# terdut-operator build roadmap

This is the staging plan for implementing the operator against `DESIGN.md`'s
settled decisions. It exists for the same reason `DESIGN.md` and
`SERVICE-ACCOUNTS.md` do: so each stage starts from an agreed sequencing
instead of re-litigating "what do we build first" mid-PR.

## Sequencing call this roadmap makes

**The operator creates and owns every `TerdutServer` it manages — it never
adopts one deployed independently, by hand or by `charts/terdut-server`**
(`DESIGN.md` §1). An earlier version of this roadmap staged `TerdutServer`'s
Deployment/Service/bootstrap takeover separately (old Stage 5), behind a
hand-deployed server the simpler CRDs could be proven against first.
That staging existed only because a credential-less operator couldn't
`/api/bootstrap` its way into a server something else had already
bootstrapped (`DESIGN.md` §6's original gap). With no server to adopt at
all, that split has nothing left to justify it: `TerdutServer` now builds
its full lifecycle — Deployment, Service, database wiring, bootstrap,
credentials — in one stage, Stage 1, since bootstrap only has something to
bootstrap once the Deployment exists.

## Stage 0 — Scaffolding & CI

- `go.mod` (`git.ryuvia.com/niklas/terdut-operator`) + Kubebuilder v4
  scaffold (`cmd/main.go`, `config/`, `Makefile`, `PROJECT`), matching
  terdut-server's Go toolchain and house style (§3). Kubebuilder's own
  scaffolded `Makefile` already wires `manifests`/`generate`
  (`controller-gen`) and `setup-envtest` into `test`, and `golangci-lint`
  into `lint`, all fetched on demand into `bin/` — no separate install
  step needed beyond what `make test`/`make lint` already do.
- `.release.conf` deliberately **not** added yet: it names a `HELM_CHART`
  this repo doesn't have until Stage 5. Adding it now would either be a
  stub that lies about what's releasable or dead config nobody can run —
  it lands in Stage 5, alongside the chart it describes.
- Gitea Actions CI calling `fmt lint test`, mirroring terdut-server's
  `ci.yaml` convention (its `CLAUDE.md`: "a green gate here and a green
  pipeline are the same code, not two descriptions of it") minus the
  `chart`/`security` jobs, which need a chart (Stage 5) and real controller
  code (Stage 1+) respectively to have anything to check.
- Drop kubebuilder's default `.github/workflows/*` scaffold — this org
  runs on Gitea, not GitHub; `.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml` is the only CI this
  repo has.
- Housekeeping: drop the stray `.DESIGN.md.swp` (leftover vim swapfile,
  shouldn't be committed); correct `DESIGN.md` §6/§13's "v1-blocking, not
  v1-shippable" language — the service-account feature it was blocking on
  has since shipped in terdut-server.

**Done when:** CI is green on an otherwise-empty scaffold.

## Stage 1 — `TerdutServer`, full lifecycle

Supersedes the Stage 1 shipped before this redesign (commit `1be7cf2`)
outright — that `TerdutServerSpec`/`Status`/controller/tests implemented the
now-removed bring-your-own path and get replaced wholesale, not extended.
New commits build forward over the old ones; no git history rewrite.

