1# App Manifest
2
3Application workloads are declared in standalone TOML files — one file per app — not in `gordon.toml`. Apply with `gordon apps apply --file <app>.toml`, activate with `gordon apps deploy <app>`.
4
5The file is intended for Git: it must never contain secret values. Service-specific values use `secrets` even when non-confidential; values stay in pass.
6
7## Minimal Example
8
9```toml
10name = "blog"
11
12[[service]]
13name = "web"
14image = "gordon.mydomain.com/blog:1.4.2"
15
16[[service.http]]
17host = "blog.mydomain.com"
18port = 3000
19```
20
21## Full Example
22
23```toml
24name = "blog"
25
26[env]                          # optional, app-wide public env for all services
27APP_ENV = "production"
28
29[[service]]
30name = "web"
31image = "gordon.mydomain.com/blog:1.4.2"
32command = ["node", "server.js"]  # optional override
33stop_grace = "30s"               # optional, default 30s
34devices = ["transcode-gpu"]      # 0..n logical names from [app_devices.<name>]
35
36[service.readiness]              # optional explicit readiness
37type = "http"
38path = "/healthz"
39port = 3000
40timeout = "30s"
41
42[[service.http]]                 # 0..n HTTP interfaces
43host = "blog.mydomain.com"
44port = 3000
45tls = "auto"                     # auto | always | never
46
47[[service.http]]                 # optional private interface
48visibility = "internal"          # public (default) | internal
49port = 8080                      # required; no host or tls
50
51[service.secrets]                # ENV name -> secret name (values in pass)
52DATABASE_URL = "database-url"
53
54[[service.volume]]               # 0..n named volumes only
55name = "web-data"
56path = "/data"
57readonly = false
58
59[[service.bind]]                 # 0..n; name references [app_mounts.<name>]
60name = "app-logs"                # policy name, never a host path
61path = "/var/log/app"            # absolute container destination
62readonly = true
63
64[[service.database]]             # explicit database declarations
65name = "main"
66type = "postgres"
67schedule = "daily"
68
69[service.backup]                 # backup targets by reference
70postgres = ["main"]
71volume = ["web-data"]
72
73[[network.shared]]               # optional shared-network memberships
74network = "backend"
75services = ["web"]
76```
77
78## Identity Rules
79
80- App name: DNS label (lowercase alphanumerics and hyphens, max 63), must not contain `--`, reserved: `gordon`, `registry`, `admin`, `localhost`. Case-insensitive uniqueness.
81- Service name: `[a-z0-9_.-]`, max 63, unique within the app.
82- Bind name: `[a-z0-9_.-]`, max 63, must not contain `--`, unique within its service.
83- Device name: `[a-z0-9_.-]`, max 63, must not contain `--`, unique within its service.
84- Removing an app ends its incarnation: the name is freed, volumes and secrets are archived as retained under the old internal UUID, desired/active/intent state is cleared, and the next apply allocates a new UUID. A new app reusing the name never adopts the old secrets or volumes.
85
86## Services
87
88One or more explicitly named image-backed services per app. Exactly one container per service — no replicas field. A service may expose HTTP, TCP, UDP interfaces, or none.
89
90```toml
91[[service.tcp]]
92entrypoint = "game"     # names installation entrypoints.<name>
93port = 25565
94publish = "0.0.0.0:25565"
95
96[[service.udp]]
97entrypoint = "game"
98port = 28015
99publish = "0.0.0.0:28015"
100```
101
102RCON is ordinary TCP: use TCP interfaces, no special RCON kind.
103
104`publish` must match the entrypoint listener it attaches to exactly: the same host, port, and transport. The traffic manager binds the entrypoint address, so a declaration that differs (for example a loopback bind on a wildcard entrypoint, or a different port) is rejected at apply time instead of being silently widened. `0.0.0.0` and an omitted host are the same wildcard.
105
106Image registry names and digest syntax are validated during manifest apply, resolution, deployment preflight, and immediately before every pull, including boot, restart, and recovery. Docker Hub (`docker.io` and canonical pull host `registry-1.docker.io`), `ghcr.io`, `quay.io`, and Gordon's configured registry are allowed by default. Add other exact registry hostname+port entries with `images.allowed_registries`; this does not configure credentials, and external resolution and pulls use anonymous access. When `images.require_digest` is enabled, every image reference, including Gordon registry images, must use `@sha256:<64 hex chars>`. See [Images](./images.md). This is a hostname allowlist, not DNS/IP validation or runtime egress enforcement.
107
108## Environment and Secrets
109
110- `[env]` is app-wide public env injected into all services. Each key must be disjoint from every `[service.secrets]` key in the app.
111- `[service.secrets]` maps ENV var name to service-local secret name. Values are written with `gordon apps secrets set` and stay in pass under `gordon/apps/<uuid>/<service>/<name>`. Secret updates affect the next deploy/restart, not running containers.
112- There is no `[service.env]` key — service-specific values must use secrets.
113
114## Volumes and Databases
115
116- Named volumes only, and no service-shared volumes. Replacement reuses volumes; removed services leave volumes retained and visible.
117- Manifests never carry host paths. A `[[service.bind]]` references an `[app_mounts.<name>]` policy the operator declares in `gordon.toml`; a bind whose name has no matching policy is rejected at apply time. See [Volumes](./volumes.md) and [Security Hardening](./security-hardening.md).
