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Give the Files tab back its uploads and downloads
`upload_file_to_container` and `download_container_file` existed on main before
any of this work started. "Ship the Files tab container-side only" removed them
and called it narrowing scope; from a user's side it was a regression they
upgraded into. This restores the feature.

The reason for the removal was real — four consecutive audits found their
criticals in host paths crossing IPC — so the feature comes back only in the
shape that removes the class rather than patching it a fifth time. The dialogs
are opened by **Rust** (`pick_save_path`, `pick_files_to_upload`), not by the
webview. A frontend `open()`/`save()` handing the backend a path string is
exactly what failed, and the backend cannot tell such a string from one a
compromised webview invented. Now the webview can ask for a picker and that is
the whole of its influence: it cannot name a host path as an input. That is the
shape the previous round's own notes named as the honest one if this ever
returned.

None of the machinery the audits condemned returns. No `link(2)` destination
reservation, no placeholder rollback, no collision marker: the OS save dialog
already asks about overwriting and Docker's extractor overwrites on upload the
way `cp` does, so there was nothing left for it to do. Download reuses the
sequence `download_container_backup` has been using unchanged — resolve, stream
into a partial file beside the destination, rename last — so a failed transfer
never touches the file that was already there. Upload reuses the terminal
drop's hardened uploader, with the container's uid/gid resolved once per
selection rather than once per file.

Against a container that is actively hostile rather than merely surprising:

  * the read is `dd iflag=nonblock`, not `cat`. `[ -f ]` and the `open` after it
    are two syscalls and the container owns the filesystem in between; a loop
    swapping the file for a FIFO wins that race, and `cat` then blocks forever
    with no writer and no timeout anywhere on the path — the `invoke` never
    settles and a partial is left in the user's directory for good. Verified in
    a real container that `cat` hangs, that `iflag=nonblock` returns, and that
    it is byte-identical on a regular file.
  * the read is bracketed by a second `[ -f ]`, because non-blocking turns that
    hang into an empty file that would otherwise be renamed over the
    destination and reported as a successful save.
  * an *undeterminable* exit code is a failure. Backup catches this class with
    its `total == 0` check, which download cannot have because an empty file is
    a legitimate save; without a replacement, a project restarted mid-download
    renames a truncated partial over the user's file and reports the byte count
    as if it were whole.
  * container stderr is capped. Every other reader of container output in the
    tree is capped for this reason; the two streaming commands were the
    exception, and stdout was bounded by disk while stderr was bounded by
    nothing.
  * the script's refusals are framed rather than used verbatim, so a directory
    named to look like one of our own sentences cannot become the toast
    headline through `readableRefusal`.
  * the partial name is capped at NAME_MAX. A bundler's 230-character content
    hash is a name that fits its directory and produces a partial name that
    does not.

Also: a non-UTF-8 dialog path is refused by name rather than silently mangled
into a different path by U+FFFD substitution; both actions carry in-flight
state, so a second click cannot open a second dialog and a slow save is not
indistinguishable from a dead button; and the upload's completion message names
the directory, since the picker is modal and the user can browse elsewhere
while it is open.

Not restored: drag-and-drop, in either direction. `drag:allow-start-drag` stays
ungranted and `hold/disk-and-dragout` still holds that work.

Two bugs the new tests caught while being written: a double-click on "Save to
host…" opened the file viewer on top of the save dialog, and an N-file upload
made N redundant execs to re-ask `id -u`.

Docs that asserted this feature did not and must not exist are corrected —
CLAUDE.md, README, HOW-TO-USE, TECHNICAL and the capability threat model. The
"no host path crosses IPC" claim is deliberately narrowed to the inbound
direction: paths do still travel outward inside error text, canonical ones
included, and the reviewed record should not overstate.

600 frontend tests, 473 Rust, no new clippy warnings. Every new test was
mutation-checked; four that survived their first mutation were rewritten,
including two whose mutations turned out to be unfaithful and one that was
blind to a dismissal leaving a row stuck on "Saving…".

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01LHL9ty7arp8FHwvE77ne7y
2026-08-25 10:00:21 -07:00

535 lines
41 KiB
Markdown

# CLAUDE.md
This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.
## Project Overview
Triple-C (Claude-Code-Container) is a Tauri v2 desktop application that sandboxes Claude Code inside Docker containers. It has two main parts: a React/TypeScript frontend, a Rust backend, and a Docker container image definition.
