mandau

🗡️ Mandau - Secure Infrastructure Control Plane

Production-grade, agent-driven Docker infrastructure management for security-sensitive environments

📋 Overview

Mandau is a secure, operator-grade control plane for managing Docker infrastructure across local and remote hosts. Built for SREs, platform engineers, and secure environments including air-gapped networks.

Key Features

✅ Security-First Design

• Mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication
• Certificate-based identity
• Policy-based authorization (RBAC + OPA)
• Complete audit logging
• No direct Docker socket exposure

✅ Agent Architecture

• Lightweight Go binaries
• Runs per Docker host
• No inbound ports required
• Works through bastion hosts
• Air-gap compatible

✅ File-Based Infrastructure

• Compose files on disk
• Compatible with docker compose CLI
• No database lock-in
• Version control friendly

✅ Plugin System

• Extensible architecture
• Auth, audit, secrets, policy plugins
• Built-in Vault integration
• Custom plugin support

✅ Operations Model

• Async operations with streaming
• Progress tracking
• Cancellable tasks
• Automatic retries
• Persistent operation queuing for disconnected scenarios

✅ High Availability

• Multi-core server support with automatic failover
• Health monitoring and automatic reconnection
• Priority-based server selection
• Zero-downtime core server upgrades

✅ Web Dashboard

• Modern responsive web interface
• Real-time monitoring and management
• Agent, stack, container, and operations views
• Live log streaming
• No CLI required for basic operations

✅ Transport Flexibility

• Primary gRPC transport with mTLS
• Automatic WebSocket fallback when gRPC fails
• Configurable transport timeouts and retries
• Works through restrictive proxies and firewalls

🏗️ Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│   UI Clients                             │
│  - Flutter Desktop                       │
│  - CLI                                   │
│  - **Web Dashboard (NEW: Port 8080)**    │
└──────────────┬───────────────────────────┘
               │
               │ mTLS/gRPC (primary)
               │ WebSocket (fallback)
               ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│   Mandau Core (HA Support)               │
│  - Agent registry                        │
│  - Auth & RBAC                           │
│  - Audit logging                         │
│  - Policy engine                         │
│  - **Multi-node failover (NEW)**         │
└──────────────┬───────────────────────────┘
               │
               │ mTLS/gRPC
               │ **Auto-reconnect + Queue (NEW)**
               ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│   Mandau Agent                           │
│  - Docker control                        │
│  - Stack management                      │
│  - File system                           │
│  - Container exec                        │
│  - **Operation queue (NEW)**             │
│  - **WebSocket fallback (NEW)**          │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘

📦 Components Delivered

1. API Layer (api/v1/)

• Complete gRPC protocol definitions
• Agent lifecycle management
• Stack operations with streaming
• Container management
• Filesystem access (scoped)
• Operation tracking

2. Stack Manager (pkg/agent/stack/)

• Compose file parsing and validation
• Stack lifecycle (apply, remove, update)
• Diff calculation before apply
• Multi-service orchestration
• Environment variable injection
• Secret interpolation

3. Operation Manager (pkg/agent/operation/)

• Async operation tracking
• Progress reporting
• Event streaming
• Cancellation support
• Operation history
• State management

4. Plugin System (pkg/plugin/)

• Core plugin interfaces
• Registry and lifecycle management
• Type-safe plugin discovery
• Dynamic loading support

5. Example Plugins (plugins/)

File Audit Plugin

• JSON-L format logs
• Automatic log rotation
• Queryable audit trail
• Never fails (resilient)

RBAC Auth Plugin

• Role-based access control
• Wildcard resource matching
• User/role management
• YAML-based configuration

Vault Secrets Plugin

• HashiCorp Vault integration
• Secret injection into compose
• Dynamic secret retrieval
• Kubernetes auth support

6. Core Control Plane (pkg/core/)

• Multi-agent management
• Agent registration and heartbeat
• Health monitoring
• Operation proxying
• Centralized audit

7. CLI Tool (cmd/mandau-cli/)

• Agent management
• Stack operations
• Log streaming
• Container management (exec, list, logs, start, stop)
• Service management (nginx, systemd, ssl, firewall, dns, cron, environment)
• Plugin management (auth, secrets, audit)
• Interactive mode

8. Deployment Configurations

• Docker Compose setup
• Kubernetes manifests (DaemonSet + Deployment)
• Systemd service files
• Certificate generation scripts
• Security-hardened configurations

