roam/homey.org

:PROPERTIES:
:ID: c87d8901-bbee-4397-bff1-af8432b4f66e
:END:

#+title: homey
#+filetags: :project: :knowledge:

** Architecture

NixOS homelab on Raspberry Pi 4 (8 GB). Domain: zakobar.com. Static IP: 192.168.1.100. nixpkgs pin: nixos-25.05.

Container runtime: Podman via =virtualisation.oci-containers=. All containers join the =homey= podman network (created by =podman-homey-network.service= in =common.nix=). Inter-container DNS via container names; Caddy proxies via =127.0.0.1:<port>=.

Reverse proxy: Caddy with Cloudflare DNS-01 wildcard cert for =*.zakobar.com=. Built via =pkgs.caddy.withPlugins= with =github.com/caddy-dns/cloudflare@v0.2.4= (resolved hash: =sha256-pRrLBlYRaAyMYwPXeTy4WqWNRu/L9K6Mn2src11dGh8==). Each vhost generates a pair: HTTPS vhost + =http://= vhost for cloudflared loopback. Authelia =forward_auth= uses =/api/authz/forward-auth= (v4.38+ endpoint, not legacy).

Auth stack: OpenLDAP ← Authelia (TOTP 2FA). Authelia config is rendered entirely at build time from Nix strings. A =NIXOS_CONFIG_HASH= env var on the container forces a restart whenever the config changes (bind-mounts resolve symlinks at start, so the running container would otherwise keep the old config).

Monitoring: Prometheus (9090) + node_exporter (9100) + systemd_exporter (9558) + Grafana (3002). Node Exporter Full dashboard pre-provisioned (fetchurl hash resolved: =sha256-1DE1aaanRHHeCOMWDGdOS1wBXxOF84UXAjJzT5Ek6mM=, ID 1860 rev 37). Grafana proxy auth: Authelia → Remote-User header → Caddy maps to X-WEBAUTH-USER → Grafana auto-signs-in. All reaching Grafana are confirmed admins (Authelia enforces two_factor + admins group).

Uptime Kuma sync: a Python =oneshot= service runs after container start. Hash-gated — only re-syncs when the monitor JSON changes. Supports =keyword= (keyword monitor type) and =maxretries= fields beyond the basic =name/url/interval=.

Attic (self-hosted Nix binary cache): cache name =main=, public key =main:9SZt/6plBU7jjQzz90J7O011I13hmJvOMYouxNqExNQ==, endpoint =https://attic.zakobar.com/main=. Setup completed 2026-05-30. NAR content not backed up — reproducible from source. Tokens are stateless JWTs; regenerate with same =atticadm= command if lost.

Eurovision Vote: Django app sourced from external flake =github:anerisgreat/eurovote=, wrapped by =modules/services/eurovote.nix=. Uses DynamicUser + StateDirectory so systemd owns =/var/lib/eurovote/=; no tmpfiles entry needed.

EmulatorJS: web game emulator at =games.zakobar.com= with an offline PWA + per-user save sync. See [[id:7148e7ef-7741-42ad-9d3d-4025001e1018][homey/emulatorjs]].

Big Jar of Pickles: LangGraph swarm-pipeline app sourced from external flake =big-jar-of-pickles= (/home/aner/projects/apps/big-jar-of-pickles). Homey-side infra rollout across 4 phases (plan: /home/aner/.claude/plans/view-the-big-jar-dynamic-axolotl.md; spec: [[homey/big-jar-of-pickles]]). Phase 1 (native Postgres+pgvector + Redis) deployed and verified 2026-09-11. Phase 2 (Langfuse v4, containerized) written 2026-09-11 but not yet deployed — ships disabled pending sops secrets. Phases 3–4 (Aegra, app wrapper) not started.

Backup: Restic daily at 03:00 to S3 (Backblaze B2, bucket =zakobar-home-backup=). Pre-hook: Nextcloud maintenance mode on + pg_dump (Nextcloud, native shared Postgres, and Langfuse's own Postgres all dumped separately). Post-hook: maintenance mode off. Manual offload: =restic copy= to local disk. NAR content and media excluded.

Reliability hardening in =hosts/pi-main/default.nix=: hardware watchdog (bcm2835_wdt), WiFi power save disabled, network watchdog timer, zramSwap zstd 25%, Nix build-dir on external HD.

Bootstrap: =pi-main-bootstrap= config builds an SD image (=sd-image-aarch64.nix=) for first flash.

** Subnodes

- [[id:7148e7ef-7741-42ad-9d3d-4025001e1018][homey/emulatorjs]] — EmulatorJS game emulator: offline PWA design, ROM management, save sync, PS1/large-ROM notes.
- [[id:fd781dd9-e52c-4e3f-82ad-b27783b33177][homey/ntfy]] — Ntfy push notifications: CLI send commands, token management, pass integration.
- [[id:dc2ddfad-ada9-4f0d-ae35-806e8a1a2def][homey/big-jar-of-pickles]] — Postgres+pgvector/Redis/Langfuse/Aegra services for the big-jar-of-pickles app; rollout status, wiring pattern, gotchas.