## Build & Development Commands
All frontend/tauri commands run from the `app/` directory:
```bash
cd app
npm ci # Install dependencies (required first time)
npx tauri dev # Launch app in dev mode with hot reload (Vite on port 1420)
npx tauri build # Production build (outputs to src-tauri/target/release/bundle/)
npm run build # Frontend-only build (tsc + vite)
npm run test # Run Vitest once
npm run test:watch # Run Vitest in watch mode
```
Rust backend is compiled automatically by `tauri dev`/`tauri build`. To check Rust independently:
```bash
cd app/src-tauri
cargo check # Type-check without full build
cargo build # Build Rust backend only
```
Container image:
```bash
docker build -t triple-c-sandbox ./container
```
### Linux Build Dependencies (Ubuntu/Debian)
```bash
sudo apt-get install -y libgtk-3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev libsoup-3.0-dev patchelf libssl-dev pkg-config build-essential
```
## Architecture
### Two-Process Model (Tauri IPC)
- **React frontend** (`app/src/`) renders UI in the OS webview
- **Rust backend** (`app/src-tauri/src/`) handles Docker API, credential storage, and terminal I/O
- Communication uses two patterns:
- `invoke()` — request/response for discrete operations (CRUD, start/stop containers)
- `emit()`/`listen()` — event streaming for continuous data (terminal I/O)
### Terminal I/O Flow
```
User keystroke → xterm.js onData() → invoke("terminal_input") → mpsc channel → docker exec stdin
docker exec stdout → tokio task → emit("terminal-output-{sessionId}") → listen() → xterm.js write()
```
### Frontend Structure (`app/src/`)
- **`store/appState.ts`** — Single Zustand store for all app state (projects, sessions, UI). The
main area is a single ordered tab strip holding two tab kinds, keyed `term:<id>` and
`home:<id>`; `activeSessionId` is *derived* from `activeTabKey` so exactly one thing is current.
`tabOrder` is user-reorderable (drag, or `Ctrl+Shift+←/→` via `moveActiveTab`) — so **never
treat a tab's position as identity**: address tabs by key, and index only through `tabOrder`.
`moveTab` deliberately does not activate what it moves.
- **The tab drag is pointer events, not HTML5 drag-and-drop, and must stay that way.** Tauri's
`dragDropEnabled` blocks HTML5 drag inside the webview on Windows, and it cannot simply be
turned off: `TerminalView` needs Tauri's native drag-drop event because it is the only one
that carries dropped *file paths*. An HTML5 drag also carries a `DataTransfer`, which the
default handler types into any text field the drag is released over.
- **A new app-level shortcut must not swallow a text-editing chord.** `useKeyboardShortcuts`
binds on `document` in the capture phase, so `inTextField()` guards the arrow bindings —
excluding xterm's helper textarea, which is an input-method shim rather than a field.
- **`hooks/`** — All Tauri IPC calls are encapsulated in hooks (`useTerminal`, `useProjects`, `useDocker`, `useSettings`)
- **`lib/tauri-commands.ts`** — Typed `invoke()` wrappers; TypeScript types in `lib/types.ts` must match Rust models
- **`components/terminal/TerminalView.tsx`** — xterm.js integration with WebGL rendering, URL detection for OAuth flow
- **`components/layout/`** — TopBar, MainTabs (the unified tab strip), Sidebar, StatusBar
- **`components/projects/`** — `ProjectRow` (select-only list row), `ProjectList`, `AddProjectDialog`,
and the editors reused by Project Home
- **`components/projects/home/`** — **Project Home**, the main-area view for a project:
Overview / Sessions / Automation / Config / Files. Per-project configuration lives here, not in
modals — see "UI conventions" below.
- **The Files pane's host transfers open their dialog from Rust, and that is the whole
design — do not move it back into the webview.** The tab browses, views (text and image),
renames and creates folders inside the container (`list_container_files`,
`read_container_file`, `rename_container_path`, `create_container_directory`), and it
copies single files in and out (`upload_files_to_container`, `download_container_file`).
The second pair call `pick_files_to_upload` / `pick_save_path`, which drive
`tauri-plugin-dialog` from the *backend*: the webview can ask for a picker and that is the
entirety of its influence — it cannot name a host path as an *input*. The claim stops
there and should not be widened: host paths still travel outward in error text, canonical
ones included. What is closed is the direction that produced the criticals.
That shape is not decoration. Four successive audits found that host filesystem paths
crossing IPC were where the criticals lived — a caller-named host destination for
container-controlled bytes, an arbitrary host source read into the container, a `link(2)`
upload reservation that succeeded against a directory and failed forever on any filesystem
without hard links. The feature was removed rather than fixed a fifth time, and it came
back only in the shape that removes the class: a frontend-driven dialog handing Rust a
string is the exact thing that failed, so re-introducing `open()`/`save()` in `FilesTab`
would undo the whole point while looking like a simplification.
None of the reservation machinery came back with it. There is no destination reservation,
no placeholder rollback and no collision marker — the OS save dialog already asks about
overwriting, and Docker's archive extractor overwrites on upload the way `cp` does.
- **Drag-and-drop is still not it.** There is no drop-into-the-Files-pane and no OS
drag-out; the buttons are the gesture. A file also gets *in* by being dropped on the
Terminal, and a whole tree comes *out* through "Back up container" — those two predate the
Files work and their hardening is not to be weakened. `TerminalView`'s `onDragDropEvent`
is Tauri's native drop event (window-wide, so routed by `lib/dropTarget.ts` — geometry for
*whose* drop it is, a document-wide `dropIsBlocked` for whether the app should accept one
at all; keep both halves and keep `PaneVisibility`). Backup is
`file_commands::download_container_backup`.
- **`resolve_host_path` applies the full lexical predicate twice — as written, and again
after canonicalisation.** That includes the general hidden-component rule, which
deliberately over-catches: a path resolving through `node_modules/.pnpm`, `~/.cache` or
`~/.local/share` is refused. Do not narrow it back to a list of "credential" directories.
