## Cluster Architecture at a Glance

**Homelab** is a 2-node bare-metal Kubernetes cluster deployed with Talos Linux, designed for self-hosted services, observability, and GitOps-ready CI/CD.

### Deployment Stack (18 Helm releases)

| Layer | Component | Namespace | Purpose |
|-------|-----------|-----------|---------|
| **OS & Networking** | Talos Linux v1.13.3 | — | Immutable, declarative Linux |
| **CNI** | Cilium (eBPF) | kube-system | Advanced networking, no kube-proxy |
| **Ingress** | Nginx Ingress Controller | ingress-nginx | Reverse proxy, TLS termination |
| **Certificates** | cert-manager + homelab-ca | cert-manager | Self-signed CA, auto-renewal |
| **Storage (Block)** | Longhorn v1.7.0 | longhorn-system | Persistent volumes, default StorageClass |
| **Storage (Object)** | MinIO (3-node, site-repl) | storage | S3-compatible, multi-AZ replication |
| **Database** | CloudNativePG (3 replicas) | ddb | PostgreSQL 16 + pgvector |
| **IAM / OIDC** | Authentik | iam | Federated OIDC provider for all services |
| **Secrets** | HashiCorp Vault | iam | KV secrets backend, JWT auth |
| **Logs** | Loki (SingleBinary) | logging | 10-day retention, MinIO backend |
| **Log Collection** | Promtail (DaemonSet) | logging | Pod + kernel logs → Loki |
| **Metrics** | Prometheus + kube-state-metrics | monitoring | Time-series metrics, service discovery |
| **Dashboards** | Grafana | logging | Unified UI for Prometheus + Loki |
| **Uptime Monitoring** | Blackbox Exporter | monitoring | External endpoint probes |
| **Git Forge** | Forgejo (self-hosted) | cicd | Git server, OCI registry, Forgejo Actions |
| **CI Runner** | Forgejo Actions Runner | cicd | Privileged build pods, image push |
| **CD** | Argo CD | cicd | Pull-based GitOps, declarative deployments |
| **Message Queue** | Kafka (Strimzi KRaft mode) | sqs | SQS-like message queue service |
| **Queue Redis** | Redis | sqs | In-flight message tracking, dedup |
| **Queue API** | kmsvc (gRPC + REST) | sqs | Message service (SendMessage, ReceiveMessage, etc.) |
| **Workflows** | Temporal | temporal | Distributed workflow engine |
| **Container UI** | Portainer CE | dashboard | Pod/workload management UI |
| **Terminal** | Claude Terminal | dev-tools | Persistent dev environment (optional) |
| **Config Reload** | Reloader | reloader | Auto-reload pods on ConfigMap/Secret changes |

### Dependency Chain (Release Order)

```
cert-manager (root)
  ↓
  ├─→ ingress-nginx
  ├─→ cilium (network policies)
  └─→ cloudnative-pg
        ↓
        ├─→ authentik (DB: authentik)
        │     ├─→ vault (uses Authentik OIDC)
        │     ├─→ forgejo (OIDC login)
        │     ├─→ argocd (OIDC login)
        │     └─→ kmsvc (JWT auth)
        │
        └─→ story-crater-backend (DB: story_crater)
  
storage (MinIO 3-node)
  ├─→ loki (object backend)
  ├─→ vault (unseal keys bucket)
  └─→ monitoring (Prometheus scrape)

monitoring (Prometheus operator)
  ├─→ ingress-nginx (requires ServiceMonitor CRDs)
  ├─→ authentik (requires ServiceMonitor CRDs)
  ├─→ minio-az-a (requires ServiceMonitor CRDs)
  └─→ temporal (requires ServiceMonitor CRDs)

logging (Loki + Grafana)
  ├─→ promtail (pod log collection)
  └─→ grafana (dashboards)

sqs (Kafka + Message Queue)
  ├─→ strimzi-operator
  ├─→ kafka-cluster (KRaft mode, 3 brokers)
  ├─→ kmsvc-redis (in-flight tracking)
  ├─→ queue-crd (operator)
  └─→ management-service (gRPC/REST API)
```

---

## Custom CLI — `talos`

Homelab cluster control CLI (`core/`). Manages cluster nodes and Vault secrets.

### Secret path convention

All secrets live under `cluster/<VARIABLE_NAME>`. The field name is always the variable name itself (SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE), matching the `.env` key. Example paths:

```
cluster/ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
cluster/AUTHENTIK_FORGEJO_CLIENT_ID
cluster/AUTHENTIK_ARGOCD_CLIENT_SECRET
```

### `talos put` — write a secret to Vault

```bash
talos put cluster/VARIABLE_NAME VARIABLE_NAME="secret-value"
talos put cluster/FORGEJO_ADMIN_PASSWORD FORGEJO_ADMIN_PASSWORD="$FORGEJO_ADMIN_PASSWORD"
```

Field name = variable name — never `value`.

