INCIDENT FIX. Prod's external-dns DELETED EVERY ONE OF DEV'S PUBLIC DNS RECORDS. Both
clusters ran policy: sync against the SAME Cloudflare zone with the SAME implicit
txtOwnerId (`default`), so prod believed it owned dev's records, found no matching sources,
and removed them plus their TXT registry entries. Dev recovered ~30s after prod was scaled
to 0; verified restored against Cloudflare directly (my first check went through a pfSense
override and falsely showed healthy — local resolvers are not evidence about public DNS).
THE MISS WAS MINE, and it was a failure of imagination in how I briefed every agent. I put
"never touch dev" in brief after brief and enforced it — separate kubeconfigs, verified
--limit, sha-checked dev's kubeconfig before and after. Every one of those guards held. NONE
of them covered SHARED EXTERNAL RESOURCES. Prod reconciling its OWN correctly-authored
manifests reached across a third party and destroyed dev's state. Cluster-to-cluster
isolation was verified; the dependency that mattered was cluster-to-Cloudflare.
Operator's architecture: dev -> *.dev.home.keithjackson.dev, prod ->
*.prod.home.keithjackson.dev, apex CNAME <svc>.home -> <svc>.prod.home.
PHASE 1 ONLY (this commit): prod moves to its own subdomain. DEV IS NOT MIGRATED and its
effective hostname stays home.keithjackson.dev, so dev renders byte-identically and nothing
live moves. That alone ends the collision and unblocks prod. Phase 2 (dev -> dev.home. +
apex CNAMEs) is deferred to when the operator is present: it relocates Keycloak's issuer and
12 clients' redirect URIs, forces a rolling k3s restart and kubectl SSO re-issue for every
user, and moves gitea.home. — which is BOTH the GitOps source and the current push target.
BASE_DOMAIN WAS A DEAD KNOB — it existed in cluster-vars but the status report flagged it as
referenced by nothing, because hostnames were hardcoded throughout. Now real: 141 refs.
Searched the AUTHORITATIVE reconciled set by resolving each Flux spec.path transitively via
conformance/lib/status.py — the same resolver the L0 gate uses, so "what Flux reconciles"
has one definition. 185 occurrences across 47 files in 154 reconciled files. Tokenized:
Gateway listeners, the wildcard Certificate, coredns-custom, external-dns, Keycloak
instance/realm (26 redirect URIs), oauth2-proxy, Grafana OIDC, all HTTPRoutes, Homepage's 15
links, 30 runbook_urls, unifi cloud-init, render.py's ZONE constant (which drove
--oidc-issuer-url/--cookie-domain/--whitelist-domain on every forward-auth sidecar) and 11
catalog/ ServiceDefinitions re-rendered canonically. Left alone: 43 comment/prose
occurrences and non-reconciled paths.
TWO THAT CANNOT BE TOKENIZED, flagged not forced:
- headlamp's OIDC URLs live inside a SOPS-encrypted Secret; re-encrypting rewrites the MAC
over every value and the OFFLINE harness cannot verify it (kustomize does not decrypt),
so an error would break live-dev SSO with no pre-flight proof. Prod needs its own copy
anyway — client secrets are realm-scoped.
- kube-apiserver --oidc-issuer-url is a k3s SERVER FLAG, not a manifest, so Flux can never
reach it. Done on the inventory seam instead (k3s_base_domain -> k3s_oidc_issuer_url,
overridden in group_vars/k3s_prod). Verified per host: dev keeps the default, prod gets
prod.home.
EXTERNAL-DNS OWNER, the actual incident cause: txtOwnerId is now explicit per environment —
dev renders exactly `default` (the chart default it was already using, so its existing
records stay recognised) and prod gets `prod`. The BASE default is a NON-COLLIDING SENTINEL,
deliberately not `default`, so a future environment that forgets the knob owns nothing and
can delete nothing rather than silently inheriting dev's identity.
I OVERRODE ONE AGENT DECISION against our own prior finding: it narrowed prod's
domainFilters to prod.home.keithjackson.dev as defence in depth. FINDING F-DNS1
(DECISIONS-LOG 2026-08-17) already proved a subdomain filter DROPS THE PARENT ZONE —
ExternalDNS generates the record then skips it with "no hosted zone matching record DNS
Name". Prod would have published NOTHING. Set to the ZONE (keithjackson.dev) like dev.
Isolation comes from the subdomain split plus txtOwnerId, which is what the incident
actually needed and what a domain filter cannot provide.
DEV PROVEN UNCHANGED: 11 of 12 substituting paths byte-identical; the 12th differs by
exactly one line, `+ txtOwnerId: default` — the value dev was already using implicitly.
