The toggle grants CAP_NET_ADMIN and /dev/net/tun and stops there, which users reasonably read as "turn the VPN on" — the gap between the two is the reported bug that the default network does not route through a VPN. Close it by giving the container an agent-usable way to build the tunnel, rather than leaving each project to rediscover it. container/skills/ is baked to /opt/triple-c-skills and installed into ~/.claude/skills/ by entrypoint.sh from VPN_SUPPORT_ENABLED, mirroring how Mission Control installs its own. Staged under /opt because ~/.claude is a volume mount that would mask an image copy from first start. Three details that are not incidental: - The variable is sent as 0 rather than omitted when off, because ~/.claude persists: entrypoint has to be *told* to remove a skill left by an earlier run with the toggle on, and an absent variable cannot say that. A stale skill is worse than none, since it instructs an agent to use a capability the container no longer has. - It is reserved in RESERVED_ENV_EXACT alongside MISSION_CONTROL_ENABLED, or a custom env var of the same name could claim the skill without the capability behind it. Covered by a test. - The skill is re-copied on every start, rm -rf'd first, so fixes reach existing projects and files dropped from a later version do not linger. The skill itself carries the three things that are easy to get wrong: that a full tunnel captures the Docker resolver and takes DNS down with it, that an IP-literal health check cannot see a dead resolver, and that no tunnel survives a restart while /run state riding the snapshot makes it look as though one did. It also states what it deliberately does not do — no killswitch, no autostart — so an agent proposes those as decisions rather than improvising them. pia-wg.sh preflights CAP_NET_ADMIN by capability bit rather than letting the first `ip` call fail with a bare EPERM that points nowhere near the setting that needs changing. Credentials stay in a file (~/pia-creds, PIA_CREDS to override) rather than the environment, where docker inspect and every process in the container would see them. Tested: install/refresh/remove/no-op paths of install_feature_skill against the real function; preflight with and without the capability; and a full up --full / down round trip, confirming DNS via PIA's resolvers, api.anthropic.com reachable through the exit, and routes and resolv.conf restored on teardown. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
150 lines
6.1 KiB
Markdown
150 lines
6.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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name: pia-vpn
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description: Connect this container's traffic through a PIA VPN tunnel over WireGuard, or diagnose one that is not working. Use when asked to enable, route through, check, or tear down a VPN, when traffic needs to leave from a different location, or when DNS or connectivity broke after a VPN was brought up.
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---
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# PIA VPN
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Bring this container's traffic out through Private Internet Access over
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WireGuard, using the API PIA documents for headless use.
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Run `sudo ~/.claude/skills/pia-vpn/pia-wg.sh` with `up`, `up --full`, `down` or
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`status`. Read the rest of this page before the first `up --full` — two of the
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behaviours below are actively misleading if you meet them without warning.
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## Before anything else: what the toggle does not do
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Triple-C's **VPN support** setting grants three things — `CAP_NET_ADMIN`, the
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`/dev/net/tun` device, and the `net.ipv4.conf.all.src_valid_mark` sysctl — and
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stops there. It starts no client, builds no tunnel and changes no route.
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So "the VPN is enabled but traffic isn't going through it" is normally not a
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fault. It means the capability is present and nothing has used it yet. Check
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with `status` before assuming something is broken.
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If the toggle is off, the script says so and names the setting. It cannot be
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turned on from inside the container; the user changes it in Config → Runtime,
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and it recreates the container on the next start (home and `.claude` volumes
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are preserved — it is not a Reset).
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## Two modes
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| | routes | use when |
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|---|---|---|
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| `up` | only `1.1.1.1/32` | verifying the tunnel works without disturbing anything |
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| `up --full` | all public traffic | you actually want traffic leaving via PIA |
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Prefer `up` first. It proves the handshake, credentials and region are good
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while your own connectivity is untouched, so a failure is cheap.
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**`up --full` routes Claude Code's own API traffic through PIA.** If the tunnel
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drops, that traffic stops until it recovers or you run `down`. Say so before
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running it — the user may be mid-session, and they will experience the failure
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as Claude going away, not as a VPN problem.