That was tried, and allow-by-omission let `~/.local/bin` (write there and you own the
user's next shell command), `~/.password-store`, browser profiles and `~/.pki/nssdb`
through a planted symlink with a perfectly visible name. Over-refusing is the cheaper
mistake. Note the cost is real and has grown: of the four callers, the Files pane's two
are routine, and their path comes from a dialog — so an over-catch refuses a destination a
person actually chose (`~/.config` is the common one). Accepted, and not a reason to
narrow the rule, because the terminal drop and `download_container_backup` still take
their host path over IPC and this predicate is their only boundary.
- **OS drag-out is not here.** `tauri-plugin-drag`, `stage_container_file_for_drag` and its
host staging directory were held back for separate hardening and live on
`hold/disk-and-dragout`. Do not re-add `drag:allow-start-drag` or a staging command
without taking that work back whole: the plugin has no scope mechanism, so the grant lets
a compromised webview start a drag on *any* host path the user can read, and the staging
directory is a host-temp disk leak with a gesture attached unless its exit-clear and
startup-reap come back with it.
- **`components/settings/`** — Host-level settings: Docker, AWS, Web Terminal, STT, shared auth.
There is deliberately **no Disk panel** here. The disk survey and its reclaim / destroy /
compaction surface were held back for separate hardening and live on `hold/disk-and-dragout`;
one of their IPC commands was a verified arbitrary-DELETE primitive, so if that work returns it
returns whole, `generate_handler!` entries and typed confirmations included. The *prevention*
half stayed and is not disk-panel code: the pre-commit scrub in `docker/container.rs`, capped
container logs, the `triple-c.base` / `triple-c.managed` labels, `sweep_orphaned_snapshots` and
the startup housekeeping in `lib.rs`, the migration reapers, and `project_lock.rs`.
- **`components/ui/`** — Shared primitives. **Use these; do not hand-roll replacements.**
`Modal` (the only correct way to build a dialog — it supplies `role="dialog"`, `aria-modal`,
focus trap and restore), `Button`, `Toggle`, `Field`, `SegmentedControl`, `StatusIndicator`,
`SaveIndicator`, `OverflowMenu`, `ToastHost`, `Tooltip`
### UI conventions
- **Project config belongs in Project Home's Config tab, not a modal.** Modals are reserved for
short, genuinely modal tasks (add project, confirm removal, token acquisition). The app
previously had ~12 hand-rolled modals; they were consolidated deliberately.
- **Never bypass the design tokens.** All colour comes from CSS custom properties in `index.css`.
Filled buttons use `--accent-emphasis` (not `--accent`, which fails WCAG AA against white).
Use `--text-disabled` rather than `disabled:opacity-50`.
- **Never write `focus:outline-none`.** A global `:focus-visible` ring is defined in `index.css`.
- **Status must not be encoded in colour alone** — `StatusIndicator` pairs a glyph with a word.
- Keyboard: `Ctrl+T` new terminal, `Ctrl+Shift+W` close tab, `Ctrl+Tab` cycle, `Ctrl+1..9` jump,
`Ctrl+Shift+←/→` move the active tab. `Ctrl+W` is intentionally left alone — it is readline's
`kill-word` inside the terminal, and plain `Ctrl+←/→` is its word-wise cursor motion, which is
why tab-moving takes Shift.
### Backend Structure (`app/src-tauri/src/`)
- **`commands/`** — Tauri command handlers. These are the IPC entry points called by `invoke()`.
Beyond docker/project/settings/terminal: `inspect_commands.rs` (read-only views into a
container — Claude sessions, installed capabilities, scheduler tasks), `auth_bridge_commands.rs`,
`auth_token_commands.rs`.
- **`auth_bridge/`** — Host-side loopback bridge so browser logins run *inside* a container can
complete against the host browser. Discovers listeners by parsing `/proc/net/tcp{,6}` (the image
has no `ss`/`netstat`/`lsof`), binds host `127.0.0.1` **only**, and tunnels in over the Docker
API via `socat`. Opt-in per project.
- **`browser_view/`** — Watch and take over the browser Claude drives with Playwright inside the
container. Runs Playwright's own dashboard (`browser.bind()` + `playwright-cli show`) in the
container and fronts it with a **token-gated** loopback proxy. Deliberately does **not** reuse
the auth bridge's `PortForward`, which binds an unauthenticated port — fine for a throwaway
OAuth listener, wrong for remote control of a browser. Host ports are confined to
`47820..=47827` because CSP `frame-src` cannot express a port range and must enumerate them;
a unit test asserts the Rust range matches `tauri.conf.json`. Opt-in per project.
- **`popout.rs` puts the same URL in a second OS window** (`WebviewUrl::External`), so the view
can be watched on another monitor or pinned on top while the main window is used for work.
Three things it rests on: no capability lists that window, so it has **no IPC surface** — do
not give it one; the app CSP does not apply, because it is a top-level document rather than a
frame, and the token gate is what protects the port in both cases; and the window is owned by
the *session*, so the supervisor's teardown closes it rather than leaving a window onto a
viewer that no longer exists. It closes with `destroy()`, never `close()`, to stay clear of
`CloseRequested`. The pane drops its iframe while popped out — two viewers can both *drive*
the browser.
