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Keep secrets out of the Docker build context at every depth (closes #29 )

The canonical .dockerignore was three lines -- .git, node_modules, .DS_Store
-- while the canonical Dockerfile does `COPY . .`, so a developer's local
.env, *.pem or *.key was shipped into the build context and could land in an
image layer. Nothing surfaced it because .gitignore covers those patterns, so
the files are invisible to every git-based check.

The obvious repair, copying .gitignore's secret patterns across, is worse than
the gap it closes. .dockerignore does not use .gitignore semantics: Docker
matches with Go filepath.Match, `*` does not cross `/`, and a pattern without
a leading `**/` is anchored at the build-context root. A file listing .env,
*.pem and *.key therefore reads as solved, reviews as solved, and protects
only the repository root, while config/.env and certs/server.key still ship.
The three-line file at least invited scrutiny; the transplanted form
manufactures confidence and stops anyone looking.

So every depth-independent pattern here carries the `**/` prefix and only
genuinely root-anchored entries stay unprefixed. `**/node_modules` fixes a
defect the three-line file had today for any nested node_modules,
independently of the secret exposure.

The OS and editor patterns are included on their own merits rather than by
mirroring .gitignore. None of them is ever a build input, and editor state in
particular churns under a developer's hands, so each one is a source of
`COPY . .` invalidation carrying no information about the source tree. Now
that the checks are keyed on CHECK_EPOCH rather than on accidental context
churn, there is no reason left to keep churn in the context. Language build
artifacts are deliberately absent: they are per-repo, and the file's header
comment tells consuming repos to add their own host-built binaries, which is
the case that actually bites -- a host `make build` drops a multi-megabyte
artifact into the context where .gitignore hides it from every git-based
check.

.gitignore is untouched. Its semantics are the inverse: an unanchored pattern
already matches at any depth, so `**/`-prefixing it produces a file that is
wrong in a way that looks careful. That asymmetry is why "derive one from the
other" was the wrong instruction, and it is now written down in
REPO_POLICIES.md in both directions, together with the requirement to verify
by enumerating the image rather than by reading the patterns. Every consuming
repo inherits .dockerignore by copy, so the trap has to live where the next
person looks, not only be fixed once here. Both repo checklists gain the same
requirement, since they are what an agent reads while extending the file.

Verified by planting .env, server.key and ca.pem at the root plus config/.env,
config/.env.production, certs/ca.pem, certs/server.key,
deploy/secrets/id_rsa.key, web/node_modules/nested/index.js and a nested .swp
below it, then building a standalone probe image doing `COPY . .` and listing
what actually landed inside it. Before: all eleven planted files in the image.
Against the naive unprefixed form: the three root-level files excluded and
every nested one still present, which is what shows the enumeration can detect
the failure mode at all. After: every planted file excluded at every depth,
with web/src/app.js still present to prove the probe was copying nested files
rather than copying nothing.

Transferred-context size is recorded but load-bearing on nothing, and the runs
show why: the naive build reported 2.18kB transferred while 43 files, five of
them secrets, were in the image. BuildKit transfers only the delta from the
previous build, so the number describes the transfer and not the contents.

Planted files were removed and their absence confirmed against the filesystem
rather than against `git status`, which could not have seen them.

`make docker` re-run after the change: the check layer executed rather than
being served from cache, so the CHECK_EPOCH verification still holds under the
altered build context.

2026-08-09 16:10:45 +00:00

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Raw Blame History

Workflow

branch (from main)
do the work in Next Step
move Next Step to the top of Completed Steps
move the top item of Future Steps into Next Step
commit (TODO.md changes in the same commit as the work)
merge to main if the branch is not protected, otherwise open a PR
push

Status

pre-1.0

Next Step

Finish the two draft prompt documents in the working tree and commit them: prompts/FIXUP_CLEAN.md (currently a near-empty stub) and prompts/FIXUP_REPORT.md (a rough draft). Write the missing content, run make fmt so they pass fmt-check, and commit.

Completed Steps

2026-08-09: Closed the secret exposure in the canonical .dockerignore: a developer's local .env, *.pem or *.key was reaching the Docker build context under COPY . ., invisible to every git-based check because .gitignore covers it. The patterns are written to .dockerignore's own filepath.Match semantics — **/-prefixed so they hold at every depth, which also fixes nested node_modules — rather than transplanted from .gitignore, whose unprefixed form protects only the repository root while reading as solved. REPO_POLICIES.md and both repo checklists now state that asymmetry and require verification by enumerating the image rather than by reading the patterns. Verified with a probe image before, against the naive unprefixed form, and after.
2026-08-09: Made the pinned golangci-lint actually propagate: REPO_POLICIES.md now carries the canonical script/bootstrap snippet for Go repos, which installs when the installed version does not match the pin (the old if missing guard tested PATH presence only, so pins were inert on any provisioned machine and CI silently disagreed with local) and then re-resolves the binary through PATH and fails loudly, naming the shadowing path, when the install did not take effect — the failure mode the naive compare-then-install fix leaves behind while reporting success.
2026-08-09: Fixed the false green in the canonical CI gate: script/cibuild and script/docker now pass a per-invocation CHECK_EPOCH nonce, and the Dockerfile (plus the Go multistage template in REPO_POLICIES.md, in both its lint and builder stages) declares ARG CHECK_EPOCH with a guard that makes a bare docker build . fail closed. Corrected the org-canonical text that asserted a successful build implies all checks pass, across every document carrying it: REPO_POLICIES.md, both repo checklists (which still told agents to write the pre-fix script/cibuild and ended on an acceptance item the guard makes unsatisfiable), and the Go styleguide.
2026-08-07: Set the canonical .golangci.yml to the org-standard v2-schema config already deployed byte-identical across the org's Go repos (settings under linters.settings so thresholds like lll/funlen/cyclop/dupl actually apply under golangci-lint v2). Recorded the canonical golangci-lint version (v2.12.2, commit-pinned) in REPO_POLICIES.md.
2026-03-20: Strengthened constructor naming and Params struct rules in the Go styleguide.
2026-03-18: Documented fail-fast Dockerfile lint stage and conditional -v test rerun patterns in REPO_POLICIES.md.
2026-03-11: Added HTTP service hardening policy for 1.0 releases.
2026-03-10: Added policy: no build artifacts in repos.
2026-03-04: Added LLM prose tells reference and copyediting checklist, then several self-applied revision passes.
2026-02-28: Expanded the pre-1.0 schema migration rule; added clawpub reference.
2026-02-23: Added Go style rules (no type-only packages, Stringer for string-based types); template repos section in README.
2026-02-22: Initial policy corpus: REPO_POLICIES.md, code styleguides (general, Go, JS, Python), repo checklists, CI policy, hash pinning, Go HTTP server conventions, repo scaffolding.

Future Steps

Finish, format, and commit FIXUP_CLEAN.md and FIXUP_REPORT.md (the Next Step).
Commit this TODO.md at the repo root; it is the last missing policy file.
Decide the fate of untracked resume.sh: commit it or delete it.
Add more prompt templates for common development tasks (from README TODO).