Files
werkator/docs/plan
Michael HönnigandClaude Opus 5 516765a717 build duration tracking Feature notiert (#2)
* renaming from gitTally to Werkator

* Rename GitTally to Werkator

`gitTally` is the name of another product in the git space, so the
rename is a precaution; nothing about what the build system does changes.

The name follows one rule: `Werkator` where it is prose, capitalized
where it is a Kotlin type and its file, lowercase everywhere a machine
reads it — the command, packages, paths, configuration keys and values,
the Gitea check context. Environment variables keep their convention and
are uppercase throughout.

Every configuration file is still found under its pre-rename name
(`ConfigFiles`): `.gittally.yml` at the repository root, in a build
worktree and as committed on a branch, `.git/gittally/.gittally.yml` for
the machine layer. The current name wins where both exist, and the old
file is then ignored rather than merged — two files side by side are a
half-done rename, not a layering. Without the fallback an installation
that updated without renaming would not fail: a configuration that is
not found leaves every setting at its default, so it would come up
looking healthy while having forgotten its credentials and its builds.

`docs/werkator-migrationsplan.md` lists what the fallback does not
cover and has to be moved by hand — above all the state directory
`.git/werkator/`, which holds the build history, the control token and
the worktrees, and has no fallback of its own.

`docs/migration-from-legacy.md` is deleted with this: it mapped the
legacy script's environment variables, and every host it addressed has
long since moved to the YAML configuration.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Move the pre-rename state directory at the first start

The configuration is found under either name, the state is not: build
history, control token, auto-build slots and worktrees live at one fixed
path. An installation that updates without moving `.git/gittally` would
not fail — it would come up with an empty history and a fresh control
token, quietly. So the first start moves it instead of the release notes
asking for it.

Only when the old directory exists and the new one does not. Where both
exist nothing is touched and a warning names the leftover: which of the
two is the live state is not something to guess. A failed move is an
error in the log, never an abort — a CI must not hang on it.

The worktrees are dropped rather than moved, since they point at their
old path in both directions; `GitWorktreeWorkspaces` prunes the stale
admin entry and recreates each on its branch's next build. A generated
systemd unit moves with the directory and leaves its symlink dangling,
which is warned about — the running service is unaffected, the next
start is not.

Runs from `CliRunner`, before any command resolves a path under the
directory, and so before the second context of `server` exists.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Document PR#1: the rename to Werkator

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Drop the legacy env-to-YAML conversion from the setup tool

The old bash script configured itself through `GITTALLY_*` environment
variables. The blanket rename rewrote those literals, so the converter
was looking for `WERKATOR_*` — a spelling no host has ever written. Fed
a real legacy file it would have found nothing and written an almost
empty configuration, without an error, which is the same silent failure
this rename is otherwise careful to avoid.

The conversion has served its purpose with the vm2176 to vm4006
migration, so it goes instead of being repaired. What remains is the
setup of a new instance: the preconditions, the credential prompt, and
the machine configuration written mode 600 — now carrying the host's
public URL as well, since that is host-specific too. Everything the
repository builds comes from `init` and its templates.

It also stops emitting a legacy `branches:` section, which step 18 is
about to reject outright.

`docs/plan/00-legacy-analysis.md` and `13-nginx-tls.md` get the real
`GITTALLY_*` spelling back: they record what the old script read.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Describe this repository's build with a build definition

Its own `.werkator.yml` still used the deprecated `branches` section
with an `autoBuild` schedule that was switched off. That section is read
only while nothing defines a build at all, and step 18 rejects it by
name — so this repository would have blocked the precondition of that
step, which asks that no configuration still in play carries it.

Nothing about the build changes: `builds.default` with `trigger.onPush`
is a build of every new commit on every branch, which is what the branch
section said. `config:print --full` resolves the definition completely
and logs no deprecation warning any more.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Stop documenting the pre-rename fallback for users

Exactly one repository is configured with the old names, and it is
migrated by hand in the same move as this release. The fallback is
therefore a transition of days, not a feature anyone reading the release
notes or the configuration reference has to plan around.

Removed from `releases.html` and `docs/configuration.md`. The mechanism
itself is unchanged and stays described where it is worked on: in
`ConfigFiles`, in `StateDirMigration`, and in the migration plan.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Bring the PR-doc to its final state

The `statusContext` question is answered and marked as decided rather
than left standing: it is the one value a human reads as a label, and it
stays lowercase because Gitea matches it and the client reads it back,
which makes it a value.

