jschoubben 0c91e08bad nodered: its settings are files the mesh writes, and its editor is locked
The catalogue ran the image's defaults: no adminAuth, so a routed Node-RED
editor (which runs arbitrary code) was open to anyone who reached it, and
the module's own tools had no token to present to an install that was locked.

- settings.js (fixed, 0600, uid 1000) carries adminAuth: user admin checked
  against the admin secret -- a minted password, or the bcrypt hash an
  existing install held (accepted), so current logins keep working -- and a
  static bearer token (api-token) the sidecar presents. It loads settings.json
  beside it, the one mergeable file; endpoints is dropped there, and an
  optional timeZone sets process.env.TZ (assignments cannot set env).
- The sidecar's runtime config is no longer merged; it carries the token.
- Directories are placed (state, data), the route binds into state.
- Image pinned to 5.0.7 (a649dd71), what ace runs; the old pin was 5.0.6.
- deployFlows asks for API v2: v1 answers 204 with no body, which the client
  tried to parse as JSON.

Verified: catalogue tests pass against this tree. A throwaway 5.0.7 container
started with the generated files: anonymous /flows 401, bearer api-token 200,
bad token 401, password grant 200/403 with a minted password and with a
bcrypt-hash-accepted one; endpoints and timeZone do not reach /settings;
timeZone Europe/Brussels overrides TZ=Etc/UTC; v1 deploy 204, v2 deploy
answers {rev}.
2026-09-29 23:41:18 +02:00

mesh-catalog

The Novox Mesh catalogue. The modules the mesh builds, provisions and runs — as manifests, one per module under modules/.

This is data, not a control-plane concern. The manifests describe what a module is: what it provides, what it requires, the seats it claims, the resources the host applies for it. The engine that reads them — parsing, eligibility resolution, sealing, declaration emission — lives in the control plane (novox/mesh-controller, internal/catalogue), which consumes this repository as a build source. The host (novox/mesh-host) applies the declarations the control plane emits. Neither is here.

What a module is, and is not

A module is one thing the mesh can run, named once, described completely by its manifest. A manifest names its image (pinned by digest), the resources the host owns for it (directories, files, the container, the private network it joins), what it requires from a provider and what it provides to consumers, and the sealed secrets it needs filled on the machine.

  • Core mesh components are not modules. The node host, the foundation, the control-plane contexts and the surfaces are the mesh itself; they ship as their own repositories (mesh-host, mesh-foundation, mesh-controller, mesh-surfaces, mesh-sdk), not from here.
  • Standalone applications are not here either. A larger application lives in its own repository with its manifest at the root, registered with the mesh as a build source (novox/hq ADR 0010). This repository holds the modules the mesh maintains as its shared catalogue; an application the mesh merely hosts keeps its manifest beside its own code.

So there is one home for the catalogue the mesh owns, and every application that runs on the mesh rather than being of it carries its own — both reach the pipeline the same way, as a registered source.

Layout

modules/<name>.json      one manifest per module

Flat, because the catalogue's shape carries no meaning: a module is found by its name and described by its manifest, and what relates two modules — a shared seat, a claim, a provider/consumer edge — is data inside the manifests, not a directory the tree encodes (novox/hq, the domain-grouping question closed in favour of seats, claims and tags).

The manifest contract

The shape a manifest must satisfy is owned by the control plane's catalogue engine and is what validates a manifest before a machine ever sees it — a stray key, a consumer contributing the wrong provision field, an image that nothing builds. That validation belongs with this repository and is being re-homed here from mesh-controller; until it is, the pipeline is the gate — it builds each module and refuses a manifest it cannot resolve.

Where the reasoning lives

Design and decisions are in novox/hq:

  • 02-DECISIONS/0002-everything-is-a-module.md — one unit, no second mechanism
  • 02-DECISIONS/0010-applications-live-in-their-own-repository.md — why applications are not here
  • 02-DECISIONS/0030-the-repository-structure.md — the repositories, and the open tier-4 question this repository answers
  • 03-DESIGN/00-as-is/10-module-catalogue.md — the catalogue's shape, and what it records
S
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Novox Mesh — the catalogue. Module manifests the mesh builds, provisions and runs. Data, not a control-plane concern.
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