cc-ci/machine-docs/JOURNAL-pxgate.md

# JOURNAL — phase pxgate (Builder)

## 2026-06-13 — Phase start

**Orientation:**
- Phase plan read: `/srv/cc-ci/cc-ci-plan/plan-phase-pxgate-proxy-healthgate.md`
- A1 finding from BACKLOG-pvfix.md: confirmed. Root cause exactly as stated.
- Pre-check: `https://traefik.ci.commoninternet.net/api/version` → HTTP/2 200 (Traefik serves it directly, no dashboard dep)
- `https://traefik.ci.commoninternet.net/ping` → 404 (ping entrypoint not enabled)
- So `/api/version` is the correct endpoint to use

**Code examination:**
- `runner/warm_reconcile.py` lines 117-127: traefik spec uses `health_domain: "ci.commoninternet.net"`, `health_path: "/"`
- Comment at lines 254-256 explains "traefik's own domain has no route of its own" — this is outdated; `traefik.ci.commoninternet.net/api/version` does have a route and returns 200
- `nix/modules/proxy.nix`: deploy-proxy service; no health-related config here, just invokes warm_reconcile.py
- `nix/modules/dashboard.nix`: `after = [ "deploy-bridge.service" "deploy-proxy.service" ... ]` — confirms the ordering

**Other consumers of `After=deploy-proxy.service`:** backupbot, nightly-sweep, dashboard, reports, drone, bridge, warm-keycloak. None of these need to change ordering; the fix only changes what the health gate INSIDE deploy-proxy waits for.

**Fix approach (committed to DECISIONS.md):** change health probe to `traefik.ci.commoninternet.net/api/version`. This is traefik's built-in API (no backend needed). The health signal remains meaningful: a broken traefik will NOT serve /api/version, so rollback still triggers correctly.

**Fix applied:**
- `runner/warm_reconcile.py` traefik spec: removed `health_domain: "ci.commoninternet.net"`, changed `health_path` from `"/"` to `"/api/version"` (domain now defaults to `traefik.ci.commoninternet.net`)
- Updated stale comment in traefik spec explaining the old reasoning (dashboard/routing proof) and why it's replaced
- Updated stale comment in `health_code` function
- Updated `nix/modules/proxy.nix` comment to reflect the new health probe

**Controlled reproduction (2026-06-13):**
```
# Scaled dashboard swarm service to 0 replicas (simulates dashboard absent on cold boot):
docker service scale ccci-dashboard_app=0

# OLD probe (ci.commoninternet.net) with dashboard scaled to 0:
curl -sk -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 5 --resolve "ci.commoninternet.net:443:127.0.0.1" "https://ci.commoninternet.net/"
→ HTTP 404  ← FAILS (would loop in wait_healthy until 900s timeout)

# NEW probe (traefik.ci.commoninternet.net/api/version) with dashboard scaled to 0:
curl -sk -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 10 --resolve "traefik.ci.commoninternet.net:443:127.0.0.1" "https://traefik.ci.commoninternet.net/api/version"
→ HTTP 200  ← PASSES immediately (traefik's own API, no dashboard dependency)

# New probe body:
→ {"Version":"3.6.15","Codename":"ramequin","startDate":"2026-06-13T05:38:02.987423426Z"}

# Dashboard restored:
docker service scale ccci-dashboard_app=1  → 1/1 ✓
systemctl start deploy-dashboard
curl -sk https://ci.commoninternet.net/  → 200 ✓
```

**Rollback-still-works reasoning:** if Traefik is broken (not serving), `https://traefik.ci.commoninternet.net/api/version` will return non-200 (connection refused, TLS error, 5xx) or time out. `wait_healthy` polls this and triggers rollback on failure. The new probe is not weaker — it probes the same Traefik process. The old probe was stronger only in that it also tested a routed backend, but that made it unworkable on cold boot.

**DEFERRED.md update:** 2026-06-13 entry closed with this fix commit.

**Alert clearance:**
```
# /var/lib/ci-warm/alerts/20260613T054428Z-traefik-unhealthy-on-latest.json
# Content: {"app": "traefik", "reason": "unhealthy-on-latest", "ts": "20260613T054428Z", "version": "5.1.1+v3.6.15"}
# This was a false alarm from the old health gate (traefik was healthy; probe checked ci.commoninternet.net
# which wasn't up yet due to the circular dependency). No credentials in the file.
ssh cc-ci 'rm /var/lib/ci-warm/alerts/20260613T054428Z-traefik-unhealthy-on-latest.json'
→ alert cleared; ls /var/lib/ci-warm/alerts/ → empty ✓
```

**P1-neg (gate has teeth) — manual verification:**
The new gate probes `https://traefik.ci.commoninternet.net/api/version`. If traefik is broken:
- Connection refused: curl returns code 000 (not in health_ok=(200,)) → unhealthy
- TLS error: curl exits non-zero, health_code returns 999 (error sentinel) → unhealthy  
- Traefik running but broken: may return 5xx → not in health_ok=(200,) → unhealthy
Confirmed in code: health_code() at line 253 returns 999 on curl failure. P1-neg holds by construction.

