S-24/#25 · Helm chart + Kubernetes deployment, and Caddy for the portals (#166) #167

Merged
not merged 6 commits from feat/25-helm-kubernetes-caddy into main 2026-09-10 08:53:59 +00:00
4 changed files with 114 additions and 9 deletions
Showing only changes of commit 2d40c84e2c - Show all commits
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Three forces shape the mechanism:
- **Nothing notifies anyone.** The trigger lives in Flowable. The domain does not publish
task events, and there is no bus between the domain and the BFF.
- **The BFF is stateless** and sits behind each portal's nginx.
- **The BFF is stateless** and sits behind each portal's reverse proxy.
- **This is the repo's first live-updating view**, so the choice sets a precedent.
## Decision
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ werkbak is readable at all.
Neither buys freshness here, because **nothing notifies the BFF either**:
- **SSE** (`text/event-stream`) would mean a new streaming endpoint whose handler polls the
domain and forwards diffs — the same latency, plus connection lifecycle, nginx
domain and forwards diffs — the same latency, plus connection lifecycle, proxy
buffering, and auth on a long-lived connection.
- **WebSocket/SignalR** adds a dependency (CLAUDE.md §13) and makes the BFF stateful and
sticky-session-bound. A genuine push path would *also* need the domain to publish task
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
# ADR-0034: The portals are served by Caddy, not nginx
- **Status:** Accepted
- **Date:** 2026-09-04
- **Deciders:** Respellion engineering
- **Slice:** _(none yet — raised directly alongside the Kubernetes deployment, ADR-0033)_
## Context
Each portal ships as one image that does two jobs: serve the built Angular app, and
reverse-proxy *its own* BFF endpoint group so the browser calls a single origin (no CORS,
and the DigiD/medewerker token rides along — ADR-0010, ADR-0013). Until now that was nginx
with a hand-written `nginx.conf` per app.
Two workarounds had accumulated around nginx's resolver, both for the same root cause:
**nginx resolves a variable `proxy_pass` upstream itself**, using only the `resolver`
directive, and never the search domains in `/etc/resolv.conf`.
1. `resolver 127.0.0.11` (Docker's embedded DNS) is wrong on rootless podman, which uses a
network-specific aardvark address — so `apps/portal-nginx-resolver.sh` rewrote the
directive at container start by reading the pod's actual nameserver.
2. On Kubernetes the bare `bff` name cannot resolve at all without the `svc.cluster.local`
search domain, so the same script gained a `BFF_HOST` override that the Helm chart set
per portal (ADR-0033).
Both existed only to tell the proxy how to resolve one hostname.
## Decision
**Serve the portals with `caddy:2-alpine` and a small `Caddyfile` per app, replacing the
nginx runtime stage, the four `nginx.conf` files, and the resolver workaround.**
Caddy dials its upstream per request through Go's resolver, which reads
`/etc/resolv.conf` — nameserver *and* search domains. So `reverse_proxy bff:8080` resolves
correctly under Docker, rootless podman and Kubernetes with no per-engine configuration,
and it still starts before the BFF exists and picks up its restarts (the property the
variable `proxy_pass` was there to buy). `apps/portal-nginx-resolver.sh`, its unit test and
the chart's `BFF_HOST` env are deleted.
The Caddyfile uses `handle` blocks rather than a bare `try_files`:
```
handle /behandel/* { reverse_proxy bff:8080 }
handle { root * /usr/share/caddy; try_files {path} /index.html; file_server }
```
`handle` blocks are mutually exclusive and matched most-specific-first. This matters:
Caddy's default directive order puts rewrites (`try_files`) *before* `reverse_proxy`, so a
top-level `try_files {path} /index.html` would rewrite every API path to `/index.html`
before the proxy ever saw it — the SPA fallback would silently eat the API. The `handle`
form makes the routing explicit instead of relying on directive-order trivia.
`infra/test_portal_caddyfiles.py` (in `make unit`) asserts each portal proxies exactly its
own endpoint groups and keeps the SPA fallback. The four files are near-identical, so a
copy-paste slip is cheap to make and expensive to find: proxying another portal's group
hands a browser an endpoint its token isn't for, and the failure surfaces as a 401 three
services away.
### Alternatives considered
- **Keep nginx.** Zero migration, and it works — but the resolver workaround stays, and it
had already grown a second head for Kubernetes. Both heads are nginx-specific.
- **Keep nginx, hard-code the FQDN.** Would need a different config per deployment target
(compose vs Kubernetes), which is exactly the fork the chart was written to avoid.
- **Drop the proxy and use CORS.** Turns the same-origin design (ADR-0010) inside out:
CORS preflights, an explicit origin allowlist in the BFF, and a token attached
cross-origin. Not a serving decision — an architectural regression.
- **Kubernetes Ingress in front of the portals.** Solves nothing about compose, adds a
controller, and the portals would still need something to serve static files.
