---
id: RMASTER-WP-0021
type: workplan
title: "Rapp Declaration Schema and Family Declaration Validator"
domain: financials
repo: railiance-master
status: finished
owner: codex
topic_slug: railiance
planning_priority: high
planning_order: 21
created: "2026-08-11"
updated: "2026-08-13"
related_repos:
  - railiance-master
  - railiance-platform
  - rapp-openbao
  - rapp-postgres
  - rapp-qonto
  - rail-kubernetes
  - rail-knative
  - reef-railiance
  - the-custodian
state_hub_workstream_id: "37667c23-1fa9-430e-8d80-d67d98f90e38"
---

# RMASTER-WP-0021 - Rapp Declaration Schema and Family Declaration Validator

## Goal

Give the `rapp-*` family a machine-checkable declaration contract, and stand up
a validator over all three family declaration files (`rail.yaml`, `rapp.yaml`,
`reef.yaml`) so that architectural drift fails loudly instead of accumulating
quietly.

The deliverable is not more prose. `docs/repo-family-bootstrap-contract.md`
already names the required `rapp.yaml` fields; naming them in prose is exactly
what failed. The deliverable is a schema plus a check that runs.

## Why This Exists

`RMASTER-WP-0017` through `RMASTER-WP-0019` established the four-axis model
and materialized the first concrete family repos. The model held up. Its
enforcement did not.

`railiance-platform` surveyed all six family repos and the live Railiance01
cluster on 2026-08-11 under its `RAILIANCE-WP-0015` and routed the findings
here, on the grounds that `railiance-master` owns the model and an
implementation repo should not author it. State Hub messages
`04c776c4-52fa-494a-9761-942123f28a6e` (proposal) and
`f88f938d-1ebc-4ba0-91ee-9395e44a7cb3` (amendment) carry the detail.

Reported drift across the three live rapps:

- rollout, smoke, and rollback contracts are mutually unreadable —
  `rapp-openbao` and `rapp-postgres` use `supported_commands` lists,
  `rapp-qonto` uses `default_mode` / `production_gate`, a `required:` smoke
  list and an `order:` rollback list
- `contract_version`, `readiness_state`, `data_classification` and
  `criticality` appear only in `rapp-qonto`, though both rails carry
  `contract_version` / `readiness_state` consistently
- `consumer_contract` / `consumers` exist only in `rapp-postgres`
- `workload_identity.name` is the workload name in two rapps and the repo name
  in the third
- `ownership_repo` points at a layer repo twice and at an app repo once
- `reef-railiance` `bound_rapps` lists `rapp-qonto` only, while `rapp-openbao`
  and `rapp-postgres` are both live on Railiance01 — a hand-maintained registry
  with nothing checking it
- roughly 17 live non-system workloads in-cluster against 3 rapps

The `rail-*` family received a tighter contract in wave 1 and has stayed clean.
That contrast is the argument for schema rather than for more documentation.

## Current Starting Point

- no `schemas/` directory exists in this repo
- `docs/repo-family-bootstrap-contract.md` lists eight required `rapp.yaml`
  fields with no shapes, no types, and no cardinality rules
- `docs/rapp-first-wave-candidates.md` still reads as though the planned first
  wave (`rapp-openbao`, `rapp-vergabe-teilnahme`, `rapp-forgejo`) happened; the
  actual population is `rapp-openbao`, `rapp-postgres`, `rapp-qonto`, the
  latter two created ad hoc from immediate need
- `rapp-vergabe-teilnahme` was never built, so the user-facing wrapper pattern
  it existed to prove remains unproven while the platform-service pattern has
  been proven twice
- canon does not yet admit the family prefixes, so `fix-consistency` cannot
  call a family validator until `the-custodian` lands its side
- `railiance-platform` is holding `RAILIANCE-WP-0015-T02` (bringing
  `rapp-openbao` and `rapp-postgres` onto one shape) until this schema exists

## Target Outcome

When this workplan is complete:

1. `schemas/rapp.schema.json` defines every required and optional `rapp.yaml`
   field with one normative shape per contract.
2. A `composition:` block expresses what a grouped rapp actually is: a stated
   purpose, first-party member repos, and pinned third-party components.
3. The two cardinalities are written down and enforced separately — repos are
   many-to-many with rapps, deployables are one-to-one.
4. A validator runs over `rail.yaml`, `rapp.yaml`, and `reef.yaml` and fails on
   drift.
5. Reef `bound_rapps` is derived from rapp declarations rather than
   hand-listed.
6. `docs/rapp-first-wave-candidates.md` records what was actually built versus
   planned, and carries the grouped wave-2 inventory.
7. Downstream repos have a single shape to converge on, and know it.