Also records that the pre-rename fallback is deliberately absent from
the release notes and the configuration reference.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Release v1.0.0: Werkator

The release after 0.9.21 is 1.0.0, because a product that changes its
name is better off counting from one under it. The release note says as
much, so the jump is not read as a claim about maturity — plan steps 14,
17 and 18 are still open.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Correct the PR-doc about the version

It claimed the PR carries no version bump, which the release commit made
untrue, and records why the number is 1.0.0 instead of 0.9.22.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Point the legacy references at the history

`legacy/gitTally` was removed from the tree with the rename, but the
README still described it as a reference kept in the repository, and the
plan told an executing session to read parts of it — including step 14,
which is open.

The README section is gone; `docs/plan/README.md`, step 14 and the
legacy analysis now say where the script actually is
(`git show 7f55068^:legacy/gitTally`). Executed steps and ADR 0004 keep
their wording: they record what was true when they ran.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Retarget the links in the historic PR-docs

The package rename moved every file the older PR-docs link to, leaving
60 dead links. Only the link targets are rewritten, never the visible
text and never a statement: those documents record what was true when
they were written, GitTally in the prose included. A snapshot may be
outdated; it should still be navigable.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Add the v1.0.0 deployment procedure for vm4006

Measured, not estimated: the state directory is 878 MB, of which 878 MB
are the nine build worktrees. What cannot be recreated is 84 KB, so the
snapshot before an in-place switch is instant and the rollback is one
sequence of moves.

Records the three expected non-failures — a cold Gradle volume, one
image rebuild, containers left under the old label — and that
`gitea.statusContext` needs no attention because it comes from the
watched repository's committed configuration.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Rename the machine configuration along with its directory

Found by the deployment to vm4006: the move renames the directory and
leaves the file inside it alone, so the machine configuration ended up at
`.git/werkator/.gittally.yml` — a pair of names the lookup did not
expect, because it pairs directory and file name. The instance resolved
empty credentials, no public URL and none of the host's build
definitions, and said nothing about it. That is the exact failure this
change exists to prevent, produced by the change itself.

`StateDirMigration` now renames the configuration with the directory,
unless one under the current name is already there. `ConfigFiles` carries
`.git/werkator/.gittally.yml` as a third candidate as well, for a
directory somebody moved by hand, where the migration never runs and so
can rename nothing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Let init see a configuration under its previous name

`init --systemd` runs `init`, and its "already exists" check knew only
the current name. On the one repository still carrying `.gittally.yml`
it therefore wrote a fresh template `.werkator.yml` beside it — and
since the current name wins, that repository would have built the
template's `./gradlew test` instead of what its own configuration says.
Found on vm4006, where the file was created in the watched working tree
and removed again by hand.

Both checks now ask `ConfigFiles`, so init decides existence by the same
rule the loader uses to read.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Record the v1.0.0 deployment to vm4006

Deployed from the branch as the final test of PR#1, and it did what a
final test is for: it found two silent-failure defects before the
service was started, both fixed and redeployed in the same window.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Drop the control token left under the old localStorage key

The key is named after the product, so the rename left every browser
with a token under `gittally.controlToken`, which nothing reads any more
and which "forget token" can no longer reach. It is a write-scope token
in a browser store, not a password, but a secret nobody owns is worth
one line to remove.

Removed on load. The token on the server is unchanged, so re-entering it
once per browser is all the rename costs.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Plan tracking the build duration over time (step 20)

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-31 13:58:34 +02:00
..

Werkator Rewrite Plan

This directory contains the step-by-step plan for rewriting the legacy bash script as the Kotlin/Spring application in this repository. Each step file is self-contained and sized for one focused Claude Code session.

How to Execute a Step

Start a fresh Claude Code session and prompt, for example: "Execute docs/plan/01-build-state-domain.md". The executing session should:

  1. Read this file, 00-legacy-analysis.md, and the step file.
  2. Read the referenced parts of the legacy bash script only if the step file says so. It was removed from the tree with the rename to Werkator; its last state is git show 7f55068^:legacy/gitTally, and 00-legacy-analysis.md condenses it.
  3. Implement with tests, following CLAUDE.md conventions.
  4. Run ./gradlew ktlintFormat and then ./gradlew build until green.
  5. Update the step's checkbox below and note deviations inside the step file.

Guiding Principles

  • The legacy script defines intended behavior, but it is buggy — treat it as a reference, not a spec.
  • Fix the two known legacy defects by design, not by patching:
    • Build status must be observable while a build runs (event-driven status transitions, async build execution).
    • The web UI must never get stuck loading (JSON status endpoints with explicit error states instead of regex-rewritten HTML).
  • Do not port orphaned or half-implemented legacy config options (see 00-legacy-analysis.md).
  • Every step leaves the build green and the application runnable.
  • Config keys added by a step must be updated in three places: WerkatorConfig, the InitCommand templates, and docs/configuration.md.