** Deployment

*Always deploy from the dev machine using the dev shell command:*

#+begin_src bash
# Enter the dev shell first:
nix develop

# Then run:
homey-deploy-rpi-main
#+end_src

Equivalent command (if not in dev shell):
#+begin_src bash
nixos-rebuild switch \
  --flake .#pi-main \
  --target-host admin@192.168.1.100 \
  --build-host admin@192.168.1.100 \
  --use-remote-sudo
#+end_src

Both =--target-host= and =--build-host= point to the Pi — the build happens ON the Pi (uses Attic cache at =attic.zakobar.com=). The dev machine only supplies the flake source; it does not build locally.

*NEVER run =nixos-rebuild= directly on the Pi* (=/home/admin/homey/= is a stale mirror, not the authoritative source). The dev machine at =/home/aner/projects/selfhosted/homey/= is the source of truth.

Nix evaluates git-tracked files from the flake. New/modified files must be at least =git add=-ed (staged) before deploying, or they will be invisible to Nix. Untracked files are silently ignored.

To validate a module that ships with =enable = false= by default (its =config = lib.mkIf cfg.enable {...}= block stays lazy/unevaluated by plain =nix flake check=), temporarily flip the flag on in =hosts/pi-main/default.nix=, rerun =nix flake check= to force full evaluation, then revert before committing/deploying.

** Conventions

=homeyConfig= specialArgs (passed to every module): =domain=, =organization=, =timezone=. Never hardcode domain strings.

=users.mutableUsers = false= — all user config must be declared in Nix.

Secret injection pattern: =LoadCredential= stages sops-decrypted file into =$CREDENTIALS_DIRECTORY= before Exec*; shell script reads and exports. Ephemeral env files written to =/run/= and cleaned up in =ExecStopPost= / =postStop=. A combined connection-string secret (e.g. a DB =DATABASE_URL= with the password embedded) can't use the usual "plain Nix env var + separate secret" split — the whole string has to be assembled inside the ExecStartPre script at runtime.

Authelia =accessControlRules=: sorted by =priority= at build time (lower = first). Authelia stops at first match, so more-specific rules must have lower priority. Ranges: 0=bypass, 10–19=blanket bypass, 20–49=admin two_factor+deny pairs, 50–64=one_factor open, 65–79=per-path (resources + subject combos).

=accessControlRules= option is declared unconditionally (not inside =mkIf cfg.enable=) so any module can contribute rules even when Authelia is disabled. Same pattern for =homey.monitoring.monitors=.

Attic token generation: run =atticadm make-token= inside the container. Tokens are stateless; losing one means just regenerating it with the same command.

DynamicUser services (Eurovision Vote): secrets must be mode =0444= (not =0400=) because DynamicUser gets a random UID that cannot be pre-assigned as owner. For a bind-mounted config file read by a podman container's own internal (unknown) UID, mode =0644= works the same way and doesn't require knowing that UID.

Caddy Cloudflare plugin secrets: uses =LoadCredential= + =ExecStart= override (clears list with empty string first, then sets the real start command) to export =CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN= before exec-ing caddy.

Container UIDs for bind-mounted volumes should be verified (=skopeo inspect --config docker://<image>=, checking the =User= field), not guessed — getting it wrong causes an activation-time failure, not a build-time one. See [[homey/big-jar-of-pickles]] for a worked example across 4 different images.

Direct-LAN exposure without Caddy (e.g. Home Assistant, Langfuse's Phase-2 LAN-only rollout): bind the container port to all interfaces (omit the =127.0.0.1:= prefix) and add the port to =networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts=.

Fetching external static assets via =fetchFromGitHub= (used by EmulatorJS, same pattern works for any GitHub-hosted release): get hash with =nix-prefetch-url --unpack <tarball-url>=, then convert to SRI with =nix hash convert --hash-algo sha256 --to sri <base32>=. Full upgrade instructions are in a comment inside =modules/services/emulatorjs.nix=.

Shared platform infra (Postgres, Redis — not single-purpose UI services) lives at the top level next to =storage.nix=/=backup.nix=/=monitoring.nix=, not under =modules/services/=. See =modules/postgres.nix=/=modules/redis.nix=.

** Gotchas

hdparm APM udev rule was removed — USB-SATA bridges often don't support APM commands and hdparm hangs indefinitely, causing boot-time crashes.

=storage.nix= config is gated on =lib.mkIf (cfg.device != "")= — if =homey.storage.device= is empty string, the mount and all tmpfiles rules are skipped. Useful during initial setup.

Grafana login form disabled (=disable_login_form = true=) — recovery requires re-enabling it in the Nix config. All proxy-auth users are auto-assigned Admin role (safe because Authelia already restricts to admins group).