- **`page.rs` opens a page, which is the one thing the pane could not do.** A URL plus a
viewport: launch a browser in the container, `browser.bind()` it so the pane shows it, and
keep the handle. Serves auth (the OAuth callback listener is *in* the container, so a
container-side browser closes the loop with no host round trip and no auth bridge) and dev
servers on container loopback. **Verified: a second client cannot join a bound browser**
`chromium.connect()` against the published endpoint times out in every URL form, because that
socket speaks the dashboard's transport, not the public connect protocol. So whoever launches
is the only process that can drive, which is why the helper is resident and why live resize
applies to pages *we* opened and never to `@playwright/mcp`'s (those take `--viewport-size` /
`PLAYWRIGHT_MCP_VIEWPORT_SIZE` at launch). Control is a polled JSON file in `/tmp` — no port,
no second listener — and a re-open with a helper already up *navigates* rather than
relaunching, so a session signed in on one page survives to the next.
- **Resizing the window does not resize the page.** The viewer is a CDP screencast: a bigger
window is the same pixels drawn larger. `page.setViewportSize()` is what reflows (measured
against a `@media (max-width: 900px)` rule), and match-window mode pushes the pop-out's
settled `Resized` size into it — debounced by generation counter, since a drag emits
continuously and each one costs a container exec.
- **`lib.rs`'s `on_window_event` fires for every window and must stay guarded on
`label() == "main"`.** Without that guard, closing a pop-out runs the app's shutdown: every
container stopped, process exited.
- **Detection has to look past `node_modules`.** `claude mcp add … npx @playwright/mcp@latest`
installs into `~/.npm/_npx/<hash>/node_modules`, not any `node_modules`, so `detect.rs`
globs that cache as well as `/workspace`, `$HOME/node_modules` and `npm root -g`. It also
hops from a wrapper `playwright` to its **nested** `playwright-core`: verified that npm does
not hoist for global installs, and the wrapper ships no `types/types.d.ts`, so reading the
wrapper alone reports a current build as "predates `browser.bind()`".
- **`@playwright/mcp` can never satisfy this pane.** It bundles a `playwright-core` that binds,
but never `@playwright/cli`, which is the viewer. Never offer it as a setup route — only as
what binds sessions automatically once Playwright is present.
- **`install.rs` installs into `/workspace`, as `claude`, with `--no-save`.** `/workspace` is
*not* a bind mount — project directories are mounted at `/workspace/{mount_name}` — so this
touches nothing of the user's, needs no sudo (npm's prefix is `/usr`, which is root-owned),
and is on the module resolution path for scripts in the project. Browsers go to
`~/.cache/ms-playwright` as `claude`, i.e. the home volume.
- **Current base images ship Chromium's shared libraries; older ones do not** — and a project
keeps the base image it was first built from until it is migrated, so "older" is the normal
case. Without them `playwright install chromium` downloads a browser that cannot launch, which
is why installing Chrome via apt looks like a fix. `install.rs` asks
`install-deps --dry-run` first and skips the apt step when the answer is "all present",
*saying so* in the progress stream. Do not decide this by probing for library names: the
dry-run simulates the same `apt-get install` the fix would run, so check and fix cannot
disagree about what the dependency set is. Note that `--dry-run` exits **0** both when
everything is installed and when Playwright has no list for the platform — match on its
output, not its exit code. Either way the action ends by *actually launching* the browser to
verify. `@playwright/mcp` wants the `chrome` **channel** specifically, so both browsers are
offered.
- **`docker/`** — Docker API layer using bollard:
- `client.rs` — Singleton Docker connection via `OnceLock`
- `container.rs` — Container lifecycle (create, start, stop, remove, inspect)
- `exec.rs` — Attached exec streaming. `create_attached_exec()` is the **single** place an
attached exec is opened; terminal sessions and the auth bridge both go through it.
- `image.rs` — Image build/pull with progress streaming
- `gateway.rs` — Optional LiteLLM sibling container giving Claude Code an Anthropic-format
front end for providers that only speak OpenAI (see `gateway-container/`). Mirrors `stt.rs`.
Its bind address is **detected, never `0.0.0.0`** — unlike STT, *project containers* consume
it, so loopback alone is not always enough: Docker Desktop gets `127.0.0.1` (containers reach
it via `host.docker.internal`), native Linux gets the default bridge gateway (`172.17.0.1`).
`GatewayBinding` derives the bind address and the advertised `base_url` together so they
cannot drift. A wildcard bind would be LAN-reachable — Docker's rules precede host firewalls —
in front of a container config holding a billed provider key. It also **always** sets a
LiteLLM `master_key`, since LiteLLM without one accepts any key.
- `migration.rs` — Base-image migration: manifest capture via throwaway containers, the pure
delta computation (dpkg-ownership filter, bind-mount exclusion, verbatim-copy set), and the
crash-recovery state machine. See "Base-image migration" below.
- `legacy_cleanup.rs` — One-release migration shim removing leftovers from the deleted MCP
feature (containers labelled `triple-c.mcp-server`, `triple-c-net-*` networks). Deletable once
users have migrated.