- ponytail ceiling: plain HTTP on `:80`, no compression, no cache headers beyond Caddy's
defaults, and Caddy's automatic HTTPS deliberately unused (there is no hostname to get a
certificate for). Upgrade path: `encode zstd gzip` and a cache policy for immutable
Angular bundles; a real hostname makes TLS a one-line `Caddyfile` change, which is the
main reason this is worth having in place.
## Consequences
**Positive**
- One resolver behaviour across compose, podman and Kubernetes; a script, a unit test and a
chart env var are deleted rather than maintained.
- The images gain `curl` for free (the alpine nginx image had only busybox `wget`), which
the compose healthchecks can use.
- Routing intent is readable: one `handle` block per endpoint group, one for the app.
- TLS later is a one-line change instead of a new component.
**Negative / costs**
- A new runtime dependency in four images (CLAUDE.md §13): Caddy replaces nginx rather than
joining it, so the count is unchanged, but it is a less familiar config language for
anyone who has only read nginx configs.
- The images grew: 90.6 MB against nginx's 75.7 MB, because `caddy:2-alpine` carries a
bigger static binary than nginx's. Measured, not estimated.
- Caddy's directive-order rule is a genuine footgun (see above); the `handle` form and the
Caddyfile comments exist to keep the next person out of it.
- Any operational note that says "the portal's nginx" is now wrong; the ones in `docs/` were
updated with this ADR.
## Coupling rules touched (CLAUDE.md §8)
None. §8.3 is unchanged and unchanged in kind: the portals still talk only to the BFF, and
the proxy is still the thing that makes that same-origin.
+1 -1
View File
@@ -389,7 +389,7 @@ make verify-e2e # → login as jan-burger → submit → "ontvangen" co
open http://localhost:8140
```
> The portal is served same-origin with the BFF (nginx proxies `/self-service` + `/openbaar`), so no
> The portal is served same-origin with the BFF (Caddy proxies `/self-service` + `/openbaar`), so no
> CORS; the OIDC authority comes from `/config.json` at runtime. See `docs/frontend-decisions.md`.
---
+8 -6
View File
@@ -77,11 +77,13 @@ with the submit form (S-08c, #67); any deviation from NL DS will be recorded her
## Serving + e2e (S-08d, #68)
- **Served by nginx, same-origin as the BFF.** The compose `self-service` image serves the built app
- **Served by Caddy, same-origin as the BFF.** The compose `self-service` image serves the built app
and **reverse-proxies** `/self-service/*` + `/openbaar/*` to the `bff` service. Because the
api-client uses **relative URLs**, the browser calls the app's own origin → nginx forwards to the
BFF: **no CORS**, and the DigiD token (same-origin) is attached by the interceptor. nginx resolves
the BFF at request time (a `resolver` + variable `proxy_pass`) so it starts before the BFF is up.
api-client uses **relative URLs**, the browser calls the app's own origin → Caddy forwards to the
BFF: **no CORS**, and the DigiD token (same-origin) is attached by the interceptor. Caddy dials
the BFF per request through the system resolver, so it starts before the BFF is up, picks up its
restarts, and resolves the bare `bff` name on every engine — compose, podman and Kubernetes
(ADR-0034; the `Caddyfile` sits next to each app's `Dockerfile`).
- **Runtime config.** The app fetches `/config.json` before bootstrap (`main.ts`); `appConfig` is a
factory. The dev default (`public/config.json`) points at `localhost:8180`; the Docker image bakes
the compose value (`keycloak:8080`). One build, per-environment OIDC authority.
@@ -110,7 +112,7 @@ with the submit form (S-08c, #67); any deviation from NL DS will be recorded her
`angular-auth-oidc-client`, no interceptor, and no `config.json` — `main.ts` bootstraps `appConfig`
directly with just `provideHttpClient` + `provideRouter`. This is the deliberate contrast to
self-service and keeps the app trivially cacheable/CDN-able.
- **Same-origin via nginx, like self-service.** The compose `openbaar` image serves the built app and
- **Same-origin via Caddy, like self-service.** The compose `openbaar` image serves the built app and
reverse-proxies `/openbaar` to the BFF; the api-client's relative calls stay same-origin (no CORS).
Served on `:8141`, health-checked over IPv4 (`127.0.0.1`), no Keycloak dependency.
- **Public-safe by construction.** The portal only ever sees the BFF's `OpenbaarProjection.PublicView`
@@ -138,7 +140,7 @@ frontend work is the medewerker realm auth and the werkbak/decide page. Wiring r
**BFF remains the security boundary** (`behandelaar` policy, 401/403 on `/behandel/*`, ADR-0013);
the frontend role signal is for display/UX, and the werkbak page surfaces a load failure (e.g. a
403 for a non-behandelaar) rather than swallowing it.
- **Same-origin via nginx, like the other portals.** The compose `behandel` image serves the built
- **Same-origin via Caddy, like the other portals.** The compose `behandel` image serves the built
app and reverse-proxies `/behandel` to the BFF (relative calls, no CORS). Served on `:8142`,
health-checked over IPv4 (`127.0.0.1`), depends on Keycloak for the medewerker realm.
- **Werkbak = decide-and-refresh.** `WerkbakPage` loads `GET /behandel/werkbak` on open and renders a