Joakim Persson
6e8172d93a
Three docs said the primary was "seeded from EMB-7KJ4VR4G's palace", which is
true but stops one hop short. That palace was itself carried over from
EMB-X1JY06WJ, the previous work computer, when it was replaced around
2026-07-06.
Evidence, read read-only out of the frozen archive on EMB-7KJ4VR4G: 76 drawers
carry `source_machine=EMB-X1JY06WJ` and they are the oldest in the store --
earliest filed_at 2026-05-04, two months before that machine's stack existed --
with no other source_machine value present. The remaining ~16k were filed
locally afterwards (15,189 in July, 1,073 in August). Last write is
2026-08-14T15:07:06, the seed instant.
Two consequences, recorded in rfc-001 S4.4:
- It was the *second* whole-palace file copy, not the first, and both were
single-source clones. So the method has two successes behind it and still
zero exercises of merge semantics -- S7.6 is *less* tested than "we've done
this twice" would suggest, not more.
- The primary now holds records from a machine that no longer exists, and
`source_machine` is the only thing marking them. Not noise; don't prune it.
Also corrects a94eb7f, which inferred the archive's origin from the
`.devbox-owner` marker. That marker only records that the devbox adopted the
directory and says nothing about provenance -- the archive predates the stack.
And native pi on EMB-7KJ4VR4G is "not installed *yet*", a deferred hazard rather
than a closed one: a native install there would resolve its palace to
~/.mempalace, i.e. the frozen archive, and split that machine's memory from
central silently. Flip at install time.
250 lines
15 KiB
Markdown
250 lines
15 KiB
Markdown
# synlig primary — Phase 0 runbook and handoff
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Companion to [`rfc-001-global-palace.md`](./rfc-001-global-palace.md). Records what was actually done
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on the primary, with verified evidence, so the next session (or the next machine) does not re-derive it.
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> **Status 2026-08-14 17:00 — SUPERSEDED IN PART. The primary is live, exposed, and seeded.**
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> Serving since 2026-08-12 at `https://mempalace.jordbo.se/mcp`. Seeded 2026-08-14 15:07 from
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> EMB-7KJ4VR4G's palace (itself a carry-over from the previous work computer EMB-X1JY06WJ — rfc-001 §4.4)
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> — 14,777 drawers / 9 wings / 16,337 embeddings / KG 46 entities, 34 triples,
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> now 14,803 drawers. One client (EMB-7KJ4VR4G's pi-devbox container) is flipped and verified
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> end-to-end. Both Phase 0 blockers below are cleared.
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>
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> **Read §3 "Deliberately NOT done" as a record of the 2026-08-10 state, not of today's** — every
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> item in it has since been done. And before running anything in §5 Rollback, read the warning at the
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> top of it: `~/.mempalace` on synlig is no longer disposable.
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Original status, kept for the record:
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**Status 2026-08-10 00:30 — Phase 0 prep complete. Not serving. Nothing exposed.**
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Blocked on two things, both deliberately left to Joakim: the Pangolin update on nyvaken, and one `sudo`.
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---
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## 1. What synlig is (discovered, not assumed)
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| Fact | Value |
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| --- | --- |
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| SSH | `synlig` → `synlig.erdc.ericsson.net`, user `ecsjper` (from `~/.ssh/config`) |
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| OS | Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS, 7.8 GiB RAM, 78 G disk (**29 G free**), uptime 12 d |
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| Python / uv | system `python3` 3.12.3; `uv` at `~/.local/bin/uv` (**not** on the non-login `PATH`) |
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| Interfaces | `lo` 127.0.0.1, `ens3` 10.0.0.4/16, `docker0` 172.17.0.1/16, `br-…` 172.19.0.1/16 |
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| Already listening | 22, 80, 443, 3000 (node), 3389 + 3350 + 4822 (xrdp/guacamole), 631 |
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| Docker | present; running `act_runner-runner-1` (**Gitea Actions runner**) and `digikam` |
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| Pre-existing MemPalace | **none** — no `mempalace` binary, no `~/.mempalace`. Greenfield. |
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The Gitea Actions runner living here is worth remembering: synlig is not a dedicated appliance, and CI
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load competes with the palace for the same 7.8 GiB.
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## 2. Done tonight
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### 2.1 MemPalace installed, pinned to the fleet version
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```sh
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~/.local/bin/uv tool install "mempalace==3.6.0" # → mempalace, mempalace-mcp
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```
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Pinned deliberately: the clients run 3.6.0, and the id recipes / idempotency probes this RFC leans on are
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version-specific. Reversible with `uv tool uninstall mempalace`.