9. Transport Layer (pkg/transport/) NEW

• gRPC primary transport with mTLS
• WebSocket fallback for restrictive networks
• Automatic transport failover and reconnection
• Configurable timeouts and keepalive
• Works through HTTP proxies

10. Operation Queue (pkg/agent/queue/) NEW

• Persistent disk-based operation queue
• Automatic retry on reconnection
• Configurable retry limits
• Queue persistence across restarts
• Perfect for disconnected/intermittent scenarios

11. High Availability Manager (pkg/ha/) NEW

• Multi-core server support
• Priority-based server selection
• Automatic health monitoring
• Seamless failover between core nodes
• Zero-downtime core server maintenance

12. Web Dashboard (web/ and pkg/web/) NEW

• Modern responsive web interface
• Real-time monitoring dashboard
• Agent management and health monitoring
• Stack deployment and management
• Container operations
• Live log streaming
• Accessible at http://localhost:8080 when core is running

🚀 Quick Start

1. Install (One Command)

Linux/macOS:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bhangun/mandau/main/scripts/install.sh | sudo bash

Windows (PowerShell):

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://github.com/bhangun/mandau/releases/latest/download/install.sh" -OutFile "install.sh"
bash install.sh

This will:

• ✅ Auto-detect your OS and architecture
• ✅ Download the latest release binaries
• ✅ Install to /usr/local/bin/
• ✅ Generate TLS certificates in ~/mandau-certs/
• ✅ Create configuration in ~/.mandau/
• ✅ Set up systemd services (Linux)

See INSTALL.md for detailed platform-specific instructions.

2. Generate Certificates (if not done by installer)

make certs

3. Build from Source (Development)

4. Post-Installation Setup

After installing Mandau, you need to set up certificates. The installation automatically creates a default client configuration file at ~/.mandau/config.yaml that points to the expected certificate locations.

Client vs Server Installation

Client Installation (for connecting to remote Mandau Core):

• Use the curl installation method to install the CLI on your local machine
• Update the server address in ~/.mandau/config.yaml to point to your remote Mandau Core instance
• Ensure you have the appropriate client certificates signed by the same CA as the remote server

Server Installation (on infrastructure to be managed):

• Deploy mandau-core and mandau-agent binaries to your servers
• Configure certificates for server authentication
• Set up agents on each Docker host to be managed

Client Configuration for Remote Server

For client usage, update the configuration to point to your remote server:

1. Edit the configuration file:

nano ~/.mandau/config.yaml

1. Update the server address to point to your remote server:

server:
  listen_addr: "your-server.com:8443"  # Change to your remote server address and port
  tls:
    cert_path: "/home/username/mandau-certs/client.crt"
    key_path: "/home/username/mandau-certs/client.key"
    ca_path: "/home/username/mandau-certs/ca.crt"
    min_version: "TLS1.3"
    server_name: "mandau-core"
timeout: "30s"

1. Ensure certificates are properly configured:

   • The client certificates must be signed by the same CA that signed the remote server's certificates
   • Place the certificates in the location specified in the config file
   • Make sure certificate paths are accessible to the client

2. Alternative: Use environment variables:

export MANDAU_SERVER="your-server.com:8443"
export MANDAU_CERT="/home/username/mandau-certs/client.crt"
export MANDAU_KEY="/home/username/mandau-certs/client.key"
export MANDAU_CA="/home/username/mandau-certs/ca.crt"

1. Test the connection:

mandau agent list

Security Considerations

• Certificate Validation: The client validates the server certificate using the CA certificate
• mTLS Authentication: Both client and server authenticate each other using certificates
• Secure Communication: All communication is encrypted using TLS 1.3
• Port Configuration: The default port is 8443, but can be configured on the server side

Troubleshooting Remote Connections

• Connection refused: Verify the server is running and accessible on port 8443
• Certificate errors: Ensure client certificates are signed by the same CA as the server
• Authentication failures: Verify certificate paths and permissions
• Firewall issues: Ensure port 8443 is open on the server

Generate Certificates

Mandau uses mTLS (mutual TLS) for secure communication between components. Generate certificates for Core, Agent, and CLI:

# Create certificates directory
mkdir -p ~/mandau-certs

# If you built from source, you can generate certificates directly:
make certs
cp ./certs/* ~/mandau-certs/

# If you installed via curl or manual download, certificates will be generated directly in the correct location:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bhangun/mandau/main/scripts/generate-certs.sh -o generate-certs.sh
chmod +x generate-certs.sh
./generate-certs.sh ~/mandau-certs

This creates the following certificates in the ~/mandau-certs directory:

• ca.crt and ca.key - Certificate Authority
• core.crt and core.key - Core service certificate
• agent.crt and agent.key - Agent service certificate
• client.crt and client.key - CLI client certificate

Configure Mandau Core

The Core service manages agents and provides the API endpoint.

