archipelagoandClaude Fable 5
24e378c421
The dashboard's "Restart Tor" button dispatched to this helper and always
got {"ok":true} back. Two real defects, in order of importance — and one
disproved theory, recorded so nobody re-chases it:
1. reset-failed was missing. Once tor@default fails enough times systemd
latches "Start request repeated too quickly" and refuses to start it at
all; a plain restart is then a no-op no matter which unit you name.
All three fleet nodes found dead on 2026-08-09 were in exactly that
state, which is why the button appeared to do nothing.
2. The result was unconditional. The write-torrc branch waited up to 30s
for SOCKS and then ignored the outcome; the restart branch slept 3s and
claimed success. The UI reported "restarted" over a dead daemon.
Disproved: this was NOT wrong-unit targeting. `systemctl restart tor`
does propagate to tor@default — measured on austin-sapien, MainPID
changed. tor@default is still addressed explicitly because it is the
unit carrying the failed state worth resetting.
restart_tor_daemon() now: reset-failed, restart tor@default (fall back to
tor on single-instance installs), wait up to 30s for SOCKS on 9050, and
return {"ok":false,"error":...} pointing at journalctl when it never
comes up. Callers may no longer report success without a live SOCKS port.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Archipelago
Self-sovereign Bitcoin node OS and manifest-driven app platform.
Archipelago is a bootable personal server OS for Bitcoin infrastructure,
self-hosted apps, mesh communication, decentralized identity, and federation.
Apps are packaged as declarative manifest.yml files and run as rootless
Podman containers managed by the Rust backend.
What is here
core/- Rust workspace: backend API, container runtime, security, OpenWrt helpers, and performance/resource management.neode-ui/- Vue 3 + TypeScript frontend.apps/- app manifests and custom app container sources.docker/- supporting container build contexts for UI companion surfaces.image-recipe/- bootable image/ISO build inputs.Android/- Android companion app.scripts/- development, release, deployment, and validation tooling.docs/- architecture, app packaging, operations, API, and roadmap docs.
Platform model
Archipelago is built as a developer-ready app platform, not a fixed appliance:
- Apps are declared in
apps/<app-id>/manifest.yml. - The Rust parser in
core/container/src/manifest.rsis the canonical schema. - The orchestrator compiles manifests to rootless Podman/Quadlet runtime state.
- App data lives under
/var/lib/archipelago/<app-id>/. - Secrets are generated or read from
/var/lib/archipelago/secrets/and injected through Podman secrets rather than static environment values. - Release and app catalogs are signed and verified against a pinned trust anchor.
Start with:
- Architecture
- Developer Guide
- App Developer Guide
- App Manifest Spec
- Nostr Git Source Hosting Plan
- Troubleshooting
Quick start
Frontend
cd neode-ui
npm install
npm start
The dev UI runs at http://localhost:8100 with a mock backend on :5959.
Backend
cd core
cargo build
cargo test --all-features
Linux is the supported backend runtime and release-build target. macOS is fine for frontend work and many Rust compile/test loops, but host integration tests that touch Podman, systemd, networking, or image build paths require Linux.
App manifests
./scripts/validate-app-manifest.sh apps/filebrowser/manifest.yml
python3 scripts/generate-app-catalog.py
python3 scripts/check-app-catalog-drift.py --release --strict
scripts/generate-app-catalog.py requires Python with PyYAML installed.
Documentation map
The full, grouped index lives at docs/README.md. The most common entry points:
| Doc | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Architecture | System layers, crates, data paths, security model |
| Developer Guide | Local setup, code workflow, testing |
| API Reference | JSON-RPC API overview |
| App Developer Guide | How to package and test apps |
| App Manifest Spec | Manifest schema and validation rules |
| Nostr Git Source Hosting Plan | ngit/NIP-34 contribution workflow and maintainer model |
| Apps README | Packaged app catalog overview |
| Image Recipe | Bootable image build flow |
| Roadmap | Shipped, in-progress, and planned work |
| Archive | Historical plans, audits, and handoffs |
Contributing
Read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request. For security issues, follow SECURITY.md and do not open a public issue.
License
Archipelago is licensed under the MIT License. Third-party notices are listed in NOTICE and generated license inventories in component release artifacts.