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### 2.2 Embedder model pre-warmed — the corporate-network risk that wasn't
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The first embed pulls `all-MiniLM-L6-v2` ONNX (79.3 MB) from the chroma CDN into
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`~/.cache/chroma/onnx_models/` (167 M on disk once unpacked). **This was the main unknown** — an
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egress-filtered work VM would have failed here, at the worst possible moment (first client write).
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It downloaded at ~20 MB/s with no proxy interference. Done in a throwaway palace, since deleted, so the
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real palace never saw it. Same model as the clients use, so the semantic space matches.
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### 2.3 Palace created with the §7.1 landmine structurally removed
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`~/.mempalace/palace` — the **stock default**, so no `MEMPALACE_PALACE_PATH` and no `config.json` is
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needed anywhere on synlig. One less thing to drift.
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RFC §7.1 says to `mv` three HOME-anchored stores into the palace dir before first `serve`. **On a
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greenfield primary there is nothing to move — but the hazard is not actually a migration hazard, and the
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RFC understated it:** with *stock defaults* `palace_path` is `~/.mempalace/palace` while `DEFAULT_KG_PATH`
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is `~/.mempalace/knowledge_graph.sqlite3`. Those differ, so the split is the **out-of-the-box** behaviour,
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not a consequence of a custom path. It is permanent, not one-time: `serve` always passes `--palace` (KG
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inside the palace), while any CLI command run *without* `--palace` uses the HOME path. Two KGs on one box,
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forever, silently.
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Fixed by making both resolution rules land on one inode:
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```sh
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ln -sfn palace/knowledge_graph.sqlite3 ~/.mempalace/knowledge_graph.sqlite3
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ln -sfn palace/known_entities.json ~/.mempalace/known_entities.json
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```
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Relative targets, so a home-directory move survives. `hallways.json` was originally left **un**symlinked:
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it is already palace-derived, and its HOME path is a warning-only legacy probe (`hallways.py:73-95`) that
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never auto-migrates.
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> **Update 2026-08-14 — `hallways.json` is now symlinked too**, during the seeding session:
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> ```sh
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> ln -sfn palace/hallways.json ~/.mempalace/hallways.json
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> ```
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> Rationale changed: the point is no longer "only symlink what the code demands" but *all real state
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> lives under `palace/` as a single backup unit*, so one `palace/` copy is a complete copy. All three
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> parent-level paths now resolve, which matters because mempalace 3.6.0 resolves these three paths
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> inconsistently (MCP server: palace-relative; KG CLI default: `~/.mempalace`; `hallways.json`:
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> `dirname(palace_path)`; `known_entities.json`: hardcoded `~`). Revert by deleting the symlink if it
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> ever causes trouble.
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Verified the symlink assumption rather than trusting it (`python3 sqlite3` on synlig, temp dir):
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| Check | Result |
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| --- | --- |
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| Dangling symlink + `sqlite3.connect` | creates the target |
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| `-wal` / `-shm` placement | next to the **target**, inside the palace dir — *not* beside the symlink |
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| Write via symlink → read via palace path | same data, **same inode** |
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The WAL placement is the part that mattered: it keeps the palace directory a single self-contained
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backup/bind-mount unit.
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### 2.4 §6.2's Host/Origin policy verified by experiment, not by reading
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Ran on synlig, loopback and docker0 binds, then stopped. **11/11 as predicted:**
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| # | Bind | Request | Expected | Got |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| A1 | 127.0.0.1 | `/healthz`, correct Host | 200 | ✅ 200 |
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| A2 | 127.0.0.1 | `/healthz`, `Host: palace.example.com` | **403** | ✅ 403 |
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| A3 | 127.0.0.1 | `/healthz`, `Origin: https://evil.example` | 403 | ✅ 403 |
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| A4 | 127.0.0.1 | `POST /mcp`, no token | 401 | ✅ 401 |
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| A5 | 127.0.0.1 | `POST /mcp`, wrong token | 401 | ✅ 401 |
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| A6 | 127.0.0.1 | `POST /mcp`, correct token | 200 | ✅ 200 (`tools/list` → **36 tools**) |
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| B1 | 172.17.0.1 | `/healthz`, bound-host Host | 200 | ✅ 200 |
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| B2 | 172.17.0.1 | `/healthz`, `Host: palace.example.com` | **200** | ✅ 200 |
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| B3 | 172.17.0.1 | `/healthz`, `Origin: https://evil.example` | 403 | ✅ 403 |
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| B4 | 172.17.0.1 | `/healthz`, loopback Origin | 200 | ✅ 200 |
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| B5 | 172.17.0.1 | `POST /mcp`, foreign Host + token | 200 | ✅ 200 |
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**Operational conclusions:**
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1. **Do not bind loopback behind the tunnel.** A2 vs B2 is the whole story: the reflex "bind 127.0.0.1,
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it's safer" produces a 403 that looks like a Pangolin misconfiguration and is not one.