- **`web_terminal/`** — Remote terminal access via axum HTTP+WebSocket server:
- `server.rs` — Axum server lifecycle (start/stop), serves embedded HTML and handles WS upgrades
- `ws_handler.rs` — Per-connection WebSocket handler with JSON protocol, session management, cleanup on disconnect
- `terminal.html` — Self-contained xterm.js web UI embedded via `include_str!()`
- **`models/`** — Serde structs (`Project`, `Backend`, `BedrockConfig`, `OllamaConfig`, `LlamaCppConfig`, `OpenAiCompatibleConfig`, `ClaudeCodeSettings`, `ContainerInfo`, `AppSettings`, `WebTerminalSettings`). These define the IPC contract with the frontend.
- **`storage/`** — Persistence: `projects_store.rs` (JSON file with atomic writes), `secure.rs` (OS keychain via `keyring` crate), `settings_store.rs`
### Container (`container/`)
- **`Dockerfile`** — Ubuntu 24.04 base with Claude Code, Node.js 22, Python 3.12, Rust, Docker CLI, git, gh, AWS CLI v2, ripgrep, pnpm, uv, ruff pre-installed, plus the shared
libraries a browser links against (see below) and the VPN tooling the `vpn_support_enabled`
toggle grants capability for (`iproute2`, `wireguard-tools`, `iptables`)
- **Browser runtime libraries are baked in; browser *binaries* are not.** A layer runs
`npx --yes playwright@latest install-deps chromium` as root, so Playwright names its own
dependencies and the list cannot rot against Ubuntu 24.04's `t64` renames or a new Chromium
dependency. Measured: +99 packages, +334 MiB unpacked / +119 MiB compressed, on both arches. Do
not replace it with a hand-written apt list without pinning the Playwright version you derived
it from — a `chromium`-only list saves ~94 MiB (Playwright's `tools` group: xvfb and the CJK
fonts) and nothing more, because `libgbm1``mesa-libgallium``libllvm20` is ~213 MiB that
no trimming removes.
- The `install-deps --dry-run` call after it is a **build-time assertion, not decoration**: on a
platform Playwright's table does not cover, `install-deps` prints a warning and returns having
installed nothing **with exit status 0**. Without the assertion that ships a broken image
behind a clean build log.
- Baking the libraries but not the browsers is the whole point of the split. Browsers live in
`~/.cache/ms-playwright` (home volume) and already survive recreation *and* migration; a
runtime `apt-get install` of the libraries lands in the writable layer, is re-paid after every
Reset, and is **lost on base-image migration**, which replays apt from a manifest. The runtime
approach converges on the worst state: a 400 MB browser present with its libraries gone.
- The layer sits immediately after Node (npx is its only prerequisite) and well above the shim
`COPY`s, so editing a shim does not re-run a multi-hundred-megabyte apt install.
- **`entrypoint.sh`** — UID/GID remapping to match host user, SSH key setup, git config, docker socket permissions, Claude Code settings.json injection, then `sleep infinity`
- **`triple-c-scheduler`** — Bash-based scheduled task system for recurring Claude Code invocations
**`/home/claude` in the image is seed-only.** It is the mount point of the named volume
`triple-c-home-{projectId}`, so after a project's *first* start the image's copy of that directory
is masked permanently and can never be updated again. A change you make under `/home/claude` in
the `Dockerfile` or in `entrypoint.sh`'s "copy this into the home dir" style reaches **new
projects only** — existing ones will never see it, with or without a base-image migration.
So: **anything that must stay upgradable belongs in `/usr/local/bin` or `/opt`, or must be seeded
by `entrypoint.sh` at runtime** (i.e. written on every start, from a source outside the home
volume, the way `CLAUDE_INSTRUCTIONS``~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` and the Mission Control skill copy
already are). Putting it in the image's `/home/claude` and expecting an image update to deliver it
is the mistake.
The flip side is the useful half of the same fact: Claude Code itself (`~/.local/bin`), cargo, uv,
ruff, the OAuth login, `~/.claude.json`, skills, transcripts, scheduler tasks and SSH keys all
re-attach for free when a container is recreated from a *different* image — which is what makes
base-image migration cheap.
### Corporate CA certificates (`docker/ca_certs.rs`, `entrypoint.sh`)
A global `AppSettings::ca_cert_path` with a per-project `Project::ca_cert_path` override, accepting
a single certificate file **or** a directory. Follows the SSH/AWS host-mount pattern: read-only
bind mount at `/tmp/.host-ca`, applied by the entrypoint on every start, so it survives recreation,
migration and Reset. Four things here are not obvious:
- **`update-ca-certificates` globs `*.crt`, case-sensitively.** A `.pem` that is merely copied into
`/usr/local/share/ca-certificates/` is ignored in total silence. Certificates are *renamed*
`container_cert_name()` in Rust, mirrored in a few lines of shell in `entrypoint.sh` (the Rust
side carries the unit tests). A single-file mount lands at `/tmp/.host-ca/<name>.crt` so the
entrypoint only ever sees a directory and the file keeps a recognisable name.
- **The system store is not enough.** Only curl/git/apt read it. Node — and therefore Claude Code
itself — needs `NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS`; Python/requests need `REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE`/`SSL_CERT_FILE`;
Chrome/Chromium read neither and want their own NSS database at `~/.pki/nssdb`, seeded with
`certutil` (`libnss3-tools`, added to the image for this). The NSS step warns and continues if
`certutil` is missing rather than failing the start.
