d2ada908c9
Catalyst-curated auto-unseal pipeline for OpenBao on Hetzner Sovereigns
(no managed-KMS available). Selected **Option A — Shamir + cloud-init
seed** because:
- Hetzner has no managed-KMS service → Cloud-KMS auto-unseal (Option C)
is structurally unavailable.
- Transit-seal (Option B) requires a peer OpenBao cluster, only
applicable to multi-region tier-1; out of scope for single-region
omantel.
- Manual unseal (Option D) violates the "first sovereign-admin lands
on console.<sovereign-fqdn> ready to use" goal in
SOVEREIGN-PROVISIONING.md §5.
Architecture (per issue #316 spec + acceptance criteria 1-6):
1. Cloud-init on the control-plane node generates a 32-byte recovery
seed from /dev/urandom and writes it to a single-use K8s Secret
`openbao-recovery-seed` in the openbao namespace, with annotation
`openbao.openova.io/single-use: "true"`. Pre-creates the openbao
namespace to eliminate the race with Flux's HelmRelease apply.
2. bp-openbao chart v1.2.0 ships two new Helm post-install hooks:
- `templates/init-job.yaml` (hook weight 5): consumes the seed,
calls `bao operator init -recovery-shares=1 -recovery-threshold=1`,
persists the recovery key inside OpenBao's auto-unseal config,
deletes the seed Secret on success. Idempotent — re-runs detect
Initialized=true and exit 0.
- `templates/auth-bootstrap-job.yaml` (hook weight 10): enables
the Kubernetes auth method, mounts kv-v2 at `secret/`, writes
the `external-secrets-read` policy, binds the `external-secrets`
role to the ESO ServiceAccount in `external-secrets-system`.
3. `templates/auto-unseal-rbac.yaml` declares the least-privilege SA
+ Role + RoleBinding the Jobs need (Secret get/list/delete in the
openbao namespace; create/get/patch on the openbao-init-marker).
Also emits the permanent `system:auth-delegator` ClusterRoleBinding
bound to the OpenBao ServiceAccount so the Kubernetes auth method
can call tokenreviews.authentication.k8s.io.
4. Cluster overlay `clusters/_template/bootstrap-kit/08-openbao.yaml`
bumps version 1.1.1 → 1.2.0 and flips `autoUnseal.enabled: true`
per-Sovereign.
Per #402 lesson: skip-render pattern (`{{- if .Values.X }}{{ emit }}
{{- end }}`) used throughout — never `{{ fail }}`. Default `helm
template` render emits NOTHING new; opt-in via autoUnseal.enabled=true.
Acceptance criteria coverage:
1. Provision fresh Sovereign — cloud-init writes seed, Flux installs
bp-openbao 1.2.0, post-install Jobs run automatically. ✅
2. bp-openbao HR Ready=True without manual intervention — install
keeps `disableWait: true` (Helm Ready ≠ OpenBao initialised; the
init Job drives initialisation out-of-band on the same install). ✅
3. `bao status` shows Sealed=false, Initialized=true within 5 minutes
— init Job polls + retries up to 60×5s. ✅
4. ESO ClusterSecretStore vault-region1 reaches Status: Valid — the
auth-bootstrap Job binds the `external-secrets` role to ESO's SA
before the Job exits. ✅
5. Seed Secret deleted post-init — init Job deletes it via K8s API
after consuming. ✅
6. No openbao-root-token Secret in K8s — root token captured to
/tmp/.root-token in the Job pod's tmpfs only; never written to a
K8s Secret. The recovery key persists ONLY inside OpenBao's Raft
state (auto-unseal config). ✅
Tests:
- tests/auto-unseal-toggle.sh — 4 cases:
* default render → no auto-unseal artefacts (skip-render works)
* autoUnseal.enabled=true → both Jobs + correct hook weights
* kubernetesAuth.enabled=false → init Job only, no auth-bootstrap
* idempotency annotations present on all 5 hook objects
- tests/observability-toggle.sh — unchanged, all 3 cases green.
- helm lint . — clean.
Files:
- platform/openbao/chart/Chart.yaml — version 1.1.1 → 1.2.0
- platform/openbao/blueprint.yaml — version 1.1.1 → 1.2.0
- platform/openbao/chart/values.yaml — `autoUnseal.*` block
- platform/openbao/chart/templates/auto-unseal-rbac.yaml — new
- platform/openbao/chart/templates/init-job.yaml — new
- platform/openbao/chart/templates/auth-bootstrap-job.yaml — new
- platform/openbao/chart/tests/auto-unseal-toggle.sh — new
- platform/openbao/README.md — bootstrap procedure §2-3 expanded;
auto-unseal alternatives table added.
- clusters/_template/bootstrap-kit/08-openbao.yaml — chart 1.1.1 →
1.2.0, autoUnseal.enabled=true.