Proposed Architecture Decisions

These are proposals baked into the steps. Revisit them in an ADR if a step uncovers problems.

  • Build results are persisted as a JSON file under .git/werkator/, behind a BuildResultRepository interface (no database, but replaceable).
  • Builds run concurrently up to builds.maxConcurrent (default 1), but never more than one build per branch at a time. Each branch builds in its own reusable git worktree under .git/werkator/worktrees/, checked out detached at the requested commit — never in the primary checkout. A later step must decide (possibly per config) whether a new commit on a branch cancels that branch's running build or waits for it; for now new builds queue behind the running one.
  • Artifacts stay on the filesystem, served by the Spring server.
  • The web UI is server-rendered HTML plus small JavaScript polling JSON endpoints (no SPA framework).
  • The watcher is a Spring-managed scheduled component, decoupled from the build executor via the result repository and events.
  • nginx/Let's Encrypt container management is NOT ported; deployment behind an existing reverse proxy is documented instead. Revised after step 12 (ADR 0005): an opt-in managed nginx/TLS container is required for Hostsharing container hosts — see step 13.

Steps

Foundation:

  • 01-build-state-domain.md — build result domain model and persistent repository
  • 02-git-gateway.md — full git access layer (fetch, branches, commits, checkout)
  • 03-gitea-client.md — Gitea API client for commit statuses

Core engine:

  • 04-build-executor.md — async build execution with logs, cancellation, status transitions
  • 05-artifact-store.md — artifact persistence, naming, retention
  • 06-watcher.md — branch watching, scheduling, auto-builds

Server and UI:

  • 07-server-mode.mdserver subcommand, REST/JSON endpoints, artifact serving
  • 08-web-ui.md — HTML views with robust live updates
  • 09-system-metrics.md — system resource monitoring page

Completion:

  • 10-cli-commands.md — CLI build/status commands
  • 11-docker-build-runtime.md — optional Docker build execution
  • 12-deployment.md — systemd service, migration from legacy, docs

Added after the initial plan (ADR 0005):

  • 13-nginx-tls.md — opt-in managed nginx/TLS container for hosts without a reverse proxy

Added after the 2026-08-10 overhead measurements on vm2176:

  • 14-build-phase-timing-and-overhead.md — per-build phase timing, overhead budget warning, ownership/metrics fixes — deferred until after step 15; revisit relevance on vm4006

Added for the vm2176 → vm4006 migration (2026-08-10):

  • 15-runtime-bundle-distribution.md — self-contained runtime bundle (jlink JRE + jar) for hosts without a Java runtime
  • 16-git-in-docker-builds.md — read-only git metadata inside Docker build containers, with .git/werkator/ masked

Added after v0.9.19 replaced the per-branch settings with build definitions (2026-08-29):

  • 18-remove-branches-section.md — delete the legacy branches section and its autoBuild schedule; run around 2026-09-05, after the precondition check in the step file

Added after a silent 57-minute fetch outage on vm4006 (2026-08-30):

  • 19-watcher-health-in-ui.md — show an unreachable origin in the web UI instead of only in the journal

Added for running Werkator on Hostsharing Managed Webspaces (2026-08-10):

  • 17-bwrap-build-runtime.md — Werkator on a Managed Webspace: bubblewrap user-namespace build sandbox with a prepared rootfs (precondition check first — see the step file), plus web access under a domain via the platform's Apache proxy and Let's Encrypt

Added for surfacing build time as a trend (2026-08-31):

  • 20-build-duration-tracking.md — a per-name duration trend over the existing history, derived on read in the History view: series, window average/min/max, and a visible marker when the latest build is slower than its window average (grouped by the history's own name, so branch builds and named jobs stay separate — complements Step 14, which owns phase timing)

Steps 0103 are independent of each other. Steps 0406 depend on 0103. Steps 0709 depend on 0406. Steps 11 and 12 are optional/deferrable; 10 only needs 0406. Step 13 depends on 07, 11, and 12. Step 15 depends on 12 and 13 and revises the containerized-runtime sketch in docs/bootstrapping.md (ADR 0006 is written as part of the step; GraalVM native image was evaluated and rejected there). Step 17 depends on 11, 15, and 16, and starts with a hard precondition check on the target webspace (ADR 0007 is written as part of the step). Step 18 depends on nothing in code but on the watched repository having migrated — its precondition check is a hard gate, not a formality. Step 19 depends on nothing; WatcherState and /api/watcher already carry everything it needs to render. Step 20 depends on nothing; the duration is already recorded, and the trend is derived read-only from repository.history().