POSITIVE CONTROLS confirm the harness is not blind: perturbing BASE_DOMAIN moves 10 of 12
hashes (the 2 that don't provably contain no hostname), perturbing the owner id moves
exactly 1. Prod's rendered output has ZERO home.keithjackson.dev references outside prod.,
and its cert renders *.prod.home.keithjackson.dev — no overlap with dev's.
L0 substitution assertions 106 -> 254; BASE_DOMAIN is no longer flagged dead. Gate PASS.
PROD REMAINS SUSPENDED (platform + 10 downstream tiers) pending review; nothing applied.
Serves: R-ENV-02, R-DNS-01, R-DNS-02, R-DNS-03, R-TLS-01.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
conformance/ — the home-k3s conformance harness (WS-TEST)
This subtree is the definition of "done" for the whole platform. Nothing is accepted
on a demo, a screenshot, or "it reconciled": every requirement is proven by an
automated, reproducible, behavior-based test tagged with the requirement ID(s) it
verifies (spec docs/14,
ADR-0010,
ADR-0011).
Tooling is fixed by ADR-0011: Kyverno for L0 (the CI policy gate + in-cluster admission enforcer — owned by task T-0.5) and Chainsaw for L1 rendering / L2 behavioral / L3 fault-injection (this harness).
The single command
./run.sh # full suite (skips L1/L2/L3 if no cluster)
./run.sh --requirements R-NET-01,R-NET-06 # merge-gate subset (tagged)
./run.sh --layer l2 # one layer: l1 | l2 | l3 | meta | all
./run.sh --coverage-only # regenerate the coverage report (no cluster)
./run.sh --status # derived requirement-STATUS report (no cluster)
./run.sh --lint # structural-validate test defs (no cluster)
./run.sh --strict-coverage # hygiene gate: fail on tag/annotation drift
./run.sh --require-all # phase-exit gate: every requirement must be covered
./run.sh --record # run AND capture the evidence (see "Proof of pass")
Gating is scoped, not "all 51 always" (R-TEST-03). Three distinct checks:
--strict-coverage— hygiene (always-on, WS-TEST owns it): fails only on tag/annotation drift or a tag absent from the registry. Uncovered future-phase requirements are visible gaps in the report, not a harness failure.--requirements R-…— merge gate: selects the tagged tests to run and asserts those touched requirements are covered (a listed safety-critical one must have an L3 test).--require-all— phase-exit gate: every registry requirement must be covered.- Documented out-of-scope gaps (e.g.
R-ENV-02dev→prod promote andR-GITOPS-01state-in-git, owned by WS-INFRA/WS-GITOPS and keyed wholesale by the coarse path map) are exempted from the completeness gates via--allow-gap, wired inrun.shasDOCUMENTED_GAPSso the exemption is explicit and reviewable. (R-STATE-02node-loss used to be here; it now has a real L3 test —tests/l3-fault-injection/node-loss— and is covered, not exempted.)
Coverage vs status — two different questions
coverage.md answers "does a requirement-tagged test EXIST for R-x?" (R-TEST-04).
status.md (./run.sh --status, generator lib/status.py) answers the operator's
question — "what is the real state of each requirement given what is actually in the
repo?" — deriving three orthogonal axes per requirement:
- implementation — is there a tracked artifact naming the requirement?
- reconciliation — is that artifact reachable by walking
resources:fromclusters/<env>/kustomization.yamland expanding every FluxKustomization'sspec.path? This is what separates authored from actually reconciled: a commented-outresources:entry (e.g.platform/image-automation) is correctly reported as in-git-but-not-on-any-cluster. - verification — is the tagged test EXECUTABLE, or a TODO scaffold? Coverage counts
both as "covered"; status does not. TODO markers in a body always outrank an
executable: "true"annotation, so ambiguity never upgrades a test.
It deliberately refuses to derive proof-of-pass. Nothing tracked in git records a test
result — _artifacts/ and results/ are git-ignored and DECISIONS-LOG.md prose is not a
signal — so every requirement's proof state is reported as not-derivable rather than
defaulting to green. A status report that overstates completion is worse than none
(agents/definition-of-done.md). Closing that gap needs a committed, machine-readable
run ledger; until then the strongest claim the report makes is wired and testable.
--strict-coverage also applies status's hygiene gate (registry↔spec drift,
annotation/body conflicts, a safety-critical requirement whose only L3 test is a scaffold).
Exit codes follow ci/lib.sh: 0 pass / 1 fail / 3 skipped — a skip is never green.
run.sh is the only entrypoint. Local runs and the in-cluster CI Chainsaw Job call
the same script with the same config, so results are identical.