Start Core Service:

mandau-core \
  --listen :8443 \
  --cert ~/mandau-certs/core.crt \
  --key ~/mandau-certs/core.key \
  --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt

Configure Mandau Agent

The Agent runs on each Docker host and executes commands:

# Create stacks directory for compose files
mkdir -p ~/mandau-stacks

mandau-agent \
  --server localhost:8443 \
  --cert ~/mandau-certs/agent.crt \
  --key ~/mandau-certs/agent.key \
  --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt \
  --stack-root ~/mandau-stacks

Configure CLI Authentication

You can use either environment variables, command-line flags, or configuration files for CLI authentication:

Option A: Using Environment Variables

export MANDAU_SERVER=localhost:8443
export MANDAU_CERT=~/mandau-certs/client.crt
export MANDAU_KEY=~/mandau-certs/client.key
export MANDAU_CA=~/mandau-certs/ca.crt

Option B: Using Command-Line Flags

mandau --cert ~/mandau-certs/client.crt --key ~/mandau-certs/client.key --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt --server localhost:8443 [command]

Option C: Using Configuration File with Profile Support (Recommended) Mandau now supports configuration profiles for different environments. The default location is ~/.mandau/config.yaml:

server: "localhost:8443"
cert: "~/mandau-certs/client.crt"
key: "~/mandau-certs/client.key"
ca: "~/mandau-certs/ca.crt"
timeout: "30s"

Option D: Using Profile Management (New!) Mandau now supports multiple configuration profiles for different environments (dev, test, prod):

# List available profiles
mandau-profile.sh list

# Switch to development profile
mandau-profile.sh use dev

# Show current profile
mandau-profile.sh show

# Or use environment variable to specify profile
export MANDAU_PROFILE=dev
mandau agent list

Configuration profiles are stored in ~/.mandau/ directory with names like dev.yaml, test.yaml, prod.yaml, etc.

5. Run with Enhanced Reliability (Recommended)

For development with automatic restarts and connection recovery, use the enhanced runner:

# If you have the source code, clone it to get the runner script:
git clone https://github.com/bhangun/mandau.git
cd mandau

# Clean up any stale processes first
./run-dev.sh --clean

# Start the system with enhanced reliability features (default behavior)
./run-dev.sh
# or explicitly
./run-dev.sh --host

Or run manually with proper process management:

5a. Run Core

mandau-core \
  --listen :8443 \
  --cert ~/mandau-certs/core.crt \
  --key ~/mandau-certs/core.key \
  --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt

5b. Run Agent

mandau-agent \
  --server localhost:8443 \
  --cert ~/mandau-certs/agent.crt \
  --key ~/mandau-certs/agent.key \
  --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt \
  --stack-root ~/mandau-stacks

5c. Access Web Dashboard (NEW!)

Once Mandau Core is running, you can access the web dashboard:

# Open in browser
open http://localhost:8080

# Or navigate to http://localhost:8080 in your browser

The web dashboard provides:

• Dashboard: Overview of agents, stacks, containers, and operations
• Agents: View and manage connected agents
• Stacks: Deploy and manage Docker Compose stacks
• Containers: View and manage running containers
• Operations: Monitor operation progress and history
• Logs: Real-time log streaming with filtering

Note: The web dashboard is served directly from the Mandau Core binary - no additional setup required!

6. Development Workflow (New!)

For enhanced development experience with profile management:

# After installation, set up development environment
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bhangun/mandau/main/scripts/setup-dev.sh -o setup-dev.sh
chmod +x setup-dev.sh
./setup-dev.sh

# Use development profiles
export MANDAU_PROFILE=dev
mandau agent list

# Or switch profiles dynamically
~/mandau-profile.sh use dev
mandau agent list

# Start development services
~/mandau-dev-start.sh

7. Use CLI

After installation, you can use the Mandau CLI with your certificates.

