hyperhive/swarm-authelia-bridge/README.md
atlas 6ca4887af4 docs(#3422): the user store is one file, not two
Six places asserted the old design as fact, and none of them mention the
change by name -- the class of doc breakage that is found by asking what
a diff made untrue, not by grepping for a feature:

- swarmctl/README.md and swarm-authelia-bridge/README.md both described
  their own private canonical store. The bridge's "known limitation"
  section described the seam as unsolved; it is what this fixes, so it
  becomes what both writers must uphold instead.
- docs/swarm/{sso,ui,secrets}.md described a rendered artifact.
- The repo CLAUDE.md entry for swarmctl said the same.
- docs/tools/swarmctl-cli.md is regenerated (CI diffs it against the
  clap tree), picking up the removed --store flag.

Operator-facing where it is read: the hand-editing consequence (values
survive a rewrite, comments do not) is stated in sso.md, where an
operator is being told to edit the file, rather than only in a module doc.
2026-08-18 10:34:00 +02:00

60 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown

# swarm-authelia-bridge
The only thing allowed to write `swarm-authelia`'s users database.
## Why this exists
`swarm-controller`'s `CreateIdentity` job needs to add an agent as an
authelia subject, but `swarm-controller` runs unprivileged and does not own
`users.yml` — a different uid does (`authelia-swarm`, the user
`services.authelia.instances.swarm` runs as). Root/`CAP_CHOWN`/a shared
group were all examined and rejected during this crate's design thread —
see `swarmctl/README.md`'s identical analysis of this same file, written
before this crate existed.
The fix: run **this** process as `User = "authelia-swarm";` instead —
inside the `swarm-authelia` container, alongside authelia itself — so it
simply owns the file it writes. No elevated privilege anywhere.
## Shape
- One endpoint, `POST /requests`, body = `swarm-authelia-bridge-sock`'s
`BridgeRequest` verbatim — one variant today (`EnsureAgentIdentity`,
idempotently ensure an agent exists as an authelia subject).
- Bearer-authenticated via authelia's own OIDC token introspection (RFC
7662), against `swarm-controller`'s **existing** machine-client identity
(already minted for the queue connection) — no new credential.
- No restart of authelia after a write — relies on
`authentication_backend.file.watch`, confirmed working against the
pinned 4.39.20 build during this design work.
- Network-facing rather than unix-socket-only: `swarm-authelia`'s container
shares the host netns, so the same listener serves both a co-located
`swarm-controller` (loopback) and a split-host one (bind wider + firewall)
with no separate transport.
## One store, two writers
This bridge and `swarmctl` both read and write authelia's `users.yml`
directly. That is the whole arrangement — neither keeps a private copy it
considers canonical.
It used to be otherwise, and the seam was real: each side had its own
`users.json` treated as authoritative, rendering the *same* physical
`users.yml`. A writer whose own JSON was missing could not tell "nothing
here yet" from "someone else's users", so it refused to write at all —
which is exactly what a hive with existing users hit (#3422).
What still has to hold, since two processes share the file:
- **Read before write.** Both do, so neither can drop a user the other
added between operations.
- **Unknown keys survive.** Both carry unmodelled top-level and per-user
fields through a round-trip, or whichever writes second would silently
delete what the first added.
- **Every user gets an email.** A relying party asking for the claim fails
rather than degrades, so both write paths fill in a synthetic address
when none was supplied.
Neither restarts authelia: it watches the file. `swarmctl` *could* (it is
root); this bridge deliberately cannot, and a reload that depends on which
process wrote is not a reload.