- **Those env vars are set from Rust at creation, never exported by the entrypoint.** A terminal
session is a `docker exec`, which inherits the container's configured env and sees nothing the
entrypoint exported — the same lesson that made `$BROWSER` an image-level `ENV`. The bundle path
is deterministic (`/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt`), so Rust can set them up front. They are
emitted **empty** when no CA is configured, for the `MANAGED_AUTH_KEYS` reason: `docker commit`
bakes env into the snapshot image. Empty is safe — verified on Ubuntu 24.04 that curl, `openssl
s_client` and Python's `ssl` behave exactly as with the vars unset.
- **`triple-c.ca-fingerprint` covers the certificate *bytes*, not just the path.** Replacing a
rotated CA at the same location must recreate the container; the copy inside is made once, at
start, so nothing else would notice. The entrypoint is stamped/idempotent on restart, and
actively **removes** `triple-c-*.crt` when the setting is cleared — `/usr/local/share` rides the
project's snapshot image, so turning the feature off has to undo, not merely stop.
### VPN support (`vpn_support_enabled`, `docker/container.rs`)
An opt-in per-project switch granting the container what a VPN client needs to build a tunnel.
`vpn_host_config()` is the single definition of what that means, and it is unit-tested because a
container is created once by a very long function where a dropped capability is invisible.
- **All three pieces or none.** `CAP_NET_ADMIN` (Docker's default set has `net_raw` but *not*
`net_admin`, so a client can ping but never connect), the `/dev/net/tun` device (absent
entirely from a default container — nothing to open even with the capability), and
`net.ipv4.conf.all.src_valid_mark=1` (WireGuard's `wg-quick` sets it and cannot from inside a
container, since `/proc/sys` is read-only, so handshake packets die to reverse-path filtering).
Any two without the third still presents as a connection that hangs to a timeout, which is why
the tests assert the whole set.
- **The device is passed through from the host, never `mknod`-ed inside.** The kernel's `tun`
module has to back it.
- **A missing device fails at `start`, not `create` — verified against Docker 29.7.** `docker
create --device /dev/does-not-exist` succeeds and prints an id; runc resolves the device (and
validates sysctls) only when it builds the container. So the guard belongs on the start path:
`explain_container_failure()` covers both and is called from `start_container`, where it has a
container id and no project — which is why it keys off the error naming `/dev/net/tun` rather
than off `vpn_support_enabled`. Nothing else in Triple-C requests a device, so that is
unambiguous. A version of this check wired to `create` alone is dead code that looks correct.
- **`NET_ADMIN` here is not user-namespaced.** Docker does not enable userns remapping by default,
so only the *network* namespace confines it: no reach onto host interfaces, but promiscuous
mode, arbitrary addresses/routes/NAT on the shared `docker0` segment (sibling containers, the
LiteLLM gateway among them, are ARP-spoofable), netlink-triggered host module auto-load, and
enough authority to flush in-container netfilter rules that sandbox mode may rely on. Keep the
code comments honest about this — an earlier draft claimed it "confers no authority" outside the
container, which is too strong.
- **`triple-c.vpn-support` is written unconditionally, including `false`.** The usual
`docker commit` reason: a `true` stamped once would ride the snapshot image into every future
container and make the switch impossible to turn off.
- Off is byte-identical to a container created before the feature existed, and a missing label
reads as `false`, so no existing project is churned.
- **The toggle grants capability and stops there — it routes nothing.** `vpn_host_config()` returns
a cap, a device and a sysctl; no client is installed, no route is touched, no tunnel is started
or restored. Users read the name as "turn the VPN on" and report the default network not routing
through it as a bug. It isn't, and the docs say so explicitly; keep it that way.
- **The tooling is baked, not installed at runtime.** `iproute2` and `wireguard-tools` are in
`container/Dockerfile` because a runtime install lands in the writable layer and is lost on
base-image migration — leaving a project holding the capability with nothing able to exercise it,
and no error that points at why. `iptables` is included and `nftables` deliberately is not; see
the Dockerfile comment for why that way round.
- **Anything built on this fails open.** The network namespace is rebuilt on every start and no
service manager runs inside, so a tunnel never survives stop/start or recreation — while leftover
`/run` state makes it look as though it did. Note the two different mechanisms: `/run` is in the
writable layer, so on a stop/start it is simply the same container's files, and on a recreation
`docker commit` has carried it into the snapshot. Traffic silently reverts to the real address.
Any future autostart or killswitch work starts here.
- **`/run` riding the snapshot means a VPN client's key material can end up in an image.** Verified:
a fresh container off the whp snapshot already contained the `wg.priv` a previous tunnel left in
`/run`. Anything writing key material there inherits the problem — the same `docker commit`
hazard as `triple-c.git-token-hash` and the custom-env fingerprint, in a directory that looks
ephemeral and is not. A VPN client that does this should delete its key on teardown.