# Option 1: Using environment variables
export MANDAU_SERVER=localhost:8443
export MANDAU_CERT=~/mandau-certs/client.crt
export MANDAU_KEY=~/mandau-certs/client.key
export MANDAU_CA=~/mandau-certs/ca.crt

# List agents
mandau agent list

# Deploy a stack
mandau stack apply agent-001 web ./compose.yaml

# Stream logs
mandau stack logs agent-001 web

# Execute command in container
mandau container exec agent-001 web-container /bin/sh

# Manage services
mandau services nginx create-proxy agent-001 example.com http://localhost:3000 80
mandau services systemd start agent-001 myservice
mandau services firewall allow-port agent-001 80 tcp

# Manage plugins
mandau plugins secrets get my-secret
mandau plugins auth status

# Option 2: Using command-line flags
mandau --server localhost:8443 --cert ~/mandau-certs/client.crt --key ~/mandau-certs/client.key --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt agent list

# Deploy a stack
mandau --cert ~/mandau-certs/client.crt --key ~/mandau-certs/client.key --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt stack apply agent-001 web ./compose.yaml

# Stream logs
mandau --cert ~/mandau-certs/client.crt --key ~/mandau-certs/client.key --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt stack logs agent-001 web

# Execute command in container
mandau --cert ~/mandau-certs/client.crt --key ~/mandau-certs/client.key --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt container exec agent-001 web-container /bin/sh

# Manage services
mandau --cert ~/mandau-certs/client.crt --key ~/mandau-certs/client.key --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt services nginx create-proxy agent-001 example.com http://localhost:3000 80
mandau --cert ~/mandau-certs/client.crt --key ~/mandau-certs/client.key --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt services systemd start agent-001 myservice
mandau --cert ~/mandau-certs/client.crt --key ~/mandau-certs/client.key --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt services firewall allow-port agent-001 80 tcp

# Manage plugins
mandau --cert ~/mandau-certs/client.crt --key ~/mandau-certs/client.key --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt plugins secrets get my-secret
mandau --cert ~/mandau-certs/client.crt --key ~/mandau-certs/client.key --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt plugins auth status

7. Service Management

Using Systemd (Recommended for Production)

For production deployments, use the provided systemd service files:

1. Copy the binaries and service files to appropriate locations
2. Enable and start the services:

# Copy binaries (if not already installed system-wide)
sudo cp /usr/local/bin/mandau-core /usr/local/bin/mandau-agent /usr/local/bin/mandau /usr/local/bin/
# Or if you have the source:
sudo cp bin/mandau-core /usr/local/bin/
sudo cp bin/mandau-agent /usr/local/bin/
sudo cp bin/mandau /usr/local/bin/

# Copy service files (from source or create manually)
# You can create these files manually:

# Create mandau-core.service
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/mandau-core.service > /dev/null <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=Mandau Core Service
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=$(whoami)
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/mandau-core --listen :8443 --cert /home/$(whoami)/mandau-certs/core.crt --key /home/$(whoami)/mandau-certs/core.key --ca /home/$(whoami)/mandau-certs/ca.crt
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

# Create mandau-agent.service
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/mandau-agent.service > /dev/null <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=Mandau Agent Service
After=network.target docker.service
Requires=docker.service

[Service]
Type=simple
User=$(whoami)
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/mandau-agent --server localhost:8443 --cert /home/$(whoami)/mandau-certs/agent.crt --key /home/$(whoami)/mandau-certs/agent.key --ca /home/$(whoami)/mandau-certs/ca.crt --stack-root /home/$(whoami)/mandau-stacks
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

# Reload systemd configuration
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

# Enable services to start on boot
sudo systemctl enable mandau-core
sudo systemctl enable mandau-agent

# Start the services
sudo systemctl start mandau-core
sudo systemctl start mandau-agent

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status mandau-core
sudo systemctl status mandau-agent

Using Docker (Alternative)

You can also run Mandau services in Docker containers:

# Pull the latest images
docker pull ghcr.io/bhangun/mandau-core:latest
docker pull ghcr.io/bhangun/mandau-agent:latest

# Run Core service
docker run -d \
  --name mandau-core \
  -p 8443:8443 \
  -v ~/mandau-certs:/certs:ro \
  -v /etc/mandau:/config:ro \
  ghcr.io/bhangun/mandau-core:latest \
  --listen :8443 \
  --cert /certs/core.crt \
  --key /certs/core.key \
  --ca /certs/ca.crt