## Boundaries

This workplan owns the schema, the validator, the cardinality rules, and the
framework documents that describe them.

It does not migrate any rapp repo onto the new shape — that stays with each
owning repo, coordinated through `railiance-platform` `RAILIANCE-WP-0015-T02`.

It does not touch canon. Admitting the family prefixes into
`repo-classification-standard_v1.0` is `the-custodian`'s call, routed there
separately as `cc64764a`.

It does not address the Forgejo organization split. All repos currently sit
under a single `coulomb/` org and a split into stewardship orgs is a
URL-breaking change across every remote, CI config and ArgoCD source. It is an
independent dimension from rapp grouping and needs its own work record.

## Tasks

## T01 - Accept the routed proposal and record the ownership decision

```task
id: RMASTER-WP-0021-T01
status: done
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "af45d82d-c1e3-47b3-81ae-2974bc65cc5d"
```

Read and acknowledge State Hub messages `04c776c4` and `f88f938d`, mark them
read, and reply to `railiance-platform` confirming that `railiance-master`
accepts ownership of the schema and that this workplan is the vehicle.

Record the framework decision that rapp bounded context is a grouping dimension
in its own right, derived neither from Forgejo organizations nor from State Hub
domains, with the cardinality argument as rationale: a repo lives in exactly
one Forgejo org, so `org:repo` is one-to-many, while a repo may legitimately
contribute to more than one rapp, so `rapp:repo` is many-to-many — and a
many-to-many grouping cannot be derived from a one-to-many one. Domains fail in
both directions. The three dimensions also change at different speeds.

Reference OAS P1 in `canon/standards/orthogonal-architecture_v1.0.md`: separate
independent perspectives into orthogonal dimensions.

**Done 2026-08-11.** Both messages marked read; reply `a9a8109f` sent to
`railiance-platform` accepting ownership and confirming this workplan as the
vehicle. No decision record was created here: `d07ee5f9` already carries the
dimension decision from the `railiance-platform` side, and duplicating it would
create two records of one decision. The rationale lands instead in `ADR-0007`
under T07. One question was returned to `railiance-platform` — whether they can
emit the live deployable inventory that T06 needs, so this repo does not
acquire a cluster dependency.

## T02 - Author schemas/rapp.schema.json

```task
id: RMASTER-WP-0021-T02
status: done
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "87ae4551-1fac-4613-b258-28c8b22bbb82"
```

Create `schemas/` and write `rapp.schema.json` covering:

- the eight fields already required by the bootstrap contract: `rapp_id`,
  `workload_identity`, `ownership_repo`, `supported_rails`,
  `runtime_dependencies`, `rollout_contract`, `smoke_contract`,
  `rollback_contract`
- `contract_version` and `readiness_state`, matching the shape the rail family
  already carries
- `data_classification` and `criticality`, promoted from `rapp-qonto`-only to
  required
- `consumer_contract`, promoted from `rapp-postgres`-only to optional but
  schema-defined

Settle the two definitional questions the survey exposed. `workload_identity.name`
is the workload, never the repo. `ownership_repo` names the repo that owns the
workload's lifecycle; state explicitly whether a layer repo is a legal value,
since current declarations disagree.

Pick one normative shape for `rollout_contract`, `smoke_contract` and
`rollback_contract` rather than admitting all three observed variants. Note in
the schema which existing declaration the chosen shape most resembles, so
migration cost is visible.

**Done 2026-08-11.** `schemas/rapp.schema.json` (draft 2020-12) and
`schemas/README.md` written from the three live declarations rather than from
the survey summary, which turned out to understate the drift — see the extra
finding below.

