fix(renovate): pin renovate-version — the action's default (39) rejects renovate.json5

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>

.gitea/workflows/renovate.yaml

@@ -152,8 +152,17 @@ jobs:
           # Pinned, and Renovate maintains this pin itself: renovate.json's enabledManagers
           # includes `github-actions`, and `helpers:pinGitHubActionDigests` is in its `extends`.
           # This is the one dependency in the repo whose updater is its own updater.
-          configurationFile: renovate.json
+          # MUST match the file's real name. #79 renamed it to renovate.json5 and left this line
+          # saying `renovate.json`; every scheduled run from 2026-10-18 then died in ~1s with
+          # ENOENT before Renovate started, and nothing in the gate noticed. ci/lint.sh now
+          # asserts that every `configurationFile:` here names a file that exists.
+          configurationFile: renovate.json5
           token: ${{ secrets.RENOVATE_TOKEN }}
+          # PINNED 2026-10-29. Unset, this action version runs Renovate `39` (action.yml
+          # `renovate-version` default at v41.0.9), i.e. 39.264.0, and renovate.json5 uses
+          # `managerFilePatterns` (>= 40.2.0): under 39.x validation fails with five errors and
+          # the run stops at CONFIG_VALIDATION. #79 validated against `latest`, not this.
+          renovate-version: 44.167.0
         env:
           # 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

apps/wave-0/pihole.yaml

@@ -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};address=/plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${PLEX_L4_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:

catalog/pihole.yaml

@@ -143,8 +143,39 @@ env:
   # 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}/${PIHOLE_DNS_VIP};address=/plex-vip.${BASE_DOMAIN}/${PLEX_L4_VIP}"
+    value: "local-ttl=60;address=/${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.

ci/lint.sh

@@ -27,3 +27,18 @@ 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"

decisions/2026-10-18-pihole-local-ttl.md

@@ -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.

decisions/2026-10-18-renovate-invalid-config.md

@@ -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).

decisions/2026-10-29-renovate-config-filename.md

@@ -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.

