` would parse to the nonsense integer `130`. Fine for the committed
+  defaults, wrong if someone writes a compound duration.
+* **`resume`'s Flux-reconcile wait has never run**, and neither has `quiesce` as a script — the
+  2026-10-17 cycle was done with the equivalent commands by hand, so the script encodes a sequence
+  that worked but has not itself been executed end to end. Only `status` and the discovery and guard
+  functions have run.
+* **Loki's lost log window is gone for good.** Up to 72h of logs (its `retention_period`), destroyed
+  by my scale-down. Nothing recovers it; Velero's schedules cover the namespace but the PVC was
+  deleted, not corrupted, and I did not attempt a restore because the data self-expires anyway.
+* **No other `whenScaled: Delete` StatefulSet was audited.** The guard now catches them generically,
+  but I did not enumerate which other workloads carry the policy, so I cannot say loki was the only
+  one at risk. The runbook gives the one-liner to list them.
+* **TrueNAS and the router are entirely outside this change.** TrueNAS is not in the Ansible
+  inventory and refuses SSH, so its shutdown stays a web-UI step with no automation and no check.
+* **No runtime conformance.** `vars.CLUSTER_AVAILABLE` is still unset, so CI proves the L0/L1
+  offline subset only.
+* I did not re-measure branch protection or runner state (CLAUDE.md §2b).
@@ -0,0 +1,311 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-17
+branch: feat/keycloak-passkeys
+title: Passkeys declared for the homelab realm — and the realm import will not apply them
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+`platform/keycloak/keycloak-realm-import.yaml` now declares passkey (WebAuthn Passwordless)
+login for the `homelab` realm, in two parts:
+
+1. **The WebAuthn Passwordless policy.** Ten `webAuthnPolicyPasswordless*` fields on the realm:
+   RP ID `${BASE_DOMAIN}`, RP entity name `Homelab SSO`, signature algorithms `[ES256, RS256]`,
+   `requireResidentKey: "Yes"`, `userVerificationRequirement: required`,
+   `authenticatorAttachment: "not specified"`, `attestationConveyancePreference: none`,
+   `acceptableAaguids: []`, `createTimeout: 300`, `avoidSameAuthenticatorRegister: true`.
+   Deliberately the **passwordless** family only; the two-factor `webAuthnPolicy*` family is left
+   at Keycloak's defaults because nothing in this realm uses `webauthn-authenticator`.
+
+2. **The browser flow.** `browser-mfa` keeps its alias and stays bound as `browserFlow`; its
+   interior is restructured so a passkey is an **ALTERNATIVE** beside the password form:
+
+   ```
+   browser-mfa                            (top level, unchanged)
+     browser-mfa-forms                    ALTERNATIVE
+       auth-username-form                   REQUIRED      <- was auth-username-password-form
+       browser-mfa-passkey-or-password      REQUIRED      <- NEW sub-flow
+         webauthn-authenticator-passwordless  ALTERNATIVE <- NEW: the passkey
+         browser-mfa-password-and-otp         ALTERNATIVE <- NEW sub-flow
+           auth-password-form                   REQUIRED  <- was half of the combined form
+           browser-mfa-conditional-otp          CONDITIONAL (unchanged, relocated intact)
+   ```
+
+The design decisions, with their reasoning, are written into the manifest comments in this repo's
+usual density. The ones that matter:
+
+* **Additive, not replacing. Enrolment optional, not forced.** This IdP gates Grafana, Gitea,
+  Nextcloud, Headlamp, Semaphore, PiHole, Crafty, the \*arr stack *and* `kubectl` via the
+  `kubernetes` OIDC client. A mandatory passkey flow that misfires is a total lock-out from the
+  platform and the cluster API at once, leaving only the Keycloak bootstrap admin and the
+  break-glass cert kubeconfig. The gain from forcing it (one human stops typing a password) does
+  not price that risk.
+* **No `requiredActions` block was added, on purpose.** Declaring one would have been the obvious
+  way to add `webauthn-register-passwordless`, and it would have been actively dangerous — see
+  "What I verified".
+* **RP ID is `${BASE_DOMAIN}`, not `keycloak.${BASE_DOMAIN}`.** A passkey's RP ID is fixed at
+  enrolment and can never be re-keyed, so it must not be bound to a name that can move. This realm
+  already declares an `auth.${BASE_DOMAIN}` redirect URI, and this repo already owns a reconciler
+  built because a hostname move silently failed to reach the realm. Residual risk, unavoidable:
+  changing `BASE_DOMAIN` itself invalidates every enrolled passkey.
+* **A passkey login is not also asked for TOTP.** `browser-mfa-conditional-otp` hangs off the
+  password branch only. The justification is `userVerificationRequirement: required` — the
+  ceremony already proves possession plus a verified human, phishing-resistantly and origin-bound.
+  Stacking a replayable shared secret on top of that buys friction. The manifest names the exact
+  one-line edit to reverse this decision.
+* **Login becomes two screens** (username, then password) for every user, passkey or not, because
+  the server must know who is logging in before it can decide whether a passkey exists. Accepted
+  cost; it is the enabling change.
+* **Usernameless login deliberately not used**, although Keycloak 26.0.6 supports it — see "What I
+  verified" for the measured reason it would have made every login open on a passkey prompt.
+
+`platform/keycloak/README.md` gains a `## Passkeys` section: the decision table, the fact that
+this does not reach the live realm, the two operator paths that would apply it, and the four-step
+browser verification nobody has run.
+
+No secret, key, credential or AAGUID was minted or committed. No file under `clusters/**`,
+`conformance/**`, `ci/**`, `platform/kyverno/**`, `**/rbac.yaml` or `**/*.sops.yaml` was touched,
+so this should not trip `ci/approval-policy.sh`'s sensitive-path review requirement.
+
+## What I verified
+
+**The live realm import has already completed and will never re-run.** Measured on prod,
+2026-10-17:
+
+```
+$ kubectl --context k3s-prod -n keycloak get keycloakrealmimport homelab -o jsonpath='{.status}'
+{"conditions":[{"message":"","status":"True","type":"Done"},
+               {"message":"","status":"False","type":"Started"},
+               {"message":"","status":"False","type":"HasErrors"}]}
+```
+
+`Done=True` / `Started=False`, exactly the one-shot state `platform/keycloak/README.md` already
+documents for client secrets and client URLs. **So the change in this PR has zero effect on how
+anyone logs in today**, and the client-secret/client-URL reconciler does not and cannot close the
+gap: its hard endpoint allow-list makes `/authentication` unreachable by design, and realm-level
+policy fields are not client fields.
+
+**The CRD accepts every field I used.** Measured against the live CRD (not the upstream docs):
+`kubectl --context k3s-prod get crd keycloakrealmimports.k8s.keycloak.org` lists all twelve
+`webAuthnPolicyPasswordless*` properties with the types I wrote (`RequireResidentKey`,
+`RpEntityName`, `RpId`, `UserVerificationRequirement`, `AttestationConveyancePreference`,
+`AuthenticatorAttachment` as `string`; `SignatureAlgorithms`, `AcceptableAaguids`, `ExtraOrigins`
+as `array/string`; `CreateTimeout` as `integer`; `AvoidSameAuthenticatorRegister` as `boolean`),
+plus `authenticationFlows`, `authenticatorConfig` and `requiredActions`. The `spec.realm` schema
+has **no** `x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields`, so a misspelled field would have been pruned
+silently rather than rejected — which is why this was checked rather than assumed.
+
+**Running Keycloak is 26.0.6.** `quay.io/keycloak/keycloak:26.0.6` on `keycloak-0`/`keycloak-1`,
+operator `quay.io/keycloak/keycloak-operator:26.0.6`. Every source claim below is read from the
+`26.0.6` tag, not from memory or from docs.
+
+**Every provider ID is quoted from upstream source, not guessed.**
+
+| String I used | Where it is defined at tag 26.0.6 |
+|---|---|
+| `webauthn-authenticator-passwordless` | `WebAuthnPasswordlessAuthenticatorFactory.PROVIDER_ID`, display "WebAuthn Passwordless Authenticator" |
+| `auth-username-form` | `UsernameFormFactory.PROVIDER_ID`, display "Username Form" |
+| `auth-password-form` | `PasswordFormFactory.PROVIDER_ID`, display "Password Form" |
+| `webauthn-register-passwordless` | `WebAuthnPasswordlessRegisterFactory.PROVIDER_ID` (referenced in comments only) |
+
+**`requiredActions` is REPLACE, not merge — measured, and it is why I did not declare one.**
+`model/storage-private/.../DefaultExportImportManager.java` lines 327-338:
+
+```java
+if (rep.getRequiredActions() != null) {
+    for (RequiredActionProviderRepresentation action : rep.getRequiredActions()) { ... }
+    DefaultRequiredActions.addDeleteAccountAction(newRealm);
+} else {
+    DefaultRequiredActions.addActions(newRealm);
+}
+```
+
+Declaring one required action therefore skips the entire default set. `RealmManager` is no
+backstop: `setupRequiredActions` is `if (realm.getRequiredActionProvidersStream().count() == 0)`,
+and the count is already non-zero by then (`RepresentationToModel.importRealm` runs at
+`RealmManager.java:585`, the backstop at `:612`). A realm built that way would have had the passkey
+action plus `delete_account` and nothing else — **no `CONFIGURE_TOTP`**, which would leave
+`auth-otp-form` demanding a TOTP that no platform-admin could ever enrol: a hard lock-out
+delivered by a change whose purpose was to *add* a login method.
+
+**And declaring it would have bought nothing.** `DefaultRequiredActions.addWebAuthnPasswordlessRegisterAction`
+registers `webauthn-register-passwordless` with `setEnabled(true)`, `setDefaultAction(false)`,
+priority 80, gated on `Profile.Feature.WEB_AUTHN` — which is `Type.DEFAULT` in
+`common/.../Profile.java:74`, i.e. on unless explicitly disabled. `enabled=true` /
+`defaultAction=false` *is* the additive-and-optional posture this change wants.
+
+**`authenticationFlows` has the opposite semantics, which is why declaring flows is safe.**
+`importAuthenticationFlows` adds the declared flows, then backfills each unbound binding
+(browser, registration, direct grant, reset credentials, client auth, first broker login, docker
+auth) from the built-in defaults individually (`DefaultExportImportManager.java` ~1320-1410).
+
+**The graceful degradation to password is measured from the flow engine, not assumed.** For a user
+with no passkey: `WebAuthnPasswordlessAuthenticator.requiresUser()` returns `false`, so
+`DefaultAuthenticationFlow.processSingleFlowExecutionModel` takes the `else` branch (`daf:456-462`),
+whose four conditions all hold — a user is set (from `auth-username-form`), `configuredFor` is
+false, `WebAuthnPasswordlessAuthenticatorFactory.isUserSetupAllowed()` is `false`, and
+`WebAuthnAuthenticator implements Authenticator, CredentialValidator<...>` — so it raises
+`CREDENTIAL_SETUP_REQUIRED`. The ALTERNATIVE loop (`daf:289-302`) catches exactly that, marks the
+execution `ATTEMPTED` and proceeds to the next alternative, with the upstream comment *"the user,
+since he has alternatives, should be able to go to another alternative and continue"*. Hence: no
+passkey, no passkey screen, straight to the password form.
+
+**Why usernameless was rejected, measured.** The `configuredFor` guard sits inside the
+`requiresUser()` branch. With `requiresUser()` false and no user yet in context, that guard is
+skipped and the engine just calls `authenticate(context)` — so a passkey execution placed before
+the username form is offered to *everyone*, including users who will never own one.
+
+**The policy sentinels are read from the shipped code, and one of my initial assumptions was
+wrong.** `Constants.DEFAULT_WEBAUTHN_POLICY_NOT_SPECIFIED = "not specified"` is the
+realm-representation sentinel — but `WebAuthnConstants.OPTION_NOT_SPECIFIED = ""` (empty string) is
+the WebAuthn-API-level one. I checked both because they disagree. The login theme's
+`webauthnRegister.js` at 26.0.6 settles the behaviour:
+
+```js
+if (input.requireResidentKey !== 'not specified') {
+    if (input.requireResidentKey === 'Yes') { authenticatorSelection.requireResidentKey = true; }
+    else { authenticatorSelection.requireResidentKey = false; }
+}
+...
+if (input.createTimeout !== 0) { publicKey.timeout = input.createTimeout * 1000; }
+rp: {id: input.rpId, name: input.rpEntityName}
+```
+
+So `"Yes"` is a literal string compare (any other non-sentinel value means *false*), `"not
+specified"` is compared literally for four fields, and `createTimeout` is **seconds** with `0`
+meaning "send no timeout". It also shows 26.0.6 emits only the legacy `requireResidentKey` member,
+never `residentKey: "required"` — the client maps that per WebAuthn L2, but the policy cannot
+express `residentKey: "preferred"` at all.
+
+`[ES256, RS256]` is exactly `WebAuthnPolicy.DEFAULT_POLICY` /
+`Constants.DEFAULT_WEBAUTHN_POLICY_SIGNATURE_ALGORITHMS` — declared explicitly, not changed.
+`getWebAuthnPolicyPasswordless` was read field by field to confirm `[]` for `acceptableAaguids`
+means "no restriction" and that `RpEntityName` must be non-empty or the **update** path
+(`DefaultExportImportManager.java:842`) drops the whole policy silently.
+
+**The manifest parses and renders.** `yaml.safe_load` round-trips the file and the flow graph reads
+back exactly as designed (five flows, the executions and priorities above, `browserFlow:
+browser-mfa`, `requiredActions` absent). `python3 ci/render-keycloak-client-urls.py --check` →
+`client-urls.yaml is in sync`, rc 0 (no client URL changed, so no regeneration was needed).
+`yamllint -c ci/yamllint.yaml platform/keycloak/keycloak-realm-import.yaml` → rc 0; no line exceeds
+the 160-column ceiling.
+
+**`browser-mfa` keeps its alias deliberately.** `conformance/tests/l2-behavioral/keycloak-config-as-code`
+asserts `kubectl get keycloakrealmimport homelab -o jsonpath={.spec.realm.browserFlow} | grep -q
+'browser-mfa'`. Renaming the top-level flow would have failed that test.
+
+**Envsubst safety.** `platform-config`'s Flux Kustomization declares
+`postBuild.substituteFrom: cluster-vars` (`clusters/base/platform-config.yaml:26-29`), so this file
+is substituted. The only brace token I added is `${BASE_DOMAIN}`, which is declared at
+`clusters/base/cluster-vars.yaml:42` (`home.keithjackson.dev`). Every comment I wrote avoids braces
+entirely — the RP-ID discussion says `keycloak.<BASE_DOMAIN>` with angle brackets precisely so an
+unparseable token cannot fail the whole Kustomization.
+
+**Gate result: rc 3, zero failures, `gitea-settings` the only stage the gate counts as not-run** —
+the documented honest best local outcome. Run in the pinned toolbox from this worktree with all
+three §3 workarounds (`DEV_KUBECONFIG=/dev/null`, plus an `ENGINE` shim bind-mounting the main
+checkout's `.git` and the sibling spec repo with `SPEC_REPO=/home-network-k3s`):
+
+```
+[ ok ] stage spec-immutability: pass      <- NOT skipped; both shim mounts worked, R-TEST-06 covered
+[ ok ] stage decisions-log: pass          <- archive frozen, 48 entries well-formed
+[ ok ] stage lint: pass
+[ ok ] stage l0: pass                     <- incl. flux-postbuild-substitution + keycloak-client-secret-reconciler
+[ ok ] stage render-golden: pass
+[ ok ] stage l1: pass
+[ ok ] stage approval-policy: pass        <- no sensitive path touched, so no non-author review needed
+[skip] stage gitea-settings: SKIPPED      <- needs SETTINGS_API_TOKEN, CI-only; expected
+[skip] stage conformance: SKIPPED         <- cluster-gated L2/L3; expected
+MERGE GATE: UNDETERMINED — Stages that did not run: gitea-settings
+```
+
+No lint finding and no check failure names either file I changed. Touched requirements resolved to
+`R-IDP-01 R-IDP-02 R-IDP-03 R-IDP-04 R-IDP-05 R-IDP-06`; coverage 51/51, 0 gaps.
+
+**A note on how that number was obtained, because the first attempt was worthless.** My first gate
+run returned the same rc 3 and the same seven passes — against a tree that did not contain this
+change at all. The gate's `tracked_files()` reads **git**, and my edits were still uncommitted, so
+every stage gated `origin/main`. The tell was in the log and I nearly missed it: the
+touched-requirement subset reported UNDETERMINED with *"check out the feature branch you mean to
+gate (not the base branch)"*, and `decisions-log` counted **47** entries rather than 48. **A green
+gate run on an uncommitted worktree is a gate run on the base branch.** The numbers above are from
+the second run, after committing and rebasing.
+
+**The base moved under me mid-run.** `origin/main` advanced from `9a41a8e` to `1a0b208` (PR #70,
+oauth2-proxy OIDC startup race) while I was working. This branch is rebased onto `1a0b208`, so the
+gate above ran on the base CI will actually merge into. The rebase was clean — PR #70 touched
+`platform/oauth2-proxy/helmrelease.yaml` and its own decisions entry, disjoint from these files.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+**This change is unapplied. It changes nothing about the live realm, and I did not attempt to make
+it.** `Done=True` / `Started=False` was measured, not inferred, and I ran no mutating `kubectl`,
+no `flux reconcile`, no admin-API call and no `kcadm`. Whether the operator's eventual
+admin-console reconstruction of this flow matches what is declared here is, by construction,
+unverifiable from git.
+
+**I never enrolled a passkey and never pointed a browser at any of this.** Nothing here has been
+exercised by a real WebAuthn ceremony on any device. Specifically unverified:
+
+* **That the RP ID works.** `home.keithjackson.dev` is a registrable-domain suffix of
+  `keycloak.home.keithjackson.dev`, so it *should* satisfy the browser's check — but I verified
+  that by reading the WebAuthn rule, not by watching a browser accept it. A wrong RP ID fails
+  **silently, in the browser, before Keycloak is involved**, with no server-side log line. If
+  enrolment produces no OS prompt and no error, this is the first suspect.
+* **That `"not specified"` is the right literal for `authenticatorAttachment` in a realm import.**
+  I traced it to `Constants.DEFAULT_WEBAUTHN_POLICY_NOT_SPECIFIED` and to the theme's string
+  compare, but I have not seen a realm import accept it. Omitting the field would default to the
+  same value; if an import ever rejects the literal, drop the line.
+* **That `createTimeout: 300` behaves.** Seconds-vs-milliseconds is read from the theme JS. The
+  claim that 300 is long enough for the cross-device QR/hybrid flow, and that Chrome clamps rather
+  than rejects it, is reasoning about browser behaviour, not a measurement.
