werkator/docs/plan/07-server-mode.md

Step 07: Server Mode and HTTP API

Prerequisites: steps 04, 05, 06. Read README.md and 00-legacy-analysis.md first.

Goal

Implement the server subcommand: a persistent web server exposing build state as JSON and serving artifacts.

Design

Bootstrapping:

• CLAUDE.md notes the context starts with web type none; the server subcommand must run a web context. Preferred approach: ServerCommand launches a second SpringApplication with WebApplicationType.SERVLET and a server profile, then blocks until shutdown. Document the chosen mechanism in the code and, if it deviates, in an ADR.
• Add spring-boot-starter-web dependency.
• The watcher (step 06) is active only in the server profile.
• New config keys server.port and server.bindAddress (defaults 18080 / 0.0.0.0, as legacy).

JSON API (package de.hoennig.gittally.server), replacing the legacy /control/* endpoints:

• GET /api/builds/latest — latest build per branch.
• GET /api/builds/history — all builds, newest first.
• GET /api/builds/current — the list of running builds (there can be several, one per branch, up to builds.maxConcurrent), each with live status and log tail (?offset= for incremental log fetch, addressed by artifact key).
• GET /api/status/{commit} — effective status including Gitea lookup (replaces /control/status); must return an explicit error state on Gitea failure, never hang.
• POST /api/builds/{branch}/restart, POST /api/builds/{artifactKey}/cancel (cancel takes the artifact key because multiple builds can run concurrently), DELETE /api/builds/{artifactKey} — guarded by a simple token like the legacy cancel token; wire into executor/watcher/repository.
• GET /api/watcher — watcher health (last poll, last error).
• Artifact serving: GET /artifacts/{artifactKey}/** streaming from the artifact store, with no-cache headers for html/json/log.

Out of Scope

• HTML pages (step 08); JSON plus artifact files only.
• TLS/reverse proxy (documented in step 12).

Tests

• @WebMvcTest slices with @MockkBean per controller (see CLAUDE.md conventions).
• Contract tests: JSON shapes, error states (Gitea down → explicit unknown status, HTTP 200), cancel token rejection.
• One @SpringBootTest on the server profile proving the context boots with watcher and web enabled.

Acceptance Criteria

• ./gradlew ktlintFormat then ./gradlew build is green.
• java -jar ... server starts, GET /api/builds/latest answers, Ctrl-C shuts down cleanly (manual smoke test; document result in this file).

Implementation Notes (2026-07-07)

Bootstrapping was implemented as designed, with two additions. application-server.yml switches spring.main.web-application-type to servlet, because spring.main.* properties override the programmatic SpringApplicationBuilder.web(...) setting. CliRunner is excluded from the server profile so the second context does not run picocli again. After Ctrl-C, ServerCommand parks the command thread while the JVM shuts down; otherwise main() races the shutdown hooks and SpringApplication.exit prints a stack trace for the already-closed CLI context.

Deviations and decisions:

• The live log tail is a sibling endpoint: GET /api/builds/current lists the running builds (with logSize), and GET /api/builds/current/{artifactKey}/log?offset= fetches the log incrementally, addressed by artifact key as required. Responses are capped at 1 MiB per chunk.
• The control token needs no config key. It is generated on first use and persisted to .git/gittally/control-token (mode 600); operators can write their own token there, deleting the file rotates it. Requests pass it via the X-GitTally-Token header or a token parameter; mismatch answers 403 like legacy.
• DELETE /api/builds/{artifactKey} removes the result and then calls ArtifactStore.prune(history), so no new store interface method was needed.
• GET /api/status/{commit} also accepts abbreviated hashes (7–40 hex like legacy) and resolves them against the local history. The GiteaClient (step 03) gained 10s connect/read timeouts so the endpoint can never hang; a Gitea failure yields HTTP 200 with status: unknown (or the local status) plus giteaError.
• POST /api/builds/{branch}/restart rebuilds the branch's last recorded commit. Branch names containing / would need an encoded slash, which Tomcat rejects by default — revisit in step 08 if the UI needs restart for such branches. (Resolved in step 08: the endpoint moved to POST /api/builds/restart?branch=….)
• Spring Boot 4 moved @WebMvcTest into the new spring-boot-starter-webmvc-test test module (added as test dependency).
• The server-profile @SpringBootTest mocks the Watcher bean, so booting the test never fetches origin or enqueues builds; watcher wiring is proven by verifying start() was called.

Manual smoke test (2026-07-07): in a scratch repository, java -jar build/libs/gittally-0.1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar server started on the configured port 18981. GET /api/builds/latest answered [] with HTTP 200, GET /api/watcher exposed the failing fetch of the origin-less repo as lastFetchError, GET /api/status/<sha> answered unknown with HTTP 200, and cancel without token answered 403. SIGINT (Ctrl-C) shut the process down cleanly in about 2 seconds: port closed, no exceptions in the log, exit code 130.