renovate.json

@@ -1,99 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
-  "_comment": "Renovate config — Phase 4 automated updates (ADR-0009, R-UPD-01/02). AS OF 2026-10-17 RENOVATE OWNS BOTH HALVES: Helm chart/dependency bumps AND per-service container image tags. It opens PRs for everything; allowed low-risk classes auto-merge on green CI. The ADR-0009 split that gave image tags to Flux image-automation is formally closed — see .gitea/workflows/renovate.yaml for the three measured reasons (it pushes commits rather than opening PRs, so it bypasses the CLAUDE.md §1 gate; `main` is protected with user_can_push:false and the flux-system GitRepository has no secretRef, so it cannot write anyway; and enabling it would need an in-cluster git WRITE credential for the repo that defines the cluster). image-automation has been commented out at platform/kustomization.yaml:52 since it was authored and the cluster holds zero ImagePolicy/ImageRepository/ImageUpdateAutomation objects, so nothing is being torn down. CONSEQUENCE: the `docker` and `kubernetes` managers, previously disabled ONLY to avoid fighting that controller, are now ENABLED — without them every plain `image: repo/name:tag` line in this repo was maintained by nothing at all, which is how the oauth2-proxy auth sidecars reached 7 minors behind the oauth2-proxy running in the same cluster. RUNNER: .gitea/workflows/renovate.yaml (scheduled daily); platform/endpoint are set there, not here.",
-  "extends": [
-    "config:recommended",
-    ":dependencyDashboard",
-    ":semanticCommits",
-    "helpers:pinGitHubActionDigests"
-  ],
-  "timezone": "America/New_York",
-  "schedule": ["after 3am and before 6am"],
-  "prConcurrentLimit": 5,
-  "prHourlyLimit": 2,
-  "commitMessagePrefix": "chore(deps):",
-  "labels": ["dependencies", "automated-update"],
-  "ignoreUnstable": true,
-  "respectLatest": true,
-  "enabledManagers": ["flux", "kustomize", "helmv3", "kubernetes", "regex", "github-actions"],
-  "flux": {
-    "managerFilePatterns": ["/(^|/)platform/.+\\.ya?ml$/", "/(^|/)apps/.+\\.ya?ml$/"]
-  },
-  "kustomize": {
-    "managerFilePatterns": ["/(^|/)kustomization\\.ya?ml$/"]
-  },
-  "_kubernetes_comment": "ADDED 2026-10-17. The `kubernetes` manager reads plain `image:` fields out of Kubernetes manifests, and it is NOT auto-detected — it only looks at files matched here, which is why this block is as broad as it is. Scope covers every place this repo writes a container image: platform components, the rendered app waves, the ServiceDefinition catalog that generates them, the runbooks web server and the pm-agent job template. `catalog/` matters as much as `apps/`: apps/wave-*/*.yaml are GENERATED by catalog/render.py, so a bump applied only to the rendered output is reverted by the next render and would also fail ci/render-golden.sh. Renovate will raise BOTH, and both must land together.",
-  "kubernetes": {
-    "managerFilePatterns": [
-      "/(^|/)platform/.+\\.ya?ml$/",
-      "/(^|/)platform-config/.+\\.ya?ml$/",
-      "/(^|/)apps/.+\\.ya?ml$/",
-      "/(^|/)catalog/.+\\.ya?ml$/",
-      "/(^|/)runbooks/serving/.+\\.ya?ml$/",
-      "/(^|/)infra/agent/.+\\.ya?ml$/"
-    ]
-  },
-  "customManagers": [
-    {
-      "customType": "regex",
-      "description": "Inline `# renovate: datasource=... depName=...` markers on pinned URLs / version literals (e.g. platform/kubevirt/kustomization.yaml release URLs, ci/versions.env, infra/devcontainer/versions.env).",
-      "managerFilePatterns": [
-        "/(^|/)kustomization\\.ya?ml$/",
-        "/(^|/)versions\\.env$/"
-      ],
-      "matchStrings": [
-        "#\\s*renovate:\\s*datasource=(?<datasource>\\S+)\\s+depName=(?<depName>\\S+)(?:\\s+versioning=(?<versioning>\\S+))?\\s*\\n.*?(?<currentValue>v?[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+)"
-      ],
-      "versioningTemplate": "{{#if versioning}}{{{versioning}}}{{else}}semver{{/if}}"
-    }
-  ],
-  "packageRules": [
-    {
-      "description": "Auto-merge the allowed low-risk classes on green CI — no human authoring (R-UPD-02). The Gitea merge gate (make -C ci gate) is the required check.",
-      "matchUpdateTypes": ["minor", "patch", "digest"],
-      "automerge": true,
-      "automergeType": "pr",
-      "platformAutomerge": true
-    },
-    {
-      "description": "MAJOR / potentially-breaking bumps require human review (docs/11 safety rail). Never auto-merged.",