+* **Whether a passkey user can still reach the password form.** I argued it from
+  `createAuthenticationSelectionList` producing a "Try another way" option, and I noted that for a
+  user holding both credentials the *first* screen is chosen by the user's own credential ordering
+  rather than by my priorities. Neither was observed.
+* **The two-screen login regression for ordinary users.** `auth-username-form` +
+  `auth-password-form` replacing `auth-username-password-form` is a visible change for every user
+  including non-passkey family accounts, and nobody has logged in through it.
+* **That conditional OTP for platform-admins still fires on the password branch.** The sub-flow and
+  its `conditional-otp-platform-admin` config are byte-identical and merely relocated one level
+  deeper, but "identical YAML" is not "still enforced at runtime". This is the highest-value
+  regression check and it is untested. The previous breakage of this exact step
+  (`condUserRole` vs a non-existent property key) 403'd every platform-admin login.
+* **That a platform-admin authenticating by passkey is not challenged for TOTP.** That is the
+  intended behaviour of the shape I wrote; it is unobserved, and it is also a deliberate
+  relaxation of R-IDP-04 as previously implemented, which the operator may want to reverse.
+
+**Whether the realm import reconciles into an existing realm: measured as NO for the completed
+one-shot, but I did not test a re-import.** I did not delete and recreate the
+`KeycloakRealmImport`, so I cannot say what a re-run would do to the existing `homelab` realm —
+whether it would merge the new policy and flows, duplicate flow aliases, or fail. The 2026-09-06
+total SSO outage documented in `platform/keycloak/README.md` is the reason I did not experiment.
+**Treat the re-import path in the README as untested advice, not a runbook.**
+
+**Nothing was proved about the live realm's current state.** I did not read the realm's existing
+required actions, its existing WebAuthn policies, or its live flow executions — doing so needs the
+admin credential and I did not decrypt or use it. So I cannot confirm that the live realm's
+required-action set actually contains `webauthn-register-passwordless` today; I can only show that
+Keycloak 26.0.6's defaults register it and that this repo's import never declared any required
+actions to suppress them. **That inference has not been checked against the realm.**
+
+**L2/L3 conformance did not run** (no cluster from the gate container; `vars.CLUSTER_AVAILABLE` is
+unset in CI anyway), so the existing `keycloak-config-as-code` behavioural test did not re-execute
+against this change. I reasoned about its assertion by reading it.
+
+**No new conformance test was added.** Nothing in `conformance/` asserts the passkey policy or the
+new flow shape, so a future edit can silently remove either and no gate stage will notice. That is
+a real gap this PR leaves open; closing it would touch `conformance/**`, which is a sensitive path
+needing non-author review.
+
+**The quoted gate run predates this file's own gate-result paragraph.** It gated commit `207f5db`;
+the gate numbers and the rebase note above were then written into this entry, so the pushed tree
+differs from the gated one by this handoff's prose only — no manifest, no check, no generated file.
+`decisions-log` is the only stage that reads this file, and it validates structure (frontmatter,
+the three headings, non-stub bodies), which is unchanged. I did not re-run the full gate for a
+prose edit; CI will gate the pushed commit.
+
+**`gitea-settings` did not run locally** — it needs `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN`, which exists only in CI.
+I did not re-measure branch protection, the runner, or `required_approvals` against the Gitea API
+this session; the claims in `CLAUDE.md` §2 are taken on trust here and are explicitly flagged there
+as needing re-measurement.
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-17
+branch: fix/oauth2-proxy-oidc-startup-race
+title: "oauth2-proxy dies on a cold start because OIDC discovery runs once, before Keycloak serves"
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+Exposed by the 2026-10-17 whole-cluster shutdown for the UPS move. oauth2-proxy performs OIDC
+discovery **once, at startup**, and `os.Exit(1)`s if it fails. On a cold boot Keycloak is not
+serving yet, so the shared Gateway answers 503 and the proxy dies:
+
+```
+[provider.go:55] Performing OIDC Discovery...
+[main.go:73] ERROR: Failed to initialise OAuth2 Proxy: error initialising provider: ...
+             failed to discover OIDC configuration: unexpected status "503": no healthy upstream
+```
+
+It then sits in **exponential CrashLoopBackOff long after Keycloak is healthy** — one of the two
+replicas was still down minutes later and only a manual `kubectl delete pod` cleared it. There is no
+retry flag; the process does not survive a cold start. A readinessProbe cannot help (the container
+is already dead), and CrashLoopBackOff backoff is not tunable per-pod.
+
+`platform/oauth2-proxy/helmrelease.yaml` gains an `extraInitContainers` gate (`wait-for-idp`) that
+polls Keycloak's discovery doc until it answers, then lets the proxy start. A pod in `Init` does not
+accrue CrashLoopBackOff backoff and retries promptly, which is the point.
+
+**Bounded, and fails open.** After ~5 minutes it gives up and starts the proxy anyway, so the worst
+case is exactly today's behaviour and never something new. An unbounded wait would trade a CrashLoop
+for a pod wedged in `Init` forever, which is not an improvement.
+
+## Why this shape and not the alternatives
+
+* **`extraInitContainers` is the chart's own documented hook for precisely this.** Its commented
+  example in `values.yaml` is literally `- name: wait-for-idp`. The key was **confirmed against the
+  pinned chart** (`helm show values oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy --version 10.7.1` → `extraInitContainers: []`
+  at line 428), not assumed — a wrong Helm values key is silently ignored, which is the
+  "reviewed, merged, apparently done, still broken" shape this repo keeps getting bitten by.
+* **No new base image.** The chart already runs an `alpine` init container for its built-in
+  `initContainers.waitForRedis` gate, so alpine is a base this chart uses regardless. Pinned to
+  `3.22` (verified to exist upstream) rather than the chart's own `latest`.
+* **Flux `postRenderers` rejected:** it would work independently of the chart schema, but nothing in
+  this tree uses postRenderers, so it would introduce a mechanism with no precedent for a problem
+  the chart already has a hook for.
+* **`--skip-oidc-discovery` rejected:** it removes the startup fetch entirely, which is arguably
+  more elegant, but it means hardcoding four Keycloak endpoints and I could not verify offline that
+  oauth2-proxy then fetches JWKS lazily rather than at startup. oauth2-proxy gates SSO for PiHole,
+  the \*arr apps, qBittorrent, Homepage, Prometheus, Alertmanager and Hubble — a wrong guess locks
+  the operator out of all of them, so the reversible, additive option wins.
+
+The `$$`-free convention matters here: shell variables are written bare (`$i`, `$url`, `$(( ))`)
+with **no braced form anywhere**, because `platform` declares `postBuild.substituteFrom cluster-vars`
+and envsubst consumes braced expansions — a braced shell variable renders to the empty string and
+silently breaks the loop. `${BASE_DOMAIN}` is braced on purpose. Same hazard and same convention as
+the gitea and nextcloud OIDC bootstrap hooks, and `ci: flux-postbuild-substitution` enforces it.
+
+## What I verified
+
+* **The failure is measured, not theorised.** The log above is from the live pod
+  (`oauth2-proxy-5d6c74876b-bzb2p`, `lastState.terminated: {reason: Error, exitCode: 1}`), captured
+  with `--previous` after the cold boot. The surviving replica's log shows the same startup
+  succeeding once Keycloak was up, which is what identifies this as a race rather than a config
+  fault.
+* **Deleting the pod is a sufficient workaround** — done on prod 2026-10-17, the replacement came up
+  clean and both replicas have been healthy since.
+* **The chart key is real**, at the pinned version range: `helm search repo` resolves
+  `>=10.0.0 <11.0.0` to chart `10.7.1` (app `7.15.5`), whose values carry `extraInitContainers: []`,
+  `extraContainers: []` and the built-in `initContainers.waitForRedis` (which uses `alpine`).
+* **`docker.io/library/alpine:3.22` exists** — confirmed against the registry tag list rather than
+  assumed from memory.
+* The edited HelmRelease parses as YAML.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+* **UNAPPLIED. The init container has never run.** I did not reconcile the HelmRelease, so I have not
+  seen `wait-for-idp` execute, exit 0, or gate the proxy. Applying it rolls both oauth2-proxy
+  replicas, which is a mutating action (CLAUDE.md §5) — and it rolls the component that gates SSO for
+  seven apps, so **do it when you can watch it**, not unattended.
+* **I did not re-create the cold-start race to prove the fix.** That needs Keycloak down while
+  oauth2-proxy starts; the honest test is the next whole-cluster boot. Until then this is reasoned
+  from the measured failure, not demonstrated against it.
+* **busybox `wget`'s TLS behaviour here is assumed, not tested.** The claim is that alpine's
+  `ca-certificates-bundle` lets it validate the Gateway's LE-prod certificate, so a genuine TLS
+  failure exits non-zero rather than passing falsely. If that is wrong in either direction the gate
+  degrades safely — a never-succeeding probe just burns the 5-minute budget and then starts the proxy
+  anyway — but the fast path would be silently dead and this would be doing nothing. **Check the
+  init container's log on first apply**: it should print "Keycloak discovery reachable" within
+  seconds on a warm cluster, not the give-up message.
+* **Whether a pod can reach the Gateway hostname at all from this namespace is inherited, not
+  re-proven.** The main container does exactly this fetch today and succeeds, so the path is known
+  good — but note the standing trap that an arbitrary pod gets 403 from every Gateway hostname
+  (`decisions/2026-10-04-plex-advertise-plexdirect.md`); oauth2-proxy is exempt only because
+  Keycloak's ingress policy admits it. An init container in the same pod inherits that identity, so
+  this should hold — unverified.
+* **60 attempts x 5s is not tuned.** It is "comfortably longer than Keycloak's observed cold start",
+  not a measured bound.
+* **No runtime conformance.** `vars.CLUSTER_AVAILABLE` is unset, so CI proves the L0/L1 offline
+  subset only.
+* I did not re-measure branch protection or runner state (CLAUDE.md §2b).
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-18
+branch: fix/coredns-ha
+title: "coredns ran at one replica, so any node drain was a cluster-wide DNS outage"
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+**MEASURED on prod 2026-10-18: `kube-system/coredns` had `replicas: 1`.** In-cluster DNS was a
+single pod on a single node, so draining or rebooting that node was a **cluster-wide in-cluster DNS
+outage** until the pod rescheduled and became ready — every Service lookup, every CNPG replica
+finding its primary, every operator addressing the API by name. It was invisible because `1/1
+Ready` looks perfectly healthy.
+
+It also became urgent rather than latent: the scheduled reboot automation on
+`feat/automated-upgrades` drains and reboots one node at a time, unattended, overnight — turning a
+single point of failure into a recurring one.
+
+New `platform/coredns/hpa.yaml`: a `HorizontalPodAutoscaler` on the coredns Deployment with
+`minReplicas: 2`, `maxReplicas: 3`, registered in the existing `platform/coredns/kustomization.yaml`
+alongside the split-horizon ConfigMap already there.
+
+**Why an HPA and not `replicas: 2` — this is the whole decision.** k3s owns the coredns Deployment
+and we cannot durably edit it: it is applied by k3s's own deploy controller from a bundled manifest
+(`AddOn/coredns`, source `/data/k3s/server/manifests/coredns.yaml`, `managedFields` managers
+`deploy@k3s-prod-1` and `k3s`, plus an `objectset.rio.cattle.io/hash` label). k3s re-stages its
+bundled manifests on startup, so a `replicas: 2` written there — or a `kubectl scale` — is reverted
+on the next k3s restart or upgrade. Two alternatives were weighed and rejected:
+
+* **`coredns.yaml.skip` + our own templated copy** (the pattern `roles/kube_vip` already uses for a
+  file in `server/manifests`). Deterministic and never flaps, but it takes ownership of coredns away
+  from k3s permanently — k3s upgrades would stop updating it and the version would need refreshing
+  by hand forever. Too high a price for a replica count.
+* **A Flux-managed patch of the Deployment.** Rejected outright: Flux and k3s's deploy controller
+  would both own one object and fight continuously — the exact shape of the `default-deny`
+  NetworkPolicy drift loop this cluster already suffered (~2500 events/10min).
+
+An HPA avoids both: a separate object k3s does not own, driving the `/scale` subresource rather than
+the Deployment spec, so there is no shared-ownership fight. If k3s re-stages `replicas: 1`, the HPA
+sees it below `minReplicas` and scales back within one reconcile.
+
+It is a **floor-holder, not an autoscaler**: the CPU metric exists only because an `autoscaling/v2`
+HPA needs one to be valid. `scaleDown.stabilizationWindowSeconds: 600` because DNS is the worst
+thing in the cluster to flap; `scaleUp` is immediate, since that is the path that restores redundancy
+after a k3s restart.
+
+**Immediate action taken outside this PR:** `kubectl -n kube-system scale deploy coredns
+--replicas=2` was run at the operator's explicit request, so the cluster has two replicas **now**
+rather than after merge. That hand scale is what this PR makes durable.
+
+## What I verified
+
+* **The defect:** `kubectl -n kube-system get deploy coredns` → `replicas=1 available=1`.
+* **k3s ownership:** the `AddOn/coredns` object exists with source
+  `/data/k3s/server/manifests/coredns.yaml`; the Deployment has no `ownerReferences` but carries
+  `objectset.rio.cattle.io/hash` and `managedFields` managers `deploy@k3s-prod-1` / `k3s`. So it is
+  k3s-managed, not Flux-managed — independently corroborated by another agent, which confirmed
+  `platform/coredns/` contains **only** the `coredns-custom` ConfigMap and does not touch the
+  Deployment or its replica count.
+* **The hand scale works and holds:** coredns went to `2/2 Running` on two different nodes, and
+  in-cluster DNS kept answering throughout (`nslookup kubernetes.default.svc.cluster.local
+  10.43.0.10` → `10.43.0.1`). Still `spec.replicas=2 ready=2` after ~2 minutes, with the AddOn
+  checksum **unchanged** — so k3s's deploy controller does not revert on a drift timer; it
+  re-applies on manifest change and on restart.
+* **The HPA's preconditions hold:** coredns ships `requests: {cpu: 100m, memory: 70Mi}` (so a
+  Resource/Utilization metric is meaningful), and metrics-server is installed as a k3s addon and
+  verified serving — `kubectl top pod -l k8s-app=kube-dns` returns **5m and 4m** against that 100m
+  request, i.e. ~5% utilisation, confirming the 80% target will never be approached and the HPA will
+  sit at `minReplicas`.
+* **The kustomization edit is additive:** `git diff --stat` is `1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)`,
+  and `- coredns` was already registered in `platform/kustomization.yaml`, so no change was needed
+  there.
+* All three touched/added YAML files parse.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+* **The HPA has never been applied.** I did not reconcile it, so I have **not** observed it create,
+  reach `ScalingActive=True`, resolve its metric against real coredns data, or hold `minReplicas`.
+  Applying is an operator action (CLAUDE.md §5). The failure mode to watch for is
+  `ScalingActive=False` with `FailedGetResourceMetric` — the HPA would then be present and inert,
+  which looks identical to working because the hand scale already left 2 replicas in place. **Check
+  `kubectl -n kube-system describe hpa coredns` after merge**, not just the replica count.
+* **The central claim that k3s reverts `replicas` on restart is REASONED, NOT OBSERVED.** It rests
+  on k3s re-staging bundled manifests at startup plus the measured ownership evidence above. I did
+  **not** restart k3s to watch the revert happen — doing so is a rolling control-plane restart, an
+  operator action. If k3s in fact preserves a modified replica count, this HPA is unnecessary
+  (though harmless).
+* **I did not confirm the HPA wins the race against k3s's deploy controller after a restart.** Both
+  write the scale; the expectation is the HPA re-asserts within a reconcile, leaving a brief window
+  at 1 replica. Neither the window's length nor the outcome has been measured.
+* **I nearly shipped a destructive change.** My first write of
+  `platform/coredns/kustomization.yaml` replaced the file wholesale, listing only `hpa.yaml` — which
+  would have pruned the existing `coredns-custom` ConfigMap and **broken in-cluster split-horizon
+  DNS (R-DNS-01/03)**. It was caught by a guard assertion before commit and restored from `HEAD`, and
+  the diff is now additive. Recorded because the near-miss is the useful part: `platform/coredns/`
+  already existed and I assumed it did not. **No conformance check would obviously have caught the
+  removal** — it is valid YAML and a legitimate-looking prune.
+* **Whether 2 is enough.** Three nodes, and coredns' anti-affinity only *prefers* spreading, so both
+  replicas could in principle land on one node and a single drain would still take DNS down. I did
+  not add a `topologySpreadConstraint` or a PodDisruptionBudget — both arguably belong here and
+  neither is in this change.
+* **No alert fires if coredns drops to 1 replica**, so a future silent regression (k3s upgrade
+  changing the manifest, the HPA going inert) would not be reported. That gap is not closed here.
+* **No conformance test asserts this**, so a future edit could remove the HPA with no gate stage
+  noticing.
+* **No runtime conformance.** `vars.CLUSTER_AVAILABLE` is unset, so CI proves the L0/L1 offline
+  subset only.
+* I did not re-measure branch protection or runner state (CLAUDE.md §2b).
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-18
+branch: fix/ha-check-catastrophic-regex
+title: "One regex made the merge gate take 28 minutes instead of 2"
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+The merge gate started taking **~28 minutes** instead of its usual **<2 minutes**, on every change
+touching `infra/**`. One regex was responsible for essentially all of it.
+
+`conformance/tests/l0-static/ha-control-plane-as-code/check.sh` contained:
+
+```python
+join_when = re.search(r"--server https://.*?\n(?:.*\n){0,10}?\s*when:\s*k3s_server_mode\s*==\s*'secondary'",
+                      K3S_TEXT, re.S)
+```
+
+With `re.S`, every `.` also matches newlines, so `.*?` and the nested `(?:.*\n){0,10}?` can each
+consume the entire document. That is **nested unbounded repetition** — ten levels of a quantifier
+that can each swallow everything — and a failed or late match backtracks exponentially.
+
+Replaced `.` with `[^\n]*` and dropped `re.S`, so the `{0,10}` is a genuine ten-line window with
+nothing to backtrack into. Same intent, same verdict, no DOTALL.
+
+**Why it surfaced now, and it was mine.** `K3S_TEXT` is every `*.yml` in `roles/k3s_server`
+concatenated. The regex was latent for as long as it existed; **PR #71 added ~100 lines to that role
+(the kubelet graceful-shutdown config), which grew the input past the point where exponential
+backtracking stopped being survivable.** Nothing about the check changed — my change grew its input.
+
+**Why only `infra/**` changes were slow.** `ci/touched-requirements.sh:268` maps `infra/*` to
+`R-ENV-01`, and the resulting L0 run is `--include-scope whole-repo --requirements R-ENV-01`, which
+pulls in this whole-repo check. Doc-only and `platform/**` changes never selected it, which is why
+#69 (1m55s) and #72 (1m53s) stayed fast while #71 (27m44s), the #73 merge (27m46s) and #75 all ran
+~28 minutes.