Normative choices, with who pays:

- `default_mode` kept; all three declarations already carried it. No cost.
- `supported_commands` → `commands` in all three contracts. Mechanical.
- `smoke_contract.required` is required, `commands` optional — taken from
  `rapp-qonto`. This is the one migration with real cost: the platform rapps
  declare only commands and their owners must now name the outcomes those
  commands establish. A command list records what was run; a required list
  records what must be true, and only the second is checkable by anyone other
  than the person who ran it.
- `rollback_contract.order` required, also from `rapp-qonto`, recoverable from
  the command sequences already documented. `direct_kubernetes_fallback`
  generalizes to `fallback`.
- `workload_identity.name` is the workload, never the repo; the schema forbids
  the `rapp-` prefix outright.
- `contract_version`, `readiness_state`, `data_classification`, `criticality`
  all promoted to required.
- `consumer_contract` schema-defined but optional.

`ownership_repo` is left permissive — exactly one repo, not the rapp repo
itself, layer and application repos both legal — so the schema does not
silently invalidate two of three live declarations on a question the survey
cannot settle. The tighter alternative and its consequence are written up in
`schemas/README.md` for the architecture owner. Treat the permissive rule as
provisional.

Validated against all three live declarations with `jsonschema` 4.10.3. The
schema is well-formed and reproduces precisely the drift the survey reported,
which is the intended result — it fails on real drift and not on anything else:

| Declaration | Errors | Character |
|---|---|---|
| `rapp-openbao` | 10 | four missing metadata fields, no composition, three contracts on the old shape |
| `rapp-postgres` | 10 | identical set — the two platform rapps drifted together |
| `rapp-qonto` | 4 | composition, `direct_kubernetes_fallback`, missing `package_type`, and `workload_identity.name` = `rapp-qonto` |

**Extra finding, not in the routed survey.** There are six `rapp-*` repos, not
three: `rapp-secrets-engine`, `rapp-tenant-engine` and `rapp-user-engine` exist
and carry no `declarations/` directory at all. The survey counted only declared
rapps, so the real gap is wider than the roughly 17-workloads-versus-3-rapps
figure suggests — three further repos claim the family prefix while declaring
nothing. Raised to `railiance-platform`; whether these are stubs, abandoned, or
undeclared live workloads should be settled before T06 draws its coverage
baseline, since undeclared repos are invisible to a coverage check that reads
declarations.

## T03 - Define the composition block and its cardinality rules

```task
id: RMASTER-WP-0021-T03
status: done
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "8b130ff8-0601-40bb-8539-d6f5847c2f41"
```

Supersede the flat `members:` list from the original proposal with the
composition block from the amendment:

```yaml
composition:
  purpose: <what this coherent workload does>
  member_repos:          # first-party, each sharing rollout and rollback fate
    - repo: <slug>
      role: <what it contributes>
      deployables: [<names>]
  upstream_components:   # third-party, pinned
    - name: <chart|image|operator>
      source: <repo/chart or registry ref>
      version: <pin>
```

Encode both cardinalities. A repo may appear in the `member_repos` of more than
one rapp. A deployable must belong to exactly one rapp — each running
deployable has exactly one rapp owning its rollout. Keeping these distinct is
what makes the coverage check in T06 well-defined.

Carry the operator decision of 2026-08-11 into the schema: rapp granularity is
grouped-by-bounded-context, one rapp per cohesive group that deploys, versions
and rolls back together, not one per deployable. Grouping is legitimate only
where members share rollout and rollback fate; make that testable rather than
advisory where possible.

**Done 2026-08-11.** `composition` is required on every rapp, in
`schemas/rapp.schema.json` under `$defs/composition`. A single-repo rapp
declares exactly one member, so there is no second shape for the ungrouped
case — the composition block is the only way to state membership.

`purpose` carries a `minLength` and is documented as the bounded-context
statement: if it cannot be written without "and also", the grouping is probably
wrong. That is the closest this schema gets to testing shared rollout fate;
the substantive check is structural, in that `deployables` is required on every
member, which is what T06 consumes.

Both cardinalities are encoded where they bite. `member_repos[].repo` is
unconstrained across rapps, so a repo may appear in several — many-to-many.
`member_repos[].deployables` is documented as one-to-one and enforced by the
validator's coverage check rather than by the schema, since no single-file
schema can see across declarations. `upstream_components` requires an exact
`version` pin, with the schema stating that ranges and floating tags are not
pins.