-      "matchUpdateTypes": ["major"],
-      "automerge": false,
-      "addLabels": ["needs-review", "breaking"]
-    },
-    {
-      "description": "Keep the KubeVirt + CDI operator pair on a compatible track — grouped so they bump together (platform/kubevirt/kustomization.yaml).",
-      "matchDepNames": ["kubevirt/kubevirt", "kubevirt/containerized-data-importer"],
-      "groupName": "kubevirt-cdi"
-    },
-    {
-      "description": "Pinned tool versions (ci/versions.env, infra/devcontainer/versions.env) are a deliberate change surface — label but do not auto-merge; a version bump there changes CI reproducibility.",
-      "matchFileNames": ["ci/versions.env", "infra/devcontainer/versions.env"],
-      "automerge": false,
-      "addLabels": ["ci-tooling"]
-    },
-    {
-      "description": "ADDED 2026-10-17. NEVER AUTO-MERGE THE BLAST-RADIUS COMPONENTS, not even a patch. The default rule above auto-merges minor/patch/digest on a green gate, which is right for an app image: a bad Sonarr bump inconveniences one pod. It is wrong for these five, because the gate is a STATIC check — it renders manifests and lints them, it does not boot a node, drain a volume or form an etcd quorum (vars.CLUSTER_AVAILABLE is unset, so L2/L3 conformance does not run in CI at all). So for anything whose failure mode is the CLUSTER rather than a service, a green gate is not evidence and a human must read the changelog. kured is here because it reboots control-plane nodes; longhorn because a storage-engine bump migrates live volume data; cilium because it is the CNI and a bad bump is a total partition (and its version is DUAL-PINNED in infra/ansible/roles/cilium/defaults/main.yml, which Renovate does not see, so the two would silently desync); cloudnative-pg because it drives Postgres switchovers; kube-prometheus-stack because ci/versions.env asserts an exact promtool/Prometheus lockstep and a chart bump that moves Prometheus fails the gate until that file moves with it.",
-      "matchPackageNames": [
-        "kured",
-        "longhorn",
-        "cilium",
-        "cloudnative-pg",
-        "kube-prometheus-stack"
-      ],
-      "automerge": false,
-      "addLabels": ["needs-review", "blast-radius"]
-    }
-  ],
-  "_unmanageable_comment": "WHAT RENOVATE STILL CANNOT FIX, so nobody mistakes a working bot for full coverage. A FLOATING tag has no version to compare, so Renovate skips it silently — it does not pin it and does not warn. As of 2026-10-17 that is: plexinc/pms-docker:latest, lscr.io/linuxserver/jackett:latest, pihole/pihole (NO TAG AT ALL), quay.io/keycloak/keycloak (no tag), nextcloud:31-apache and docker:27-dind. Those must be pinned BY HAND to a concrete version before any automation can maintain them, and until then they drift on every pull with nothing recording what is running. Separately, the HelmRelease minor-locking ranges (9 of 12, e.g. `>=88.0.0 <89.0.0` on kube-prometheus-stack) cap Renovate at patches inside a line it has been told not to leave; raising those ceilings is deliberate per-component work and is NOT part of enabling the bot. Both lists are in decisions/2026-10-17-automated-upgrades.md.",
-  "ignorePaths": [
-    "**/*.example",
-    "**/*.sops.yaml",
-    "conformance/**",
-    "platform/image-automation/per-service/**",
-    "platform/kyverno/tests/**"
-  ],
-  "_ignorePaths_comment": "platform/kyverno/tests/** ADDED 2026-10-17: those Kyverno policy fixtures pin `alpine:latest` and a `conformance-runner:latest`, which are test inputs whose whole point is to be a fixed shape, not software to keep current. `conformance/**` was already ignored for the same reason; this closes the matching hole that enabling the `kubernetes` manager would otherwise have opened.",
-  "_docker_comment": "The `docker` manager (Dockerfiles, docker-compose) and the `kubernetes` manager above were BOTH previously `enabled: false`, solely so Renovate would not fight Flux image-automation over a running tag. That controller was never enabled and never will be here (see _comment), so the only thing those two flags were achieving was leaving every plain `image:` tag in the repo unmanaged. `docker` is left out of enabledManagers because this repo contains no Dockerfile that ships to the cluster; `kubernetes` is now ON and is the one that matters.",
-  "docker": { "enabled": true }
-}