+
+## What I verified
+
+* **The hot spot, by measurement rather than reading.** `docker top` on the live CI job container for
+  run #299 showed `python3 -` with **19:54 of CPU time** under
+  `ha-control-plane-as-code/check.sh`, inside
+  `conformance/run.sh --layer l0 --include-scope whole-repo --requirements R-ENV-01`.
+* **Reproduced locally**: the check did not finish within a 100-second budget on an unmodified
+  checkout.
+* **Localised to the exact line** by extracting the inline Python and running it under
+  `faulthandler.dump_traceback_later(25)`, which named `re/__init__.py:177 in search` called from
+  the `join_when` line — not inferred from reading the patterns.
+* **The pattern is unique in the repo**: `grep -rlnE "\{0,[0-9]+\}\?" conformance/tests/l0-static/*/check.sh`
+  returns only this file, so there is no sibling with the same hazard.
+* **The fix is fast AND verdict-preserving**, tested against the real `K3S_TEXT` (22,179 chars, 403
+  lines): the new regex matches (`YES`) in **0.2 ms**. Sanity-checked that the thing it looks for
+  genuinely exists — one `--server https://` and three `k3s_server_mode == 'secondary'` occurrences.
+* **The whole check now runs in 0.199s, rc 0, 115 assertions**, with the same success message as
+  before.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+* **I did not re-time the full gate in CI after the fix.** The expectation is that `infra/**` changes
+  return to the ~2-minute range, but that is arithmetic from the 19m54s figure, not a measured
+  post-fix run. The PR's own CI run is the first real datapoint — read it.
+* **I did not audit the other 23 L0 checks for different performance pathologies.** This one was
+  found because it was actively burning CPU in a live job; a check that is merely slow (not
+  exponential) would not have stood out, and `ci/gate.sh` has **no per-stage timing** at all
+  (`grep -nE "SECONDS|date \+|elapsed"` finds nothing), so there is no data on where the remaining
+  time goes.
+* **Nothing prevents this class of bug returning.** No check asserts gate stage runtime, and no lint
+  forbids nested quantifiers under `re.S`. A timing budget per stage, or a `re` lint, would close it;
+  neither is written here.
+* **I did not verify my claim about *why* only `infra/**` was affected beyond the path mapping and
+  the observed durations.** The correlation is strong (5 runs, two clear clusters) and the live
+  process list confirms the `--requirements R-ENV-01` scope, but I did not read
+  `conformance/run.sh`'s scope-selection logic end to end.
+* The regex rewrite assumes the `when:` clause is indented with spaces or tabs only (`[ \t]*`). A
+  file using some other whitespace before `when:` would now fail to match where the old DOTALL
+  version would have succeeded. Unlikely in YAML, and the current input matches, but it is a
+  narrowing.
@@ -0,0 +1,334 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-18
+branch: feat/keycloak-passkey-reconciler
+title: "Make the passkey realm config converge via GitOps — policy, enrolment action and the browser flow, the flow blue/green so the bound login path is never mutated"
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+**Why this is a new branch and not an update to PR #72.** The brief for this work said to extend
+PR #72 (`feat/keycloak-passkeys`) in place and not open a new PR. That premise was already stale
+when I started: **PR #72 merged at 2026-10-18T05:44:04Z** (Gitea API: `state: closed`,
+`merged: true`, `merge_commit_sha: 4d489f2`), and `git log origin/main` carries
+`4d489f2 Merge pull request '…' (#72)`. A merged PR cannot be updated, and CLAUDE.md §1 leaves
+exactly one path to `main`. So this is a fresh branch from `origin/main` in its own worktree, and a
+new PR. For the same reason this is a **new** `decisions/` entry rather than an edit to
+`decisions/2026-10-17-keycloak-passkeys.md`, which is now merged history describing a different unit
+of work; it is the entry to read first for the passkey *design* decisions, which are not repeated
+here.
+
+**The problem.** PR #72 declared the WebAuthn passwordless policy and a restructured `browser-mfa`
+flow in `platform/keycloak/keycloak-realm-import.yaml`. That declaration **could not take effect**.
+A `KeycloakRealmImport` is a one-shot; prod's reads `Done=True / Started=False / HasErrors=False`,
+so the operator will never re-run it and every realm-level field or flow declared after the first
+import is inert — in git, applied by Flux, reported Ready, reaching the realm never. Merging it
+changed nothing about how anyone logs in, and nothing anywhere said so. Same failure class as the
+2026-09-06 client-secret incident, third field over.
+
+**What now makes it converge.** A **sibling** reconciler, modelled on
+`platform/keycloak/client-secret-reconciler.yaml`:
+
+- `platform/keycloak/passkey-reconciler.yaml` — ConfigMap (Python, stdlib only, **zero dollar
+  signs**) + CronJob on `*/15 * * * *`, `automountServiceAccountToken: false`, admin credential by
+  `secretKeyRef` only. Three passes, **all of which converge**:
+  1. **WebAuthn passwordless policy.** Strict read-modify-write of `GET`/`PUT /admin/realms/homelab`,
+     changing only the `webAuthnPolicyPasswordless*` keys that differ, readback-verified.
+  2. **`webauthn-register-passwordless` required action.** Strict read-modify-write of one
+     **literally-named** alias; converges `enabled: true` / `defaultAction: false` only.
+  3. **The browser authentication flow — BLUE/GREEN.** Build the declared tree under a new, unused
+     alias; verify it by readback; flip `browserFlow` in **one atomic PUT**.
+- `ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy.py` + the **generated**
+  `platform/keycloak/passkey-desired-state.yaml` — the desired state, rendered from the realm
+  import, `--check`ed by the merge gate.
+- `conformance/tests/l0-static/keycloak-passkey-reconciler/` — `check.sh`, `chainsaw-test.yaml`
+  (`scope: whole-repo`), `mutations.py`.
+- `platform-config/kustomization.yaml` — both new resources, in the **same** Kustomization as the
+  realm import.
+- `platform/keycloak/README.md` — the layout table, the section heading, and the "does NOT reach the
+  live realm" section rewritten: all three declared things now converge, with the blue/green
+  mechanics, the rollback command and the `--no-bind` fallback written out.
+
+### The flow design was reconsidered, and the first version of it was wrong
+
+**This is worth recording because the superseded reasoning was not silly, it was just wrongly
+scoped.** The first design of pass 3 was **audit-only**: compare the live browser flow against git,
+report divergence loudly, and never write it — leaving the restructure as a one-time admin-console
+action. The reasoning was that converging a five-flow / ten-execution tree needs create-subflow,
+create-execution, set-requirement and bind-config as *separate* untransacted admin-API calls, so a
+run dying between them leaves a **half-built flow bound as the login path** for every SSO-gated app
+*and* kubectl — and this repo has had a total SSO outage from a realm change (2026-09-06), with the
+conditional-OTP sub-flow (which the declared structure moves one level deeper) once 403ing every
+platform-admin.
+
+**That risk analysis was sound but it assumed the wrong shape.** It is true only if you mutate the
+*bound* flow. The operator's instruction was *"if this can be done through GitOps, it should"*, and
+audit-only did not meet it — a manual admin-console step is exactly what the one-shot import already
+forces. So:
+
+- All the multi-call construction happens on a flow **nothing is using** (the declared alias plus a
+  hash of the desired shape, applied to *every* alias in the tree — reusing `browser-mfa-forms`
+  would mean writing *into* the bound tree). A failure at any point leaves an orphaned, unbound flow
+  and **zero user-visible effect**. The untransacted-calls problem dissolves.
+- The built flow is **read back and verified** — nesting levels, ordering, authenticators,
+  requirements, and the conditional-OTP config *contents* — **before** anything is bound. The
+  regression the operator feared is now caught *before* it can bite rather than after.
+- The flip is **one atomic PUT** of the realm setting `browserFlow`.
+- **Rollback is one write.** The previous alias is printed in the run log, and there is **no
+  `DELETE` anywhere in the allow-list**, so the old flow survives as a working rollback target.
+
+**The new safety property, enforced structurally rather than by intention.** Blue/green needs
+flow-create and execution-add endpoints, which widens the allow-list — and the allow-list alone
+cannot express "but not the flow that is bound", because its write entries are alias-parameterised.
+So a second guard sits at the same choke point in `_http()`: the live `browserFlow` alias and its
+**entire subtree** of sub-flow aliases and execution ids are read first, and every write is screened
+against those sets before a socket opens. Protecting the whole subtree matters — adding an execution
+to `browser-mfa-forms` changes live login behaviour just as surely as touching `browser-mfa`. It is
+**fail-closed**: the sets start each run as "not determined", and while they are, *every* flow write
+is refused; if the bound flow's executions cannot be read they stay undetermined and the flow pass
+writes nothing.
+
+**Idempotence became load-bearing rather than merely nice.** A rebuild-and-reflip every 15 minutes
+would churn the login path on a schedule, so the bound flow is compared *structurally* and a match
+produces **zero writes and no new flow**. Sub-flow and config *aliases* are deliberately not
+compared: a flow this program built carries a hash suffix, so comparing labels would make it
+permanently unrecognisable as converged. A crashed run's completed-but-unbound flow is **reused**; a
+half-built one is left alone and the next candidate alias is used, with the candidate count
+**bounded** so a persistently failing build fails loudly instead of creating unbounded sprawl.
+
+**Where the rollback target is recorded, and why not as an annotation.** The brief suggested
+recording the previous `browserFlow` alias as an annotation on the CronJob or in a ConfigMap. The
+pod **cannot**: it runs with `automountServiceAccountToken: false` and has no Kubernetes API access
+at all, which is the same property that made the mounted-generated-ConfigMap design preferable to
+reading the CR (and is why this change adds no `**/rbac.yaml`). Giving it write access to its own
+annotations would trade a narrow, gate-verified read for a Kubernetes API writer, which is a worse
+bargain than the one it would buy.
+
+So the record is in two places that cost nothing: the **run log** prints
+`ROLLBACK is one write: set browserFlow back to <alias>. The old flow was NOT deleted.`, and — more
+durably — **the realm itself**, because nothing is ever deleted. Every superseded flow is still
+listed under `Authentication -> Flows`, so the rollback target is discoverable from the admin console
+even if every Job log has rotated away. The README carries the rollback procedure.
+
+**I achieved full convergence including the bind.** `--no-bind` exists as the deliberate fallback
+(build and verify, leave the flip as a one-write human act) but it is not the default and was not
+needed.
+
+**No `**/rbac.yaml` was touched.** The brief floated having the reconciler read the
+`KeycloakRealmImport` CR from the Kubernetes API, which would need a Role, a RoleBinding and a
+ServiceAccount token. I rejected that for the narrower, already-proven pattern: a desired state
+**generated** from the import and **mounted**, so the pod keeps `automountServiceAccountToken:
+false` and no Kubernetes API access at all. Skew is prevented by the gate running the renderer with
+`--check`, not by a second declaration being trusted.
+
+**Sensitive paths touched** — checked against `infra/gitea/approval-policy.json` rather than from
+memory, which caught one I had initially missed. **Three**:
+
+| Path | Why it is in the policy | What I changed |
+|---|---|---|
+| `ci/**` | the pipeline itself | added `ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy.py` |
+| `conformance/**` | changing the tests changes what green *means* | added the L0 test directory |
+| `platform-config/kustomization.yaml` | Flux wiring / which manifests are actually applied | added the two new resources |
+
+**Not** touched: `**/rbac.yaml`, `clusters/**`, `platform/kyverno/**`, `.gitea/**`, `bootstrap/**`,
+`infra/gitea/**`, `.sops.yaml`, any `*.sops.yaml`, `CLAUDE.md`.
+
+So this PR **requires an approving review from someone who is not its author**, and
+`ci/approval-policy.sh` is fail-closed, so it will block until that exists. I did **not** post
+`/approve-override` — CLAUDE.md §1 names doing that on your own agent PR as exactly the
+self-approval the stage exists to prevent. The operator needs to either review it or post the
+override.
+
+## What I verified
+
+**Measured against the live cluster** (read-only `kubectl --context k3s-prod`):
+
+- `keycloakrealmimport homelab`: `Done=True Started=False HasErrors=False` — the import is a
+  completed one-shot. **This is the premise of the whole change and it is measured, not assumed.**
+- Keycloak image actually running: `quay.io/keycloak/keycloak:26.0.6`.
+- `kustomization/platform-config` `.status.lastAppliedRevision` ==
+  `gitrepository/flux-system` artifact revision == `main@sha1:83d3568…`, which contains the PR #72
+  merge. So the inert declaration is genuinely applied and genuinely inert.
+
+**`PUT /admin/realms/{realm}` does not touch users, groups, clients or roles in 26.0.6** —
+established from source at tag `26.0.6`, not from documentation or memory:
+
+- `RealmAdminResource.updateRealm` is the only handler. Its javadoc: *"Any user, roles or client
+  information in the representation will be ignored. This will only update top-level attributes of
+  the realm."*
+- It delegates to `RepresentationToModel.updateRealm` →
+  `DefaultExportImportManager.updateRealm` (`model/storage-private/.../datastore/`), **lines
+  725–894**. I brace-matched that body and enumerated every `rep.getX()` call in it: it contains
+  **no** `getUsers()`, `getClients()`, `getGroups()`, `getRoles()`, `getRequiredActions()`,
+  `getAuthenticationFlows()` or `getAuthenticatorConfig()`. Those objects are **unreachable** from
+  the endpoint, not merely ignored by convention.
+- Two findings that changed the design, both from the same read:
+  - `updateRealm` **does** read `rep.getBrowserFlow()`, so the endpoint can rebind the realm's login
+    path. The write therefore carries `browserFlow` straight back from the GET and a hard assertion
+    refuses the PUT if it would differ.
+  - The passwordless policy is applied **all-or-nothing and only when `RpEntityName` is non-empty**
+    (line 842), and `getWebAuthnPolicyPasswordless(rep)` substitutes a **Keycloak default** for every
+    null field (line 1253ff). A partial PUT would therefore silently reset every key it omitted, and
+    one missing `RpEntityName` would drop the whole policy while returning 204. This is why the write
+    is a strict read-modify-write of the full live representation.
+- `AuthenticationManagementResource.updateRequiredAction` (line 1205) is **per-alias** and likewise
+  **replaces** the provider from the representation (name, alias, priority, enabled, defaultAction,
+  config), and 404s when the alias is unregistered. Hence read-modify-write there too.
+- `DefaultRequiredActions` registers `webauthn-register-passwordless` with `enabled=true`,
+  `defaultAction=false`, `priority=80` — confirming the realm import's claim that declaring it would
+  restate a default while deleting ten siblings.
+- **The realm GET really does return what the read-modify-write needs.** This is load-bearing: if
+  the GET omitted the passwordless keys, the PUT body would be missing them and 26.0.6 would reset
+  them to defaults. `ModelToRepresentation.toRepresentation` (lines 471–482) sets **all ten**
+  `webAuthnPolicyPasswordless*` fields plus `ExtraOrigins`, and line 496 sets `browserFlow`. I
+  checked for an `internal`/`export` guard around that block — there is none in lines 380–500, so
+  those fields are emitted unconditionally, not only on the export path.
+
+**The five flow-construction endpoints, read from 26.0.6 source before being used:**
+
+- `POST /authentication/flows` — `AuthenticationManagementResource.createFlow`, rejects a duplicate
+  alias. Carries **no alias in its path** (the alias is in the body), which is why it needed its own
+  body-based screen; without that it escaped the protected-subtree guard entirely. My selftest
+  caught that, not my reading.
+- `POST /flows/{alias}/executions/flow` — `addExecutionFlow`, body `{alias, type, description}`.
+  Creates the sub-flow **at requirement DISABLED**, and refuses if the parent `isBuiltIn()`.
+- `POST /flows/{alias}/executions/execution` — `addExecutionToFlow`, body `{provider}`. Also
+  DISABLED unless the factory has exactly one requirement choice. Both assign `getNextPriority()`,
+  so **insertion order is the resulting order** — which is why the builder inserts depth-first in
+  declared order and then verifies by readback.
+- `PUT /flows/{alias}/executions` — `updateExecutions`. **A trap I would have walked into:** it
+  compares `rep.getPriority()` against the stored priority, and a JSON body omitting `priority`
+  deserialises it as the int **0** — which would silently **reshuffle the whole execution order**
+  while only a requirement change was intended. Every requirement write therefore carries the
+  execution's current priority back. There is a mutation for it and a selftest assertion on the
+  resulting order.
+- `POST /executions/{id}/config` — `newExecutionConfig`, creates an authenticator config and binds
+  it. Config aliases are suffixed like flow aliases, because 26.0.6 keeps them unique per realm and
+  the old flow already uses the declared alias.
+
+**Offline proofs, all green:**
+
+- The reconciler's `--selftest`, **extracted from the shipped ConfigMap** and run: **216 assertions
+  pass**. Its stub Keycloak models the 26.0.6 behaviours that bite — the RpEntityName gate, the
+  all-or-nothing policy rebuild, the required-action replace, the `updateExecutions` priority trap,
+  and flow construction where everything is created DISABLED — so these are tested against the real
+  semantics rather than a forgiving fake.
+- **A build killed at four different points (after 1, 3, 6 and 9 construction writes) never binds
+  and never touches the live flow.** Each case asserts the realm is still bound to the old alias,
+  that no write targeted the bound subtree, and that every live flow survives. This is the assertion
+  that makes blue/green a property rather than a claim.
+- **Verify-before-bind is exercised, not assumed.** Two stub sabotages — a server that accepts the
+  requirement writes and applies the wrong value, and one that writes the conditional-OTP role under
+  `condition.evaluated.user.role` — both end with the flow **built but NOT bound** and the old flow
+  still live.
+- `mutations.py`: **all 30 injected regressions caught**, including the six that are the blue/green
+  safety argument itself (build into the bound flow; never call the screen; reset the protected sets
+  to empty; bind before verify; report a failed build as success; reuse an existing flow without
+  verifying it).
+- Mutation testing again found real gaps in my own work, which I fixed rather than weakening the
+  mutations. Across the two designs: no readback coverage on the realm write, no coverage of an
+  undeclared policy key surviving, a mis-indented anchor, and — in this design — **no coverage at
+  all of the bound flow being unreadable**, which is the fail-closed path. It also showed me that
+  **two of my proposed mutations were not real regressions**: the module-level initial value of the
+  protected sets is dead code (`run()` resets them first), and removing the early return after a
+  build failure is covered by verify-before-bind anyway. I re-anchored both onto the properties that
+  *are* load-bearing rather than pretending the originals had been caught.
