generated from coulomb/repo-seed
tegwick
5bbb791f21
- wiki/OperatorAccessAssist.md: warden access contract, conduit-vs-broker boundary, the three guardrails + catalog secret guard, lane semantics. - AccessRouting.md: issue/route/assist roles; reconciled the anti-pattern table so the transparent conduit no longer contradicts it. - credential-routing.md rule: added warden access + "standing broker forbidden, transparent --fetch sanctioned" anti-pattern. - INTENT.md: pointer→assist charter extension. SCOPE.md: implemented list + Getting Oriented + maturity A4→A5 (Availability). - history decision record for the proxy-mode choice and guardrails. WP-0014 finished (T1–T5). 172 passed, lint clean. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
69 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
69 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
# Operator Access Assist — charter decision record
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Date: 2026-06-27
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Workplan: WARDEN-WP-0014
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Status: shipped (T1–T5)
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## Context
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A routine question — "do we have an NPM_AUTH_TOKEN for coulomb in OpenBao, and how do
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I ask ops-warden for it?" — exposed a gap. ops-warden's honest answer was *"not my
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lane; go read a wiki and talk to railiance-platform."* Correct per the model, but a
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**pointer, not assistance**. The `warden route` catalog named the owner and stopped.
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Bernd's framing: ops-warden should be the *consistent operator front door for all
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NetKingdom security operations* — centralize the **knowledge and policy**, while the
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specialized subsystems keep the **detail and custody**. Make security consistent and
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efficient for human and agentic operators without ops-warden becoming a secret store.
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## Decision
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Extend the routing charter from a **pointer layer** to an **assist layer**: a
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`warden access` front door that (a) advises — renders the exact auth method, path,
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command skeleton, and policy-gate status for any need — and (b) for `exec_capable`
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lanes, **proxies** the fetch *as the caller*.
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Proxy mode was chosen explicitly (over advisory-only) for operational convenience,
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**on the condition** that it is built as a transparent conduit, not a standing broker.
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## The boundary that keeps it sound
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`net-kingdom/docs/responsibility-map.md` already constrains ops-warden: it *"must not
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become a universal secret broker — runtime secrets remain OpenBao; authorization
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remains flex-auth."* The assist layer presses on this line; three guardrails hold it:
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- **G1 — caller identity, never warden's.** Proxy runs the owner's tool with the
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caller's own environment; ops-warden injects no token and holds no standing
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secret-read credential.
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- **G2 — transit only.** `--fetch` inherits stdout (never piped), so the value never
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enters warden's memory or any log; `--exec` injects into a child env only; audit is
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metadata only. The catalog `_assert_no_secret_material` guard keeps values out of the
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git-tracked catalog.
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- **G3 — policy gate before fetch.** flex-auth `check_fetch_policy` runs before any
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secret-lane fetch; with `policy.enabled: false` the proxy refuses unless `--no-policy`
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acknowledges proxying ungated.
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A `lane: secret|login` distinction lets interactive auth bootstrap (key-cape OIDC)
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skip the caller-auth precheck and secret-read gate it cannot satisfy.
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## What this is NOT
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- Not secret custody — OpenBao still holds the values.
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- Not authorization — flex-auth still decides; ops-warden only gates its own proxy.
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- Not identity — key-cape still establishes it; the login lane just runs the flow as
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the caller.
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## Follow-on
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This conversation also surfaced the **Secret Lifecycle Tiering** idea (dev→test→prod
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posture ladder, the "fake bao" contract-double pattern generalized). Captured as
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**WARDEN-WP-0015** (proposed): policy authored to net-kingdom canon, ops-warden as
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conformance steward (author + checks, not enforcement).
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## References
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- `wiki/OperatorAccessAssist.md` — the contract + guardrails
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- `src/warden/access.py`, `src/warden/proxy.py`, `_access_proxy` in `cli.py`
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- `tests/test_access.py`, `tests/test_proxy.py`
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- `workplans/WARDEN-WP-0014-operator-access-assist.md`
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