Files
serverAppConfigs/docs/Architecture/Deployment Flow.md
T

5.0 KiB

type, title, description, tags, timestamp
type title description tags timestamp
guide Deployment Flow Service-scoped Git deployment for the two homelab hosts.
deployment
operations
git
2026-09-03

Deployment Flow

Git is the single source of truth. scripts/deploy.sh pushes the committed main branch, pulls it on one target, and applies only the runtime services whose tracked inputs changed. A SearXNG change no longer recreates the inference service; an LLM change no longer restarts unrelated containers.

Workflow

graph LR
    A[Edit in this repo] --> B[Run tests]
    B --> C[Commit main]
    C --> D[deploy.sh computes plan]
    D --> E[Push main]
    E --> F[Target pulls with ff-only]
    F --> G[deploy-remote.sh dispatches selected services]
    G --> H[Per-service health check]
  1. Edit files locally in this repository.
  2. Run ./tests/run.sh, then commit the complete change on main.
  3. Run ./scripts/deploy.sh <target>.
  4. The planner maps changed paths to services. Compose YAML is compared by service definition so an edit to one service does not restart its peers.
  5. The target pulls with git pull --ff-only origin main and runs the remote dispatcher with the explicit plan.
  6. The dispatcher updates only selected Quadlet, compose, homepage, Caddy, or systemd services and records each successful service revision outside Git.

Commands

./scripts/deploy.sh dankclaw
./scripts/deploy.sh dankserver
./scripts/deploy.sh dankclaw --service searxng
./scripts/deploy.sh dankserver --service frank-default-small
./scripts/deploy.sh dankclaw --dry-run

--service is repeatable and is an explicit retry/override. Without it, the planner compares the local HEAD to origin/main. A documentation-only commit produces an empty plan. The remote state directory can also replay a service whose earlier deployment failed, but it never expands a plan to a service on the other host.

Service managers

Service family Runtime manager Scope behavior
Dankclaw compose services podman-compose -f dankclaw/compose.yaml up -d --no-deps NAME Recreates only NAME; Caddy is handled separately because it fronts both hosts.
SearXNG, Gluetun, Valkey, OpenWebUI, Pi-hole, Gitea user Quadlet + systemctl --user Installs the selected unit and restarts only the required dependency-coupled units.
frank-default-large systemd + systemctl Relinks and restarts only the large inference service; waits up to 20 minutes for /health.
frank-default-small systemd + systemctl Relinks and restarts only the small inference service; waits up to 20 minutes for /health.
Dankserver media inventory host-managed bare containers Compose is inventory only; the scoped deploy does not create duplicate containers.

The shared chat template maps to the inference service on the selected target. The inactive frank-default-npu unit is relink-only when explicitly selected; it is not restarted by an unrelated large-model deployment.

Caddy safety

Caddy runs on Dankclaw and fronts both hosts. The dispatcher never stops gitea-caddy implicitly. If the legacy gitea-caddy container owns ports 80/443 while the compose caddy container is absent or stopped, a Caddy selection fails closed rather than replacing the live proxy. Resolve port ownership explicitly before retrying. A Caddy reload failure falls back to a restart of only the selected caddy container.

Homepage files, generated deployed.js, the status checker, and the rendered Caddyfile are updated only when their service is selected. A media-only Dankserver deployment does not touch Dankclaw's proxy or homepage.

Per-service state

The remote runner writes one revision file per successfully completed service to:

${XDG_STATE_HOME:-~/.local/state}/serverAppConfigs/deploy-state/

The directory is outside the checkout and is never committed. A failed handler is not marked successful. On the next ordinary deployment, the runner compares the recorded revision with the new checkout and retries only a still-changed service. This prevents a failed Caddy or LLM deployment from being silently forgotten while avoiding a host-wide restart.

Targets

Target Host Repository checkout
dankclaw dank@dankclaw (192.168.0.143) /home/dank/serverAppConfigs
dankserver dank@dankserver (192.168.0.235) /home/dank/serverAppConfigs

SSH uses the existing key pair. No password is stored or documented in this repository. If sudo is needed on a headless target, FRANK_SUDO_PW is read from the environment and is never written to the repository.

Tests

Run the full suite before pushing:

./tests/run.sh

The deployment seams are in tests/deployment_scoping.bats and tests/deployment_flow.bats. They cover path isolation, compose narrowing, Caddy safety, inference isolation, per-service state, and legacy wrapper routing. See Testing Policy.

See Also