# Run Agent service
docker run -d \
  --name mandau-agent \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -v ~/mandau-certs:/certs:ro \
  -v ~/mandau-stacks:/stacks \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  ghcr.io/bhangun/mandau-agent:latest \
  --server mandau-core:8443 \
  --cert /certs/agent.crt \
  --key /certs/agent.key \
  --ca /certs/ca.crt \
  --stack-root /stacks

8. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Connection refused errors: Make sure Core service is running and accessible
2. Certificate errors: Verify certificates are valid and properly configured
3. Permission denied: Check file permissions and certificate paths
4. Agent not found: Ensure Agent is properly registered with Core
5. Installation fails without sudo: The installation requires sudo to write to /usr/local/bin/

Verify Installation

# Check if binaries are installed
which mandau mandau-core mandau-agent

# Check versions
mandau --help

# Test connection to Core (if running)
mandau --cert ~/mandau-certs/client.crt --key ~/mandau-certs/client.key --ca ~/mandau-certs/ca.crt agent list

Log Files

• Core logs: Check the terminal where Core is running or systemd logs: sudo journalctl -u mandau-core -f
• Agent logs: Check the terminal where Agent is running or systemd logs: sudo journalctl -u mandau-agent -f
• CLI logs: Add --verbose flag for more detailed output

🔒 Security Model

Authentication

• Certificate-based client identity
• Device-bound credentials
• Short-lived session tokens (optional)

Authorization

• Minimum: RBAC with roles and permissions
• Advanced: OPA policy engine integration
• Per-RPC authorization checks
• Resource-level permissions

Audit

• Every action logged with:
  • Identity (who)
  • Action (what)
  • Resource (where)
  • Result (success/failure)
  • Duration (when/how long)
• Terminal sessions recorded
• Tamper-evident logs

Secrets

• Never stored in compose files
• Runtime injection only
• Vault integration
• Encrypted at rest

🛡️ Reliability & Resilience

Mandau is designed for production environments with built-in reliability features:

Connection Management

• Automatic Reconnection: Both core and agent automatically reconnect when connections are lost
• Retry Logic: Exponential backoff prevents overwhelming the system during failures
• Keepalive Probes: Connection health is monitored with keepalive mechanisms
• Graceful Degradation: System continues operating during partial failures

Process Management

• Stale Process Cleanup: Automatically detects and terminates stale processes
• PID Management: Proper tracking of running processes with PID files
• Graceful Shutdown: Proper cleanup on exit signals
• Automatic Restart: Failed processes are automatically restarted

Monitoring & Recovery

• Health Checks: Regular monitoring of process health
• Connection Cleanup: Stale connections are cleaned up to prevent resource leaks
• Status Tracking: Accurate online/offline status detection
• Reconnection Detection: Agents that come back online are properly recognized

Failure Scenarios Handled

• Network interruptions between core and agent
• Agent process crashes and automatic restart
• Core server restarts with agent reconnection
• Port conflicts and resource cleanup
• Stale registration cleanup

🚀 Production Deployment

Using the Enhanced Runner (Recommended for Development)

For development and testing with enhanced reliability features:

# Clean up any stale processes
./run-dev.sh --clean

# Start the system with enhanced reliability features (default behavior)
./run-dev.sh

# Or with custom ports
./run-dev.sh --host-with-port 8445 8446

Systemd Services (Recommended for Production)

For production deployments, use the provided systemd service files:

1. Copy the binaries and service files to appropriate locations
2. Enable and start the services:

sudo cp bin/mandau-core /usr/local/bin/
sudo cp bin/mandau-agent /usr/local/bin/
sudo cp mandau-core.service mandau-agent.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

# Enable services to start on boot
sudo systemctl enable mandau-core@$(whoami)
sudo systemctl enable mandau-agent@$(whoami)

# Start the services
sudo systemctl start mandau-core@$(whoami)
sudo systemctl start mandau-agent@$(whoami)

High Availability

Core:

• Deploy 3+ replicas behind load balancer (future roadmap)
• Use shared storage for agent registry
• Enable leader election (future roadmap)
• Configure health checks

Agent:

• One agent per Docker host
• Automatic reconnection to Core
• Local operation queuing (future roadmap)
• Graceful degradation

🎯 Production Deployment

System Requirements

Agent:

• OS: Linux (kernel 3.10+)
• Memory: 128MB minimum, 256MB recommended
• CPU: 1 core minimum
• Disk: 1GB for binaries and data
• Docker: 20.10+