+- The new L0 `check.sh`: rc 0, all assertions. It asserts the renderer `--check`; that the realm
+  import and the desired state are rendered by the **same** Flux Kustomization; that the renderer's
+  and reconciler's writable key tuples are identical (parsed out of both sources with `ast`); that
+  `defaultAction` is `false`; that the realm import declares **no** `requiredActions` block
+  (previously only a comment saying "DO NOT ADD ONE"); that the **sibling** reconciler's allow-list
+  was not widened; that **nothing is deletable** and the execution-/config-id-scoped write endpoints
+  stay off the list (they carry no flow alias, so they could not be screened); and — the
+  load-bearing one — that the **protected-subtree guard exists in the source, is wired into
+  `_http()`, resets to "undetermined" every run, screens the body-only create-flow endpoint, and
+  that the policy write still refuses to rebind `browserFlow`**.
+- `ci/render-keycloak-passkey-policy.py --write` output round-trips: the generated JSON is accepted
+  by the reconciler's `declared()`, its 10 policy keys equal the reconciler's `POLICY_FIELDS`, and
+  it flattens to the exact 11-step tree the realm import declares, with
+  `conditional-otp-platform-admin` bound at level 4.
+- `${BASE_DOMAIN}` is carried into the generated ConfigMap **verbatim**, and both files sit in
+  `platform-config`, so one substitution pass decides the RP ID.
+- Zero dollar signs in the reconciler script (the Flux envsubst trap), verified on the committed
+  manifest.
+
+**The conditional-OTP regression is detectable — and now also preventable.** The comparison is
+key-by-key on the authenticator config contents, and because it runs **before** the bind, a flow
+carrying the bug never becomes the live login path. `--selftest` covers it three ways: the historical
+`condition.evaluated.user.role` key injected into a *built* flow (built, verified, **not bound**,
+old flow still live); the same bug already live in the *bound* flow (reported, then **fixed** by
+building and binding a correct flow); and the config disappearing entirely. `mutations.py` deletes
+the comparison and the undeclared-key report and requires the selftest to notice both. The suite
+also covers a requirement flipped from `ALTERNATIVE` to `REQUIRED`, the un-restructured legacy flow,
+a correct-but-unbound flow, and a cyclic declaration.
+
+**Gate:** see the gate section of the PR / the run quoted in my report — rc and per-stage results
+are recorded there rather than paraphrased here.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **The live realm's actual passkey state is entirely UNVERIFIED.** I never authenticated to the
+  Keycloak admin API. Doing so needs the `keycloak-admin-credentials` password, which CLAUDE.md §6
+  forbids decrypting or printing, so I did not read the realm's current
+  `webAuthnPolicyPasswordless*` values, its required-action list, or its `browser-mfa` executions. I
+  therefore **do not know** how much drift the first real run will report, nor that the live flow is
+  in the "legacy shape" my selftest models — only that the import never re-ran, which makes drift
+  the overwhelmingly likely state. The first run's log is the measurement, and nobody has seen one.
+- **Nothing has ever run against a real Keycloak.** Every behavioural proof is against an
+  in-process stub I wrote, and a stub I wrote cannot falsify my own reading of the source. This
+  matters more for the blue/green flow builder than for anything else in the change, because it is
+  **five endpoints I have never exercised**. Specifically unproven in reality:
+  - That `POST /flows/{alias}/executions/flow` and `.../executions/execution` accept the bodies I
+    send and assign priorities in insertion order. If they do not, the build produces a tree that
+    fails verification — which is the safe failure (nothing is bound, login unaffected), but it
+    means **the flow would never converge** and the Job would fail every 15 minutes.
+  - That `PUT /admin/realms/homelab` accepts a full round-tripped representation. The analogous
+    *client* endpoint rejects one with `400 "Cannot parse the JSON"` (measured 2026-09-06), and the
+    sibling reconciler's whole minimal-PUT rule exists because of it. The source says the realm
+    endpoint differs; no measurement here confirms it. **If it does not, both the policy pass and
+    the atomic bind fail closed** — loudly, writing nothing.
+  - The exact JSON shapes compared: `AcceptableAaguids` as `[]` rather than absent or null,
+    `CreateTimeout` as a JSON int, `RequireResidentKey` as the literal string `"Yes"`. A shape I did
+    not anticipate would show up as **perpetual drift** — a write every 15 minutes that never
+    converges — rather than as an error.
+  - That `authenticationConfig` on an execution-info response is the config **id** (I read it from
+    the representation class, but never saw a live response).
+- **I did not verify the alias-collision behaviour against a real realm.** The recovery logic
+  assumes `POST /flows` returns a non-2xx on a duplicate alias (the source checks
+  `getFlowByAlias != null` and raises `ErrorResponse.exists`), and that a config alias collision
+  likewise fails. If either silently succeeded, the recovery path would behave differently than
+  modelled.
+- **Flow sprawl is bounded but real.** Every genuinely new desired shape creates a new flow and
+  **nothing is ever deleted** — by design, because the old flow is the rollback target. Over many
+  shape changes the realm accumulates unbound flows. There is no cleanup, automated or documented
+  beyond "an operator deletes them". I consider that the right trade (deletion is the one operation
+  that could destroy a rollback target) but it is a cost, not a non-issue.
+- **No L2 behavioural test was added.** The reconciler has an `--audit` mode built for one and the
+  sibling has `tests/l2-behavioral/keycloak-client-secrets-match-git`, but I added no equivalent.
+  And `vars.CLUSTER_AVAILABLE` is unset, so L2/L3 would not run in CI anyway. **CI proves the
+  offline subset only; it proves nothing about the live realm.**
+- **No alerting.** Unlike the first design there is no longer any failure that is "expected by
+  design", so a PrometheusRule on `kube_job_status_failed` would now be meaningful — and I did not
+  add one. A silently failing CronJob (image pull failure, rotated admin password, changed Secret
+  key) is visible only to someone who looks at Jobs. This is a real gap, not a resolved one.
+- **That passkey login works.** No passkey has been enrolled and no browser has been pointed at
+  this. Nothing offline can prove a WebAuthn ceremony completes, that the `ALTERNATIVE` fork
+  degrades to the password form via `CREDENTIAL_SETUP_REQUIRED`, or that a platform-admin is still
+  asked for TOTP on the password branch. The README's four-step manual check remains the only thing
+  that would establish it, and it remains undone.
+- **That the RP ID is right for the origin.** `${BASE_DOMAIN}` is a legal registrable-domain suffix
+  of `keycloak.${BASE_DOMAIN}` on paper, but a wrong RP ID fails **in the browser**, before Keycloak
+  is involved, with no server-side log line. The reconciler will happily converge the realm on a
+  wrong RP ID; it checks that git and the realm agree, never that git is correct.
+- **The first real run will change how everyone logs in.** Once this merges and Flux applies it, the
+  next tick builds a flow and — if it verifies — **flips the realm's browser flow**. The UX change
+  is deliberate and documented (username screen, then password), but it is the first time it will
+  have happened, unattended, on a schedule. The rollback is one write and the old flow survives;
+  that is the mitigation, and it has not been rehearsed either.
+- **CI's own result.** My gate run is local. `gitea-settings` cannot run locally, and
+  `ci/approval-policy.sh` reports green N/A offline while this branch touches three sensitive paths,
+  so **the PR is guaranteed to need a non-author approving review** and I have not seen CI report. I
+  did not and will not post `/approve-override` on my own PR.
+- I re-measured branch protection this session (`protected: true`, `user_can_push: false`,
+  `enable_status_check: true`, context `gate / gate (pull_request)`, `required_approvals: 0`), but
+  the branches endpoint does **not** expose `block_admin_merge_override`, so that row of CLAUDE.md
+  §2 is **not re-confirmed** by me.
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-18
+branch: fix/pihole-local-ttl
+title: "The split-horizon answer was uncacheable while the wrong answer cached for 5 minutes"
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+The operator reported DNS "flapping between the cluster ingress and the router (public IP)".
+PiHole was not at fault — both replicas answer correctly and consistently. The bug is an
+**asymmetry in cacheability** that we created.
+
+Measured on prod 2026-10-18:
+
+```
+dig home.keithjackson.dev @192.168.2.23 (pihole)  -> 192.168.2.20                TTL=0
+dig home.keithjackson.dev @1.1.1.1      (public)  -> wan.home.keithjackson.dev   TTL=300
+dig home.keithjackson.dev @192.168.2.1  (router)  -> wan....  TTL=153 -> 148 -> 143
+```
+
+dnsmasq answers `address=` entries with **TTL 0** unless told otherwise. The SOHO router forwards
+LAN queries to PiHole and **caches** the result — the decrementing TTL above is the proof it caches
+rather than forwarding live. So:
+
+* the **correct** answer is **uncacheable** (TTL 0): the router must re-query PiHole on *every*
+  lookup, which is maximum exposure to any momentary gap;
+* the **wrong** answer is **cacheable for 300s**: the instant the router falls back to its upstream
+  (standard forwarder behaviour when the forward target does not answer) it latches the public WAN
+  address and serves it to **every LAN client** for five minutes.
+
+So **one sub-second PiHole gap becomes five minutes of the whole house resolving to the WAN IP** —
+then it expires, the router re-queries PiHole, gets TTL 0 again, and is immediately re-exposed.
+That asymmetry, not the gap itself, is why this is visible as flapping rather than a blip.
+
+Fix: `local-ttl=60` prepended to `FTLCONF_misc_dnsmasq_lines` in `catalog/pihole.yaml`, so the
+private answer is cacheable and a short gap is invisible to clients. `apps/wave-0/pihole.yaml`
+regenerated with the canonical render command.
+
+## What I verified
+
+* **PiHole is NOT the fault.** Both replicas, queried directly by pod IP, answer `192.168.2.20`;
+  the VIP returned it 6/6; this workstation 8/8. DHCP hands out only `192.168.2.23`.
+* **The router caches rather than forwards live** — three successive queries returned TTL 153, 148,
+  143 (decrementing), which a pure forwarder could not do.
+* **The TTL asymmetry**, as quoted above: 0 from PiHole, 300 from public DNS.
+* **The router does answer DNS and returns the public chain** (`wan.home.keithjackson.dev` → the WAN
+  address), so a fallback always has a wrong answer available.
+* **`local-ttl` is the right directive**: dnsmasq applies it to replies made from configuration,
+  `/etc/hosts` and DHCP leases, which covers all five `address=` names with one directive. It is a
+  standalone option, not a sub-field of `address=`, so prepending it to the `;`-separated
+  `FTLCONF_misc_dnsmasq_lines` list is syntactically correct.
+* **The render is clean and scoped**: `catalog/render.py --all catalog -o apps --wave-layout
+  --no-image-automation` (the canonical command `ci/render-golden.sh` asserts against, and
+  deliberately **not** `--emit-waves`) changed exactly two files — `catalog/pihole.yaml` and
+  `apps/wave-0/pihole.yaml` — and the rendered diff is the single `local-ttl=60;` prefix.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+* **UNAPPLIED.** Nothing has been reconciled, so I have not observed PiHole serving a non-zero TTL,
+  nor the router caching the private answer, nor the flap stopping. **Verify after merge with
+  `dig home.keithjackson.dev @192.168.2.23` (expect `TTL=60`, not 0) and then the same query at the
+  router (expect `192.168.2.20` with a decrementing TTL, not `wan.…`).**
+* **I did not confirm that PiHole/FTL accepts `local-ttl` via `FTLCONF_misc_dnsmasq_lines`.** The
+  directive is valid dnsmasq and the field is a passthrough, but `catalog/pihole.yaml`'s own header
+  records that FTL has previously written a bogus line into `dnsmasq.conf` and reported "0 invalid"
+  — so a malformed passthrough fails *silently*. If the TTL is still 0 after merge, that is the
+  cause, not this reasoning. Check the pod's `/etc/pihole/dnsmasq.conf`.
+* **60s is chosen, not derived.** Long enough for a pod restart and a lease re-election (both
+  seconds); it does **nothing** for an outage longer than the TTL, where the cache expires and the
+  public answer latches again. That is a real availability problem, not a caching one.
+* **This does not remove the trigger.** `192.168.2.23` is served by **two** LoadBalancer Services
+  (`pihole-dns-tcp`, `pihole-dns-udp`) with **two independently-elected L2 announcement leases**, so
+  two nodes can ARP for the same address at once — they sat on different nodes earlier the same day
+  (tcp on prod-2, udp on prod-1). The same pattern applies to crafty (`.22`) and unifi (`.21`).
+  Merging each pair into one mixed-protocol Service would remove the class; the operator has parked
+  that decision, and it is deliberately **not** in this change.
+* **Client-side bypasses are unexamined.** A device with its own resolver, or a browser with
+  DNS-over-HTTPS, bypasses PiHole entirely and always gets the public answer; this fix cannot help
+  there. Only this one workstation's resolver chain was inspected.
+* **No alert fires if the split-horizon answer regresses to the public address.** Nothing probes
+  `home.keithjackson.dev` from a LAN vantage point and compares it against `${GATEWAY_VIP}`, so the
+  next recurrence would again be found by a human noticing. That gap is not closed here.
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-18
+branch: fix/renovate-cron-window
+title: "The Renovate cron fired outside Renovate's own schedule, so it would never have opened a PR"
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+`.gitea/workflows/renovate.yaml` shipped (PR #73) with `cron: "15 3 * * *"`. **That schedule could
+never have produced a single PR.**
+
+Gitea Actions cron is **UTC**. `renovate.json` carries `"schedule": ["after 3am and before 6am"]`
+with `"timezone": "America/New_York"`, and that inner schedule is **authoritative** — Renovate
+re-checks it and declines to open PRs outside it. So:
+
+```
+cron 03:15 UTC  ->  23:15 EDT, the PREVIOUS EVENING in New York
+window          ->  03:00-06:00 local
+inside?         ->  NO (3h45m before the window opens)
+```
+
+The original comment claimed the cron was "slightly ahead of the repo window ... so a run is always
+in flight when the window opens". It is 3h45m *behind*, on the previous day. Every nightly run would
+have started, logged "not within schedule", opened **zero** PRs and exited **successfully** — a
+green tick forever, indistinguishable from "nothing needed updating". That is the same
+"failure-mode-is-a-green-tick" shape this repo keeps hitting, and it would have hidden the ~30
+pending updates PR #73 was written to surface.
+
+Changed to `cron: "15 8 * * *"`, chosen to survive DST rather than to be tidy. The window's UTC
+position moves:
+
+| | local window | in UTC |
+|---|---|---|
+| EDT (UTC-4, Mar–Nov) | 03:00–06:00 | 07:00–10:00 |
+| EST (UTC-5, Nov–Mar) | 03:00–06:00 | 08:00–11:00 |
+
+`08:15 UTC` is inside **both** (04:15 EDT / 03:15 EST), so no edit is needed at either switchover.
+A cron cannot follow DST, so this is the only way to get it right once.
+
+## What I verified
+
+* **The defect, by arithmetic rather than assertion:** `datetime(2026,10,18,03,15, UTC)` converted to
+  `America/New_York` via `zoneinfo` is `2026-10-17 23:15 EDT`; `3 <= hour < 6` is **False**.
+* **The fix, at both DST extremes:** `08:15 UTC` → `04:15 EDT` in July and `03:15 EST` in December,
+  both inside `03:00–06:00`. Computed, not reasoned.
+* **The inner schedule really is authoritative and really is set:** `renovate.json` on `main` carries
+  `timezone = America/New_York` and `schedule = ['after 3am and before 6am']`.
+* **`RENOVATE_TOKEN` now exists** as a repository Actions secret (listed by name via the Gitea API
+  alongside `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN`), so the workflow's fail-hard preflight will pass. It did not exist
+  when PR #73 was authored.
+* The edited workflow parses as YAML.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+* **Renovate has still never executed.** This fixes *when* it runs, not *whether it works*. No run
+  has happened, so nothing here proves it extracts dependencies, authenticates to Gitea, or opens a
+  usable PR.
+* **`enabledManagers` may silently disable the custom managers — UNRESOLVED and the likelier
+  remaining bug.** `renovate.json` lists `enabledManagers: [..., 'regex', ...]` and defines
+  `customManagers` (correct modern key; `regexManagers` is absent, which is right). But modern
+  Renovate names the custom manager **`custom.regex`** in `enabledManagers`, not bare `regex`. If
+  the bare name is invalid or ignored, every inline `# renovate:` marker in the tree does nothing —
+  including the `external-snapshotter` `newTag` pin PR #73 flagged as probably inert. **I did not
+  change it**, because guessing at a config key that could fail validation and take the whole run
+  down is worse than leaving a question that one dry run answers definitively. The `dry_run: true`
+  dispatch log settles it: look for a per-manager dependency-extraction count, and for any config
+  validation warning naming `regex`.
+* **Whether a dry run inside vs outside the window differs usefully.** Renovate honours its schedule
+  even in dry-run, so a manual dispatch outside 03:00–06:00 local will also log "not within
+  schedule". That makes the first dispatch's output less informative than it looks; to see what
+  Renovate *would* do, either dispatch inside the local window or override the schedule for that
+  run. Not tested either way.
+* **No alert fires if the schedule stops firing.** PR #73 recorded this gap and it is still open: a
+  Renovate workflow that silently stops running (disabled Actions, expired token, deleted secret)
+  produces no signal at all. Closing it needs a check on last-successful-run age, which nothing
+  does.
+* No conformance test asserts the cron falls inside `renovate.json`'s window, so this exact bug can
+  return. A static check comparing the two is feasible and is not written.
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-18
+branch: fix/renovate-invalid-config
+title: "renovate.json was invalid, so the first manual run errored out"
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+The operator ran the Renovate workflow manually and it **failed**. The cause is not the workflow:
+**`renovate.json` was never a valid Renovate config.**
+
+It carried five pseudo-comment keys — `_comment`, `_kubernetes_comment`, `_unmanageable_comment`,
+`_ignorePaths_comment`, `_docker_comment` — because JSON has no comments. Renovate **rejects unknown
+top-level options**, so the entire config failed validation. Proven with the official validator
+rather than inferred:
+
+```
+$ podman run --rm -v "$PWD/renovate.json:/tmp/renovate.json:ro,Z" \
+    ghcr.io/renovatebot/renovate renovate-config-validator /tmp/renovate.json
+ERROR: Found errors in configuration
+  Invalid configuration option: _comment
+  Invalid configuration option: _docker_comment
+  Invalid configuration option: _ignorePaths_comment
+  Invalid configuration option: _kubernetes_comment
+  Invalid configuration option: _unmanageable_comment
+```
+
+This is the second independent reason Renovate had never worked, on top of PR #77's cron firing
+outside `renovate.json`'s own schedule window. Either alone was sufficient to produce "nothing ever
+happens"; #73 shipped both.
+
+**Converted `renovate.json` → `renovate.json5`.** JSON5 permits real `//` comments, and Renovate
+discovers `renovate.json5` natively — nothing in `.gitea/` or `ci/` pins the old filename (only
+prose inside comments), and no `RENOVATE_CONFIG_FILE` is set. Every word of the original rationale
+is preserved as comments positioned next to what it explains, which a flattened `description`
+string would have lost.
+
+A header on the new file records the failure, the validator command, and the instruction to run it
+before committing — this class of bug is invisible to the repo's own gate.