- infra/hetzner/cloudinit-control-plane.tftpl — seed-token block
inserted between ghcr-pull-secret apply and flux-bootstrap apply.
- docs/omantel-handover-wbs.md §9 — #316 ticked chart-released.
Canonical seam used: extended existing `platform/openbao/chart/` per
the anti-duplication rule. NO standalone scripts. NO bespoke Go cloud
calls. NO `{{ fail }}`. All knobs configurable via values.yaml per
INVIOLABLE-PRINCIPLES.md #4 (never hardcode).
Co-authored-by: hatiyildiz <hat.yil@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
|
||
|---|---|---|
| .claude | ||
| .github | ||
| .playwright-mcp | ||
| clusters | ||
| core | ||
| docs | ||
| infra/hetzner | ||
| platform | ||
| products | ||
| scripts | ||
| tests | ||
| .gitignore | ||
| CLAUDE.md | ||
| README.md | ||
OpenOva Catalyst
A self-sufficient Kubernetes-native platform. Published as signed OCI Blueprints. Deployable as your own Sovereign.
Catalyst is the open-source platform built by OpenOva. It turns any Kubernetes cluster into a Sovereign: a self-contained control plane that hosts Organizations, Environments, and Applications via GitOps + Crossplane, with a unified UI/Git/API for users.
Documentation
| Document | What it covers |
|---|---|
docs/GLOSSARY.md |
Canonical terminology — read first |
docs/ARCHITECTURE.md |
Catalyst architecture overview |
docs/IMPLEMENTATION-STATUS.md |
What's built today vs what's design-only — read second |
docs/NAMING-CONVENTION.md |
Naming patterns for every resource type |
docs/PERSONAS-AND-JOURNEYS.md |
Personas × journeys matrix; surfaces |
docs/SECURITY.md |
Identity (SPIFFE + Keycloak), secrets (OpenBao + ESO), rotation, multi-region semantics |
docs/SOVEREIGN-PROVISIONING.md |
How to bring a Sovereign online |
docs/BLUEPRINT-AUTHORING.md |
Writing Blueprints (incl. Crossplane Compositions) |
docs/PLATFORM-TECH-STACK.md |
Every component's role in Catalyst |
docs/SRE.md |
Operating a Sovereign |
docs/BUSINESS-STRATEGY.md |
Product strategy and GTM |
docs/TECHNOLOGY-FORECAST-2027-2030.md |
Component forecast 2027–2030 |
docs/VALIDATION-LOG.md |
Trail of doc-integrity validation passes (audit log) |
Heads-up before reading further: the architecture docs in this repo describe Catalyst's target state. Significant portions are not yet implemented — see
docs/IMPLEMENTATION-STATUS.mdfor what exists today vs what is design.
The model in 60 seconds
OpenOva (the company) publishes Catalyst (the platform).
A deployed Catalyst is called a Sovereign.
A Sovereign has:
- Organizations (multi-tenancy unit)
- Environments (org-scoped, env-typed: prod/stg/uat/dev/poc)
- Applications (installed Blueprints)
- Blueprints (the App Store catalog — public + Org-private)
Users install Applications from Blueprints into Environments.
Blueprints can depend on Blueprints (arbitrary depth).
Each Environment is one Gitea repo + one or more vclusters.
Every state change is a Git commit.
Every UI surface reads from a single CQRS projection.
Same code runs in every Sovereign:
- openova (run by us; SaaS Organizations)
- omantel (run by Omantel; SME Organizations across Oman)
- bankdhofar (run by the bank; internal Organizations)
- your-company (run by you, on infrastructure you choose)
See docs/GLOSSARY.md for every term, docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the full picture.
What's in this repo
openova/
├── core/ # Catalyst control-plane application (Go) — design-stage; mostly placeholders today
├── platform/ # Component Blueprint folders (one folder per upstream OSS project)
├── products/ # Composite Blueprint folders OpenOva publishes
│ ├── catalyst/ # The Catalyst control plane itself, target umbrella Blueprint
│ ├── cortex/ # AI Hub (LLM serving, RAG, AI safety)
│ ├── axon/ # SaaS LLM Gateway (default upstream for Cortex)
│ ├── fingate/ # Open Banking (PSD2/FAPI sandbox)
│ ├── fabric/ # Data & Integration (event-driven + lakehouse)
│ └── relay/ # Communication (email, video, chat, WebRTC)
│ # (specter and exodus are deliverable services, not Blueprints in this layout)
└── docs/ # Platform documentation
Each folder under platform/ and products/ is the source of one Blueprint, published from CI as a signed OCI artifact at ghcr.io/openova-io/bp-<name>:<semver> (the bp- prefix is added to the OCI artifact name; folder names stay short). Per-folder isolation is provided at the OCI artifact layer, not the Git repo layer — this is a monorepo with per-Blueprint fan-out, not a meta-repo of separate Git repositories. See docs/BLUEPRINT-AUTHORING.md §2 for the folder layout contract.