Core:

• OS: Linux recommended
• Memory: 256MB minimum, 512MB recommended
• CPU: 1 core minimum
• Disk: 5GB for data and logs

High Availability

Core:

• Deploy 3+ replicas behind load balancer
• Use shared storage for agent registry
• Enable leader election
• Configure health checks

Agent:

• One agent per Docker host
• Automatic reconnection to Core
• Local operation queuing
• Graceful degradation

Monitoring

Metrics to Track:

• Agent online/offline status
• Operation success/failure rates
• API latency (p50, p95, p99)
• Resource usage per agent
• Audit log volume

Alerts:

• Agent offline > 5 minutes
• High operation failure rate (>5%)
• Certificate expiration < 30 days
• Disk usage > 80%

🔌 Plugin Development

Creating a Custom Plugin

package myplugin

import (
    "context"
    "github.com/bhangun/mandau/pkg/plugin"
)

type MyPlugin struct {
    name    string
    version string
}

func New() *MyPlugin {
    return &MyPlugin{
        name:    "my-plugin",
        version: "1.0.0",
    }
}

func (p *MyPlugin) Name() string { return p.name }
func (p *MyPlugin) Version() string { return p.version }

func (p *MyPlugin) Capabilities() []plugin.Capability {
    return []plugin.Capability{plugin.CapabilityAuth}
}

func (p *MyPlugin) Init(ctx context.Context, config map[string]interface{}) error {
    // Initialize plugin
    return nil
}

func (p *MyPlugin) Shutdown(ctx context.Context) error {
    // Cleanup
    return nil
}

// Implement plugin-specific interfaces...

Registering Plugin

// In agent/core main.go
import "your/plugin/path"

func loadPlugins(registry *plugin.Registry) {
    registry.Register(myplugin.New())
}

📊 Performance

Benchmarks (single agent, 8-core CPU):

• Stack apply: ~2-5s (depending on image size)

• Container exec: <100ms latency

• Log streaming: 10k+ lines/sec

• API throughput: 1000+ req/sec

• Memory: <100MB idle, <256MB under load Security Comparison: SSH Keys vs Mandau's mTLS

  Mandau's mTLS mechanism is more secure for this use case. Here's why:

  ┌────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Aspect │ SSH Public Keys │ Mandau mTLS │ ├────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ Authentication │ One-way (client proves identity) │ Mutual - both sides prove identity │ │ Encryption │ Yes (after auth) │ TLS 1.3 only (stronger) │ │ Certificate validation │ N/A (key-based) │ Full chain of trust with CA │ │ Authorization │ Binary (access or no access) │ RBAC with granular permissions │ │ Audit trail │ Limited (login/logout) │ Full audit logging per operation │ │ Revocation │ Manual (remove from authorized_keys) │ Certificate revocation via CA │ │ Scope │ Full shell access │ Least privilege - only exposed gRPC methods │ │ Network exposure │ SSH port (22) - heavily attacked │ Custom port, mTLS required │ │ Credential rotation │ Manual │ Can be automated with short-lived certs │ └────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

  Mandau's Security Layers (from the code):

  1 ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐ 2 │ 1. mTLS (mutual authentication) │ ← Both sides verify certificates 3 │ 2. Auth Interceptor │ ← Plugin-based auth (RBAC) 4 │ 3. Policy Interceptor │ ← Per-request authorization 5 │ 4. Audit Interceptor │ ← Every action logged 6 │ 5. Recovery Interceptor │ ← Panic recovery 7 └─────────────────────────────────────┘

  When SSH keys make sense:

  • Human operators accessing servers interactively
  • Bootstrap/trust-on-first-use scenarios
  • Simpler infrastructure with fewer moving parts

  When mTLS (Mandau) is better:

  • Service-to-service communication (agent ↔ core)
  • Granular access control (not all-or-nothing)
  • Compliance requirements (audit trails, revocation)
  • Zero-trust architectures (verify every request)

  Recommendation: Use both, but for different purposes:

  • SSH keys → human admin access to servers
  • Mandau mTLS → automated agent-to-core communication

  Mandau's approach is purpose-built for infrastructure management with defense-in-depth, while SSH is a general-purpose remote access tool.