Artifacts (always emitted, under _artifacts/, git-ignored)
| Path | What | Consumer |
|---|---|---|
_artifacts/report.junit.xml |
JUnit — Chainsaw results, or a skipped-scaffold shim when no cluster | CI gate |
_artifacts/coverage/coverage.md |
Human requirement-coverage report | PR reviewers / logs |
_artifacts/coverage/coverage.json |
Machine coverage: {requirement: [tests]}, gaps, safety gaps |
CI gate |
_artifacts/status/status.md |
Human requirement-STATUS report derived from repo state | operator / PM |
_artifacts/status/status.json |
Machine status: implementation / reconciliation / verification per requirement | tooling |
Reproducibility contract (R-TEST-02 — what the harness guarantees)
- Single command.
./run.sh(or a tagged/layer subset) runs everything and emits the artifacts above — locally and in CI. - Hermetic. Each Chainsaw test provisions its own namespace + fixtures/probes and tears
them down (
config/chainsaw-config.yamlauto-creates/auto-deletes the namespace; tests addfinallyfor anything out-of-namespace). It never relies on pre-existing state. - Deterministic. Tool versions pinned in
versions.env; eventual consistency handled by bounded polling with explicit timeouts (config), never sleeps or wall-clock/ordering assumptions. - Isolated & parallel-safe. Unique generated namespaces + per-requirement labels; tests run concurrently without cross-talk.
- Machine-readable & requirement-tagged. JUnit + coverage, every result carrying its
R-*tags (convention intests/README.md). - Self-cleaning. Fixtures removed on pass or fail; a leaked namespace/fixture is
itself a failure (
skipDelete: false, enforced delete/cleanup timeouts). - Versioned with the code. Tests live next to what they verify and change only when the human-owned spec they encode changes — never weakened to go green (R-TEST-06).
Layout
run.sh single-command runner (the entrypoint)
versions.env pinned toolchain (Chainsaw/kubectl/Kyverno) — determinism
config/chainsaw-config.yaml shared execution contract (timeouts, ns isolation, JUnit)
requirements/registry.yaml mirror of EVERY spec R-* ID (coverage enumerates from here)
lib/
common.sh tagging convention + test discovery/selection helpers
coverage.py requirement-coverage generator (stdlib only)
status.py requirement-STATUS generator (stdlib only; --selftest)
record_run.py run-ledger writer: PROOF-of-pass (stdlib only; --selftest)
emit_skipped_junit.py Phase-0 skipped-JUnit shim (no cluster)
runs/
ledger.jsonl TRACKED append-only proof-of-pass ledger (one row per
testcase per run) — the only source status.py trusts
<UTC>-<short-sha>/ TRACKED per-run evidence: run.log + report.junit.xml
tests/
l1-rendering/ l2-behavioral/ l3-fault-injection/ meta/ (see tests/README.md)
incluster/
chainsaw-job.yaml rbac.yaml in-cluster L2/L3 Job + scoped test SA (ADR-0011)
Proof of pass — the run ledger (runs/)
--status used to report PROVEN: 0 for all 51 requirements, and said so honestly:
proof-of-pass was not recoverable from repo state. _artifacts/ is gitignored and the
root .gitignore kills *.junit.xml globally, so no run result ever reached git; the
only record of a green run was DECISIONS-LOG.md prose. runs/ is the fix lib/status.py
asked for — a committed, machine-readable run ledger.
./run.sh --record # runs normally, and captures the evidence
# -> conformance/runs/<UTC>-<short-sha>/run.log (tee'd, carries the sentinels)
# -> conformance/runs/<UTC>-<short-sha>/report.junit.xml (that run's JUnit)
# -> conformance/runs/ledger.jsonl (one appended row per testcase)
python3 lib/record_run.py --run-dir runs/<id> [--dry-run] # or record an existing run dir
python3 lib/record_run.py --selftest # deterministic, no cluster
Recording is explicit, never implicit. Plain ./run.sh writes no ledger row: a run
that silently records itself is how a bad run becomes a permanent false proof. Commit
the run dir and the ledger — an uncommitted ledger proves nothing.
Why a committed JUnit alone would be WORSE than nothing
The L2/L3 tests are runnable and self-skipping: when a precondition is missing (no
longhorn StorageClass, no Velero CRDs, fewer than 3 Ready nodes) they echo a skip token
and exit 0, and their check: accepts either outcome —
(contains($stdout, 'DR_RESTORED_FROM_OFF_CLUSTER_BACKUP_OK')
|| contains($stdout, 'DR_RESTORE_SKIPPED_OK')): true
So a self-skip exits 0 and Chainsaw records passed exactly as a real run does, and
Chainsaw's JUnit carries no stdout — its <testcase> elements hold only <properties>.