renovate.json5

@@ -0,0 +1,187 @@
+// =================================================================================================
+// Renovate configuration — JSON5, so the rationale can live NEXT TO what it explains.
+// =================================================================================================
+// THIS FILE WAS `renovate.json` AND IT WAS INVALID. It carried five `_comment` / `_*_comment`
+// pseudo-comment keys, because JSON has no comments. Renovate REJECTS unknown top-level options, so
+// the whole config failed validation and the first manual run of the workflow ERRORED OUT. Proven
+// with the official validator (`ghcr.io/renovatebot/renovate renovate-config-validator`):
+//
+//   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
+//
+// Renovate discovers `renovate.json5` natively (no RENOVATE_CONFIG_FILE needed, and nothing in
+// .gitea/ or ci/ pins the old filename — only prose in comments), and JSON5 permits real `//`
+// comments. So the fix keeps every word of the original rationale, positioned, instead of
+// flattening it into a `description` string.
+//
+// VALIDATE BEFORE COMMITTING — it is one command and it is the only thing that catches this class:
+//   podman run --rm -v "$PWD/renovate.json5:/tmp/renovate.json5:ro,Z" \
+//     ghcr.io/renovatebot/renovate renovate-config-validator /tmp/renovate.json5
+//
+// NOTE on what was NOT wrong: `enabledManagers` containing bare `regex` was suspected of needing to
+// be `custom.regex`. The validator accepts `regex`, so that suspicion was unfounded and nothing
+// here changes it.
+{  "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
+  // Renovate config — Phase 4 automated updates (ADR-0009, R-UPD-01/02). AS OF 2026-10-17
+  // RENOVATE OWNS BOTH HALVES: Helm chart/dependency bumps AND per-service container image tags.
+  // It opens PRs for everything; allowed low-risk classes auto-merge on green CI. The ADR-0009
+  // split that gave image tags to Flux image-automation is formally closed — see
+  // .gitea/workflows/renovate.yaml for the three measured reasons (it pushes commits rather than
+  // opening PRs, so it bypasses the CLAUDE.md §1 gate; `main` is protected with
+  // user_can_push:false and the flux-system GitRepository has no secretRef, so it cannot write
+  // anyway; and enabling it would need an in-cluster git WRITE credential for the repo that
+  // defines the cluster). image-automation has been commented out at
+  // platform/kustomization.yaml:52 since it was authored and the cluster holds zero
+  // ImagePolicy/ImageRepository/ImageUpdateAutomation objects, so nothing is being torn down.
+  // CONSEQUENCE: the `docker` and `kubernetes` managers, previously disabled ONLY to avoid
+  // fighting that controller, are now ENABLED — without them every plain `image: repo/name:tag`
+  // line in this repo was maintained by nothing at all, which is how the oauth2-proxy auth
+  // sidecars reached 7 minors behind the oauth2-proxy running in the same cluster. RUNNER:
+  // .gitea/workflows/renovate.yaml (scheduled daily); platform/endpoint are set there, not here.
+  "extends": ["config:recommended", ":dependencyDashboard", ":semanticCommits", "helpers:pinGitHubActionDigests"],
+  "timezone": "America/New_York",
+  "schedule": ["after 3am and before 6am"],
+  "prConcurrentLimit": 5,
+  "prHourlyLimit": 2,
+  "commitMessagePrefix": "chore(deps):",
+  "labels": ["dependencies", "automated-update"],
+  "ignoreUnstable": true,
+  "respectLatest": true,
+  "enabledManagers": ["flux", "kustomize", "helmv3", "kubernetes", "regex", "github-actions"],
+  "flux": {
+    "managerFilePatterns": [
+      "/(^|/)platform/.+\\.ya?ml$/",
+      "/(^|/)apps/.+\\.ya?ml$/"
+    ]
+  },
+  "kustomize": {
+    "managerFilePatterns": [
+      "/(^|/)kustomization\\.ya?ml$/"
+    ]
+  },
+  // ADDED 2026-10-17. The `kubernetes` manager reads plain `image:` fields out of Kubernetes
+  // manifests, and it is NOT auto-detected — it only looks at files matched here, which is why
+  // this block is as broad as it is. Scope covers every place this repo writes a container image:
+  // platform components, the rendered app waves, the ServiceDefinition catalog that generates
+  // them, the runbooks web server and the pm-agent job template. `catalog/` matters as much as
+  // `apps/`: apps/wave-*/*.yaml are GENERATED by catalog/render.py, so a bump applied only to the
+  // rendered output is reverted by the next render and would also fail ci/render-golden.sh.
+  // Renovate will raise BOTH, and both must land together.
+  "kubernetes": {
+    "managerFilePatterns": [
+      "/(^|/)platform/.+\\.ya?ml$/",
+      "/(^|/)platform-config/.+\\.ya?ml$/",
+      "/(^|/)apps/.+\\.ya?ml$/",
+      "/(^|/)catalog/.+\\.ya?ml$/",
+      "/(^|/)runbooks/serving/.+\\.ya?ml$/",
+      "/(^|/)infra/agent/.+\\.ya?ml$/"
+    ]
+  },
+  "customManagers": [
+    {
+      "customType": "regex",
+      "description": "Inline `# renovate: datasource=... depName=...` markers on pinned URLs / version literals (e.g. platform/kubevirt/kustomization.yaml release URLs, ci/versions.env, infra/devcontainer/versions.env).",
+      "managerFilePatterns": [
+        "/(^|/)kustomization\\.ya?ml$/",
+        "/(^|/)versions\\.env$/"
+      ],
+      "matchStrings": [
