rootnode-academy/platform/README.md

RootNode Academy — Platform

The full multi-student platform, layered on top of the Lab image at the repo root (backend/ entrypoint/Dockerfile unmodified; frontend bundle gained Phase 3B learning UX, see docs/PHASE3B_LEARNING_AND_ASSESSMENT.md §10–11). Start here, then go to the component you need:

• provisioner/ — Postgres-backed environment registry and lifecycle. Design: docs/LAB_ARCHITECTURE.md, docs/PHASE1_PLATFORM_FOUNDATION.md. Operational reference: provisioner/README.md.
• api/ — the lightweight Platform API: students, cohorts, enrollments, curriculum, detailed scenario attempt telemetry, progressive hints, curriculum completion rules, the exam + capstone assessment engine, achievements, per-instructor accounts, persistent student/ instructor sessions, RBAC, audit logging, real student credentials + remote classrooms (Phase 5A), and the instructor/admin control plane. No k3s, no --privileged — this replaced Phase 2A's "identity" instance, which was a full Lab image booting an unused k3s cluster just to serve these APIs. Design: docs/PHASE2B_ADMIN_AND_PLATFORM_DATA.md (split + Postgres migration), docs/PHASE3A_IDENTITY_AND_INSTRUCTOR_ACCESS.md (sessions, accounts, RBAC, audit), docs/PHASE3B_LEARNING_AND_ASSESSMENT.md (learning/assessment engine), docs/PHASE5A_STUDENT_IDENTITY_REMOTE_CLASSROOM.md (student credentials, remote classroom). Operational reference: api/README.md.
• gateway/ — the only student-facing path to a Lab (HTTP + WebSocket proxy, environment-aware routing derived from a server-controlled session — not a client-suppliable header/param — and, as of Phase 3B, server-side gating of progressive hint reveal). Design: docs/PHASE2A_GATEWAY_AND_STUDENT_FLOW.md (routing), docs/PHASE3A_IDENTITY_AND_INSTRUCTOR_ACCESS.md (persistent sessions, CSRF), docs/PHASE3B_LEARNING_AND_ASSESSMENT.md §3 (hint gating).
• egress-proxy/ — shared allowlisting proxy every Lab's outbound traffic passes through.
• lab-router/ — Phase 4.1 addition. Runs on the Lab Host VM (or dev-local's stand-in in local dev, though direct mode there never exercises it); resolves an opaque routing token to a local Lab container purely from Docker state, over mTLS, so the Gateway never needs a Docker-internal address. Design: docs/PHASE4_1_PREPRODUCTION_HARDENING.md §1-3.
• docker-compose.dev.yml — the full stack (Postgres, egress proxy, Provisioner, Platform API, Gateway) on one machine. This is the Phase 1/2A/2B local dev exception — production is the two-VM Proxmox split described in docs/LAB_ARCHITECTURE.md §1.

Running the full stack locally

cd platform
echo "PROVISIONER_SHARED_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml build
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d

# First run only — create the owner account (no ADMIN_PASSWORD anymore, see
# docs/PHASE3A_IDENTITY_AND_INSTRUCTOR_ACCESS.md):
cd api
PLATFORM_DB_URL=postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5433/rootnode_platform \
  node bootstrap-owner.js [email protected] "Your Name" "a-real-password-12-chars-plus"

No k3s boot to wait for at this layer anymore (Platform API starts instantly) — the whole platform is reachable at http://localhost:4200 (the Gateway) right away: students at /, instructors at /admin (sign in with the owner account you just bootstrapped, then create further instructor accounts from the Instructors tab).

Tests

• provisioner/test/run.js — fast, isolated Provisioner tests (network/container/firewall mechanics, no Gateway/Platform API involved). Run against provisioner/docker-compose.dev.yml.
• test/e2e-phase2a.js — student-flow regression through real session cookies: roster → login → curriculum → launch → Gateway routing → cross-student rejection → progress relay → reset.
• test/e2e-phase2b.js — the classroom acceptance workflow: instructor creates a cohort, adds students, assigns curriculum, Prepare Labs (concurrent), students complete different scenarios, instructor resets one, instructor destroys all cohort Labs after class — progress survives every step.
• test/e2e-phase3a.js — persistent sessions (including a real Platform API restart), instructor auth (no enumeration, rate limiting), RBAC across owner/admin/instructor, cohort-scoped instructor access, CSRF enforcement, password change, and audit logging.
• test/e2e-phase3b.js — attempt telemetry, progressive hint sequencing/persistence through a Lab reset, curriculum stage/Capstone lock-unlock, the exam engine (random draw, server timer, expiry, restart persistence), the Capstone workflow end to end, two-student assessment isolation, and instructor learning analytics/RBAC.

All four e2e suites need OWNER_EMAIL / OWNER_PASSWORD set to a real bootstrapped instructor account (see "Running the full stack locally" above) — the old ADMIN_PASSWORD mechanism is gone. They're slow (real k3s boots, e2e-phase3b.js also runs a real API restart) and need the full stack up. None of them substitute for the manual real-Lab-image checks (node-pty, terminal WebSocket, kubectl, scenario validation) in docs/PHASE2A_GATEWAY_AND_STUDENT_FLOW.md §8 — those need a browser-equivalent client and aren't automated here.

Known limitations

See provisioner/README.md (Phase 1), docs/PHASE2A_GATEWAY_AND_STUDENT_FLOW.md §9 (Phase 2A), docs/PHASE3A_IDENTITY_AND_INSTRUCTOR_ACCESS.md (Phase 3A identity limitations), and docs/PHASE3B_LEARNING_AND_ASSESSMENT.md §20 (Phase 3B learning/assessment limitations) for the full, honest lists. Phase 3B's "no automatic abandoned-attempt detection" and "no per-cohort needs-attention threshold configuration" limitations were both closed in Phase 4.1 (§13/§17 of docs/PHASE4_1_PREPRODUCTION_HARDENING.md); its raw-JSON pool_spec limitation was replaced with a structured editor (§18) with an owner-only raw-JSON fallback still available. Phase 4.1's own known limitation: real remote/self-paced delivery needs student email/password authentication, not built — see docs/REMOTE_AND_SELF_PACED_ARCHITECTURE.md.

Running this in production

../infra/ has the full production infrastructure package (Ansible, Terraform, firewall, monitoring, backup, CI/CD) for deploying the Platform API/Gateway/Provisioner/Postgres onto a dedicated rn-platform-01 VM, with student Labs — and a new lab-router service (../platform/lab-router/) — on a separate rn-lab-host-01 VM. See ../docs/PHASE4_PRODUCTION_INFRASTRUCTURE.md for the overview and ../docs/PHASE4_1_PREPRODUCTION_HARDENING.md for how Gateway-to-Lab reachability across two real VMs was closed (a Lab Host Router + mTLS data plane, simulation-tested in ../infra/scripts/simulate-two-host/) and for the rest of Phase 4.1's pre-production hardening.