A committed JUnit on its own would therefore record DR_RESTORE_SKIPPED_OK as proof of
R-STATE-03: fake green, and worse than no ledger because it would look authoritative.
The sentinel token in run.log is the only thing that separates proven from skipped.
record_run.py derives each test's tokens from its own chainsaw-test.yaml (every
contains($stdout, 'TOKEN'); *_SKIP*_OK is a skip token, the last non-skip token is the
verdict token), so the table below is never hand-maintained:
| Test | pass token (proof) | skip token (never proof) |
|---|---|---|
l3/node-loss |
NODE_LOSS_VOLUME_AVAILABLE_OK |
NODE_LOSS_SKIPPED_OK |
l3/dr-restore |
DR_RESTORED_FROM_OFF_CLUSTER_BACKUP_OK (+ OFF_CLUSTER_TARGET_OK, BACKUPS_ARE_SCHEDULED_OK) |
DR_RESTORE_SKIPPED_OK, DR_SCHEDULE_SKIPPED_OK |
l3/data-survival |
DATA_SURVIVED_OK |
DATA_SURVIVAL_SKIPPED_OK |
l3/vm-data-survival |
VM_DATA_SURVIVED_OK |
VM_DATA_SURVIVAL_SKIPPED_OK |
l3/hands-off-update |
HANDS_OFF_UPDATE_OK |
HANDS_OFF_UPDATE_SKIPPED_OK |
l2/vm-lifecycle |
VM_LIFECYCLE_OK |
VM_LIFECYCLE_SKIPPED_OK |
l2/vm-default-deny |
VM_DEFAULT_DENY_OK |
VM_DEFAULT_DENY_SKIPPED_OK |
A row reaches proof: "proven" on one path: JUnit passed, every declared pass
token present in that test's log lines, and no skip token anywhere in them. A skip
token beats a pass token (worst wins). Anything else is skipped, failed,
junit-skipped, unknown-no-sentinel-declared or unknown-sentinel-absent — all
non-green. L0/L1 need no sentinel because lib/run_l1_offline.py already renders their
skips as JUnit <skipped/>, never as a green pass.
Staleness — a proof is a claim about a tree, not a badge
--status honours a proven row only while the run's git_sha is a descendant of the
last commit touching that requirement's implementing manifests or its verifying test.
Otherwise the row degrades to stale-proof, which is not green. A run captured from a
dirty working tree is recorded as <sha>-dirty, which no ancestry check can satisfy — so
it never counts. Re-run with --record to refresh.
A requirement reads proven only when every verifying test does; one skipped, failed
or unrecorded test drags the whole requirement down. With an empty ledger --status
behaves exactly as before: every requirement not-derivable, headline PROVEN 0.
How CI invokes it
CI (Gitea Actions, wired in T-0.2 / migrated in T-6.1b) calls this same run.sh:
- No-cluster stage (every PR, fast):
./run.sh --lintand./run.sh --coverage-only --strict-coverage --requirements <IDs the change touches>. Validates every test parses- is tagged, regenerates coverage, fails the PR on tag/annotation drift (hygiene) and on any touched requirement lacking a test (merge gate). (L0 Kyverno CLI runs alongside — task T-0.5.)
- Cluster stage (L2/L3): CI does not hold a kubeconfig. It triggers the
in-cluster Chainsaw Job (
incluster/), which runs./run.shunder the scopedconformance-runnerServiceAccount and writes JUnit + coverage to a results volume CI collects.- Merge gate: the Job runs
--requirements <IDs the change touches>; that subset runs green and those requirements are covered to merge (R-TEST-03). - Phase-exit gate: the Job runs
--layer all --strict-coverage; add--require-allonly at the milestone where the full requirement set is expected covered. The phase suite must be green before the phase's exit criteria are met.
- Merge gate: the Job runs
Phase 0 status (no cluster yet)
No cluster exists, so L1/L2/L3 cannot execute. The behavior tests are valid
scaffolds (steps + assertions authored, tagged, TODO(T-x.y) where a later phase
delivers the fixture). In this phase run.sh:
- always generates the coverage report (cluster-independent), and
- emits a skipped JUnit listing every scaffold (so the gate is green and the artifact shape is real), and
- the
meta/harness-selfcheckchecks (reproducible output, JUnit+coverage emitted, everything tagged, zero safety-critical gaps) are whatrun.sh --strict-coverageactually enforces today.
As later phases deliver capabilities, each scaffold's TODOs are filled and the test flips
from skipped to executing green — landing coverage without re-architecting the harness.