`workload_identity.package_type` gains a `grouped-composition` value for rapps
whose members carry their own package types.

## T04 - Schematize rail.yaml and reef.yaml, and derive bound_rapps

```task
id: RMASTER-WP-0021-T04
status: done
priority: medium
state_hub_task_id: "50ffbff9-f8f0-4085-975a-6c5123d9c2f0"
```

Write `schemas/rail.schema.json` and `schemas/reef.schema.json` from the
minimum field sets in `docs/repo-family-bootstrap-contract.md`. The rail family
has stayed clean, so this is largely codifying what already works; do not
tighten it beyond current practice without cause.

Change `reef.yaml` `bound_rapps` from a hand-maintained list to a derived
projection of the rapp declarations that name the reef, and record the
migration path for `reef-railiance`, whose current list is already known stale.

**Done 2026-08-13.** `schemas/rail.schema.json` and `schemas/reef.schema.json`
written from the live declarations and the composition/substrate contracts,
not from the bootstrap field lists (those lists used an older
`substrate_prerequisites` name the live rails do not carry).

Both live rails conform. The live reef conforms as a document.
`bound_rapps` is optional and derived from a new required `rapp.bound_reefs`
field (empty list means declared but not placed). The live
`reef-railiance` hand-list `[rapp-qonto]` fails the derivation check, which
is the intended result. Migration for that repo: delete the field now, or
replace it with the derived set once the three live rapps name the reef.

Adjacent ownership, recorded so it is not mistaken for a schema hole: the
postgres backup object store is a consumed capability (`s3-backup-target`),
not a rapp-owned resource. Bucket = `resource-control` / `RESOURCE-WP-0002`.
Credential = `railiance-platform` OpenBao `Secret platform-pg-backup-s3`.
Purchase = decision `9c21c0e0`. `make postgres-backup-deploy` stays
fail-closed until that handoff lands.

## T05 - Build the family declaration validator

```task
id: RMASTER-WP-0021-T05
status: done
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "0a212d33-2169-4472-80d0-69ec4edba5cb"
```

Add a validator under `tools/` that walks the family repos, locates each
`declarations/*.yaml`, and validates it against the matching schema.

Checks in priority order, per the routed proposal:

1. every declaration conforms to its schema
2. every declared member repo and upstream pin resolves
3. reef `bound_rapps` is derivable from rapp declarations rather than
   hand-listed
4. deployable coverage — deferred to T06, which needs cluster state

Exit non-zero on any failure and name the offending file and field. Make it
runnable standalone now, and callable from `fix-consistency` later; do not
block on canon admitting the prefixes, since that is `the-custodian`'s
sequencing, not ours.

**Done 2026-08-13.** `tools/validate-family-declarations.py` walks
`rail-*` / `rapp-*` / `reef-*` siblings of `--root` (default: parent of
this repo). `--self-test` passes against `tools/testdata/family-declarations`.

First live scan of `/home/worsch` (no inventory): 6 declarations, 31
errors. The two rails are clean. The three declared rapps fail on the
already-known shape drift plus the new `bound_reefs` field. The reef fails
only on stale `bound_rapps`. The three undeclared engine repos fail as
prefix-without-declaration. That is exactly the drift the schema exists to
make loud.

## T06 - Add the deployable coverage check

```task
id: RMASTER-WP-0021-T06
status: done
priority: medium
state_hub_task_id: "519c2838-c4af-46e9-81fa-612fb09e91e3"
```

Extend the validator with the standing control-loop question: does every live
deployable belong to exactly one rapp?

This is the check that turns the schema from a one-shot lint into an ongoing
control loop. Per the amendment it catches all three drift findings at once —
stale reef bindings, unpackaged live workloads, and the roughly
17-workloads-versus-3-rapps gap.

Decide how live cluster state reaches the check without `railiance-master`
acquiring a cluster dependency it should not have. Consuming an inventory
produced by an implementation repo is preferable to querying Railiance01 from
here.

Expect the first run to report a large uncovered set. That output is the wave-2
worklist, not a failure to suppress.