**Next:** commit + claim M1. → M1 PASS received @13:00Z. Awaiting orchestrator nixos-rebuild for M2.

## 2026-06-13T13:24Z — Builder poll (M2 monitoring)

Builder loop re-launched by orchestrator. Checked current state:
- deploy-proxy: `active (exited)` since 05:44:28 UTC (OLD probe still live)
- Active reconcile script: `/nix/store/ls5d6s7q2892z0n0qv7sfk03zimwx3nd-runner/warm_reconcile.py` (old — has `health_domain: "ci.commoninternet.net"`)
- builder-clone on cc-ci: at commit `caef217` (old — needs `git pull` before nixos-rebuild)
- No BUILDER-INBOX or new ADVERSARY-INBOX
- STATUS-pxgate.md M2 section has full orchestrator instructions (pull + nixos-rebuild switch)

Monitoring loop active. Will poll every ≤10 min for nixos-rebuild completion.

## 2026-06-13T13:35Z — Adversary verdict received + builder-clone fix

Adversary pushed `review(pxgate): idle break-it probes PASS @13:31Z`. All idle probes PASS:
- P_stability: /api/version 200 (6/6 probes from orchestrator + cc-ci)
- P_services: all 9 Docker services 1/1
- P_alerts: alerts/ empty
- P_leak: no secrets in /api/version response
- P_ping_still_404: /ping still 404 (correct)
- Re-confirmed builder sentinel discrepancy (999 vs 0): non-blocking, code correct

**Key finding from Adversary:** builder-clone on cc-ci was on branch `restructure/concurrency` at `caef217` — 288 commits behind main. Fixed:
```
ssh cc-ci 'cd /root/builder-clone && git checkout main && git pull'
→ Switched to branch 'main'; fast-forwarded 288 commits to d23baf8
```
STATUS-pxgate.md updated to include `git checkout main` safeguard in nixos-rebuild instructions.
Builder-clone is now pre-staged on main at d23baf8 — orchestrator only needs to run nixos-rebuild.

## 2026-06-13T13:44Z — M2 PASS: nixos-rebuild complete, all checks green

**Orchestrator BUILDER-INBOX:** nixos-rebuild completed on live cc-ci host. Fixed committed.
- Used `/root/cc-ci-deploy` (not builder-clone) + operator-held secrets.yaml
- `nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#cc-ci` succeeded

**Builder M2 verification (all checks run independently):**

```
# Check 1: deploy-proxy active
systemctl status deploy-proxy → Active: active (exited) since 13:44:01 UTC ✓ (279ms CPU)

# Check 2: new runner with /api/version
cat /nix/store/8qjh8apxcbs85asgizkymjskicf4zmsl-cc-ci-reconcile-proxy/bin/cc-ci-reconcile-proxy
→ exec python3 /nix/store/5hic3aba65i88m1ib67b7g6dwzrzd1z2-runner/warm_reconcile.py traefik
grep '"traefik"' .../warm_reconcile.py:
  "health_path": "/api/version"  ← confirmed ✓
  "health_domain" key: absent ← defaults to traefik.ci.commoninternet.net ✓

# Check 3: all services 1/1
docker service ls → 9 services all 1/1 ✓

# Check 4: cold-boot simulation
systemctl stop deploy-dashboard
systemctl stop deploy-proxy && systemctl reset-failed deploy-proxy
systemctl start deploy-proxy
→ Active: active (exited) since 13:46:05 UTC (17ms!) — NO DASHBOARD NEEDED ✓
systemctl start deploy-dashboard → active (exited) ✓

# Check 5: running server unaffected
curl https://ci.commoninternet.net/ → 200 ✓
curl https://traefik.ci.commoninternet.net/api/version → 200 ✓
```

**Adversary PASS received** (independently verified same checks). "Builder may write ## DONE."
STATUS-pxgate.md updated with M2 PASS + ## DONE. BUILDER-INBOX consumed.