Today, the 12-component bootstrap kit (cilium, cert-manager, flux, crossplane, sealed-secrets, spire, nats-jetstream, openbao, keycloak, gitea, powerdns + the bp-catalyst-platform umbrella under
products/catalyst/) ships with fullchart/+blueprint.yamlperdocs/IMPLEMENTATION-STATUS.md§7, plusproducts/axon/and theexternal-dnsleaf chart. The remaining 45 platform components and thecortex / fabric / fingate / relayproduct folders are design-stage — README only — until each lands its Blueprint manifest, chart, Compositions, and CI fan-out.
Stack at a glance
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Container runtime | k3s (k8s-conformant), containerd |
| CNI / Service Mesh | Cilium (eBPF mTLS, L7 policies, Gateway API) |
| GitOps | Flux (per-vcluster, lightweight) |
| Git | Gitea (per-Sovereign, hosts Blueprint mirror + per-Environment repos) |
| IaC for non-K8s | Crossplane (the only IaC; not user-facing) |
| Bootstrap IaC | OpenTofu (one-shot, archived after Phase 0) |
| Multi-tenancy | vcluster (one per Organization per host cluster) |
| Identity (workloads) | SPIFFE/SPIRE (5-min rotating SVIDs, mTLS everywhere) |
| Identity (users) | Keycloak (per-Org for SME, per-Sovereign for corporate) |
| Secrets | OpenBao (Apache 2.0; independent Raft per region, no stretched cluster) + External Secrets Operator |
| Event spine | NATS JetStream (Apache 2.0; pub/sub + KV; per-Org accounts) |
| TLS | cert-manager + Let's Encrypt or corporate CA |
| Policy | Kyverno |
| Supply chain | cosign (Sigstore), Syft + Grype SBOM, Trivy scans |
| Runtime security | Falco (eBPF) |
| Observability | OpenTelemetry → Grafana stack (Alloy + Loki + Mimir + Tempo) |
| WAF | Coraza (OWASP CRS) |
| DNS | PowerDNS authoritative per Sovereign zone + DNSSEC + lua-records (ifurlup, pickclosest); pool-domain-manager allocates pool subdomains and flips parent-zone NS via registrar adapters (Cloudflare / Namecheap / GoDaddy / OVH / Dynadot) — see docs/MULTI-REGION-DNS.md, docs/PLATFORM-POWERDNS.md |
| Backup | Velero (to SeaweedFS, which routes the cold tier to cloud archival S3) |
| Container registry | Harbor |
For the full component list and trends see docs/PLATFORM-TECH-STACK.md and docs/TECHNOLOGY-FORECAST-2027-2030.md.
Cloud providers
| Provider | Status |
|---|---|
| Hetzner Cloud | Available (most-tested path) |
| AWS / GCP / Azure | Crossplane providers available; full path coming |
| Oracle Cloud (OCI) | Crossplane provider available; full path coming |
| Huawei Cloud | Crossplane provider available; full path coming |
All providers reach Catalyst via the same Crossplane abstraction; Sovereign provisioning details per provider are in docs/SOVEREIGN-PROVISIONING.md.
Getting started
Try it (managed)
Visit marketplace.openova.io to install Applications on the openova Sovereign without any infrastructure setup. SaaS journey for SMEs and evaluations.
Run your own Sovereign
1. Provision via catalyst-provisioner.openova.io (managed bootstrap), OR
2. Self-host bp-catalyst-provisioner in your own infrastructure (air-gap path).
Then follow the procedure in docs/SOVEREIGN-PROVISIONING.md.
Build a Blueprint
See docs/BLUEPRINT-AUTHORING.md. A Blueprint is a folder under platform/<name>/ (or products/<name>/) in this monorepo containing blueprint.yaml + manifests (Helm chart or Kustomize base) + (optional) Crossplane Compositions. CI signs each folder's contents and publishes to OCI as ghcr.io/openova-io/bp-<name>:<semver>. Catalyst's blueprint-controller picks it up automatically. Org-private Blueprints follow the same shape inside per-Sovereign Gitea repos.
License
All Blueprints and the Catalyst control plane are open source. Each component carries its own upstream license (typically Apache 2.0, MPL 2.0, or BSD-3); see each component's LICENSE file.
OpenOva charges for support, managed operations, and expert services — never for access to code. See docs/BUSINESS-STRATEGY.md §10.
Contributing
PRs welcome. The contribution path for Blueprints (including Crossplane Compositions) is documented in docs/BLUEPRINT-AUTHORING.md §13. Issues and discussions on GitHub.
Cloud-native is the foundation. Catalyst is how you operate it.