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## Trap 1: a full tunnel takes DNS with it
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The container resolves through an address on the Docker network — under Docker
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Desktop, `192.168.65.7` — which sits **outside** the container's own subnet. A
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default route of `0.0.0.0/0`, or the `0.0.0.0/1` + `128.0.0.0/1` pair, captures
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it and posts every lookup into a tunnel that cannot carry private traffic.
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Nothing resolves after that. The visible symptom is Claude Code reporting it
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cannot connect, because `api.anthropic.com` no longer resolves:
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```
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$ curl https://api.anthropic.com/v1/messages
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* Could not resolve host: api.anthropic.com (rc=6)
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```
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`pia-wg.sh` already handles this: it routes `10.0.0.0/8`, `172.16.0.0/12`,
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`192.168.0.0/16` and `169.254.0.0/16` back via the original gateway, then pins
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PIA's own resolvers through the tunnel with `/32` routes that outrank the
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`10/8` exclusion. If you ever route traffic by hand, you owe both halves — the
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exclusions *and* a resolver reachable from wherever you pointed the default.
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## Trap 2: an IP-literal health check cannot see a dead resolver
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`curl https://1.1.1.1/cdn-cgi/trace` needs no DNS, so it returns a cheerful
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PIA exit address while name resolution is entirely broken. A tunnel verified
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that way looks perfect and works for nothing.
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`status` resolves a real name for this reason. Trust its `DNS:` line, and if
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you check by hand, resolve a name rather than fetching an address.
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## Trap 3: no tunnel survives a restart, and it fails open
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The network namespace is rebuilt every time the container starts, and nothing
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inside reconnects anything. After a stop/start, Reset or any config change that
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recreates the container, the interface and its routes are gone.
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State under `/run/pia-wg` rides the snapshot and persists, so leftover files
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make it look as though the tunnel is still configured. It is not. Traffic goes
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out the real address with no error and nothing visibly different.
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Never infer from `/run/pia-wg` that a tunnel is up. Run `status` — if the
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handshake line is missing, there is no tunnel. Re-run `up` after every start.
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## Credentials
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Two lines in `~/pia-creds` — username, then password:
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```
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p1234567
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your-password
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```
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Set `PIA_CREDS` to use a different path. Treat the contents as secret: never
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print the file, never echo the values, and never include them in a commit, a
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log or a message. The script reads it directly and does not echo it.
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## Regions
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Defaults to `us_chicago`. Override with `PIA_REGION`:
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```bash
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sudo PIA_REGION=uk_london ~/.claude/skills/pia-vpn/pia-wg.sh up --full
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```
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List the ids:
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```bash
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curl -s https://serverlist.piaservers.net/vpninfo/servers/v6 \
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| head -1 | jq -r '.regions[].id'
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```
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## Verifying
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`status` prints three things — handshake, DNS, and the public address:
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```
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latest handshake: 2 seconds ago
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transfer: 92 B received, 180 B sent
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DNS: ok (via 10.0.0.243 10.0.0.242)
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public IP: 64.113.5.244
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```
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All three matter. A handshake with `DNS: BROKEN` is trap 1. A handshake with an
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unchanged public address means routing did not take — you are probably in `up`
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rather than `up --full`.
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## Tearing down
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`down` restores `resolv.conf` from its backup and removes exactly the routes
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that were added, in reverse order, then deletes the interface. It is safe to
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run when nothing is up. Confirm afterwards that the public address is back to
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the container's own.
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## What this deliberately does not do
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- **No killswitch.** Blocking non-tunnel egress needs `iptables`, which is not
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in the image, and would cut Claude Code's API traffic whenever the tunnel is
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down. If the user needs guaranteed egress rather than convenient egress, say
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so plainly rather than improvising one — it is a real design decision.
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- **No autostart.** There is no service manager in the container and Triple-C
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has no start hook, so nothing can re-establish the tunnel automatically.
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- **Not PIA's desktop client.** `pia-daemon` and `piactl` are installable but
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cannot work headless: the daemon never accepts a client connection without
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the GUI, and `piactl --help` states that connecting requires it. If you find
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one installed, it is not a working alternative to this script.
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