The four ports were the only entries in services_config.yml with a real
justification: each is read twice, by the role that deploys the service on its
own box AND by a socket-proxy or Caddy play that runs on the EDGE host and
publishes it. A role default is invisible to that second play.
But the shape was wrong in two ways. The file had to be named in vars_files: by
30 plays - opt-in configuration that someone will eventually forget - and five
role defaults silently interpolated service_settings.*, so bitcoin_knots,
fulcrum, datum_gateway and mempool were not self-contained: using any of them
without that one vars_file entry broke it.
Each port now lives in host_vars/<owning box>/main.yml:
host_vars/knots_box_local/main.yml bitcoin_p2p_port, datum_gateway_api_port,
datum_gateway_stratum_port
host_vars/fulcrum_box_local/main.yml fulcrum_ssl_port
host_vars/mempool_box_local/main.yml mempool_frontend_port
host_vars auto-loads and outranks role defaults, so the owning role picks the
value up with no vars_files at all, and the edge play reads the same single
definition as hostvars['<host>'].<name>. The role defaults keep the protocol
standard (8333, 50002, ...) so each role still works standalone, with the live
deployment's value in host_vars winning.
Also fixed a fourth copy of an inventory identity: the mempool Caddy play had
"mempool-box:{{ ... }}" hardcoded in the upstream. It now derives the host from
hostvars['mempool_box_local'].ansible_host, so inventory is the only place any
box's name is written down.
services_config.yml is deleted, with 25 more vars_files entries across 19
playbooks. Between this and the previous commit, 87 vars_files entries are gone
and every variable in the repo now comes from group_vars/all, host_vars,
inventory, a role default, or that service's own *_vars.yml.
Verification: an edge-host probe resolves all eight ports and hostnames to
byte-identical values to the ones services_config.yml used to supply. Each
owning host resolves its own port through host_vars. All 37 playbooks'
--list-tasks output is unchanged. The four edge plays that consume these values
all check-diff changed=0 - the socket-proxy and Caddy units on vipy are
byte-identical, which is the direct proof the rewiring landed on the same
values. fulcrum and datum-gateway check-diff exactly as before (ok=28/changed=1
and ok=15/changed=1, both the known timer re-arm).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three files existed only as second copies of things group_vars/all already
auto-loads, and 34 playbooks named them in vars_files: - which outranks
group_vars, so the copies won. The day someone edited one and not the other,
those plays would silently keep the stale value. infra_vars.yml was already
drifting: group_vars/all/main.yml had grown age_backup_recipient and
backup_pull_public_key that it lacked.
infra_vars.yml - a strict subset of group_vars/all/main.yml
infra_secrets.yml - decrypts byte-identical to group_vars/all/vault.yml
infra_secrets.yml.example - documented Uptime Kuma credentials as the reason
the file exists, which stopped being true
Deleted, along with 62 vars_files entries across 34 playbooks (12 of which
named ../../group_vars/all/main.yml directly - same defect, a vars_files entry
duplicating an auto-loaded file at higher precedence than the file itself).
Checked before touching anything: infra_secrets.yml was listed LAST in 10 plays,
after services_config.yml, so removal would flip precedence if the two shared a
key. They share none, and neither does services_config.yml with
group_vars/all/main.yml, so the removal is provably inert.
services_config.yml was the last one standing. It held four unrelated things:
caddy_sites_dir - an identical copy of roles/caddy_site/defaults/.
Deleted; the role default is now the only one.
*.tailscale_hostname (x3) - a THIRD copy of each box's identity, which
inventory.ini already holds as ansible_host.
Deleted. Edge plays now read
hostvars['<host>'].ansible_host - verified an
edge play resolves that with nothing loaded and
the other host in no play. Three copies of one
name is how bitcoin_rpc_host ended up labelled
"knots_box" while pointing at fulcrum-box.
subdomains, ntfy topic, - genuinely global: their readers span managed,
headscale namespace monitoring, vpn_control and edge, so no single
group covers them. Moved to group_vars/all/main.yml
where they auto-load. The ntfy_topic and
headscale_namespace indirection through
service_settings collapses to the global name.
the four cross-host ports - the only entries with a real justification.
Left in place; they move in the next commit.
Also dead, all Uptime Kuma residue or duplication:
phoenixd_monitor_name, forgejo_runner healthcheck_timeout_seconds/retries,
fulcrum_tailscale_hostname, and bitcoin_knots_version - the last being a
v-prefixed copy of bitcoin_knots_version_short that nothing read, two
hand-maintained copies of one version string.
Corrected a false comment: services_config.yml claimed the uptime_kuma subdomain
"no longer resolves to anything". It resolves to 164.92.239.72 and answers HTTP
302, and 11 playbooks still template it. Same wrong premise as PLAN_3.
Verification: all 37 playbooks' --list-tasks output is byte-identical before and
after. A probe resolving all 22 values services_config.yml used to supply returns
21 identical and one intended deletion (caddy_sites_dir, now role-only - confirmed
the role still resolves it: "Ensure Caddy sites-enabled directory exists" comes
back ok against the real path). memos check-diff identical before and after.
Syntax passes on every playbook.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
892-line playbook becomes 40 lines plus a role with install/build/configure/
service/healthcheck phases, five templates and one handler. bitcoin_knots_vars.yml
is deleted; its content is the role's defaults.
Verified after a real run: bitcoind still active since 2026-08-19 (NO restart),
chain at 966844 blocks / 875 GB, DATUM config intact, dbcache still 200, health
check timer firing again. changed=3, all health-check. vipy changed=0.
