archipelagoandClaude Opus 5
8908fb4ff9
"Bitcoin Knots disappeared again, plus other apps." Root cause is a pairing, not a single bug: quadlet renders `podman run ... --replace --rm`, so the container is deleted the moment it stops, and from_manifest set Restart=on-failure, which declines to restart after a CLEAN exit. bitcoind exits 0 on SIGTERM. So any clean stop deleted the container AND left it deleted — the app vanished from podman and from My Apps until a later archipelago reconcile tick noticed and recreated it. That is the "previously-running app has no container after boot — recreating (desired-state recovery)" line, which fired for bitcoin-knots at 18:53, 19:57 and 20:39 and for electrumx at 19:57 and 20:42 on 2026-08-07. A crash always self-healed: on-failure restarted the unit and podman run recreated the container. Only a clean exit stranded it, which is why this survived so long. The justification for on-failure was wrong on systemd's own semantics. It read "clean exits — e.g. operator-issued systemctl stop — stay stopped", but Restart= is never consulted for a unit stopped via systemctl stop (systemd.service(5)), and that is exactly how archipelago stops these apps (prod_orchestrator -> stop_service_with_timeout). Always keeps the stopped-stays-stopped behaviour and drops the failure mode. Always also restores the premise of the Quadlet migration — systemd owns supervision, so an app returns without archipelago alive to notice it left. Checked before flipping: no manifest declares a one-shot container and there is no manifest-level restart field, so nothing gets restart-looped. Propagation to existing nodes is via sync_quadlet_unit's drift re-render, which rewrites the unit and daemon-reloads WITHOUT restarting the service — running containers are undisturbed and the new policy governs the next start. OnFailure is kept as a deliberate opt-in with a note not to wire it back to backends. Two tests now pin the new default and assert on-failure is absent from a rendered backend unit. Container suite 215/215. NOTE FOR THE OPERATOR: this changes supervision semantics for every app on the Quadlet canary path. Wants sign-off and a lifecycle-gate run before OTA. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <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
- Operations Runbook
- 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
| 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 |
| Operations Runbook | Production operations and recovery |
| Open Source Readiness | Public-release cleanup checklist |
| Roadmap | Shipped, in-progress, and planned work |
| Unified Task Tracker | Launch hardening task list |
| 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.