RBAC Configuration

# roles.yaml
roles:
  - name: operator
    permissions:
      - resource: "stack:*"
        actions: ["read", "write"]
      - resource: "container:*"
        actions: ["read", "exec", "logs"]

users:
  - id: "ops@company.com"
    name: "Operations Team"
    roles: ["operator"]

Stack with Secrets

# compose.yaml
version: '3.8'
services:
  web:
    image: myapp:latest
    environment:
      DB_PASSWORD: ${secret:db-password}
      API_KEY: ${secret:api-key}

Agent Labels

# agent-config.yaml
agent:
  labels:
    environment: production
    datacenter: us-east-1
    zone: a
    tier: frontend

🛠️ CLI Command Reference

Agent Management

• mandau agent list - List all registered agents

Stack Management

• mandau stack list <agent-id> - List stacks on an agent
• mandau stack apply <agent-id> <stack-name> <compose-file> - Apply a stack to an agent
• mandau stack logs <agent-id> <stack-name> - Stream logs from a stack

Container Management

• mandau container exec <agent> <container> <command> [args...] - Execute command in container
• mandau container list <agent> - List containers on an agent
• mandau container logs <agent> <container> - Get container logs
• mandau container start <agent> <container> - Start a container
• mandau container stop <agent> <container> - Stop a container

Service Management

• mandau services nginx create-proxy <agent> <domain> <upstream> <port> - Create nginx reverse proxy
• mandau services nginx list <agent> - List nginx virtual hosts
• mandau services systemd start <agent> <service> - Start systemd service
• mandau services systemd status <agent> <service> - Get systemd service status
• mandau services ssl obtain <agent> <domain> <email> - Obtain SSL certificate
• mandau services ssl renew-all <agent> - Renew all SSL certificates
• mandau services firewall allow-port <agent> <port> <protocol> - Allow port through firewall
• mandau services firewall deny-port <agent> <port> <protocol> - Deny port through firewall

Plugin Management

• mandau plugins secrets get <key> - Get a secret value
• mandau plugins secrets set <key> <value> - Set a secret value
• mandau plugins secrets delete <key> - Delete a secret
• mandau plugins auth status - Check authentication status
• mandau plugins auth list-users - List users
• mandau plugins audit list - List audit logs
• mandau plugins audit query <filter> - Query audit logs with filter

## 🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create feature branch
3. Write tests
4. Run `make test`
5. Submit pull request

## 🚀 CI/CD

### GitHub Actions Workflows

Mandau uses GitHub Actions for automated testing, building, and releasing:

- **Build and Test**: Runs on every PR and push to main, testing with multiple Go versions
- **Release**: Creates GitHub releases with binaries for multiple platforms when tags are pushed
- **Docker**: Builds and pushes Docker images to GitHub Container Registry
- **Draft Release**: Manual workflow to create draft releases with changelogs

### Creating a Release

To create a new release:

1. **Create and push a new tag**:
   ```bash
   git tag v1.0.0
   git push origin v1.0.0

1. GitHub Actions will automatically:

   • Build static binaries for Linux, macOS, and Windows (AMD64/ARM64)
   • Create a GitHub release with the binaries
   • Build and push Docker images to ghcr.io

2. Available binaries will include:

   • mandau-linux-amd64-v1.0.0.tar.gz
   • mandau-linux-arm64-v1.0.0.tar.gz
   • mandau-darwin-amd64-v1.0.0.tar.gz
   • mandau-darwin-arm64-v1.0.0.tar.gz
   • mandau-windows-amd64-v1.0.0.zip

3. Easy Installation Script: Users can install Mandau using the quick installation script (requires sudo):

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bhangun/mandau/main/scripts/install.sh | sudo bash
   

   The installation script will be included in GitHub releases and is also available at the raw content URL.

Automated Release Process

Use the automated release script to create new releases:

# Auto-increment patch version (e.g., v0.0.11 -> v0.0.12)
./scripts/release.sh

# Or create release with specific version
./scripts/release.sh v1.0.0

The release script will:

• Validate current repository state
• Auto-increment version or use specified version
• Update version references in source code
• Commit changes with appropriate message
• Create and push Git tag
• Trigger GitHub Actions release workflow

Manual Release Process

If you want to create a draft release manually:

1. Go to the "Releases" tab in the GitHub repository
2. Click "Draft a new release"
3. Create a new tag (e.g., v1.0.0)
4. The draft-release workflow will generate changelog and create a draft

📄 License

MIT License

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Docker for container runtime
• gRPC for RPC framework
• HashiCorp Vault for secrets
• Compose specification

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Built with ❤️ for infrastructure operators who value security and reliability.