- **`iptables` is baked, and picking `nftables` instead would have been wrong.** `Recommends:
nftables | iptables` is stripped by `--no-install-recommends`, and `wg-quick` needs a backend for
any `AllowedIPs = 0.0.0.0/0`. `nftables` is the tempting choice — preferred by `wg-quick`, half
the size — but `wg-quick` picks nft *unconditionally* when present, and its nft ruleset needs
`nft_fib_ipv4`, which LinuxKit (Docker Desktop for Mac) does not build while it *does* build
`xt_CONNMARK`. Shipping nftables would therefore have forfeited Mac. See the Dockerfile comment;
the kernel-config evidence is quoted there.
- **Two `wg-quick` failures remain, and only one is ours to fix.** Full tunnels still need
`xt_CONNMARK`, which WSL2 before 6.6 lacks — nothing installable changes that. And every
provider's stock config carries a `DNS =` line that fails in `set_dns()` before any routing, so it
breaks split tunnels too; `openresolv` has no candidate on noble and `resolvconf` drags in
systemd-resolved, so that one is documented rather than fixed. Driving `wg` and `ip route`
directly avoids both, which is what the skill does.
- **The `pia-vpn` skill is installed *and removed* from `VPN_SUPPORT_ENABLED`.** `container/skills/`
is baked to `/opt/triple-c-skills` and `install_feature_skill()` in `entrypoint.sh` copies it into
`~/.claude/skills/` on every start — refreshed each time, so a fix reaches any project whose base
image has the source, and `rm -rf`'d first, so files dropped from a later version do not linger.
The removal branch matters as much as the install: `~/.claude` is a persisted volume, so a skill
left behind after the toggle goes off would keep instructing an agent to use a capability the
container no longer has. Which is also why the variable is sent as `0` rather than omitted (see
`vpn_env_var`, tested), and why it is in `RESERVED_ENV_EXACT` — a custom env var of that name
could otherwise claim the skill without the capability behind it.
- **Both halves of that live in the base image, so neither reaches an existing project.** A
recreation builds from the project's *own snapshot*, which has no `/opt/triple-c-skills` and no
updated `entrypoint.sh`; only a migration or a Reset delivers them. The install path says so out
loud rather than returning silently, and `/opt/triple-c-skills` is in `FEATURE_PROBES` so the
migration pre-flight lists it as missing. Worth knowing before adding anything else behind an
existing toggle: the label fingerprints *the setting*, not the set of things the setting drives,
so a project already at `true` gets no recreation at all on upgrade.
### Container Lifecycle
Containers use a **stop/start** model (not create/destroy). Installed packages persist across stops. The `.claude` config dir uses a named Docker volume (`triple-c-claude-config-{projectId}`), nested inside the home volume (`triple-c-home-{projectId}`), so OAuth tokens and Claude Code config survive container stop/start *and* container recreation.
**Reset is the exception and it is destructive.** `rebuild_project_container` calls
`remove_project_volumes`, which deletes *both* volumes — so a Reset wipes `~/.claude`,
`~/.claude.json`, the OAuth credential, installed skills, and session transcripts. That is
intentional (Reset exists to get back to a clean base image), but do not describe Reset as
preserving credentials.
### Base-image migration (`docker/migration.rs`, `commands/migration_commands.rs`)
A container is created from `triple-c-snapshot-{projectId}:latest` whenever that image exists, and
every recreation re-commits it — so without an explicit act, a project stays on the base image it
was first built from **forever** and never picks up a new `socat`, a new `/usr/local/bin` shim or a
security update. Migration is the non-destructive way out; Reset is the destructive one.
- **Staleness is a surfaced signal, not an automatic trigger.** `triple-c.base-image-id` records
the lineage but is deliberately **not** compared in `container_needs_recreation` — see the long
comment there. Comparing it would recreate every project *from its own snapshot* on the next base
bump: churn on the old base, and it would consume the "you should migrate" signal without
migrating. `get_container_staleness` surfaces it; `migrate_project_to_base` acts on it.
- **A missing lineage label means "unknown, probe instead", never "stale".**
- **`:latest` keeps pointing at the old lineage until the final commit.** That is what makes every
crash before that point self-heal — `start_project_container` just recreates from the old
snapshot. After the container swap, the new container's `triple-c.migration-state=in-progress`
label plus the persisted state file let `reconcile_project_statuses` offer resume or rollback.
- **Rollback restores the system layer only.** The volumes are never touched at any point, so work
done in `$HOME` during a migrated session survives a rollback. Say so in any UI copy.
- **`/var` is never copied either, and that is the one way migration is *more* destructive than
the ordinary recreate.** A recreate builds from the project's snapshot, so `/var/lib/postgresql`
rides along; a migration builds from the base and the apt replay hands back an empty cluster.
Copying a live database's files onto a different base's version of the same package is a
corruption risk, not a fix — so the answer is disclosure. `unpreserved_data()` reports
first-level directories under `/var/lib` and `/var/www` that the base does not ship *and* that
hold non-dpkg-owned files (which is what keeps `/var/lib/apt` and `/var/lib/dpkg` out of it),
and the pre-flight, the banner and the finished report all name them. Do not make this silent.
- **The rollback pin is not best-effort.** After `commit_container_snapshot` the commit is the only
copy of the old system layer, so a `docker tag` that fails — or succeeds without the reference
resolving — aborts the migration before `remove_container`. Same rule in reverse for
`rollback_migration`: the image is confirmed to exist before the container is destroyed.