+
+## What I verified
+
+* **The exact failure**, from the official validator, quoted above. Not read off a log, not inferred
+  from the workflow.
+* **The fix validates**: the same validator against `renovate.json5` returns
+  `INFO: Config validated successfully against 1 file(s)`.
+* **Nothing was dropped in the conversion**, checked programmatically against `git show
+  HEAD:renovate.json`: 18 non-comment keys before, 18 after, **no missing keys, no extra keys, and
+  no key whose value changed**. `docker: {enabled: true}` confirmed still present — the validator
+  prints a normalisation diff that mentions it, which is its own migration suggestion, not a
+  removal.
+* **74 comment lines survive** in the new file, so the rationale is intact.
+* **`RENOVATE_TOKEN` exists** as a repository Actions secret (listed by name via the Gitea API), so
+  the workflow's fail-hard preflight is satisfied.
+* **A suspicion was DISPROVED:** `enabledManagers` containing bare `regex` was thought to need to be
+  `custom.regex`, which would have silently disabled every inline `# renovate:` marker. The
+  validator accepts `regex`, so that concern was unfounded and nothing here changes it.
+* Nothing functionally references `renovate.json` by name — `grep -rn "renovate\.json" .gitea/ ci/
+  conformance/` returns only comment prose.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+* **Renovate has still never completed a run.** This removes one of two blockers; PR #77 removes the
+  other. Neither is merged, so **no successful Renovate run has been observed** and I cannot say the
+  bot works — only that these two specific defects are fixed.
+* **I did not re-run the workflow after the fix.** The honest test is a `workflow_dispatch` with
+  `dry_run: true` once both this and #77 are merged. Expect ~30 dependencies behind, rate-limited to
+  `prHourlyLimit: 2` / `prConcurrentLimit: 5`.
+* **Whether the managers actually extract anything.** A valid config that matches no files is still
+  a no-op. The dry-run log's per-manager dependency counts are the only thing that proves the
+  `managerFilePatterns` are right, and I have not seen them.
+* **Whether `renovate.json5` is honoured by the pinned Renovate version in the workflow.** JSON5
+  discovery is long-standing and the validator accepted the file, but the workflow's image tag was
+  not cross-checked against the version that added it.
+* **Nothing in the gate catches an invalid Renovate config.** This bug would have recurred silently.
+  A one-line L0 check shelling out to `renovate-config-validator` would close it; it is not written
+  here, and `conformance/**` is a sensitive path.
+* I did not re-measure branch protection or runner state (CLAUDE.md §2b).
@@ -0,0 +1,374 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-29
+branch: feat/image-pipeline
+title: "Images are built, verified and published by CI on rootless BuildKit; Renovate carries the digests into git"
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+Operator rule (2026-10-29): container image creation, hosting and lifecycle belong to CI/CD and
+the codebase, never to a one-off workstation build/push. Before this branch the Home-Network org's
+package list was **empty**, `platform/pm-agent/` pinned an all-zero digest (ImagePullBackOff), and
+both `build-image.sh` scripts said "publishing is an operator action".
+
+### The builder: rootless BuildKit — DECISION MADE (operator, on PR #81)
+
+**The problem it answers, measured on this PR's first CI run (images run 325, failed in 6 s):** a
+CI job on this runner gets **no Docker daemon at all**, for two reasons, both in the deployed
+versions' source:
+- act_runner v0.2.11 `internal/app/cmd/daemon.go` sets `container.docker_host` to `-` ("never
+  mount into jobs") whenever `DOCKER_HOST` is `tcp://`, which it is here (the DinD sidecar);
+- gitea/act v0.261.2 `pkg/container/docker_run.go` `sanitizeConfig` drops **every** bind,
+  socket included, when `valid_volumes` is empty, which it is (the runner has no config file).
+
+Giving jobs the DinD daemon would have made every branch push root on the node, because that
+daemon is `privileged: true`.
+
+**The decision:** no job may reach a privileged daemon, and images are built by a **rootless
+BuildKit** daemon over mTLS. The runner (`apps/wave-1/gitea-actions.yaml`, DOCKER_HOST,
+valid_volumes) is **untouched**.
+
+- **`platform/buildkit/`** — a new hand-managed component in its own namespace `buildkit`. The
+  runner manifest is renderer-generated (`catalog/render.py` EXTRA_UNITS), and the builder has no
+  business sitting next to a privileged container. Flux reconciles it as the new Kustomization
+  `buildkit` (`clusters/base/buildkit.yaml`, `dependsOn: platform`).
+  - **Deployment:** `moby/buildkit:v0.34.1-rootless@sha256:f68752a5…0c4f89`, pinned by index
+    digest. The securityContext, every line measured (see *What I verified*):
+    - `privileged: false`;
+    - uid/gid 1000, `runAsNonRoot`;
+    - `capabilities: drop ALL, add SETUID, SETGID`;
+    - `allowPrivilegeEscalation: true`;
+    - `seccompProfile: Unconfined` and `appArmorProfile: Unconfined`;
+    - `readOnlyRootFilesystem: true`, with five emptyDirs.
+
+    Other settings:
+    - `--oci-worker-no-process-sandbox`;
+    - no ServiceAccount token;
+    - memory limit 4Gi, which covers build steps too;
+    - cache emptyDir with `sizeLimit: 6Gi`, and GC capped at 4 GB in `buildkitd.toml`
+      (ConfigMap).
+  - **mTLS via cert-manager** (`certificates.yaml`): a self-signed CA used only here, the server
+    cert `buildkitd-tls`, and the client cert `buildkit-client-ci`. buildkitd verifies every
+    client against that CA.
+  - **Service:** ClusterIP `buildkitd.buildkit.svc.cluster.local:1234`.
+  - **NetworkPolicies:**
+    - default-deny;
+    - ingress on 1234 **only from the act-runner pod** (`gitea-actions`,
+      `app.kubernetes.io/name=act-runner`);
+    - egress: DNS, world :443/:80 for downloads, and the `ingress` entity (the Gateway) for the
+      registry push.
+  - `versions.env`: the CI-side client, `buildx` v0.38.1 with the sha256 from its
+    `checksums.txt`, plus the address and certificate name CI dials.
+- **How DinD job containers appear to Cilium (measured, read-only).**
+  `iptables -t nat -S POSTROUTING` in the dind container shows
+  `-A POSTROUTING -s 172.18.0.0/16 ! -o br-… -j MASQUERADE` (and the same for docker0). So a job's
+  connection leaves with the **act-runner pod's IP, and therefore that pod's Cilium identity**.
+  That makes "only the act-runner pod" expressible and correct, but it cannot tell one job from
+  another, or a job from act_runner itself. Per-job authentication is the client certificate.
+- **Admission: no Kyverno exception needed.**
+  - Every ClusterPolicy actually applied (`platform-config/kustomization.yaml`; live:
+    `conformance-trigger-job-shape`, `label-cdi-worker-pods`, `pm-agent-job-shape`,
+    `require-auth-mode-label`, `require-default-deny-baseline`, `require-egress-class-label`,
+    `restrict-host-namespaces`, `secret-provenance`, `validate-default-deny-shape`) matches only
+    namespaces labelled `homelab.keithjackson.dev/app-namespace: "true"`, or only its own
+    namespace in the job-shape policies' case. `buildkit` carries no such label.
+  - There are no namespaced Kyverno Policies and no cluster-wide PSA default (both measured).
+  - The namespace is deliberately left without a PSA label, because PSS `baseline` forbids
+    `Unconfined` seccomp and AppArmor.
+  - `validate-default-deny-shape` does apply to the namespace's default-deny NetworkPolicy, and
+    its shape (both directions) satisfies it.
+- **Unprivileged user namespaces on the nodes (measured, read-only, via Ansible `sysctl`).** On
+  all three Debian 13.7 nodes, kernel `7.1.8+deb13-amd64`:
+  - `kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone = 1`;
+  - `user.max_user_namespaces = 127206`;
+  - no `kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns` (an Ubuntu-only key);
+  - AppArmor enabled (`Y`).
+
+  So this is a satisfied prerequisite, not an open one.
+- **The TLS conformance check needed a narrow, self-proving exception** (`conformance/**`, so this
+  changes what green means; flagged for the reviewer).
+  - The first gate run failed L0 `tls-lifecycle-automated` clause (5): "every Certificate's
+    issuer must be ACME". That is broader than the spec it serves:
+    - R-TLS-01 and docs/08 concern *externally reachable* services;
+    - ADR-0006 says "mTLS between workloads is a separate concern … not covered here";
+    - a public CA cannot issue for a `*.svc.cluster.local` name or a client-auth certificate.
+  - The new clause (5b) exempts a Certificate annotated
+    `homelab.keithjackson.dev/tls-scope: workload-mtls` **only if it proves it**:
+    - no Gateway listener serves its Secret;
+    - every DNS name and the commonName are a bare label or `*.svc[.cluster.local]`;
+    - it has no IP, URI or email SANs;
+    - its issuer is a namespaced `selfSigned`/`ca` Issuer in its own namespace;
+    - a `ca` issuer's Secret is produced by a likewise-exempt tracked Certificate.
+  - Exemptions are printed, and clause (9), the renewal arithmetic, still applies.
+  - **Negative-tested:** a public DNS name, and a Gateway serving `buildkitd-tls`, each fail the
+    check with a specific message.
+- **`infra/gitea/buildkit-client-secret.sh`** (operator action): copies `ca.crt`, `tls.crt` and
+  `tls.key` from the Secret `buildkit/buildkit-client-ci` into the Actions secrets `BUILDKIT_CA`,
+  `BUILDKIT_CLIENT_CERT` and `BUILDKIT_CLIENT_KEY`. Before writing anything it checks that:
+  - the cert verifies against the CA;
+  - the cert is a client-auth cert;
+  - the key matches the cert.
+
+  It never prints a value. `--check` reports whether the stored copy is older than the current
+  certificate.
+
+### Verification moved into the Containerfiles
+
+`docker run` cannot exist on BuildKit, so each Containerfile now names its shipped stage after the
+image (`toolbox`, `agent-runner`, `conformance-runner`) and ends in a **`verify` test stage**,
+`FROM <image> AS verify`. That stage runs every previous assertion at build time, as the image's
+non-root uid (65532 for agent-runner and conformance-runner), in `RUN --network=none`. It is never
+pushed.
+- **Every existing assertion is preserved**, and the toolbox gained one it never had: every tool
+  on PATH, and five tools report their pinned versions.
+- `probe-validation.sh` is `COPY`ed into the verify stage only, so it never ships.
+- **Bug fixed on the way:** in the old `docker run` block, `cmd | grep -q … && echo ok` and
+  `[ … ] && echo` could never fail the script under `set -e` + `pipefail`. The "entrypoints refuse
+  arguments", "not root", "no API key baked in" and "HOME writable" checks asserted nothing. They
+  are real assertions now.
+- **What a build step cannot reproduce, and how it is approximated** (also written in each stage's
+  header):
+  - **uid:** exact.
+  - **`--network none`:** exact, and each stage *proves* it. Its first check fails if DNS or a
+    TCP connection works. A negative control without `--network=none` fails that check.
+  - **`--read-only` rootfs:** not reproducible, because a RUN step always has a writable layer.
+    It is approximated by permission:
+    - `touch /should-fail` must fail;
+    - a `find / -xdev -writable ! -type l` inventory, run as the uid, must lie entirely under
+      `/workspace`, `/tmp` or `/var/tmp`. `! -type l` was needed: Fedora's `/usr/tmp` symlink
+      to `/var/tmp` tripped it.
+
+    The real control remains the pods' `readOnlyRootFilesystem`, which the admission policies
+    enforce.
+  - **`--tmpfs /workspace`:** approximated by the image's own `/workspace`, owned by 65532, which
+    is exactly what the pod's emptyDir replaces.
+
+  The opt-in `--verify-clone` still `run`s the image, so it remains local-only.
+- **`build-image.sh` (all three):**
+  - verify is `build --target verify` and the image is `build --target <image>`;
+  - a new `--print-build-args` prints the pins as `KEY=VALUE`, which is what CI consumes. The
+    arg list therefore exists once;
+  - the local podman path still works.
+- The L0 check `alert-rules-unit-tested` now looks for `"PROMTOOL_VERSION=$PROMTOOL_VERSION"` in
+  the toolbox's build-arg list.
+
+### The pipeline (`.gitea/workflows/images.yaml` + `scripts/images.sh`)
+
+- **The builder.** The driver downloads the pinned `buildx` and refuses a checksum mismatch. It
+  writes the client cert from the `BUILDKIT_*` secrets to a 0600 temp dir that is removed on exit,
+  creates a `remote` builder, and runs `buildx inspect --bootstrap`.
+- **It fails loudly, never skips.** It stops with a clear message if:
+  - the secrets are absent;
+  - buildkitd is unreachable. The message lists the causes in order: not deployed yet (Flux
+    applies it only after merge), stale certificate, NetworkPolicy.
+- **Pull request:** `buildx bake <image>-verify` for changed images. Nothing is pushed and no
+  registry credential is referenced. The `BUILDKIT_*` builder secrets *are* given to PR jobs,
+  because they must build.
+  - agent-runner is built FROM the toolbox built **in the same run** through a bake `target:`
+    context. That toolbox exists in no registry, so the toolbox is built as its base even when
+    its own inputs did not change.
+- **Push to main / dispatch on main:** for each image, the verify target first, and only then the
+  image itself with `push=true`. Tags are `sha-<12 hex>` (immutable) and `main` (moving).
+  - The digest is read back from the registry and compared with the client's metadata.
+  - agent-runner builds FROM the toolbox digest just pushed, or else from the pinned
+    `AGENT_BASE_IMAGE` (the zero placeholder bootstraps).
+  - `BUILDX_NO_DEFAULT_ATTESTATIONS=1` keeps one manifest per tag, which is what admission,
+    Renovate and the retention script assume.
+- **Unchanged from the first iteration:** change detection, publish idempotence,
+  `REGISTRY_PUSH_TOKEN` and its preflight, the Renovate markers, and `registry-retention.sh`. The
+  DinD prune step is gone, because nothing is built in DinD now.
+
+### Unchanged from the first iteration (still true)
+
+- **Digest references** carry `# renovate-digest: image=<repo> tag=main` markers:
+  - `platform/pm-agent/deployment.yaml` and `configmap.yaml`;
+  - `infra/agent/versions.env` `AGENT_BASE_IMAGE`, now the published toolbox by digest, zero
+    until the first publish;
+  - `conformance/versions.env` `CONFORMANCE_RUNNER_IMAGE_DIGEST`, which went from `""` to zero.
+
+  The admission policies are untouched.
+- **`renovate.json5`**:
+  - the `custom.regex` marker manager;
+  - `enabledManagers` `regex` → `custom.regex`;
+  - the `kubernetes` manager disabled for these three repos;
+  - `ignorePaths` narrowed so `conformance/versions.env` is visible.
+
+  `renovate.yaml` pins `renovate-version: 44.167.0` and adds a docker `RENOVATE_HOST_RULES` entry
+  using `RENOVATE_TOKEN`, which now needs `read:package`.
+- **`infra/gitea/registry-retention.sh`** (dry run by default; operator action); the
+  `conformance-trigger-kubeconfig.sh` precondition fix; and the docs (pm-agent README, runbook,
+  plan, conformance README, devcontainer README, workflows README). The docs are updated again
+  for BuildKit, and there is a new `platform/buildkit/README.md`.
+
+### Decisions and pushback
+
+- **The push credential is a PAT secret, `REGISTRY_PUSH_TOKEN`; the Actions token cannot push.**
+  Checked against Gitea **v1.24.3** source:
+  - `services/auth/basic.go` `Basic.Verify` turns a task token into the pseudo-user
+    `gitea-actions` (ID −2) and sets no token scope;
+  - `routers/api/packages/container/container.go` `Authenticate` (the `/v2/token` exchange every
+    docker client performs) requires `read:package`/`write:package`/`all` scope, so it answers
+    401. The Actions token cannot even *pull*;
+  - `services/context/package.go` `determineAccessMode` has `// TODO: ActionUser permission check`
+    and no branch for that user. Even past login it would get at most read on a public org;
+  - `models/repo/repo_unit.go` `ActionsConfig` has no token-permissions setting in 1.24.3.
+
+  The workflow fails loudly when the secret is absent, copying the `RENOVATE_TOKEN` preflight
+  pattern. With BuildKit the credential reaches the daemon through the buildx session (a
+  0600 `config.json` in the job's temp dir), never through the cluster.
+- **`regex` vs `custom.regex`: both work. Switched to the canonical `custom.regex`.** In Renovate:
+  - `lib/config/migrations/custom/enabled-managers-migration.ts` rewrites `regex` →
+    `custom.regex`;
+  - that migration runs on every repository run (`lib/workers/repository/init/merge.ts` →
+    `migrateAndValidate`), not only in the validator;
+  - `lib/modules/manager/index.ts` `getEnabledManagersList` accepts either spelling;
+  - `custom.regex` exists since 37.51.1 (renovatebot/renovate#24079).
+- **The open question hid a bigger bug: the Renovate config on main is invalid for the Renovate
+  the workflow actually runs.**
+  - `renovatebot/[email protected]` defaults `renovate-version` to `39`
+    (`action.yml`, `src/docker.ts`), which is 39.264.0.
+  - The validator used in #79 was `ghcr.io/renovatebot/renovate` with no tag, i.e. `latest`,
+    44.167.0.
+  - **Measured:** `renovate:39.264.0 renovate-config-validator` on main's `renovate.json5` gives
+    `ERROR: Found errors in configuration` with five errors, all `managerFilePatterns`.
+    `fileMatch` was renamed in 40.2.0.
+  - So once #80 fixes the filename, every run would still die at `CONFIG_VALIDATION`.
+  - Fixed by pinning `renovate-version: 44.167.0`. This branch's config validates clean on it.
+    The only `--strict` complaint is a pending migration of the pre-existing top-level
+    `"docker": {"enabled": true}` block, which I left alone.
+- **Unworkable as briefed: tracking the worker Job template's digest.**
+  - `infra/agent/worker-job-template.yaml` is `COPY`ed into agent-runner. A Renovate bump there
+    changes agent-runner's inputs, CI publishes a new digest, Renovate bumps it again, and so on
+    forever.
+  - `pm-dispatch` overwrites that field from `PM_WORKER_IMAGE` at runtime
+    (`pm-dispatch.py:649`), so nothing is lost by leaving it all-zero. It is commented as
+    deliberately untracked.
+  - For the same loop reason, `conformance/versions.env` is **not** an input of the
+    conformance-runner build, and a pipeline-only change does not republish on main.
+- **Changed from the brief: retention is a script, not a Gitea cleanup rule.**
+  - Gitea 1.24.3 has **no API** for cleanup rules (none in `routers/api/v1/api.go`; web
+    session+CSRF forms only, in `routers/web/web.go`). So a rule cannot be created, or
+    drift-asserted, as code. **`ci/gitea-settings.sh` was therefore not extended.** A cheaper
+    proxy (count versions per image) would need `read:package` on `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN`, which
+    it lacks.
