# Railiance Newcomer Quickstart

Welcome to **Railiance** 🚂✨ — an opinionated Infrastructure‑as‑Code framework.
This guide is written for newcomers who want to set up their very first Railiance host.

---

## 0. Get the code

Clone this repository locally and enter it:

```bash
git clone https://<your-gitea-domain>/<org-or-user>/railiance-bootstrap.git
cd railiance-bootstrap
```

(Replace `<your-gitea-domain>` and `<org-or-user>` with your setup.)

---

## 1. Check your environment

Make sure you have these installed locally:

- Git
- Ansible
- Python 3
- SSH client

Check with:

```bash
bin/railiance doctor
```

This command will confirm prerequisites.

---

## 2. Prepare your SSH key

If you don’t already have an SSH key:

```bash
bin/railiance gen-ssh-key
```

Upload the public key to your cloud provider or VM host.

---

## 3. Create your inventory

Copy the example inventory:

```bash
cp ansible/hosts.ini.example ansible/hosts.ini
```

Edit `ansible/hosts.ini` and add the IP or hostname of your Railiance host.

Test that Ansible can reach it:

```bash
ansible -i ansible/hosts.ini all -m ping
```

---

## 4. Provision a new VM

Recommended host specs:
- Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
- 2 vCPU, 4–8 GB RAM
- 60 GB SSD

When creating the VM, inject your SSH key and, if possible, apply the provided `cloudinit/user-data.yaml`.

---

## 5. Seed the host

Log in to the host and run the seed script:

```bash
tools/seed_node.sh
```

This will clone the repo on the host, set up housekeeping, and get ready for provisioning.

---

## 6. Bootstrap with Ansible

From your local machine:

```bash
ansible-playbook -i ansible/hosts.ini ansible/bootstrap.yml
```

This installs prerequisites and sets up a single‑node k3s cluster.

---

## 7. Verify

Run the smoke test:

```bash
tests/smoke_kube.sh
```

If successful, you now have a working Railiance host 🎉

---

## Next steps

- Explore `ansible/` playbooks for services (e.g., uptime-kuma, postgres).
- Read `docs/README.md` for philosophy and design.
- Join the community and contribute improvements!

---