home-network-k3s-impl/runbooks/image-policy-stalled.md

# image-policy-stalled — An ImagePolicy or ImageRepository cannot resolve its tag

**Alert:** `ImagePolicyStalled` (warning, 1h)
**File:** `platform/monitoring/alerts.yaml`, group `platform-health.automated-updates`
**Expression:** `max by (namespace, name, kind) (gotk_reconcile_condition{kind=~"ImagePolicy|ImageRepository", type="Ready", status="False"}) == 1`

## What this means here

An `ImageRepository` cannot scan a registry, or an `ImagePolicy` cannot pick a tag out of what was
scanned. The effect is narrower than `/runbooks/image-automation`: automation itself is healthy, but
**this one service stops receiving updates** (R-UPD-01), while everything else continues. It is
therefore easy to miss, which is what the 1h `for` and the per-object labels are for.

The same framing applies as for image-automation: **this feature is authored and deliberately disabled
on this cluster** and has been since 2026-08-24 (no Gitea write credential, and the
`image-reflector-controller` / `image-automation-controller` components are not installed — the line is
still commented out in `platform/kustomization.yaml`). Rendered apps emit `ImageRepository` and
`ImagePolicy` CRs anyway, so the objects can exist with no controller to reconcile them;
`catalog/render.py --no-image-automation` is the documented workaround. **There is no incident history
for this alert** — the section below is mechanism, honestly labelled.

One live constraint worth knowing while reading registry errors: the images in this platform come from
`docker.io`, `ghcr.io`, `lscr.io`, `quay.io`, `registry.k8s.io` and `registry.gitlab.com`. Docker
Hub's anonymous rate limit is the most likely real-world cause of a scan failure once automation is
switched on.
**This alert is currently INERT.** `count(gotk_reconcile_condition)` returned **0 series** on prod on
2026-09-13 — there is no Flux-controller scrape job among Prometheus's 19 jobs, so every `gotk_*` rule
evaluates against nothing. Read the CRs directly with the commands below, and see
`/runbooks/targets-down` for the full list of inert rule groups.
## Running the commands in this runbook

`kubectl` does not work on the operator workstation. The toolchain lives only in the pinned dev
container, and the host's `k3s-oidc` context hangs on a browser prompt once its token expires —
that hang is not the cluster being down. Every command below runs as:

    infra/devcontainer/dev.sh run bash -c 'kubectl --context k3s-prod get nodes'

Always pass `--context k3s-prod` explicitly. `dev.sh` merges both clusters into one kubeconfig and
defaults its current-context to k3s-**dev**, so a command without `--context` silently answers
about the wrong cluster. (`CLUSTER=prod infra/devcontainer/dev.sh run kubectl ...` is equivalent.)
Do not run two `dev.sh` invocations at once — they share one container and interfere.

USE FULLY-QUALIFIED RESOURCE NAMES, ALWAYS. Three CRDs on this cluster register the kind `Backup`:
`longhorn.io/v1beta2`, `postgresql.cnpg.io/v1` and `velero.io/v1`. The bare short name resolves to
Longhorn's, which holds zero objects — so `kubectl get backup -A` prints **"No resources found"** on
a cluster holding 6 Velero backups and 27 CNPG backups. Verified on prod 2026-09-13. Reading that as
"the backups are gone" and acting on it turns a false negative into real data loss. Write
`backups.velero.io`, `backups.postgresql.cnpg.io`, `clusters.postgresql.cnpg.io`,
`settings.longhorn.io`, `volumes.longhorn.io`, `nodes.longhorn.io`.

Mutating kubectl (`apply`, `patch`, `annotate`, `rollout`) and `flux reconcile` are blocked for
agents here: every durable change goes through git (`git push origin main` **is** the deploy).
Where this runbook gives a mutating command it is for an operator, and it says so.