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2. **Bind `172.17.0.1` (docker0).** Non-loopback, so the Host pin relaxes — but reachable only from
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synlig and its containers, so a newt container on this box can reach it while the LAN cannot. This is
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strictly better than `0.0.0.0` here. It is what `contrib/systemd/mempalace-serve.service` uses.
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3. **`Origin` is never relaxed** (B3). No browser-based MCP client, and no proxy that injects `Origin`.
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4. `/healthz` is Host/Origin-gated but token-free — a usable liveness probe for the tunnel.
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Test script kept at `/tmp/synlig-phase0-test.sh` on this container (ephemeral — re-create from the table
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above if needed; it starts, probes and stops the server, and asserts nothing is left listening).
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### 2.5 A start unit, written but not installed
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`contrib/systemd/mempalace-serve.service` — user unit, follows the existing `contrib/systemd/` style,
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carries the bind rationale inline so nobody "fixes" it back to loopback. A copy is already staged on synlig
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at `~/.config/systemd/user/mempalace-serve.service.staged` — **the `.staged` suffix is deliberate**:
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systemd only reads `*.service`, so the file cannot be activated by accident, not even by a stray
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`daemon-reload`. **Not** installed, **not** enabled: it needs one `sudo loginctl enable-linger`, and
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standing up a network-reachable service while you were asleep was not mine to decide.
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## 3. Deliberately NOT done
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> **⚠️ Historical — this section describes 2026-08-10 and is no longer true.** All five items were
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> done between 2026-08-12 and 2026-08-14. Kept because the *reasoning* for deferring them is still
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> the record of why the order was chosen. Current state per item is inlined below.
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- **Nothing is serving.** No listener on 8765; no mempalace process. Re-verified at the end of the run.
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→ **Now serving** since 2026-08-12 (`mempalace-serve.service`, `systemctl --user`), reachable at
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`https://mempalace.jordbo.se/mcp` via newt/Pangolin.
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- **No client `.env` was touched.** Your working setup is exactly as you left it (R6: reversible).
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→ **One client flipped 2026-08-14**: four variables on EMB-7KJ4VR4G, `docker-compose.yaml` unchanged.
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Still reversible in ~30s (§3.8 of [`phase-1-exposure-runbook.md`](./phase-1-exposure-runbook.md)).
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- **No data joined.** The palace is empty. The §4.4 join needs the diary-dedup decision (§7.6) first —
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replaying diaries today duplicates them, and the primary is the one place that must stay clean.
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→ **Seeded 2026-08-14** from *one* palace by file-level copy. This sidestepped §7.6 rather than
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solving it: a file-level copy replays no diaries, so it cannot duplicate them. **§7.6 is still a
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hard blocker for the second machine to join.**
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- **nyvaken untouched.** Read nothing, changed nothing.
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- **No sudo.** `sudo -n` on synlig requires a password.
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## 4. Tomorrow, in order
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> **2026-08-12: items 1–2 and 5 now have their own runbook —**
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> [`phase-1-exposure-runbook.md`](./phase-1-exposure-runbook.md). Pangolin on nyvaken is updated (done),
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> and **newt is now installed on synlig and connected to Pangolin (done 2026-08-12)** — so the blocker is
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> now item 3, the one `sudo`. That doc also records why per-device Pangolin users are the wrong layer, why
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> the HTTPS tunnel and the feeder's SSH path are **not** redundant (§1.3), the client-flip variable trap
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> (§3.7), and an additional loopback finding: a loopback bind does not merely 403, it also silently starts
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> the server with **no token at all** (auto-minting is gated on the bind being non-loopback).
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1. **Pangolin update on nyvaken** (yours). ✅ done 2026-08-12.
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2. ~~**⚠️ synlig has no tunnel client.**~~ ✅ **done 2026-08-12** — newt installed and connected to Pangolin.
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(Kept for the reasoning: `docker ps` showed only the Gitea runner and digikam. Pangolin on nyvaken
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cannot reach synlig by itself; synlig had to dial out. Easy to miss because Pangolin looks healthy on
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its own side — which is also why "connected" is not yet proof it can reach the palace: verify
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`172.17.0.1:8765/healthz` from *inside* newt's namespace, exposure runbook §3.3.) Since newt runs in
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Docker here, the docker0 bind above is already correct for it.