⚠ THE BIG ONE: the playbook would have deleted the mining integration.
bitcoin.conf on the node carries a section that was hand-added and was missing
from the template entirely:
blockmaxsize=3985000
blockmaxweight=3985000
blocknotify=killall -USR1 datum_gateway
maxmempool=1000
blockreconstructionextratxn=1000000
blocknotify is how datum_gateway learns a new block landed. Running the old
playbook would have stripped all of it and solo mining would have carried on
against a stale template - a silent failure that costs money rather than raising
an error. Also dbcache 200 -> 3528 (hand-tuned down; the calculation wants 90% of
RAM) and logging moved off the file. All now reconciled, dbcache behind
bitcoin_dbcache_mb_override.
bitcoin-knots and datum-gateway are ONE SYSTEM. Noted in the README.
AND MY OWN FIX MADE IT MORE DANGEROUS. The `Restart bitcoind` handler was guarded
by uptime_kuma_enabled, so it had been inert: bitcoin.conf and the systemd unit
both notify it and neither could restart anything - a config change applied to
disk, reported success, and never took effect. Ungating that is right, but it
converts "wrong config sitting inertly on disk" into "node restarted onto a
config that breaks mining". The ungating had to land WITH the template
reconciliation, not before it.
It also raises the bar permanently: any residual template/live difference now
restarts a Bitcoin node on every run. Four rounds of --check --diff to reach
changed=0 - the DATUM section, an explanatory comment that was rendering into the
deployed config (now a {# #} Jinja comment), a "# Pruning (optional)" comment the
live file had, and one trailing blank line.
The build path is 32 tasks all guarded by `not bitcoind_binary_exists.stat.exists`,
so a converged host skips the 30-60 minute compile and both `state: absent`
deletions. Those target /opt/bitcoin-knots/{source,bitcoin-<version>}; the chain
is in /mnt/knots_data and is never touched. Signature-verification tasks copied
verbatim.
The health check timer had last fired 2026-08-09 while reporting active/enabled -
same OnBootSec + OnUnitActiveSec dead chain as fulcrum. The role runs the check
once after enabling to supply the reference the timer schedules from.
Ownership parity checked mechanically against `git show HEAD:`, keyed by TASK
NAME rather than path - keying by path gave a false positive, because
bitcoin_knots_source_dir is created with ownership and later removed with
state: absent, so whichever task comes last wins and that differs between one
file and five. 13/13 match.
bitcoin_p2p_port and the tailscale hostname moved to services_config.yml for the
socket-proxy play on the edge host.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
All five close-out greps return nothing: no sites-enabled handling outside
roles/, no `systemctl reload caddy`, no caddy_sites_dir self-reference, no
inline proxy unit writes. 37 playbooks syntax clean. The 14 Caddy site files
and 6 proxy units on the hosts are byte-identical to the Stage 0 baseline.
Seven play names still said "on vipy" while the play targeted a group. Renamed
to "on the edge host" - the last place a play claimed a hostname after Plan 2.
Documented the four vhosts in /etc/caddy/sites-enabled that no playbook writes
(uptime-kuma, arbretstaging, bitcoininfra, scriberr) in the caddy_site README.
None deleted.
uptime-kuma.conf was going to be deleted as dead config. It is not dead: the
louislam/uptime-kuma container is STILL RUNNING on watchtower - created
2026-02-07, restart=unless-stopped, healthy - and uptime.contrapeso.xyz returns
302, not the 502 a dead backend would give. The "decommissioning" retired the
Ansible code and the vault credentials, not the service. PLAN_3 claimed "the
tokens died with the server"; that is corrected there.
The Caddyfile.* backups are kept: one per host, Nov-Dec 2025, not churning, and
the only record of each Caddyfile before the import line was added.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three near-identical hosts: edge plays become one role plus three short
calls. 183 lines removed, 34 added, plus a 111-line role.
Verified before touching any playbook: all six live units on vipy reproduced
byte-identically. Then --limit edge --check per playbook - bitcoin-knots and
fulcrum changed=0; datum-gateway changed=2, both attributable to the already
known caddy_site comment line and the Reload caddy handler it triggers.
The 6 units and 14 Caddy files on the hosts are byte-identical afterwards.
PLAN_4 claimed these three plays had "no behavioural drift at all". That was
wrong - it came from a diff truncated by head -60. The live bitcoin-p2p-proxy
units carry four settings this playbook never wrote:
.socket Documentation=, FreeBind=true
.service Documentation=, TimeoutStopSec=5,
StandardOutput=journal, StandardError=journal
FreeBind is the one that matters: it lets the socket bind to an address that
is not up yet, so without it the socket can fail to start on boot. Running
the bitcoin-knots playbook would have stripped it. Same class of hazard as
headscale. The role expresses all four; bitcoin-p2p is the only caller that
passes any.
Also: UFW treats the rule comment as part of the rule. datum-stratum's live
comment is "DATUM Gateway Stratum public access" but the role's derived
default produced "DATUM Stratum public access", which rewrote the rule.
Caught in the dry-run; datum now passes the comment explicitly.
Two deliberate differences from the original, both documented in the README:
ignore_errors: yes on the upstream check became failed_when: false, and the
handler restarts the .socket, which drops connections open through it - it
fires only when a unit file actually changes.
The inert Uptime Kuma TCP monitor blocks stay in the playbooks rather than
being pulled into a new role (12/12/18 guarded tasks).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Removing the credentials would otherwise break these playbooks mid-deploy: they
template uptime_kuma_password with no assert to stop them first. 100 tasks are
now guarded by uptime_kuma_enabled (false), so deployments run normally and the
monitoring sections skip. A further 28 tasks were already self-guarding on
monitor_setup/push_url being defined; verified that a skipped task's registered
variable makes those skip cleanly rather than error.
The blocks are kept on purpose — the health-check logic is the durable part and
should be rewired to whatever replaces Uptime Kuma.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