+        "#\\s*renovate:\\s*datasource=(?<datasource>\\S+)\\s+depName=(?<depName>\\S+)(?:\\s+versioning=(?<versioning>\\S+))?\\s*\\n.*?(?<currentValue>v?[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+\\.[0-9]+)"
+      ],
+      "versioningTemplate": "{{#if versioning}}{{{versioning}}}{{else}}semver{{/if}}"
+    }
+  ],
+  "packageRules": [
+    {
+      "description": "Auto-merge the allowed low-risk classes on green CI \u2014 no human authoring (R-UPD-02). The Gitea merge gate (make -C ci gate) is the required check.",
+      "matchUpdateTypes": [
+        "minor",
+        "patch",
+        "digest"
+      ],
+      "automerge": true,
+      "automergeType": "pr",
+      "platformAutomerge": true
+    },
+    {
+      "description": "MAJOR / potentially-breaking bumps require human review (docs/11 safety rail). Never auto-merged.",
+      "matchUpdateTypes": [
+        "major"
+      ],
+      "automerge": false,
+      "addLabels": [
+        "needs-review",
+        "breaking"
+      ]
+    },
+    {
+      "description": "Keep the KubeVirt + CDI operator pair on a compatible track \u2014 grouped so they bump together (platform/kubevirt/kustomization.yaml).",
+      "matchDepNames": [
+        "kubevirt/kubevirt",
+        "kubevirt/containerized-data-importer"
+      ],
+      "groupName": "kubevirt-cdi"
+    },
+    {
+      "description": "Pinned tool versions (ci/versions.env, infra/devcontainer/versions.env) are a deliberate change surface \u2014 label but do not auto-merge; a version bump there changes CI reproducibility.",
+      "matchFileNames": [
+        "ci/versions.env",
+        "infra/devcontainer/versions.env"
+      ],
+      "automerge": false,
+      "addLabels": [
+        "ci-tooling"
+      ]
+    },
+    {
+      "description": "ADDED 2026-10-17. NEVER AUTO-MERGE THE BLAST-RADIUS COMPONENTS, not even a patch. The default rule above auto-merges minor/patch/digest on a green gate, which is right for an app image: a bad Sonarr bump inconveniences one pod. It is wrong for these five, because the gate is a STATIC check \u2014 it renders manifests and lints them, it does not boot a node, drain a volume or form an etcd quorum (vars.CLUSTER_AVAILABLE is unset, so L2/L3 conformance does not run in CI at all). So for anything whose failure mode is the CLUSTER rather than a service, a green gate is not evidence and a human must read the changelog. kured is here because it reboots control-plane nodes; longhorn because a storage-engine bump migrates live volume data; cilium because it is the CNI and a bad bump is a total partition (and its version is DUAL-PINNED in infra/ansible/roles/cilium/defaults/main.yml, which Renovate does not see, so the two would silently desync); cloudnative-pg because it drives Postgres switchovers; kube-prometheus-stack because ci/versions.env asserts an exact promtool/Prometheus lockstep and a chart bump that moves Prometheus fails the gate until that file moves with it.",
+      "matchPackageNames": [
+        "kured",
+        "longhorn",
+        "cilium",
+        "cloudnative-pg",
+        "kube-prometheus-stack"
+      ],
+      "automerge": false,
+      "addLabels": [
+        "needs-review",
+        "blast-radius"
+      ]
+    }
+  ],
+  // WHAT RENOVATE STILL CANNOT FIX, so nobody mistakes a working bot for full coverage. A
+  // FLOATING tag has no version to compare, so Renovate skips it silently — it does not pin it
+  // and does not warn. As of 2026-10-17 that is: plexinc/pms-docker:latest,
+  // lscr.io/linuxserver/jackett:latest, pihole/pihole (NO TAG AT ALL), quay.io/keycloak/keycloak
+  // (no tag), nextcloud:31-apache and docker:27-dind. Those must be pinned BY HAND to a concrete
+  // version before any automation can maintain them, and until then they drift on every pull with
+  // nothing recording what is running. Separately, the HelmRelease minor-locking ranges (9 of 12,
+  // e.g. `>=88.0.0 <89.0.0` on kube-prometheus-stack) cap Renovate at patches inside a line it
+  // has been told not to leave; raising those ceilings is deliberate per-component work and is
+  // NOT part of enabling the bot. Both lists are in decisions/2026-10-17-automated-upgrades.md.
+  // platform/kyverno/tests/** ADDED 2026-10-17: those Kyverno policy fixtures pin `alpine:latest`
+  // and a `conformance-runner:latest`, which are test inputs whose whole point is to be a fixed
+  // shape, not software to keep current. `conformance/**` was already ignored for the same
+  // reason; this closes the matching hole that enabling the `kubernetes` manager would otherwise
+  // have opened.
+  "ignorePaths": [
+    "**/*.example",
+    "**/*.sops.yaml",
+    "conformance/**",
+    "platform/image-automation/per-service/**",
+    "platform/kyverno/tests/**"
+  ],
+  // The `docker` manager (Dockerfiles, docker-compose) and the `kubernetes` manager above were
+  // BOTH previously `enabled: false`, solely so Renovate would not fight Flux image-automation
+  // over a running tag. That controller was never enabled and never will be here (see _comment),
+  // so the only thing those two flags were achieving was leaving every plain `image:` tag in the
+  // repo unmanaged. `docker` is left out of enabledManagers because this repo contains no
+  // Dockerfile that ships to the cluster; `kubernetes` is now ON and is the one that matters.
+  "docker": {
+    "enabled": true
+  }
+}