+  - A built-in rule is also **unsafe here**. Gitea stores a manifest as a file of the TAG
+    version it was pushed under (`routers/api/packages/container/manifest.go`
+    `createPackageAndVersion`), and resolves a by-digest pull from those files
+    (`models/packages/container/search.go`). Deleting the tag a deployed digest was pushed under
+    breaks the `@sha256:` pull, and the rule's "newest N" knows nothing about what git pins. The
+    script keeps every digest git pins.
+- **Auto-merge.** Digest bumps of these images auto-merge on a green gate (the existing
+  `digest` rule). The exception is the conformance-runner bump: `conformance/versions.env` is a
+  sensitive path, so it waits for an administrator's `/approve-override` every time.
+
+## What I verified
+
+**Proved locally, against the exact pinned images:**
+
+- **Rootless buildkitd, configured as the manifest configures it.**
+  - Setup: the pinned `moby/buildkit:v0.34.1-rootless` digest, under rootless podman, with
+    `--cap-drop ALL --cap-add SETUID --cap-add SETGID`, seccomp unconfined and `--read-only`;
+    tmpfs at the same five paths; the ConfigMap's `buildkitd.toml`; mTLS on :1234.
+  - The image's `/etc/subuid` was overridden with `user:1:999` and `user:1001:64535`, because
+    rootless podman maps only 65,537 uids. rootlesskit's real `newuidmap` user-namespace path
+    still ran.
+  - It started, `buildctl debug workers` listed the OCI worker, and `debug workers -v` showed the
+    GC config applied (max 4.29 GB, reserved 1.07 GB).
+- **The securityContext, item by item.** Each requirement was measured by taking it away:
+  - **default seccomp:** daemon starts, every RUN step fails → `Unconfined` is required;
+  - **no `SETUID`/`SETGID`:** rootlesskit dies with
+    `newuidmap … operation not permitted` → both capabilities are required;
+  - **`--read-only` rootfs:** works once the five emptyDirs exist. Its only failure was the
+    probe client's `~/.docker`, which is now an emptyDir;
+  - **minimal caps + Unconfined seccomp:** works, and a RUN step executes.
+- **The full CI path, in the actual CI job image.** Setup: `ghcr.io/catthehacker/ubuntu:act-22.04`
+  running `.gitea/workflows/scripts/images.sh` in verify mode. It downloaded and sha256-checked
+  buildx v0.38.1, connected over mTLS, and bake-built all three `verify` targets from an empty
+  cache. rc 0, 1m32s total:
+  - `TOOLBOX VERIFIED` (42 s);
+  - `AGENT-RUNNER VERIFIED` (26 s): selftest OK, probe "20 refusal(s), 0 failure(s)", and built
+    FROM the in-run toolbox through the `target:` context, with the log showing
+    `[agent-runner-verify toolbox 1/6]` and `base=toolbox-in-this-run`;
+  - `CONFORMANCE-RUNNER VERIFIED` (21 s): all seven refusals;
+  - every stage printed `confirmed: no network`.
+- **mTLS rejects what it should.** Tested with a real BuildKit API call (`buildctl debug workers`):
+  - no client cert → `remote error: tls: certificate required`;
+  - a client cert from another CA → rejected the same way;
+  - the valid cert → accepted.
+
+  Through the driver:
+  - another CA's client cert → rc 1;
+  - the wrong CA for the server → rc 1;
+  - an unreachable host → rc 1 in about 20 s, with the explanatory message;
+  - missing secrets → rc 1, naming the three secrets.
+- **The local podman path**, `build-image.sh` for all three (rc 0).
+  - Negative control: a verify stage expecting a different promtool version printed
+    `DRIFT promtool want 9.9.9` and failed the build.
+  - Negative control: the `--network=none` check fails when the flag is removed.
+- **`buildkit-client-secret.sh`'s sanity checks**, run offline on local certs. They tell apart:
+  - a good client cert;
+  - a server cert (not client-auth);
+  - a mismatched key;
+  - a cert from another CA.
+
+**Measured live, read-only:**
+- node user namespaces, Debian 13.7 and AppArmor (via an Ansible `sysctl`/`cat`);
+- DinD's MASQUERADE rules;
+- the live ClusterPolicies, namespaced Policies, PSA labels, and cert-manager v1.21.3 with its
+  ClusterIssuers;
+- the act-runner pod labels.
+
+**Renovate (unchanged since the first iteration):**
+- the validator with 44.167.0: exit 0;
+- `extract` finds all four markers;
+- the `kubernetes` duplicates are `skipReason: disabled`;
+- 39.264.0 rejects `main`'s config.
+
+**Local gate, CI results:** see the PR body. They are recorded there because this entry is part of
+the tree being gated.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **platform/buildkit has never run in the cluster.** It can't until it merges: agents may not
+  `kubectl apply`, and Flux reconciles only `main`. So this PR's own `images` job **cannot build
+  and is expected to fail at the builder preflight**, which is the designed loud failure. The
+  following are therefore all unproven in-cluster:
+  - kubelet admitting the pod;
+  - containerd honouring `appArmorProfile: Unconfined`;
+  - the five emptyDirs;
+  - cert-manager issuing the three certs;
+  - the CiliumNetworkPolicies.
+- **AppArmor `Unconfined` is reasoned, not measured.** My test host runs SELinux, so the AppArmor
+  requirement comes from upstream's example plus the nodes having AppArmor enabled. If the pod
+  were to work under `RuntimeDefault` AppArmor, that line could be tightened; I did not test it.
+- **The local userns mapping is narrower than the cluster's.** Locally it was 65,535 ids across
+  two ranges; in the cluster it is the image's own `100000:65536` against real host subuids. That
+  is the normal case, but it is the cluster's first test.
+- **The NetworkPolicies are untested.** In particular:
+  - that `toEntities: [ingress]` admits the push to the Gateway VIP. The comment explains the
+    reasoning, but it is unmeasured;
+  - that world :443/:80 covers every download the builds make. A dnf mirror on another port
+    would fail a build visibly.
+- **No push, anywhere.** The whole publish path is unexercised:
+  - `REGISTRY_PUSH_TOKEN` reaching buildkitd through the buildx session;
+  - `push=true`;
+  - the metadata digest compared with the registry read-back;
+  - agent-runner FROM `toolbox@sha256:`;
+  - the immutable-tag guard;
+  - idempotence.
+
+  So are the 15 s Envoy route-timeout risk on blob finalisation, and the Gitea PVC (10Gi, shared
+  with repositories) absorbing ~2 GB per toolbox publish until retention runs.
+- **Node disk under real builds.** The cache emptyDir (6Gi limit, 4 GB GC cap) sits on nodes that
+  had 7–9 GB free. It is untested under concurrent pressure.
+- **Certificate rotation is designed, not exercised.** The server cert renews 30 days early but
+  buildkitd only reads it at start; the client copy needs the script re-run.
+- **`--oci-worker-no-process-sandbox` is an accepted risk, not a mitigated one.** A build step can
+  ptrace the daemon and read its TLS key and cache. Anyone with the client cert, which means every
+  PR job, can run build steps.
+- **Renovate has still never completed a run.** It is blocked on #80, on `RENOVATE_TOKEN` gaining
+  `read:package`, and on this branch. The `[email protected]` + 44.x image pairing is
+  untested.
+- **Pods cannot pull these images until PR #61** (the kubelet pull secret) merges.
+- **`registry-retention.sh --apply` has never run**; its keep logic has only run against an empty
+  registry.
@@ -0,0 +1,172 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-29
+branch: feat/keycloak-passkey-reconcile
+title: "Passkey reconciler review fixes: bind only on git's say-so (rollback sticks), protect the real 26.0.6 sub-flows, screen the requirement PUT by body id, alert on failure"
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+This branch carries the unmerged passkey reconciler (commit `36fcb7b`, cherry-picked with its
+authorship, recorded in `decisions/2026-10-18-keycloak-passkey-reconciler.md`) plus the fixes for a
+review of it. Read that entry for the design; this one records what the review found and what
+changed.
+
+**1. HIGH: the bind was automatic, and rollback did not stick.** Within one tick of merge the
+reconciler would build and BIND `browser-mfa-<hash>`, a login flow no human had tried. Worse, the
+README's rollback (rebind `browser-mfa`) was undone every 15 minutes: the next run found the
+verified candidate again and rebound it, and a hotfix inside the bound flow was "corrected" by
+building and binding an `-r2`.
+
+- New git-declared switch: `bind-browser-flow` in `platform/keycloak/passkey-desired-state.yaml`,
+  a second key of the same ConfigMap, so it reaches the pod through the existing mount. **Default
+  `"false"`.** It is the one hand-edited line in a generated file: the renderer carries it through
+  on `--write`, and `--check` (run by the L0 gate) refuses anything but the quoted strings `"true"`
+  / `"false"`. An unquoted `true` is a YAML boolean, which a ConfigMap rejects at apply time and
+  which would have failed the whole `platform-config` Kustomization, realm import included.
+- `"false"`: pass 3 builds and verifies the candidate (or reuses a verified one), logs
+  `WOULD BIND <alias>`, exits 0 with `KEYCLOAK_PASSKEY_RECONCILED_OK_PENDING_BIND`, and never PUTs
+  a changed `browserFlow`. That holds after an earlier bind too, so the operator's rebind sticks.
+  If the bound flow *is* the candidate alias and has been hand-edited, it is left alone (no `-r2`
+  is built beside it).
+- `"true"`: binds as before, and keeps asserting it. That is GitOps working; the README says so,
+  and says not to hotfix the flow while it is `"true"`.
+- The CronJob passes no flag. `--no-bind` still exists for a hand-run Job and can only narrow
+  git's value. The L0 check asserts the CronJob carries no `--` argument.
+- Rollback is now: a PR setting `"false"` (first), then one rebind write. README documents the
+  order and why it matters, plus how to test the candidate on one client (a per-client
+  `account-console` browser-flow override) before the go-live PR.
+
+**2. HIGH: the protected-subtree guard read the wrong field for sub-flows.** Read from source at tag
+26.0.6 (`services/src/main/java/org/keycloak/services/resources/admin/AuthenticationManagementResource.java`,
+fetched from GitHub this session): `recurseExecutions` sets `displayName = flowRef.getAlias()` and
+`flowId` on a sub-flow row and never calls `setAlias`. `alias` is set only on authenticator rows,
+where it holds the bound **config's** alias. So the protected set was `{bound}` alone, and a write
+into `browser-mfa-forms` would not have been refused. The old stub returned `alias` on sub-flow
+rows, which is why all 216 assertions passed anyway.
+
+- New `subflow_alias()` reads `displayName` and cites the source. I did not resolve by `flowId`:
+  `getFlows()` (same file) filters to `isTopLevel()`, so a nested sub-flow's id resolves to nothing
+  through the flows list. A sub-flow row with no `displayName` makes the listing unreadable, which
+  leaves the flow pass fail-closed.
+- The stub now returns rows shaped like 26.0.6's: sub-flow rows carry `displayName`, `flowId` and no
+  `alias`/`providerId`. Authenticator rows carry a display *type* as `displayName` (not the
+  provider id) and the config alias as `alias`. Nulls are omitted.
+- New assertions: after a real run, `browser-mfa-forms` and `browser-mfa-conditional-otp` are in
+  the protected set, and an execution add or requirement write into them is refused. A missing
+  `displayName` fails closed.
+
+**3. MEDIUM: `PUT /flows/{alias}/executions` was screened on the wrong field.** `updateExecutions`
+resolves `realm.getAuthenticationExecutionById(rep.getId())` without checking membership in
+`{alias}`. The same handler also renames the flow named by `rep.getFlowId()` when the body carries
+`authenticationFlow` + `displayName`. Now:
+
+- `body["id"]` is screened against the protected execution ids.
+- It must also be in `_BUILD_EXECUTION_IDS`: the ids read back from the flow this call just
+  created, open only inside `build_flow`.
+- The config `POST /executions/{id}/config` is held to the same build scope.
+- The body may carry only `id`, `requirement` and `priority`.
+- Selftest cases cover each of these.
+
+**4. Stale docs on sensitive paths** now describe what ships, including the switch:
+`platform-config/kustomization.yaml`, the chainsaw test header, the desired-state header and its
+renderer template, the renderer's own header and `--check` message, and the README.
+
+**5.**
+- `backoffLimit: 0`: every failure is deterministic within a tick, and a retried build burns
+  another of the 5 candidate aliases.
+- New alert `KeycloakPasskeyReconcilerFailing` in `platform/monitoring/alerts.yaml` (warning,
+  `for: 15m`, `kube_job_status_failed` on `job_name=~"keycloak-passkey-reconciler-.*"`), the same
+  shape as the sibling's. It has promtool tests in
+  `platform/monitoring/tests/keycloak-passkey-reconciler.test.yaml`, in both directions plus
+  "the sibling's failure is not this alert" and "one transient failure stays quiet". The alert
+  ratchet in `alert-rules-unit-tested` would have refused it untested. A new runbook,
+  `runbooks/keycloak-passkey-reconciler.md`, is projected by the runbooks generator.
+- The stale "Renovate does not manage plain `image:` tags" comment is corrected: `renovate.json5`
+  enables the `kubernetes` manager over `platform/**`. The image is pinned to
+  `python:3.13.15-alpine3.23@sha256:6438599575cca0d1df94aeee0d2ae088d4d8846eab554b2ee7784a3a6df0d516`,
+  the multi-arch index digest read from Docker Hub today. The tag is mutable: the sibling
+  reconciler's pod on prod reports `imageID ...@sha256:75f27d68...` under the same tag, which is
+  neither today's index nor today's amd64 manifest.
+
+**6. Hygiene.** The ~160-line header that appeared in both the YAML and the script is now kept once,
+in the script, where it ships next to the code and its selftest. A short header above the
+ConfigMap points to it. Nothing else was restructured, apart from the build's second half moving
+into `_finish_build()` so the build scope can be opened and closed around it.
+
+Sensitive paths touched: `ci/**` (renderer), `conformance/**` (L0 check, mutations, chainsaw),
+`platform-config/kustomization.yaml` (comment only). This needs the operator's
+`/approve-override` or a non-author review. I did not post one.
+
+## What I verified
+
+- **Local toolbox gate, rc 3** (pinned toolbox via `dev.sh`, `DEV_KUBECONFIG=/dev/null`, ENGINE
+  shim bind-mounting the main `.git`, run on the committed branch). Stages: `spec-immutability`
+  pass (the spec repo resolved as a sibling), `decisions-log` pass, `lint` pass, `l0` pass
+  (including `keycloak-passkey-reconciler`, `alert-rules-unit-tested` and
+  `alert-runbooks-resolvable`), `render-golden` pass, `l1` pass, `approval-policy` pass (N/A
+  offline; it is guaranteed to fail in CI). **`gitea-settings` did not run** (no
+  `SETTINGS_API_TOKEN` locally) and is the only stage that did not run. L2/L3 `conformance` is
+  skipped by design (no cluster). rc 3 is **not** green.
+- `platform/monitoring/tests/run.sh platform/monitoring/tests/keycloak-passkey-reconciler.test.yaml`
+  in the toolbox: `promtool check rules` SUCCESS (54 rules), `promtool test rules` SUCCESS,
+  promtool 3.14.0.
+
+- **Selftest: 259 assertions pass** (was 216), extracted from the shipped ConfigMap by the L0
+  check.
+- **`mutations.py`: 40 of 40 injected regressions caught** (was 30). The ten new ones each undo
+  one fix:
+  - sub-flows read by `alias` again;
+  - an unnameable sub-flow tolerated;
+  - the requirement PUT screened on its path only;
+  - execution writes not held to the build tree;
+  - extra body keys allowed;
+  - the bind switch ignored in `run()`;
+  - the bind switch ignored in `reconcile_flow()`;
+  - an absent switch reading as true;
+  - an invalid switch guessed at;
+  - `-r2` built beside a hand-edited bound flow.
+  "Sub-flows by `alias`" is caught less cleanly (the selftest aborts on an unreadable listing
+  rather than failing an assertion). It is still caught.
+- The renderer accepts `"true"` and `"false"` and refuses `true` (unquoted) and `"yes"`. I
+  checked this by hand-editing the committed file and running `--check`.
+- The 26.0.6 source for `recurseExecutions`, `updateExecutions` and `getFlows` was read directly
+  (lines ~225-231, 658-724 and 747-806 of the file at that tag).
+- Read-only `kubectl --context k3s-prod`: Keycloak pods run `quay.io/keycloak/keycloak:26.0.6`
+  (2 replicas). The only CronJob in `keycloak` is `keycloak-client-secret-reconciler`, so the
+  passkey reconciler is **not** live.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **Nothing has run against a real Keycloak.** The stub's row shapes now follow the 26.0.6
+  source, but they are still my reading of that source, not a captured response. In particular,
+  I have never seen a live executions listing to confirm `displayName` on a sub-flow row. If it
+  differs, the failure is fail-closed (no build), not fail-open.
+- **The candidate flow has never been tested in a browser.** That is now a precondition of the
+  go-live PR (README, "Testing the candidate flow before binding it"). Nobody has run those steps.
+  I also have not checked that the per-client `account-console` override behaves as described on
+  26.0.6.
+- **"Merging changes nothing users see" is true of login, but passes 1 and 2 still write the
+  realm.** They set the passwordless policy and enable the enrolment action. That action is
+  enabled by default in 26.0.6, but I did not read the live realm, because no admin API calls were
+  allowed. Pass 3 also creates the unbound candidate flow (realm DB writes, invisible to login).
+- **Race in pass 1, not fixed:** the policy PUT is a read-modify-write that carries `browserFlow`
+  back from its own GET. An operator rebind landing between that GET and PUT would be reverted.
+  The window is one HTTP round trip and only exists when the policy has drifted.
+- **The alert has never seen a real series.** The CronJob has never run, so
+  `kube_job_status_failed{job_name=~"keycloak-passkey-reconciler-.*"}` does not exist yet. Its
+  shape is copied from the sibling's rule, which does have live series.
+- **The digest is of today's index.** I did not pull it or run the image. Renovate's handling of a
+  `tag@digest` pin under the `kubernetes` manager is from its documentation, not from a Renovate
+  run here.
+- **CI's own result** is in the PR, not here. `approval-policy` is expected to fail until the
+  operator overrides.
+
+### Follow-ups (out of scope here, deliberately not done)
+
+- A dedicated least-privilege service-account client for the reconciler, instead of the
+  master-realm break-glass admin it shares with the client-secret reconciler.
+- A NetworkPolicy for the `keycloak` namespace.
+- Whether a passkey login should skip TOTP for platform-admins. This is the PR #72 design
+  decision, currently "no TOTP after a passkey".
+- A `KeycloakPasskeyReconcilerStale` rule (no successful run in N hours), like the sibling's.