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3. **One sudo, then start** (the unit is already staged; just drop the suffix). ✅ **done 2026-08-12** —
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linger enabled, unit enabled, `172.17.0.1:8765/healthz` → `ok`.
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```sh
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sudo loginctl enable-linger ecsjper
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cd ~/.config/systemd/user && mv mempalace-serve.service.staged mempalace-serve.service
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systemctl --user daemon-reload && systemctl --user enable --now mempalace-serve
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curl -s 172.17.0.1:8765/healthz # ok
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curl -s 127.0.0.1:8765/healthz # NOTHING — refused, exit 7 (not 403; see below)
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ss -ltnp | grep 8765 # 172.17.0.1:8765 only
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```
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⚠ **Corrected 2026-08-12:** this line predicted `403`. The real run returned empty, which is *more*
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reassuring. With the docker0-only bind nothing listens on loopback, so the connection is refused before
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any header is sent (`%{http_code}` → `000`, `$?` → `7`). The 403 in §2.4 is the **loopback-bind** case:
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a server on `127.0.0.1` answering a proxy-forwarded foreign `Host:`. Two different failures that were
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collapsed into one expectation here.
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4. **Collect the shared token** (auto-minted on first non-loopback start, stable across restarts):
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```sh
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cat ~/.mempalace/server/f5d849287f6d73f0141b29d7/token
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```
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That directory name is `sha256(realpath(palace))[:24]` — it changes if the palace path ever changes.
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5. **Route it through Pangolin**, then verify `/healthz` end-to-end through the public hostname *before*
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pointing any client at it.
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6. **Then, and only then**, Phase 1 client flip — one machine first, and remember opencode containers
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need the §4.1 sidecar merge (or Phase 1.5) before the `.env` takes effect.
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7. **Before the first join:** settle §7.6 diary dedup, then dry-run §4.4 from **one** palace.
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> **Correction 2026-08-14 — do NOT verify a join "by checking counts", which is what this item
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> originally said.** Counts are not evidence, in either direction. `mempalace status` counts
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> **chunk rows**, not logical drawers (3 drawers plus one 2-chunk diary presented as +9), and chunk
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> counts legitimately differ between two palaces whenever a drawer was updated on either side,
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> because an update re-chunks to the new length and deletes the surplus rows. Diffing chunk-id sets
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> is a useful first pass but **over**-reports: a chunk id present on one side only is the ordinary
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> signature of an edit, not of loss. This cost real time on 2026-08-14 — a missing
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> `chunk_000007` was read as a truncated seed, when in fact the two palaces held two revisions of
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> one drawer and nothing was lost. **Adjudicate by fetching the parent drawer on both sides and
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> comparing the reassembled `content`.**
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## 5. Rollback
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> **⚠️ STOP — 2026-08-14. Do not run this block as it was originally written.** `~/.mempalace` on
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> synlig is now the fleet primary. That tree holds the only central palace (14,803 drawers, seeded
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> from EMB-7KJ4VR4G) **and the server's bearer token** at `~/.mempalace/server/<hash>/token` — the
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> single credential every flipped client authenticates with, of which there is no second copy.
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> `rm -rf ~/.mempalace` destroys both. The original comment ("empty today — check before running once
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> it isn't") is far too soft for a destructive command someone runs under pressure, which is exactly
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> why it is being replaced rather than amended.
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Stopping the service is safe and reversible on its own, and is the whole of what "rollback" should
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normally mean now:
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```sh
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systemctl --user disable --now mempalace-serve # clients fail CLOSED — they lose the palace
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# tools; they do NOT fall back to a local palace
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```
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To genuinely decommission the primary, in this order:
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1. Flip every client back first (§3.8 of [`phase-1-exposure-runbook.md`](./phase-1-exposure-runbook.md),
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in reverse) so nothing is pointed at a host that is about to lose its palace.
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2. Copy `~/.mempalace/palace/` **and** the token file off the host, and verify the copy by comparing
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reassembled drawer `content`, not counts (see §4 item 7).
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3. Only then remove anything. Never `rsync --delete` into `~/.mempalace` — the token lives inside it.
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The two destructive steps below were written on 2026-08-10, when `~/.mempalace` was genuinely empty.
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Kept for the record; **must not be run while the primary is live**:
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```sh
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~/.local/bin/uv tool uninstall mempalace
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rm -rf ~/.mempalace # ⚠️ DESTROYS THE FLEET PALACE AND THE ONLY TOKEN
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```
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