railiance-apps/docs/informed-decision-origin.md

# decisions.coulomb.social — origin for the informed-decision approver surface

**Status:** applied and live. `https://decisions.coulomb.social/` answers 200
over a valid Let's Encrypt certificate as of 2026-09-10 14:32 UTC.
Last reviewed: 2026-09-10

## Why this host exists before the app does

`informed-decision` owns the browser-facing approver UI that `approval-engine`
deliberately does not contain. Its workplan task `INFD-WP-0001-T07` must publish
two strings to `key-cape` — an OIDC `client_id` and a full callback URI — and
close `KEY-WP-0013-T02`, which has been blocked on them since 2026-09-08.

Both strings are now fixed except for the host:

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| `client_id` | `informed-decision-approver` |
| Redirect URI | `https://decisions.coulomb.social/auth/callback` |
| Flow | authorization code + S256 PKCE, public client |
| Scopes | `openid`, `approval:read`, `approval:approve` |

Redirect URIs match byte-exactly at `/authorize`. A registration pointing at a
host that does not answer fails closed at first login and presents as a rejected
approval rather than as a registration defect — which is exactly the failure
`approval-engine` avoided by refusing to invent these strings. So the origin has
to be real before the registration is submitted, and that is S5 work here rather
than in `informed-decision`.

The approver UI itself is `INFD-WP-0001-T08`, still gated on `approval-engine`
`APPROVAL-WP-0002-T01` and on intake `INFD-IN-0003` (the evidence copy must reach
`audit-core` independently of this component). This host therefore ships a
placeholder first and the real surface later.

## What is in the repo

| File | Contents |
| --- | --- |
| `manifests/informed-decision-origin.yaml` | Namespace, placeholder nginx ConfigMap/Deployment/Service on `informed-decision:80` |
| `manifests/informed-decision-ingress.yaml` | Traefik Ingress + `letsencrypt-prod` certificate for `decisions.coulomb.social` |
| `manifests/informed-decision-http-redirect.yaml` | `redirectScheme` Middleware + `web`-entrypoint Ingress, HTTP → HTTPS |

The placeholder is `nginxinc/nginx-unprivileged`, read-only root filesystem,
non-root, `noindex`. When the real surface lands it takes over the same Service
name and the origin file shrinks to the Namespace.

## Deliberate single path rule

The Ingress carries exactly one rule: `/` Prefix to one backend.

`reuse-surface` reported on 2026-07-07 that an Ingress declaring an `Exact`
`/health` rule alongside a catch-all `/` Prefix rule on the same host had the
exact match swallowed by the catch-all — the public health URL returned 404 from
the landing container while the pod was `1/1 Ready` and its own probes passed.
Splitting `/auth`, `/api` and `/` across backends here would reproduce that on a
host whose whole purpose is an exact-match redirect URI. If a second backend ever
becomes necessary, set `traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/router.priority`
explicitly rather than relying on rule order.

## Preconditions verified 2026-09-10

- DNS `decisions.coulomb.social` → `92.205.62.239` (same A record as `reuse`).
- `letsencrypt-prod` ClusterIssuer `Ready=True`.
- No existing Ingress claims `decisions.coulomb.social`.
- Server-side dry-run of all five objects against the live API is clean.
  The namespaced four were validated against an existing namespace, since a
  server dry-run cannot create the new one first; see
  `DRY_RUN_CREATE_NAMESPACES` in `tools/k8s-server-dry-run.sh`.