+  Only the failure alert was in scope.
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-29
+branch: fix/renovate-config-filename
+title: Renovate has failed every run since #79 — the workflow still named renovate.json
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+**`.gitea/workflows/renovate.yaml`** — `configurationFile: renovate.json` → `renovate.json5`.
+
+PR #79 (`fix/renovate-invalid-config`) renamed the config to `renovate.json5` and did not update
+the one line in the workflow that names it. Measured 2026-10-29 from the Gitea Actions log of run
+322 (task 513, schedule, 08:15 UTC):
+
+    Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat '/workspace/Home-Network/home-network-k3s-impl/renovate.json'
+
+Runs 315–322 (2026-10-22 → 10-29, every one listed) are all `failure` on the `schedule` event,
+each failing in about one second. Renovate never started. `RENOVATE_TOKEN` **does** exist as a
+repository Actions secret (listed by name via the API; value not read), so the token preflight
+passes and this filename is the only blocker observed.
+
+**`ci/lint.sh`** — a new assertion after yamllint: every non-comment `configurationFile:` key in
+`.gitea/workflows/*.y*ml` must name a path that exists. This is valid YAML, so yamllint cannot see
+it, and the gate stayed green through 11 days of failures.
+
+**Second blocker, same PR:** the workflow did not pin a Renovate version, so
+`renovatebot/[email protected]` ran its default, Renovate **39** (`action.yml`:
+`renovate-version` `default: '39'`, read at that tag). `renovate.json5` uses `managerFilePatterns`,
+which needs >= 40.2.0. Under 39.264.0 the validator rejects the config with five errors. This was
+found and reproduced by the image-pipeline worker (PR #81). #79 had validated against `latest`. Pinned
+`renovate-version: 44.167.0`, the version the config validates clean against per that worker.
+
+## What I verified
+
+- The root cause, from the run log quoted above, and that `origin/main` has `renovate.json5` and
+  no `renovate.json` (`git ls-tree`).
+- The new guard, both ways, run standalone: on this branch it prints
+  `workflow configurationFile references resolve`, rc 0. With the line reverted to `renovate.json`
+  it prints `configurationFile 'renovate.json' does not exist in the repo`, rc 1. My first version
+  also matched its own explanatory comment in the workflow and failed. That is why the grep is
+  anchored to non-comment lines.
+- Toolbox gate: result and rc are reported in the PR, not predicted here.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **The 39.x rejection and the 44.167.0 pass were not reproduced by me.** I confirmed only the
+  action's default (`'39'`). The validation results are the PR #81 worker's.
+- **Renovate has still never completed a run.** This removes the observed blocker. Others may
+  follow it. The test is a `workflow_dispatch` with `dry_run: true` after merge, and its log is
+  the first evidence that Renovate authenticates, extracts dependencies, and honours `.json5`.
+- **The `enabledManagers: ["regex"]` vs `custom.regex` question** (#73, #77) is still open. The
+  same dry-run log answers it: look for the regex/custom manager's dependency-extraction count.
+- **No alert for "Renovate keeps failing".** The guard prevents this specific cause from recurring.
+  Nothing notices a scheduled workflow that is red every day. That gap stays open.
+- **Sensitive path.** `.gitea/**` and `ci/**` are both in `approval-policy.json`. CI will block
+  on `approval-policy` until the operator posts `/approve-override` as a review. The local gate
+  reports that stage as N/A.
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-30
+branch: fix/gitea-admit-buildkit
+title: The registry push 403 is Cilium refusing buildkitd's EGRESS at the Gateway — fixed in platform/buildkit, not in Gitea's ingress
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+**`platform/buildkit/networkpolicy.yaml`** — `buildkitd-allow-egress` gains one rule:
+`toEndpoints {io.kubernetes.pod.namespace: gitea, app.kubernetes.io/name: gitea}` on TCP 3000,
+with a comment carrying the measurement. `platform/buildkit/README.md`'s policy row says the same.
+
+**What did NOT change, deliberately:** `catalog/gitea.yaml` `inClusterClients` and
+`apps/wave-0/gitea.yaml`. The brief proposed admitting `buildkit` there. The evidence below says
+that is the wrong policy: Gitea's ingress is not what refuses the push, and adding it would only
+open the direct ClusterIP path from build code to Gitea, which nothing uses.
+
+### Why: the brief's hypothesis was half right
+
+Images run 337 failed its push with `HEAD .../blobs/sha256:5855... 403 Forbidden: Access denied`.
+The PM's hypothesis was that this was Cilium's Envoy denying the request, not Gitea. **That part
+holds.** The hypothesis also said the denial came from Gitea's *ingress* policy, which does not
+admit the `buildkit` namespace. **That part is wrong.** The denial is enforced on buildkitd's own
+*egress*. Since Cilium 1.16.8/1.17.2 (CVE-2025-30162; prod runs `cilium:v1.20.1`), the Gateway's
+L7 load balancer re-evaluates the source pod's egress policy against the identity of the backend
+it resolves to. buildkitd's egress allowed `world` :443/:80 and the `ingress` entity. That gets
+the TCP connection to Envoy, but no rule matches Gitea's backend identity, so Envoy answers
+`403 Access denied` without forwarding the request. This is the failure commit `68690e5` fixed for
+every SSO app's hop to Keycloak, and the fix has the same shape. Keycloak's ingress names no app
+namespaces either.
+
+## What I verified
+
+All measurements are read-only, against `k3s-prod`, on 2026-10-30 around 05:27–05:37 UTC.
+
+- **Gitea never saw the failed push.** Its router log for the previous 12h had 316 `/v2/` lines
+  and **0** that were `toolbox/blobs`, PUT, POST or PATCH. It also had **0** from buildkitd's pod
+  IP (`10.0.0.7`). In the same window it logged the CI job's own `HEAD .../toolbox/manifests/
+  sha-0dd57fbaf002 → 404` from the act-runner pod (`10.0.0.38`). Requests that came through the
+  Gateway reach Gitea and get logged. This one never arrived.
+- **A reproduction with no credentials.** An unauthenticated `GET https://gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/v2/`
+  (Gateway VIP `192.168.2.20`) gave:
+  - from the buildkitd pod: **`403 Forbidden`**, with no matching line in Gitea's log;
+  - from the act-runner pod's `dind` container: **`401 Unauthorized`**, which is Gitea's normal
+    registry challenge, logged by Gitea as `GET /v2/ for 10.0.0.38:0, 401`.
+
+  No token was involved, so this cannot be a package-permission problem. The bot account and the
+  `REGISTRY_PUSH_TOKEN` were not the cause, and the operator does not need to change them.
+- **Hubble names the enforcement point.** On `cilium-55jv8`, buildkitd's node:
+  `buildkit/buildkitd-859d67c8f8-x44nh (ingress) -> gateway/cilium-gateway-shared:443 http-request
+  DROPPED (HTTP/1.1 GET https://gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/v2/)`, followed by `http-response
+  FORWARDED (HTTP/1.1 403 0ms)`. In the JSON form, **`traffic_direction: EGRESS`**. Envoy wrote
+  the 403 itself in 0 ms.
+- **Gitea's ingress does not need the source namespace.** The act-runner pod's namespace
+  (`gitea-actions`) is **not** in Gitea's ingress allows. Its NetworkPolicy
+  `default-deny-ingress-allow-egress` has an `{}` egress rule, so its egress is unrestricted. Its
+  requests through the Gateway still reach Gitea. `cilium-dbg bpf policy get` on Gitea's endpoint
+  (1876 on `cilium-9rk5x`) shows all Gateway traffic admitted as `reserved:ingress 3000/TCP`
+  (391 MB, 1.19 M packets) and no row for `gitea-actions`. The source-identity check therefore
+  happens on the source's egress, not on the destination's ingress.
+- **The policy gap is visible in the BPF map.** `bpf policy get 83` (buildkitd) has these egress
+  rows and nothing else: `reserved:world` 80/443, `reserved:ingress ANY`, and kube-dns 53. There
+  is no Gitea identity.
+- The edited YAML parses (three documents, names unchanged).
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **That this rule turns the 403 into a 401/200. UNVERIFIED.** That needs the policy applied, which
+  is a Flux/operator action. My confidence is high but not proven, and it rests on two things. The
+  Hubble verdict is EGRESS. Commit `68690e5` made the identical change for Keycloak and recorded
+  "Verified live: headlamp-ns -> keycloak discovery 403 -> 200".
+- **The port restriction.** The rule names `3000`, Gitea's container port, which is the upstream
+  port Envoy connects to. The Keycloak precedent has no port. If the 403 survives, the first thing
+  to test is whether L7LB enforcement uses the frontend :443 instead. I expect it does not.
+- **Run 337's own flows.** The Hubble ring buffer had already rotated past them, and buildkitd had
+  been restarted since (the pod was 18 minutes old). The reproduction above uses the same path, the
+  same pod spec and the same policy, but it is not the original request.
+- Envoy's access logs in the `cilium-envoy` pods. Hubble's L7 flow already shows the drop, so I
+  did not read them.
+- The push itself, the Renovate digest flow, and whether the bot team's `Packages=Write` is enough
+  for a first push that creates a new package. These only become testable after this lands.
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-30
+branch: feat/pin-pihole-jackett-plex
+title: Pin pihole, jackett and plex to the digests already running, and make Renovate able to follow them
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+- **`catalog/{pihole,jackett,plex}.yaml` `source.image`** pinned to the tag whose digest was
+  already running, so the *image* does not change:
+  - `pihole/pihole` (no tag) -> `pihole/pihole:2026.10.0`
+  - `lscr.io/linuxserver/jackett:latest` -> `lscr.io/linuxserver/jackett:v0.24.2865-ls7`
+  - `plexinc/pms-docker:latest` -> `plexinc/pms-docker:1.43.4.10903-e5521bd8c`
+- **`apps/wave-0/{pihole,jackett,plex}.yaml`** re-rendered (`render.py --all catalog -o apps
+  --wave-layout --no-image-automation`, in the toolbox). The diff is exactly the three app-container
+  `image:` lines; nothing else moved.
+- **`catalog/jackett.yaml`** `update.range` comment: "stay on the Jackett 0.22.x stable line" was
+  false (0.24 runs, and `>=0.22.0` has no ceiling). Range unchanged; comment corrected.
+- **`renovate.json5`**, four packageRules plus a comment block:
+  - jackett `versioning: regex:^v(major).(minor).(patch)-ls(build)$` (Renovate's linuxserver example).
+  - jackett **`overridePackageName: ghcr.io/linuxserver/jackett`**: not in the brief, and needed.
+    Renovate's docker datasource reads at most `dockerMaxPages` (20, a global-only option) tag
+    pages from any host except a short list that includes ghcr.io (1000 pages). lscr.io is not on
+    that list. Jackett has **32,093** tags, oldest first, ~1000 per page; the running tag is #31,980.
+    Before this rule the dry run extracted jackett at `v0.24.2865-ls7` and **proposed nothing**,
+    with no warning. The override changes only the lookup; the manifests keep `lscr.io/...`.
+    Every jackett rule matches on `depName`, because the override rewrites `packageName`.
+  - jackett `schedule: after 3am and before 6am on sunday`, i.e. weekly. Measured: 13 ls builds in
+    12 days (ls7 built 2026-10-17, ls20 built 2026-10-29). Each is a `patch` and auto-merges, so on
+    the daily window it would mean a PR, a gate run and a jackett restart (Recreate) every day.
+    Weekly picks the newest tag, so it skips nothing. `catalog/jackett.yaml update.cadence` still
+    says daily. That field fed the retired Flux image-automation, and the rule's description
+    says the rule is now the cadence that takes effect.
+  - plex `versioning: regex:^(major).(minor).(patch).(build)-[0-9a-f]+$`.
+  - pihole: **no rule**, as the operator decided. CalVer parses under default docker versioning.
+    Patches and minors auto-merge, and a year rollover is a major (dashboard approval). This is
+    written in a comment.
+  - Corrected the "WHAT RENOVATE STILL CANNOT FIX" comment. It listed these three as floating;
+    they publish immutable version tags.
+  - No `allowedVersions` mirror was added. None of the three catalog ranges has a ceiling
+    (`>=2024.0.0`, `>=0.22.0`, `>=1.40.0`), so #86's mirror has nothing to encode for them.
+- **Runbooks:** `image-policy-stalled.md` no longer says jackett and pms-docker are
+  `latest`-only. In `plex-quicksync.md`, "the floating-image caveat" became "the image-version
+  caveat", because the deployment no longer runs `:latest` with an implicit `Always`, and the symptom
+  is now "after a pms-docker bump". `plex-claim.md`'s two "running `:latest`" mentions are
+  now in the past tense.
+
+## What I verified
+
+- **Live digests** (read-only `kubectl --context k3s-prod`, pod `.status.containerStatuses[].imageID`):
+  pihole-0 and pihole-1 `sha256:d34134716fc3…`, jackett `sha256:4fcf3cc22dd3…`, plex
+  `sha256:e0ab27395614…`.
+- **Each chosen tag resolves to the same digest** (anonymous registry HEAD, OCI index + manifest-list
+  Accept): `pihole/pihole:2026.10.0` = `sha256:d34134716fc3…`; `ghcr.io/linuxserver/jackett:v0.24.2865-ls7`
+  = `sha256:4fcf3cc22dd3…`; `plexinc/pms-docker:1.43.4.10903-e5521bd8c` = `sha256:e0ab27395614…`.
+  (For contrast, `pms-docker:latest` is now `sha256:6d778d41…` and `jackett:latest` `sha256:ee6ae915…`.
+  The pods would have drifted on their next restart.)
+- `renovate-config-validator` (ghcr.io/renovatebot/renovate:44.167.0) reports "Config validated
+  successfully". The only warning is the existing `docker` block migration.
+- **Renovate dry run** (`RENOVATE_PLATFORM=local`, `--dry-run=full`, 44.167.0, anonymous, includePaths
+  limited to the six files). It extracted all three from both `catalog/` (custom regex) and
+  `apps/wave-0/` (kubernetes) under the same depName, so each lands in one branch:
+  - plex `1.43.4.10903-e5521bd8c` -> `1.43.5.11079-b3b13e506` (patch, `renovate/plexinc-pms-docker-1.x`)
+  - jackett `v0.24.2865-ls7` -> `v0.24.2961-ls20` (patch, `renovate/lscr.io-linuxserver-jackett-0.x`).
+    This needs the ghcr override; without it there was no proposal.
+  - pihole `2026.10.0` -> none. That is correct, because 2026.10.0 is the newest numbered tag on Docker Hub.
+- **Automerge, schedule and dashboard flags** come from Renovate's own `applyPackageRules`
+  (datasource-merge, then update-type-merge, the same order as `flatten.js`), run on the resolved
+  config. The local platform does not run the branch worker:
+  - plex patch: automerge **true**, daily window.
+  - jackett patch: automerge **true**, schedule **sunday** window.
+  - pihole (synthetic updates) `2026.10.1` patch and `2026.11.0` minor: automerge **true**. `2027.01.0`
+    major: automerge **false**, `dependencyDashboardApproval` **true**, +needs-review/breaking.
+- **Versioning filters** (Renovate's versioning module): the jackett regex rejects `latest`, bare
+  `0.24.2961`, `amd64-…` and `development-…`. The plex regex rejects `latest`, `public`, `beta`,
+  `plexpass` and `…-amd64`/`…-arm64`. Docker versioning ranks `2026.09.0 < 2026.10.0`.
+- Touched paths (`catalog/`, `apps/`, `renovate.json5`, `runbooks/`, `decisions/`) are not in
+  `infra/gitea/approval-policy.json` `sensitive_paths`.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **That the merge is restart-free. It is not.** The pod-template `image` string changes, so Flux
+  rolls all three: plex and jackett are `Recreate`, so each has a brief outage, and pihole is a
+  2-replica StatefulSet that rolls one pod at a time. The digest is identical, so the image's
+  behaviour should not change, but the kubelet resolves the new tag name and may pull it. The
+  rollout itself was not observed.
+- The implicit `imagePullPolicy` moves from `Always` (`:latest` or no tag) to `IfNotPresent`. This is
+  intended, and was not observed live.
+- A real (non-dry) Renovate run against Gitea, and whether the Sunday window actually opens a jackett
+  PR. The schedule was only evaluated, not exercised.
+- Other `lscr.io/linuxserver/*` images (radarr, sonarr, qbittorrent) may hit the same 20-page
+  truncation once their tag counts grow. Not measured here, and not changed.
+- Plex not self-updating on a version tag was checked only against the running pod (read-only
+  `kubectl exec cat`). `/etc/cont-init.d/50-plex-update` does `exit 0` when `version` from
+  `/version.txt` equals the installed `plexmediaserver` package. Both are
+  `1.43.4.10903-e5521bd8c`. I did not boot a pod on a *new* tag to watch that short-circuit.
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-30
+branch: feat/pm-agent-registry-pull-secret
+title: PM agent — #61 rebased onto the CI image pipeline, first published digest pinned, and the remaining path to live audited
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+PR #61 (`feat/pm-agent-registry-pull-secret`, the kubelet pull credential and admission rule
+7) was rebased onto `origin/main` after #81 (CI image pipeline), #82 and #83. Conflicts in
+`docs/plans/pm-agent-issue-to-pr.md`, `platform/pm-agent/README.md` and
+`runbooks/pm-agent.md` were resolved keeping both sides: #61's "pull credential now wired"
+and #81's "CI publishes, Renovate bumps". No manual build-and-push text came back.
+
+On top of the rebase, as a second commit:
+
+- **The first published digest is pinned**: `deployment.yaml` and `PM_WORKER_IMAGE` in
+  `configmap.yaml` now name
+  `gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/agent-runner@sha256:c4eba5b3c508bf456a03391ac76f8275e7ea28a829da1450d99f6f6f25c6eb42`
+  (images run 340, tag `sha-523cd9118f95`, which is also `main`). The `# renovate-digest:`
+  markers are unchanged and still sit on the line directly above each value, so later bumps
+  stay Renovate's. Pinning by hand once removes the dependency on Renovate's first-ever run.
+- **The first run is dry, and scoped to a label**: `PM_DRY_RUN: "true"`,
+  `PM_REQUIRE_LABEL: "agent"` (the plan's follow-up 3); `config-generation` bumped to `2`.
+  Dry run is also a *correctness* requirement, not only caution: the pinned digest was
+  built before this PR added `imagePullSecrets` to the worker Job template, which is baked
+  into the image. Admission now requires that entry, so a worker Job built from the run-340
+  image would be denied. Merging this PR touches `infra/agent/**`, so `images.yaml`
+  re-publishes agent-runner; Renovate's bump to that digest is what makes workers
+  admissible. Only then flip `PM_DRY_RUN` to `false`.