- **`resume` must check the container's `triple-c.migration-state` label**, exactly as
`reconcile_migration` does. Without it a record left behind by a failed commit "resumes" into
the *old, unmigrated* container and commits it as migrated.
- **Anything that stops, removes or recreates a project's container consults
`migration_commands::is_migrating`.** The window between `remove_container` and the create that
follows looks exactly like "no container" to Start, and Reset would delete the volumes out from
under a live run.
- **`/etc` is never copied**, only reported: the snapshot lineage has
`/etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.sources` where the current base has `nodesource.list`, and
having both breaks every `apt-get update` on a duplicate source. Verified, not theoretical.
- **`docker diff` is useless here** — on a snapshot-derived container it reports only changes since
the last commit. Migration diffs two filesystem manifests instead, filtered through dpkg
ownership and presence-in-the-new-base. Measured on a real project, that turns 8,677 raw path
differences into 2 genuinely user-authored ones.
### Authentication
Per-project, independently configured:
- **Anthropic (OAuth)** — `claude login` in terminal, token persists in config volume
- **AWS Bedrock** — Static keys, profile, or bearer token injected as env vars
- **Ollama** — Connect to a local or remote Ollama server via `ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL` (e.g., `http://host.docker.internal:11434`)
- **llama.cpp** — Connect to a local or remote `llama-server` via `ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL` (e.g., `http://host.docker.internal:8080`, its default port)
- **OpenAI Compatible** — Connect through a gateway implementing the **Anthropic Messages API** (LiteLLM) via `ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL` + `ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN`
**Claude Code only ever speaks the Anthropic Messages API** (`POST /v1/messages?beta=true`) to
`ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL` — never OpenAI's `/v1/chat/completions`. Ollama and llama.cpp implement
`/v1/messages` natively, which is why each gets a plain base-URL backend with no translation shim.
A server that only exposes an OpenAI-shaped API does not work behind any backend.
For every backend pointing at a custom endpoint (`Backend::uses_custom_endpoint`), all four
`ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_{OPUS,SONNET,HAIKU,FABLE}_MODEL` vars are pinned to the backend's configured
model id, with an optional per-backend Haiku override. Without this, Claude Code's background
calls resolve `haiku` to an Anthropic model id the local server does not have and fail silently.
Anthropic and Bedrock deliberately keep Claude Code's own defaults.
`ANTHROPIC_SMALL_FAST_MODEL` is deprecated and must not be used.
## Styling
- **Tailwind CSS v4** with the Vite plugin (`@tailwindcss/vite`). No separate tailwind config file.
- All colors use CSS custom properties in `index.css` `:root` (e.g., `--bg-primary`, `--text-secondary`, `--accent`)
- `color-scheme: dark` is set on `:root` for native dark-mode controls
- **Do not** add a global `* { padding: 0 }` reset — Tailwind v4 uses CSS `@layer`, and unlayered CSS overrides all layered utilities
## Key Conventions
- Frontend types in `lib/types.ts` must stay in sync with Rust structs in `models/`
- Tauri commands are registered in `lib.rs` via `.invoke_handler(tauri::generate_handler![...])`
- `capabilities/default.json` grants permissions for **plugin** commands only (`core:`, `dialog:`,
`store:`, `opener:`). Application commands registered through `generate_handler!` do **not**
need an entry there — adding one is not required and none exists for any app command.
- The `projects.json` file uses atomic writes (write to `.tmp`, then `rename()`). Corrupted files are backed up to `.bak`.
- **Adding project state that changes the container?** `container_needs_recreation()` is entirely
**label-based** — it does not diff the container's env. If a new setting affects the container's
environment or configuration, you must also write a corresponding `triple-c.*` label at creation
and compare it there, or the change will silently not take effect until some unrelated setting
forces a rebuild. Never put a secret in a label; labels are readable via `docker inspect`.
(`triple-c.base-image-id` is the one deliberate exception — it is written but not compared; the
reasoning is in the comment beside the check.)
- **Always write a `triple-c.*` label explicitly, even when the value is empty.** Docker merges an
image's labels into a container's at creation, and `docker commit` copies container labels onto
the snapshot image — so a label stamped once rides that snapshot into *every* future container
forever. Verified on this host, and it is not hypothetical: `triple-c.mcp-fingerprint` has not
been written by any code since the MCP feature was removed, yet a snapshot image was found still
carrying a non-empty one, which made its one-shot recreation shim recreate that project on every
single start. Writing the key explicitly overrides the inherited value — the same defence
`MANAGED_AUTH_KEYS` applies to env vars.
- **New model fields need an explicit serde default when the correct default isn't the zero value.**
`#[serde(default)]` on a `bool` yields `false`; follow the `default_full_permissions` pattern in
`models/project.rs` for anything that should default to true.
- Cross-platform paths: Docker socket is `/var/run/docker.sock` on Linux/macOS, `//./pipe/docker_engine` on Windows
## Testing
Frontend tests use Vitest with jsdom environment and React Testing Library. Setup file at `src/test/setup.ts`. Run a single test file:
```bash
cd app
npx vitest run src/path/to/test.test.ts
```