## Deployed 2026-09-10

Applied with operator approval. Evidence:

| Check | Result |
| --- | --- |
| Placeholder pod | `1/1 Running`, `/healthz` → `ok` in-pod |
| Certificate `informed-decision-tls` | `Ready=True`, ACME order `valid` |
| Issuer / subject | `CN=decisions.coulomb.social`, Let's Encrypt `YR2` |
| Validity | `2026-09-10` → `2026-12-09` (cert-manager renews) |
| `GET https://decisions.coulomb.social/` | `HTTP/2 200`, chain verify `0` |
| `GET https://decisions.coulomb.social/auth/callback` | `200` — the exact redirect URI resolves |
| `GET http://decisions.coulomb.social/` | `301`/`308` → HTTPS (added 2026-09-10) |

`/auth/callback` currently returns the placeholder page via the SPA `try_files`
fallback. That is the correct behaviour for now: the origin answers, which is
what the registration needs. The real surface will handle the path when
`INFD-WP-0001-T08` ships.

**`informed-decision` is unblocked to submit `docs/keycape-client-registration.md`
to `key-cape` and close `KEY-WP-0013-T02`.**

## Redeploy / recovery

```bash
export KUBECONFIG=$HOME/.kube/config-hosteurope
kubectl apply -f manifests/informed-decision-origin.yaml
kubectl apply -f manifests/informed-decision-ingress.yaml
kubectl apply -f manifests/informed-decision-http-redirect.yaml
kubectl -n informed-decision get pods,svc,ingress
kubectl -n informed-decision get certificate informed-decision-tls -w
curl -sSI https://decisions.coulomb.social/ | head -1
```

That `curl` succeeded on 2026-09-10, which is the gate `informed-decision` was
waiting on.

**Note on the kubeconfig:** `~/.kube/config-hosteurope` names port `16443`, but
the `k3s-api-railiance01` ops-bridge tunnel currently listens on `16444`.
Override with `--server https://127.0.0.1:16444` or fix the kubeconfig; `bridge
check` reports the tunnel healthy either way, so it does not surface the
mismatch.

## HTTP → HTTPS

`manifests/informed-decision-http-redirect.yaml` adds a `redirectScheme`
Middleware plus a `web`-entrypoint Ingress, following the `reuse-surface`
pattern. Applied 2026-09-10.

`http://decisions.coulomb.social/` now returns `308` to HEAD and `301` to GET.
That split is not a defect in this configuration — `reuse.coulomb.social`, which
uses the identical Middleware, behaves the same way. It is Traefik's own
behaviour on this cluster.

The main Ingress stays `websecure`-only; this is a second router on port 80
rather than a change to the first.

### Router priority is load-bearing here

cert-manager solves HTTP-01 by creating a temporary solver Ingress on **this
same host and this same `web` entrypoint**, serving
`/.well-known/acme-challenge/<token>`. A catch-all `/` redirect on that
entrypoint competes with it directly.

Traefik would normally settle this by rule length — the solver's `Path` rule is
much longer than `PathPrefix(/)` — but `reuse-surface`'s 2026-07-07 report is
precisely a case of a specific rule losing to a catch-all when precedence was
left implicit. There the symptom was a 404 someone noticed within the day. Here
it would be a **silently failed renewal about 60 days out**, surfacing as an
expired certificate on the origin backing an OIDC redirect URI — the kind of
failure that presents as a broken login rather than as an expired cert.

So the redirect router pins `traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/router.priority: "1"`.
Any solver router, using the default computed priority, outbids it.

**Verified by probe, twice, on 2026-09-10.** A throwaway Ingress mimicking the
solver shape (`web` entrypoint, `Exact` acme-challenge path, default priority)
was applied and the challenge path was polled:

| Condition | `/.well-known/acme-challenge/<token>` | `/` |
| --- | --- | --- |
| No solver present | `301` (redirect catches it — correct) | `301` |
| Solver present | `200` (**solver wins**) | `301` |
| Solver removed | `301` | `301` |

Traefik takes 30–60s to converge on Ingress changes, so the flip is not
instant; poll rather than reading a single response. The probe was deleted after
each run and is not in the repo — recreate it from this table if the redirect
or the priority annotation is ever changed.

The next real renewal is due around 2026-11-09. Confirm the certificate's
`notAfter` advances then; that is the only test that exercises the real solver
rather than a probe of its shape.