+- **The token scope list was wrong; it is fixed.** Gitea 1.24.3's `routers/api/v1/api.go`
+  closes the `/user` route group with `tokenRequiresScopes(AccessTokenScopeCategoryUser)`,
+  and the dispatcher's first call is `GET /user`. The documented scopes are now
+  `read:user`, `write:repository`, `write:issue`, `read:package` everywhere (both
+  `.example`s, README, runbook row).
+- **Org-package permission is documented separately from the scope.** Per
+  `services/context/package.go` `determineAccessMode` (v1.24.3), a non-admin's access to an
+  org-owned package is the highest Packages-unit mode across its org teams, else read if the
+  org is visible to it. Home-Network is `public`, so it works today by visibility alone; the
+  registry `.example` now has the operator create a `pm-agent-pull` team (no repositories,
+  Packages = Read) so it does not depend on that.
+- **`sops` is toolbox-only**: both `.example`s now say so and give the in-place
+  `./infra/devcontainer/dev.sh run sops <file>` edit (the same procedure
+  `runbooks/vpn-remote-access.md` documents), which writes no plaintext file.
+- The runbook's Secret-key check used `-o jsonpath='{.data}'`, which prints values before the
+  pipe trims them; it is now a `go-template` that emits key names only. Two new runbook
+  rows: the `read:user` 403, and the admission denial from a pre-#61 digest.
+
+## What I verified
+
+- **Registry digest**, read-only from the registry API (bearer token from `/v2/token`,
+  `HEAD /v2/home-network/agent-runner/manifests/<tag>` with OCI and Docker accept headers):
+  `main` and `sha-523cd9118f95` both answer `200`,
+  `Docker-Content-Digest: sha256:c4eba5b3…6eb42`, `application/vnd.oci.image.manifest.v1+json`.
+  Tags list: `[main, sha-523cd9118f95]`. The admission pattern
+  `gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/home-network/agent-runner@sha256:*` matches the pinned value.
+- **#81's claim that the template's digest needs no tracking holds**: `pm-dispatch.build_job`
+  sets `containers[0].image = cfg.worker_image` (from `PM_WORKER_IMAGE`) on every Job.
+  Renovate's `renovate-digest` custom manager only matches `platform/pm-agent/*.yaml` and
+  `versions.env`, so the template is not touched by it.
+- **Node path to the registry, read-only over SSH, all three prod nodes**: `/etc/hosts` line 9
+  is `192.168.2.20 keycloak.home.keithjackson.dev gitea.home.keithjackson.dev`, nsswitch is
+  `hosts: files dns`, and `curl https://gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/v2/` from the node answers
+  `401` with `ssl_verify_result=0` and `remote_ip=192.168.2.20`. That is the host resolver,
+  which is what containerd (a node process) uses; a pod's view would not have shown it.
+- **Network path from the namespace**: dispatcher and worker both use
+  `PM_GITEA_URL=http://gitea.gitea.svc.cluster.local:3000` (ConfigMap, Job template, and
+  `pm-worker`'s hard allowlist, which refuses anything else); the git remote and the API base
+  are both derived from it. So nothing goes through the Gateway and #83's
+  `toEndpoints`-through-Gateway issue does not apply. Egress: `toEndpoints` gitea pods `:3000`
+  (both CNPs), `kube-apiserver` (dispatcher only), `world:443` (the model). Ingress on the
+  Gitea side: `gitea-allow-pm-agent-ingress` exists live and is `VALID True`.
+- **Live state (read-only, `--context k3s-prod`)**: namespace `pm-agent` exists; Deployment
+  `0/1`, pod `ImagePullBackOff` for 24d on the all-zero digest; Secret `pm-agent-credentials`
+  (2 keys) exists, `pm-agent-registry` does not yet (it ships in this PR); Flux Kustomization
+  `pm-agent` Ready at `main@dfc432c`; ClusterPolicy `pm-agent-job-shape` Ready.
+- **Gitea state (read-only API)**: 1.24.3; org Home-Network `public`; no user `pm-agent`
+  exists; teams are `Owners` and `registry-push`; collaborators are `jakman85` (owner) and
+  `renovate-bot` (write); the repository has **no labels** and **no open issues**.
+- **Placeholders, without decrypting**: the registry ciphertext decodes to 155 bytes, exactly
+  the length of the `.example`'s placeholder JSON. The credentials values decode to 57 and 39
+  bytes — neither a 40-char Gitea token nor a ~100-char Claude OAuth token. Both files'
+  `lastmodified` is the commit that created them as placeholders.
+- `kyverno test`, `PM_SELFTEST=1 pm-dispatch` and the gate: numbers in the PR description and
+  the final handoff report for this run.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **Any authenticated pull, poll or worker.** No `pm-agent` account or token exists, so the
+  scope set has not been exercised end to end. The `read:user` requirement is read from
+  Gitea's v1.24.3 source, not from a live 403.
+- **That the credentials ciphertext is a placeholder.** Lengths are strong evidence, not
+  proof; I did not decrypt.
+- **That Renovate will open the post-merge bump.** Its token was being re-minted at the time
+  of writing and it has never completed a run here. Renovate's `kubernetes` manager also
+  scans `infra/agent/*.yaml` and `platform/**`; what it does with a digest-only reference
+  with no tag (the template) is unmeasured.
+- **The dispatcher's `claude --print` call to `api.anthropic.com`** through `world:443`, and
+  whether the run-340 image's dispatcher behaves as this tree's code does (it predates #61's
+  selftest line, nothing else in `pm-dispatch.py`).
+- **The admission policy against a real Job.** Still never admitted or refused one live.
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-30
+branch: fix/renovate-auth
+title: Renovate's token needs five scopes, not three; the workflow documented the wrong list, and now probes it
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+**The fix is operator-side.** `RENOVATE_TOKEN` lacks `read:organization`, and it will next lack
+`write:issue`. The operator must re-mint it with five scopes:
+
+- `read:user`
+- `read:organization`
+- `write:repository`
+- `write:issue`
+- `read:package`
+
+The git half fixes the two things that sent the operator round this loop twice.
+
+**`.gitea/workflows/renovate.yaml`**:
+- **The header's scope list is corrected**, with the call each scope serves. The old list named
+  only `write:repository`, `read:user` and `read:package`, and the operator minted exactly that.
+  The preflight's "TO FIX" text is corrected the same way.
+- **A new step, "Preflight - the token has every scope Renovate needs".**
+  - It probes read-only GETs: `/user` for read:user, `/orgs/Home-Network` for read:organization,
+    `/repos/{repo}` for read:repository, `/repos/{repo}/labels` for read:issue, and registry
+    `/v2/token` for read:package.
+  - It reads the token's own scope list out of Gitea's 403 from `/admin/orgs` (names only), and
+    requires `write:repository` and `write:issue` in it.
+  - It says what a failure means: 401 is the value; a Gitea 403 is a scope, and the probe prints
+    Gitea's message; an "Access denied" 403 is a Cilium/Envoy denial.
+  - The token is fed to curl on stdin (`--config -`), never in argv.
+
+**`ci/lint.sh`**: a new guard rejects any non-comment `uses:` in `.gitea/workflows` that needs a
+Docker daemon: `docker://`, `renovatebot/github-action` and Docker's daemon-bound
+`docker/*-action`s. That is the class of bug fixed in #84.
+
+### Root cause, with evidence
+
+Run 350 (task 567, 06:49 UTC) **got further than 348 and 349.** Gitea's router log, filtered to
+the act-runner pod `10.0.0.38`:
+
+    06:49:31 GET /api/v1/user                                   200 OK
+    06:49:31 GET /api/v1/version                                200 OK
+    06:49:31 GET /api/v1/repos/Home-Network/home-network-k3s-impl  200 OK
+    06:49:31 GET /api/v1/orgs/Home-Network                      403 Forbidden
+
+There were no `/v2/` requests: Renovate stopped before extraction. From the job log, verbatim:
+
+    ERROR: Repository has unknown error (repository=Home-Network/home-network-k3s-impl)
+      "url": "https://gitea.home.keithjackson.dev/api/v1/orgs/Home-Network",
+      "message": "token does not have at least one of required scope(s), required=[read:organization], token scope=read:package,write:repository,read:user"
+      "x-envoy-upstream-service-time": "27", "server": "envoy"
+    INFO: Repository finished ... "result": "unknown-error", "exitCode": 8
+
+**This is not Cilium.** The body is Gitea's JSON scope message, Gitea logged the request, and
+`x-envoy-upstream-service-time` shows that Envoy forwarded it upstream.
+
+**The secret WAS updated.** Runs 348 and 349 got `GET /user 403` from `tokenRequiresScopes`. Run 350
+got `/user 200`, and its token scope list now includes `read:user`.
+
+**Why `read:organization` is needed.** Renovate 44.167.0, `lib/modules/platform/gitea/index.ts`
+`initRepo`, calls `helper.isOrg` → `GET /orgs/{owner}` and rethrows on error. Gitea 1.24.3,
+`routers/api/v1/api.go`, puts `/orgs/{org}` behind
+`tokenRequiresScopes(AccessTokenScopeCategoryOrganization)`.
+
+**Why `write:issue` is needed next.** In the same `api.go`, `/repos/{o}/{r}/issues…`, `/labels`
+and `/milestones` sit in a group with `tokenRequiresScopes(AccessTokenScopeCategoryIssue)`
+(lines 1466–1582). Renovate's gitea-helper uses `/issues`, `/issues/{n}/labels`, `/labels` and
+`/issues/{n}/comments`, for the dependency dashboard (`:dependencyDashboard` is extended) and for
+PR labels. A dry run only reads them; a scheduled run writes them.
+
+The other causes the coordinator listed are ruled out:
+- **Schedule window and dry-run.** The run never reached branch processing.
+- **Repository config.** The run never reached the clone (`"cloned": undefined`).
+- **The Summary step.** It is not involved; the failure is Renovate's own exit 8.
+
+## What I verified
+
+- I read the whole run 350 job log (204 lines), and the router lines above. Runs 348 and 349 are
+  as recorded in `decisions/2026-10-30-renovate-first-run.md`'s follow-up: `/user` got 403 from
+  `tokenRequiresScopes`.
+- **The probe step, in the pinned image.** I extracted the step body from the YAML and ran it in
+  `ghcr.io/renovatebot/renovate:44.167.0` (`curl` 8.5.0 and `jq` are present) with a deliberately
+  **bogus** token. Every probe reported 401 with the "token VALUE" diagnosis, the scope-list read
+  fell back to a warning, and the step exited 1.
+- **The scope-list parser.** Against run 350's exact message format it reports `write:issue`
+  MISSING. Against a five-scope list it reports both OK. Against `all` it reports both OK.
+- **The lint guard.** It flags `renovatebot/github-action` in the pre-#84 `renovate.yaml`
+  (dfc432c, line 152). It reports nothing on the current workflows, and it ignores commented
+  lines. `bash -n ci/lint.sh` passes.
+- **Account facts, read-only.** `renovate-bot` is a collaborator with `write`, and the org is
+  public.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **The probe with a real token. UNVERIFIED.** I never had the token. In particular, I have not
+  observed that `GET /api/v1/admin/orgs` gives renovate-bot's token a 403 with a `token scope=`
+  list. The source says the scope check runs before `reqSiteAdmin`. If the message format
+  differs, the step warns and does not fail.
+- **That five scopes are enough for a full non-dry run.** They cover every helper endpoint Renovate
+  44.167.0 calls, mapped to Gitea 1.24.3's route categories by reading source. Branch pushes go
+  over git-over-HTTPS with the token; I believe that needs write:repository, but I have not
+  observed it.
+- **Registry reads as renovate-bot.** `read:package` on a public org is expected to work. The new
+  probe is the first real test of it.
+- **Sensitive paths.** `.gitea/**` and `ci/**` are both sensitive. CI's `approval-policy` will block
+  until the operator posts `/approve-override` as a PR review.
@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+---
+date: 2026-10-30
+branch: fix/renovate-first-run
+title: Renovate never started because its action needs a Docker daemon jobs here do not get; it now runs as the job container
+---
+
+## What changed
+
+**`.gitea/workflows/renovate.yaml`**: the job no longer uses `renovatebot/github-action`. The
+pinned Renovate image (`ghcr.io/renovatebot/renovate:44.167.0`, the same version the action was
+pinned to) is now the job's `container:`. A `run:` step calls `renovate-entrypoint.sh renovate`
+inside it. `actions/checkout` is gone, because Renovate clones the repo itself.
+`GITHUB_COM_TOKEN` is wired from a new **optional** secret, `RENOVATE_GITHUB_COM_TOKEN`. The step
+unsets it, and `RENOVATE_DRY_RUN`, when they evaluate to the empty string. The preflight also
+prints `renovate --version`, which proves the step ran inside the pinned image.
+
+**`renovate.json5`**: one comment now names `container.image` as the version pin, in place of
+`renovate-version`. The config itself is unchanged.
+
+### Why: the root cause
+
+Every run of the action died before Renovate started. That includes the operator's dispatch,
+run 343 (task 555, 2026-10-30 06:14 UTC), and the 11 scheduled runs before it (312–322). From
+run 343's log:
+
+    RENOVATE_TOKEN is present (value not printed).
+    [command]/usr/bin/docker run --env LOG_LEVEL ... --env RENOVATE_TOKEN=*** --env RENOVATE_CONFIG_FILE=/github-action/renovate.json5 ...
+    failed to connect to the docker API at unix:///var/run/docker.sock; check if the path is correct and if the daemon is running: dial unix /var/run/docker.sock: connect: no such file or directory
+    Error: The process '/usr/bin/docker' failed with exit code 1
+
+The action is only a wrapper around `docker run`. On this runner a job deliberately gets no
+Docker daemon (`decisions/2026-10-29-image-pipeline.md`): act_runner maps `docker_host` to `-` when
+`DOCKER_HOST` is `tcp://`, and the DinD daemon is privileged. So this was a
+platform-compatibility failure. The run never reached authentication, token scope, config or the
+network. **The re-minted token is not implicated, and nothing in this log can say whether its
+scopes are right.**
+
+A job `container:` needs no daemon. act creates it through the runner's DinD the same way it
+creates the default `ubuntu-latest` image, then `exec`s each step inside it. I checked this
+against gitea/act v0.261.2:
+
+- The job container's entrypoint is `/bin/sleep` (`run_context.go`). The Renovate image has
+  `/usr/bin/sleep`.
+- The step command files are written `0o666` (`step.go`), so the image's uid 12021 can write
+  `$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY`.
+- `HOME` comes from the image env.
+
+## What I verified
+
+- **The root cause.** I read all of run 343's job log (162 lines, job 0; job 1 is 404). It has one
+  error, quoted above, and no Renovate output at all. Runs 312–322 are all `failure` from the
+  `schedule` event.
+- **The config validates against the pinned tag.** `podman run ... ghcr.io/renovatebot/renovate:44.167.0
+  renovate-config-validator /tmp/renovate.json5` printed `Config validated successfully`. It also
+  printed the known migration diff for the top-level `docker` block.
+- **A dry run with the fix extracts and looks up dependencies.** This was a local reproduction. I
+  made a clean snapshot of this branch's tracked files. I ran it in a podman container of the pinned
+  image with entrypoint `/bin/sleep`, as the image's own uid 12021 with `HOME=/home/ubuntu`.
+  Inside it I `exec`ed the workflow step's `run:` body, extracted verbatim from the YAML, with:
+  - `RENOVATE_PLATFORM=local`, `RENOVATE_DRY_RUN=full` and `GITHUB_COM_TOKEN=` (empty, to
+    exercise the unset);
+  - a docker host rule for `gitea.home.keithjackson.dev` using the `gitea-admin` credential from
+    `~/.git-credentials`, passed through env and never printed.
+
+  The run exited 0 and logged `Dependency extraction complete`:
+  - flux 15 deps / 13 files
+  - github-actions 24 / 4
+  - kubernetes 131 / 67
+  - kustomize 2 / 2
+  - regex (both custom managers) 7 / 6
+  - **total 179 deps / 92 files**
+
+  It found **42 updates**: 29 kubernetes, 6 flux, 2 kustomize, 1 github-actions and 4 regex
+  `digest`. 7 of them are `major`.
+- **The `# renovate-digest:` lookups against the Gitea registry succeed.** All three
+  `/v2/token?scope=repository:home-network/<img>:pull` requests succeeded, and so did
+  `HEAD /v2/home-network/<img>/manifests/main`. They proposed `digest` updates for
+  `conformance/versions.env`, `infra/agent/versions.env`, `platform/pm-agent/configmap.yaml` and
+  `platform/pm-agent/deployment.yaml`, all of which carry the zero placeholder digest today. The
+  `kubernetes` manager's copies of those images report `disabled`, which is the intended effect of
+  the packageRule.
+- **The new pin is still maintained by Renovate.** The github-actions manager extracts
+  `ghcr.io/renovatebot/renovate:44.167.0` from `renovate.yaml` as depType `container`, and proposes
+  44.198.0.
+- **The `regex` vs `custom.regex` question from #73/#77 is closed.** Both custom managers produced
+  dependencies.
+- **Missing GitHub token.** The local run logged `GitHub token is required for some dependencies`.
+  That accounts for 17 deps skipped with `github-token-required`, which is why
+  `RENOVATE_GITHUB_COM_TOKEN` is offered as an optional secret.
+
+## What I did NOT verify
+
+- **The workflow on the real runner. UNVERIFIED.** My reproduction ran with podman, not
+  act_runner + DinD, and used `--platform=local`. The act behaviour (sleep entrypoint, `exec` as the
+  image user, 0666 command files) comes from reading the gitea/act v0.261.2 source, not from a run.
+  The first real evidence will be a `workflow_dispatch` after merge.
+- **The Gitea platform path and `RENOVATE_TOKEN`'s scopes. UNVERIFIED.** I have no access token, only
+  the `gitea-admin` password, which Renovate's Gitea platform cannot use. So these were not
+  exercised: platform init (`GET /user`, which needs `read:user`), repo clone, and the registry
+  lookups using the **token** with `read:package` rather than a password.
+- **Behaviour inside the schedule window.** A dispatch outside 03:00–06:00 America/New_York
+  (07:00–10:00 UTC during EDT) will extract and look up, but will log "not within schedule"
+  instead of `DRY-RUN: Would create ...` lines. I did not change this.
+- **Renovate as uid 12021 doing artifact updates** (for example helm lockfiles) on a real,
+  non-dry run. `--dry-run=full` does not run the tools.
+- **The self-bump.** Renovate will propose `ghcr.io/renovatebot/renovate` 44.167.0 → 44.198.0 as a
+  minor, which the default rule auto-merges. `.gitea/**` is a sensitive path, so it will in fact
+  wait for an administrator override. Nothing re-runs `renovate-config-validator` on that bump,
+  and no gate check runs the validator.
+- **No alert for "Renovate red every day".** That gap is still open. This failure ran for 12 days
+  without anyone noticing.
+- **Sensitive path.** `.gitea/**` is in `infra/gitea/approval-policy.json`, so CI's
+  `approval-policy` stage will block until the operator posts `/approve-override` as a PR review.