Authelia config bind-mount gotcha: NixOS resolves the symlink to the nix store path at container start. Without =NIXOS_CONFIG_HASH= env var, a config change would not take effect until manual container restart.

WiFi network name: =Zakobar=. sops secret key: =wifi/psk=. The secret file must contain exactly one line: =wifi_psk=<password>=.

Attic: writing ephemeral TOML config via =ExecStartPre= shell script to =/run/attic-config.toml=. JWT secret interpolated into the TOML at runtime.

First deployment of a new container pulls the image during =nixos-rebuild switch=, which can block the activation for several minutes (e.g. stirling-pdf ~2 GB image took ~6 min on Pi). This is expected — not a hang.

SSH lockout recovery: =/etc/ssh/authorized_keys.d/admin= is OVERWRITTEN on every boot by NixOS activation. Manual edits don't survive a reboot. To recover: pull SD card, mount root partition (label =NIXOS_SD=), write the new public key to =/home/admin/.ssh/authorized_keys= (700/600, owner UID 1000) — not managed by activation, survives reboots.

Admin SSH key is GPG-backed via YubiKey. Current key: =~/.ssh/gpg-as-ssh.pub= (=openpgp:0x13E0C25D=, =cardno:29_109_265=). SSH client config uses =IdentityAgent ${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/gnupg/S.gpg-agent.ssh=.

Home Assistant first-boot: the =ExecStartPre= script writes a minimal =configuration.yaml= only if none exists, includes =http.trusted_proxies= and the =command_line= auth provider. After onboarding, create one local break-glass admin account; daily logins use LDAP.

Native =services.postgresql=/=services.redis=, and containerized multi-service stacks (Langfuse): full gotcha list in [[homey/big-jar-of-pickles]] — custom Postgres =dataDir= needs the exact leaf pre-created before the unit's mount namespace sets up; default pg_hba already grants DynamicUser peer auth; named redis servers default to socket-only; a container's password can't always go through an env var (redis:7 has none — needs a generated config file instead).

** Key Files

- =flake.nix= — module list, =mkHost= builder, =homeyConfig= specialArgs, =rpi4Headless= hardware snippet
- =hosts/pi-main/default.nix= — enabled services, static IP, WiFi, reliability hardening, Attic substituter config, admin SSH key
- =shells/defaultShell.nix= — dev shell with =homey-deploy-rpi-main= and other helper commands
- =modules/caddy.nix= — =virtualHosts= option, dual vhost generation, Authelia forward_auth snippet
- =modules/services/authelia.nix= — access control rule rendering, =accessControlRules= option (unconditional)
- =modules/services/uptime-kuma.nix= — =homey.monitoring.monitors= option (unconditional), sync script
- =modules/services/attic.nix= — Nix binary cache, JWT token config, netrc injection for Nix daemon
- =modules/monitoring.nix= — Prometheus + Grafana, proxy auth wiring, Node Exporter Full dashboard
- =modules/common.nix= — Nix settings, podman network creation, sops global config
- =modules/storage.nix= — external HD mount, =extraDirs= option
- =modules/backup.nix= — Restic, pre/post hooks, =extraPaths= option
- =modules/postgres.nix= / =modules/redis.nix= — native shared Postgres+pgvector and Redis, [[homey/big-jar-of-pickles]] Phase 1 (deployed)
- =modules/services/langfuse.nix= — containerized Langfuse v4 stack, [[homey/big-jar-of-pickles]] Phase 2 (written, not deployed)
- =scripts/ssh-with-gpg-key.sh= — emergency SSH via GPG key file
- =modules/services/emulatorjs.nix= + =emulatorjs-server.py= — details in [[id:7148e7ef-7741-42ad-9d3d-4025001e1018][homey/emulatorjs]]
- =modules/services/home-assistant.nix= + =modules/services/ha-ldap-auth.py= — HA module; LDAP auth script bundled as Nix derivation
- =modules/services/eurovote.nix= — reference pattern for wiring an external app flake's =nixosModules.default= in; template for [[id:dc2ddfad-ada9-4f0d-ae35-806e8a1a2def][homey/big-jar-of-pickles]] Phase 4

** TODOs

*** TODO Enable chunked uploads to ATTIC

Should be able to do this

1. **Server side** – add to `attic.toml`:

#+begin_src toml

[store]
# Enable the chunk-aware upload handler
enableChunkedUpload = true
# Optional: limit the size of each chunk (default 10 MiB)
maxChunkSize = 5_000_000   # 5 MiB per chunk

#+end_src

[[id:7148e7ef-7741-42ad-9d3d-4025001e1018][homey/emulatorjs]]

[[id:2d455310-42a5-4ff5-be38-9af2b009aef7][homey/work-history/recent]]

[[id:dc2ddfad-ada9-4f0d-ae35-806e8a1a2def][homey/big-jar-of-pickles]]