## First commands

Which object, and the message (the message is nearly always the whole answer):

```
infra/devcontainer/dev.sh run bash -c \
  'kubectl --context k3s-prod get imagerepositories.image.toolkit.fluxcd.io -A \
     -o custom-columns=NS:.metadata.namespace,NAME:.metadata.name,IMAGE:.spec.image,READY:.status.conditions[?\(@.type==\"Ready\"\)].status,MSG:.status.conditions[?\(@.type==\"Ready\"\)].message,TAGS:.status.lastScanResult.tagCount; echo; \
   kubectl --context k3s-prod get imagepolicies.image.toolkit.fluxcd.io -A \
     -o custom-columns=NS:.metadata.namespace,NAME:.metadata.name,READY:.status.conditions[?\(@.type==\"Ready\"\)].status,LATEST:.status.latestImage,MSG:.status.conditions[?\(@.type==\"Ready\"\)].message'
```

Are the controllers installed at all?

```
infra/devcontainer/dev.sh run bash -c \
  'kubectl --context k3s-prod -n flux-system get deploy | grep -i image || echo "image controllers NOT installed (expected on this cluster)"'
```

The reflector's log:

```
infra/devcontainer/dev.sh run bash -c \
  'kubectl --context k3s-prod -n flux-system logs deploy/image-reflector-controller --tail=80 2>&1 | tail -30'
```

Can the cluster reach the registry at all? (Default-deny is the baseline; a new namespace may simply
not be allowed out.)

```
infra/devcontainer/dev.sh run bash -c \
  'kubectl --context k3s-prod get pods -A --field-selector status.phase!=Running | head; echo; \
   kubectl --context k3s-prod get events -A --field-selector reason=Failed --sort-by=.lastTimestamp | grep -i "pull\|registry" | tail -10'
```

## Likely causes, most likely first

### 1. The image controllers are not installed (expected state here)
The CRs exist because `catalog/render.py` emits them; nothing reconciles them. Remediation: render with
`--no-image-automation`, or have the operator finish enabling automation. Note that the Flux
controllers were installed **imperatively** and are outside Flux's own inventory, so no git change can
install them.

### 2. Registry rate limit
Docker Hub anonymous pulls/scans are limited per IP, and all three nodes share one WAN address. The
message says `toomanyrequests`. Remediation: a registry credential (SOPS-encrypted, in git), or scan
less often via `spec.interval`.

### 3. Registry auth
A private repository with no `secretRef`, or an expired token. The message names it.

### 4. The policy's range matches nothing
`ImagePolicy` semver ranges come from each ServiceDefinition's `update.range` (for example
`">=2024.0.0"` for pihole, `">=24.0.0"` for keycloak). A range that no published tag satisfies — or a
repository that publishes only `latest` (this platform has `lscr.io/linuxserver/jackett:latest` and
`plexinc/pms-docker:latest`) — leaves the policy with nothing to select. Remediation: fix the range in
`catalog/<service>.yaml` and re-render; a `latest`-only image cannot participate in automation at all
and should not carry a policy.

### 5. Egress is blocked for that namespace
Default-deny everywhere (R-NET-01) means outbound registry access is an explicit allow. Cross-read
`/runbooks/denied-flows`, and in particular the post-Cilium-upgrade finding that `toEntities: world` no
longer covers a call whose destination resolves to an in-cluster backend.

## When to escalate or stop

- **Warning, 1h, single service: this does not page.** The consequence is one workload pinned at its
  current version.
- **Do not widen an `update.range` to make the alert clear.** The range is the service's update policy
  (R-UPD-01); loosening it to satisfy a scanner is how an unintended major version arrives.
- **Do not add registry credentials ad hoc** — new secret, DR path, operator's call.
- If the same object has been stalled for days, the honest outcome is to remove its automation CRs
  (`--no-image-automation`) rather than leave a permanently-failing object training everyone to ignore
  the alert. Alert fatigue is a recorded, expensive failure mode on this cluster.

---
Source of truth: `runbooks/image-policy-stalled.md`. Index: `/runbooks/`
Records: `DECISIONS-LOG.md` (image automation authored-and-disabled; `--no-image-automation`);
`catalog/*.yaml` (`update.channel` / `update.range` per service).