**Done 2026-08-13.** The validator takes `--inventory PATH`. This repo does
not query a cluster. The file is a JSON mapping with `source`,
`captured_at`, optional `reef`, and `deployables` as a list of `{name,
namespace?, kind?}` (bare name strings also accepted). Live names that no
rapp claims are errors labelled as wave-2 worklist items. Declared names
missing from the inventory are warnings.

The first live run is not in this repo: it needs `railiance-platform` to
emit the inventory T01 asked for. The check itself is implemented and
covered by `--self-test`.

## T07 - Update the bootstrap contract to point at the schemas

```task
id: RMASTER-WP-0021-T07
status: done
priority: medium
state_hub_task_id: "aa71bc2f-7d9e-4351-8130-8b6e23b8ee36"
```

Revise `docs/repo-family-bootstrap-contract.md` so the minimum-field lists cite
the schema files as normative rather than restating fields in prose. Prose that
duplicates a schema will drift from it.

Record an ADR (next free number, `ADR-0007`) for the framework decisions this
workplan settles: bounded rapp context as an independent dimension, the two
cardinalities, and grouped-by-bounded-context granularity.

**Done 2026-08-13.** Bootstrap contract now points at the three schema files
and refuses to restate their fields. `docs/adr/ADR-0007-rapp-declaration-contract.md`
records the dimension, the two cardinalities, grouped-by-bounded-context
granularity, and that the schemas are normative. Decision `d07ee5f9` remains
the platform-side record; this ADR is the framework record, not a second
decision.

## T08 - Refresh rapp-first-wave-candidates.md

```task
id: RMASTER-WP-0021-T08
status: done
priority: medium
state_hub_task_id: "28e4ef82-62ea-41d2-a059-05c047292240"
```

Correct the document to record what was actually built against what was
planned: `rapp-openbao` as planned, then `rapp-postgres` and `rapp-qonto` ad
hoc from need, and `rapp-vergabe-teilnahme` never built.

State the consequence plainly — the platform-service pattern is proven twice
and the user-facing wrapper pattern is unproven — and carry the operator
decision to build `rapp-vergabe-teilnahme` to prove the user-facing shape
before mass extraction.

Add the grouped wave-2 inventory in the new composition shape. Indicative
candidates: `rapp-netkingdom-identity` (sso, mfa, user-engine, tenant-engine,
flex-auth), `rapp-forgejo` (forgejo, runner, registry), `rapp-coulomb-social`,
`rapp-helix-forge`.

**Done 2026-08-13.** The document now leads with the plan-versus-outcome
table, states that the user-facing wrapper is unproven, keeps the 2026-07-25
assessment as history, and carries the wave-2 inventory in composition
shape. The three undeclared engine repos are named so they are not invented
again as separate rapps. `rapp-forgejo` placement cites `d151d817`.

## T09 - Release the schema to downstream repos

```task
id: RMASTER-WP-0021-T09
status: done
priority: high
state_hub_task_id: "b8dc2452-8ec0-4301-98b7-4ec96411f428"
```

Waiting on T02, T03 and T05.

Notify `railiance-platform` that the shape is settled and
`RAILIANCE-WP-0015-T02` is unblocked, and notify `rapp-openbao`,
`rapp-postgres`, `rapp-qonto` and `reef-railiance` of the migration they each
own. Include the normative shape chosen for the rollout, smoke and rollback
contracts and what each repo must change.

Migration itself belongs to the owning repos. This task ends when they have
what they need, not when they are done.

**Done 2026-08-13.** Release messages sent. Downstream now has the shape and
the per-repo change list; migration itself is not this task.

| To | Message | What they received |
|---|---|---|
| `railiance-platform` | `072c5820` | WP-0015-T02 unblocked; inventory shape for T06; S3 split restated |
| `rapp-openbao` | `093f2f73` | 11-error migration (metadata, composition, `bound_reefs`, contract rename) |
| `rapp-postgres` | `7b1cb9b7` | same 11-error set; S3 is a consumed destination, not a hole |
| `rapp-qonto` | `16742192` | 5-error migration (`composition`, `bound_reefs`, `package_type`, name, `fallback`) |
| `reef-railiance` | `6b395e26` | delete or replace stale `bound_rapps` |
| `resource-control` | `aa8393e3` | coordination only: bucket is theirs (`RESOURCE-WP-0002`) |