Deployment

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The clawdie crate is Colibri’s host installer. It discovers a machine’s ZFS layout and provisions the clawdie service. On FreeBSD this means an rc.d service, ZFS datasets, and an unprivileged user. On Linux it can use systemd and either ZFS or plain directories.

→ crates/clawdie/src/main.rs

→ crates/clawdie/src/plan.rs

→ docs/ISO-SERVICE-LAYOUT.md

→ docs/CLAWDIE-INSTALLER-VALIDATION.md

Decisions

ZFS is required on FreeBSD, preferred on Linux

FreeBSD does not support a plain-directory layout. If ZFS userland is missing, the plan errors immediately. Linux can fall back to plain directories if no pool is named and ZFS is unavailable, and it can create a fresh pool on a spare disk when asked.

This matches the production target: bare-metal FreeBSD on a ZFS RAID1 mirror. Linux support makes development and CI possible without a ZFS host.

Storage is resolved, not configured

clawdie plan resolves storage in this order:

If --pool NAME --create-pool DEVICE is given, create that pool.
If --pool NAME is given, use that existing pool.
If no pool is given and exactly one pool exists, use it.
If multiple pools exist and none is named, error.
On Linux with no ZFS, fall back to plain directories.

This removes the need for a hand-written topology file on typical single-pool hosts, while still allowing explicit control when needed.

→ crates/clawdie/src/main.rs (pick_pool, validate_storage)

Datasets separate state from logs

When ZFS is used, the installer creates:

<pool>/clawdie as a container dataset with canmount=off
<pool>/clawdie/db mounted at /var/db/clawdie
<pool>/clawdie/log mounted at /var/log/clawdie

Keeping database and logs in separate datasets lets snapshots, quotas, and log-rotation policies apply independently.

→ crates/clawdie/src/plan.rs (zfs_dataset_steps)

Dry-run by default

clawdie apply prints the plan and exits unless --yes is given. discover and plan are read-only. This protects production hosts from accidental provisioning.

→ crates/clawdie/src/main.rs (Cmd::Apply)

Pool creation is guarded against busy disks

--create-pool on a non-empty disk is refused unless --force is also given. The installer uses lsblk on Linux to detect partitions, filesystems, mount points, and the root disk. The guard is conservative: if a disk is ambiguous, it must be explicitly forced.

→ crates/clawdie/src/disk.rs

→ crates/clawdie/src/main.rs (validate_create_device)

Single unprivileged service user

The service runs as _clawdie on both platforms. On FreeBSD the user is created with pw useradd -s /usr/sbin/nologin -d /var/db/clawdie and exit code 65 (already exists) is treated as a skip. On Linux useradd --system is used. The state directories are then chowned to that user.

→ crates/clawdie/src/platform.rs

Platform-specific service managers, same spec

Platform is an internal trait. The two implementations differ only in how they install and enable the unit:

FreeBSD: writes /usr/local/etc/rc.d/clawdie, uses sysrc clawdie_enable=YES.
Linux: writes /etc/systemd/system/clawdie.service, runs systemctl enable --now clawdie.

Both use the same ServiceSpec (binary, user, data dir, service name). Running apply across platforms therefore produces the same filesystem layout and differs only in the service-manager wrapper.

→ crates/clawdie/src/platform.rs (FreeBsd, Linux)

Daemon runs through the platform supervisor

The generated FreeBSD rc.d script execs /usr/local/bin/colibri-daemon through /usr/sbin/daemon -u _clawdie so the supervisor restarts on crash and the process drops to the unprivileged user. The systemd unit is a simple service with Restart=on-failure.

The installer itself does not start the daemon or stage the binary; it only creates the environment. The operator or package build stages colibri-daemon and then service clawdie start.

→ docs/ISO-SERVICE-LAYOUT.md (rc.d through daemon(8))

Secrets are not written by the installer

The installer does not touch provider API keys. A separate file — conventionally `/usr/local/etc/colibri/provider environment file — holds secrets and is sourced by rc.d before the daemon starts. This keeps the installer’s blast radius limited to ZFS, directories, users, and service files.

→ vault-provision

Steps are executed sequentially and stop on failure

deploy::apply runs each Step in order. Run steps shell out and fail on a non-zero exit unless the step declares allowed exit codes. WriteFile steps create parent directories, write the file, and chmod it. If any step fails, apply stops immediately and reports the failing command and stderr.

→ crates/clawdie/src/deploy.rs

Plan shape

clawdie plan
  ├── ZFS layout (or plain dirs)
  │   ├── create <pool>/clawdie container
  │   ├── create <pool>/clawdie/db -> /var/db/clawdie
  │   └── create <pool>/clawdie/log -> /var/log/clawdie
  └── service install
      ├── create user _clawdie
      ├── chown state dirs
      ├── write service unit (rc.d / systemd)
      ├── enable service (sysrc / systemctl)
      └── [systemd] daemon-reload + start

Typical FreeBSD install

# discover
clawdie discover

# preview
clawdie plan

# provision datasets, user, and rc.d service
doas clawdie apply --yes

# start once the colibri-daemon binary is staged
doas service clawdie start

Cross-link to runtime paths

After deployment, the service owns these paths:

/var/db/clawdie/colibri.sqlite — SQLite coordination store
/var/run/clawdie/clawdie.sock — daemon Unix socket
/var/log/clawdie/daemon.log — stdout/stderr log
/usr/local/etc/colibri/ — configuration and provider secrets

→ store-schema

→ operator-cli