### `talos get` — fetch a secret from Vault

```bash
talos get cluster/VARIABLE_NAME --key VARIABLE_NAME        # always specify --key
talos get cluster/FORGEJO_ADMIN_PASSWORD --key FORGEJO_ADMIN_PASSWORD
talos get cluster/VARIABLE_NAME --json                     # full secret as JSON
```

Note: `talos get` uses `--key` (long flag), not a positional arg — unlike `talos secrets get`.

### `vsource` — load a `.env` into the shell

zsh function (lives in `~/.zshrc`, not in the repo — can reference but cannot run directly).
Empty `.env` values are fetched from Vault at `cluster/<KEY>`; hardcoded values pass through.

```zsh
vsource            # loads .env in current directory
vsource .env.local # loads a specific file
```

`.env` format — leave secrets empty, vsource resolves them from Vault:

```bash
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=          # fetched from cluster/ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
AUTHENTIK_ARGOCD_CLIENT_ID= # fetched from cluster/AUTHENTIK_ARGOCD_CLIENT_ID
DEBUG=true                  # hardcoded, passed through as-is
```

### Typical workflow for a generated secret

```bash
# 1. Store immediately after generation (keeps secrets out of shell history)
talos put cluster/AUTHENTIK_FORGEJO_CLIENT_SECRET AUTHENTIK_FORGEJO_CLIENT_SECRET="<paste>"

# 2. Use via subshell when creating K8s secrets
kubectl create secret generic my-secret \
  --from-literal=client-secret="$(talos get cluster/AUTHENTIK_FORGEJO_CLIENT_SECRET --key AUTHENTIK_FORGEJO_CLIENT_SECRET)"

# 3. Or load into shell via vsource for helmfile/env-driven tools
vsource .env && helmfile apply
```

### IAM Management (Federated OIDC, Phases 1–6 Complete)

**Status:** ✅ Fully deployed (2026-07-02). Single federated OIDC provider (`talos-federation`) handles all service auth.

**Quick reference:**

```bash
# View roles and capabilities
talos iam roles list && talos iam roles describe admin

# Service registry (Grafana, MinIO, Forgejo, etc.)
talos iam services list && talos iam services describe grafana

# Agents (admin-bot, ci-bot with auto-rotation)
talos iam agents list && talos iam agents rotate ci-bot

# Role bindings (user → role with TTL)
talos iam bindings grant alice@example.com devops --expires 2026-12-31
talos iam bindings list

# Audit trail (90-day retention, 12 event types)
talos iam audit list && talos iam audit export --format json

# OIDC provider sync with Authentik
talos iam providers sync-authentik
```

**See `homelab/CLAUDE.md` § IAM Management for full reference** (roles, services, agents, bindings, audit, providers).

**Vault paths:** All IAM state stored under `cluster/iam/{federation,roles,services,agents,bindings}`.

### CI/CD Image Registry Authentication (Forgejo + Runner)

**After IAM Phase 6 changes:** All image push/pull operations via CI runner require JWT token authentication through Authentik → Vault.

**Push images to Forgejo registry:**

```bash
# 1. Get ci-bot JWT token (runner has this injected via ServiceAccount)
export REGISTRY_TOKEN=$(talos get cluster/iam/agents/ci-bot --key token)

# 2. Authenticate docker/podman to Forgejo registry
docker login forgejo.riotpiao.homelab.com \
  --username ci-bot \
  --password "$REGISTRY_TOKEN"

# 3. Tag and push image
docker tag myapp:latest forgejo.riotpiao.homelab.com/rock/myapp:latest
docker push forgejo.riotpiao.homelab.com/rock/myapp:latest
```

**Pull images in runner (automatic):**

```bash
# Inside .forgejo/workflows/*.yml, runner pulls via K8s ServiceAccount
# No explicit login needed — imagePullSecrets injected by runner pod
image: forgejo.riotpiao.homelab.com/rock/myapp:latest
```

**Runner pod setup:**

```bash
# ServiceAccount (in cicd namespace) has Vault JWT auth injected
kubectl get serviceaccount -n cicd forgejo-runner
kubectl describe sa forgejo-runner -n cicd

# ImagePullSecret auto-mounted from K8s secret:
kubectl get secret -n cicd | grep forgejo-registry
```

**Vault paths for credentials:**

```
cluster/iam/agents/ci-bot          # JWT token for push authentication
cluster/iam/agents/admin-bot       # Alternative admin agent (if needed)
```

---