118- Named volumes are Gordon-owned app data: created, labeled, retained, backed up, and pruned by Gordon. Administrative binds are operator-owned host locations: Gordon mounts them and never creates, deletes, owns, backs up, or prunes them.
119- `[[service.bind]]` requires an absolute, normalized container `path` and an optional `readonly`. The policy's `read_only` and the bind's `readonly` force read-only together: either side wins and a manifest can never weaken its policy. Reserved destinations (`/`, `/proc`, `/sys`, `/dev`, `/boot` and their children) and paths colliding with a declared volume or another bind are rejected at apply time.
120- `devices` lists logical device names granted by `[app_devices.<name>]` policy the operator declares in `gordon.toml`; a device whose name has no matching policy, or whose policy does not allow the app+service pair, is rejected at apply time. Gordon resolves each name to explicit CDI IDs at activation time and encodes them as one native CDI `DeviceRequest`. Revisions persist the logical names, never the host resolution. A device add/remove shows as `service/<name>/devices` in diffs; reorder-only input is a no-op. Changing a mapping never recreates a running container: the next deploy serves the new resolution. Revoking a grant fails subsequent deploys closed while the running service is untouched. Device-bearing creates require Podman 5.4+ or Docker 28.3+ with native CDI configured; older or unrecognized engines return a structured `runtime-unsupported` error and never run without devices. Gordon installs no drivers, manages no quotas, and injects no `NVIDIA_*` environment: images carry their own runtime expectations.
121- A service with any bind runs as a single writer, like a volume-backed service: replacements never serve two generations at once.
122- A volume declared `readonly = true` is mounted read-only in the container; the service cannot modify protected data.
123- `[[service.database]]` declares databases explicitly (no image inference). Only PostgreSQL is supported, and each database declares its own backup `schedule` (`hourly`, `daily`, `weekly`, or `monthly`).
124- `[service.backup]` lists the declared databases (`postgres`) and volumes (`volume`) that are backup targets. A declared database or volume that is not referenced here is never backed up. Schedules follow the declaration through deploys; stored backups are never deleted when declarations change.
125
126## HTTP Interfaces
127
128`[[service.http]]` declares 0..n HTTP interfaces per service. `visibility` is optional and defaults to `public` when the key is absent or empty.
129
130```toml
131[[service.http]]                 # public: proxied by host
132host = "blog.mydomain.com"
133port = 3000
134tls = "auto"                     # auto | always | never
135
136[[service.http]]                 # internal: not published (app private network only)
137visibility = "internal"
138port = 8080
139```
140
141- `public`: `host` is required and must be a valid public hostname, and `tls` is `auto` (default when absent), `always`, or `never`. A public interface gets a proxy route, a global host reservation, a certificate target when TLS applies, and a `127.0.0.1` loopback backend publication.
142- `internal`: creates no proxy route, no host reservation, no certificate target, and no host port publication, so it is never reachable through the host or proxy plane. `port` is required, `host` must be absent, and `tls` must be absent — any declared TLS value is rejected. It is still a declared TCP-capable container port for readiness metadata. Reachability follows network membership, not visibility: any container attached to a network this service joins can reach the port — sibling services on the app's own private network, and peers on any `[[network.shared]]` network the service is enrolled in.
143
144There is no `.internal` pseudo-domain: internal interfaces carry no hostname at all.
145
146A container port declared by both an internal HTTP interface and an externally backed interface (public HTTP or TCP) is rejected at apply time, because publication is socket-level. Duplicate internal HTTP ports within a service are rejected the same way.
147
148## Readiness
149
150`type = "http"` requires an origin-form `path` beginning with a single `/`. Absolute URLs, authority forms such as `@host:port`, scheme-relative paths, and control characters are rejected at apply time. The probe always dials the declared loopback backend, never follows redirects, ignores environment proxy settings, and is bounded per request and for the whole operation. A public or otherwise published interface keeps this loopback probe. An internal HTTP port is instead probed over the app private network by one bounded, short-lived helper, using HTTP or TCP according to the interface's `[service.readiness]` type; the internal port is never temporarily published to the host to probe it.
151
152## TLS
153
154TLS applies to public interfaces only; an internal interface never declares `tls`.
155
156- `auto` keeps the host eligible for HTTP and HTTPS; plaintext is redirected when an HTTPS endpoint exists and redirects are enabled.
157- `always` is enforced: a plaintext request to an `always` host is redirected whenever an HTTPS endpoint exists, and refused with `421 Misdirected Request` when none does. The backend is never reached over plaintext.
158- `never` stays plaintext and is never issued an app certificate.
159
160## Networks
161
162Each app gets a private network automatically. `[[network.shared]]` adds services to named shared networks, created/reused only within verified Gordon ownership. Deploy adds AND removes memberships without disconnecting unrelated services.
163
164Services of the same app communicate over that private network and resolve each other by service alias. Different apps are isolated by default; cross-app traffic requires both services to declare the same `[[network.shared]]` membership. See [Network Isolation](./network-isolation.md).
165
166## Strictness
167
168Unknown fields, duplicate service names, unresolved service/entrypoint/backup refs, secret/env collisions, unsafe identities, and forbidden mounts are hard errors at apply time. Canonical host conflicts (including system domains and external routes) fail before persistence.
169
170## Related
171
172- [Apps CLI](../cli/apps.md)
173- [Secrets](./secrets.md)
174- [Volumes](./volumes.md)
175- [External Routes](./external-routes.md)