- Full §4.1 spec: `image`, `replicas`, `networking`, `database`, `sweeper`,
  `deadman`, `notify`, `oidc`, `passwordLogin`, `allowedTeams`, all together
  — no narrowing, since bootstrap needs the Deployment it's narrowed away
  from in the version this replaces.
- Controller manages the Deployment + Service, both Postgres paths from §8
  at once (bring-your-own DSN *and* the Zalando `postgres-operator`
  `postgresClusterRef` integration — not sequenced, per the user's call),
  and bootstrap/credentials per §6's self-registration flow: `/api/bootstrap`
  once the Deployment has a ready replica, checkpoint the admin key, mint
  the instance-scoped service account, generated credentials Secret in the
  operator's own namespace, `status.credentialsSecretRef`. Finalizer cleans
  up that Secret (and the checkpoint, if one's still there) on delete —
  there's no server-side row to clean up alongside it: terdut-server's API
  has no way to delete a user or a service account, only to revoke
  individual keys, so there's nothing to undo there regardless.
- RBAC: read-only watch on `postgresql.acid.zalan.do`, degrading gracefully
  if that CRD isn't installed (§8, §9).
- Shipped, scoped down from §8's full ambition in two ways, both called out
  in code rather than silently dropped: no live watch on the Zalando-
  generated credentials Secret for rotation (relies on the periodic resync
  to notice eventually, higher latency than a watch); no Gateway API
  `HTTPRoute` creation from `spec.networking.hostname`/`gatewayListener`
  (needs the Gateway API types as a new dependency, and nothing about
  proving a `TerdutServer` boots and bootstraps a real server depends on
  external ingress existing). Both are near-term follow-ups, not deferred
  to a later stage.
- `envtest` covering Deployment/Service reconciliation and both database
  paths — the Zalando path needs that CRD's schema vendored into the test
  environment (there's no real `postgres-operator` controller in `envtest`,
  only the CRD shape to create fixture objects against) — plus the
  self-registration flow against an `httptest.Server` fake of
  `/api/bootstrap` and `/api/service-accounts` (§11), including the
  adopt-on-409 recovery path and the one fail-closed case
  (`BootstrapStateLost`), not just the happy path.
- **Done, 2026-10-01**: a real `kind` end-to-end pass (bring-your-own DSN,
  real terdut-server `v0.33.0` image, operator built into a real image and
  deployed as a real Pod, not `go run` against the cluster). `TerdutServer`
  went `Ready`; the generated credential authenticated and exercised its
  real capability against the actual server
  (`GET`/`POST /api/teams` → `200`/`201`, confirmed from terdut-server's own
  access log). Caught two real bugs no `envtest` suite could have (its
  client bypasses RBAC): `.dockerignore`'s `!**/*.go` not working under
  podman, and missing RBAC for `events.k8s.io` (the new events API
  `GetEventRecorder` uses) — both fixed. The Zalando path can additionally
  be validated for real against the org's own cluster later, where
  `postgres-operator` already runs, rather than only in a disposable `kind`
  stand-in — not done in this pass.

## Stage 2 — `TerdutTeam`

- §4.2: `serverRef` resolution, real update-in-place (POST create / PUT
  rename / PUT oidc-groups), team-scoped service-account minting once
  `Ready` (§6 point 3), finalizer that DELETEs the team server-side and its
  credential Secret.
- First place the "every child resolves its own `teamRef` →
  `TerdutTeam.status`, never chains up to `TerdutServer`" pattern (§5) gets
  proven end to end.

## Stage 3 — `TerdutEscalationRule` + `TerdutDeadmanSwitch`

- Built together: both stay same-namespace-as-their-`TerdutTeam` (§1), so
  neither exercises cross-namespace complexity, but together they cover the
  two different reconciliation shapes §5's table calls out — whole-policy
  PUT-on-drift for the escalation policy, delete-and-recreate (no PUT
  available) for the dead man's switch — against the same shared
  create/finalizer/resync scaffolding Stage 2 already built.

## Stage 4 — `TerdutAlertSource`

- Last of the children on purpose: it has the subtlest failure mode of the
  four. Covers webhook Secret generation/ownership (§4.5, §7), the
  `WebhookSecretLost` fail-closed condition + `Warning` event (§5, added
  2026-09-30), and the kind-change delete-and-recreate rotation path — all
  easier to get right with the other three controllers' patterns already
  in place to build on.

## Stage 5 — Installer chart + real release

- Package CRDs + the operator's own Deployment/RBAC into the installer
  chart §10 describes; wire `.release.conf`/release-vars the same way
  terdut-server does; run it through the `release` skill for a real first
  cut.
- Full `kind` end-to-end test per §11: create `TerdutServer` → `TerdutTeam`
  → one of each child kind → verify via terdut-server's own API that each
  object exists with the right shape → delete the CR → verify the
  server-side object is gone.

## Deferred (§13, unchanged by this roadmap)

Cross-namespace `allowedTeams` exercised against a real second namespace,
CloudNativePG support, narrower-than-namespace Secret RBAC for the webhook
Secret, gitops-managed team membership, automatic Deployment restart on
upstream Postgres credential rotation, admission webhooks/CEL-only
validation limits, OLM packaging.