deckhearth/.convoys/migrate-ci-to-self-hosted.md

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slug: migrate-ci-to-self-hosted status: queued opened: 2026-06-05 owner: rstillw prerequisites:

• CT 111 (ci-runner) provisioned and online on axiom (192.168.68.111)
• 2× axiom-runner-* registered + Idle in Settings → Actions → Runners
• deckhearth_ci Postgres user + tracking script wired on CT 102
• HOMELAB_CI_POSTGRES_BASE_URL set as a GitHub Actions repo secret (value: postgres://deckhearth_ci:<pw>@192.168.68.102:5432)
• Repo Settings → Actions → General → "Require approval for all outside collaborators" = enabled related_axiom_artifacts:
• axiom-server/proxmox/ct111/docker-compose.yml
• axiom-server/proxmox/ct111/.env.example
• axiom-server/proxmox/ct111/README.md
• axiom-server/.cursor/rules/ct111-ci-runner.mdc

---

migrate-ci-to-self-hosted

Problem

GitHub Actions billing on the free tier blocks CI on a private repo when the monthly minute budget runs out (hit during the unify-glass-panel-surfaces convoy, 2026-06-04; PRs #124 + #125 had to admin-merge without CI). The slash-ci-minutes convoy (PR #126) reduced consumption by ~60% via paths-ignore, grep consolidation, and caching, but a busy week of implementation work still trips the limit.

This convoy migrates all 4 GitHub Actions workflows off ubuntu-latest (GitHub-hosted, billed) onto the axiom homelab runner (CT 111, self-hosted, free). It also rewires the migrate job to use CT 102's shared Postgres instead of spinning up an ephemeral container per run — saving ~30s/PR and eliminating the Docker-in-runner pull cost.

Non-goals

• Migrating to a different CI provider (CircleCI, Buildkite, etc.) — overkill.
• Hosting the production app on axiom — Vercel keeps the deploy story simple and the homelab is already at ~95% RAM allocation. Out of scope.
• Replacing the Vercel Preview deployments — Vercel still builds previews; Playwright smoke + visual-diff still run against those previews from the self-hosted runner.

Workflows to migrate

File	Jobs	Notes
.github/workflows/ci.yml	lint, schema-map-fresh, forbidden-patterns, migrate, test	migrate needs the Postgres rewire (see below)
.github/workflows/preview-smoke.yml	gate, smoke	smoke job needs Chromium — first run will npx playwright install and cache it
.github/workflows/visual-diff.yml	(visual)	same Chromium cache benefit; baselines still TBD
.github/workflows/pr-health-rollup.yml	rollup	trivial — single gh pr comment job
.github/workflows/agent-context-drift.yml	(weekly cron)	Optional: leave on ubuntu-latest so the cron runs even when axiom is down. Decision deferred — see Risk #3

Change shape per job:

# Before
jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

# After
jobs:
  lint:
    runs-on: [self-hosted, axiom]

Migrate-job Postgres rewire

Today (ci.yml § migrate):

services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:16
    env: { POSTGRES_USER: postgres, POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres, POSTGRES_DB: deckhearth_test }
    ports: ["5432:5432"]
env:
  POSTGRES_URL: postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/deckhearth_test

Proposed:

env:
  # HOMELAB_CI_POSTGRES_BASE_URL = postgres://deckhearth_ci:<pw>@192.168.68.102:5432
  # (no DB name — we create a per-run DB to keep parallel runs isolated)
  PGBASE: ${{ secrets.HOMELAB_CI_POSTGRES_BASE_URL }}
  DBNAME: ci_run_${{ github.run_id }}_${{ github.run_attempt }}
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
    with: { node-version: '20', cache: npm }
  - name: Cache node_modules
    uses: actions/cache@v4
    with:
      path: node_modules
      key: node-modules-${{ runner.os }}-node20-${{ hashFiles('package-lock.json') }}
  - run: npm ci
  - name: Create per-run database
    run: |
      psql "$PGBASE/postgres" -c "CREATE DATABASE \"$DBNAME\";"
      echo "POSTGRES_URL=$PGBASE/$DBNAME" >> .env.local      
  - run: npm run migrate up
  - name: Drop per-run database (always)
    if: always()
    run: psql "$PGBASE/postgres" -c "DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS \"$DBNAME\";"

Why per-run DB:

• Two PRs migrating in parallel don't collide.
• A failed migration leaves a dirty DB behind — if: always() ensures cleanup.
• Naming with run_id + run_attempt is collision-free even with re-runs.
• psql is available on Debian 13 — add postgresql-client to CT 111's install if not already present (see axiom-server CT 111 README).

Architecture decisions to ratify

• D1. Use runs-on: [self-hosted, axiom] (not [self-hosted] alone) so that if another runner is ever added with a different axiom-* label, these workflows still match correctly.
• D2. Keep ubuntu-latest as the literal string in ZERO workflow files after migration — make CT 111 a hard dependency rather than a soft one. Rationale: dual-mode workflows hide drift (e.g. cache-key OS mismatch when swapping between the two). Single mode is simpler to reason about; if axiom is down, the operator runs the 1-line revert (D5).
• D3. Rewire migrate to per-run DB on CT 102 (see above), NOT keep the ephemeral services.postgres block. The shared Postgres is already there and underutilized; the services: block on a self-hosted runner requires Docker-in-runner which adds 30s of pull/start time per run.
• D4. Leave agent-context-drift.yml on ubuntu-latest. It's a weekly cron, costs ~2 min/month, and runs independently of axiom uptime. Trading $0 for resilience is a good trade here.
• D5. Document a 1-line revert path in AGENTS.md § 7 Deployment: sed -i 's/\[self-hosted, axiom\]/ubuntu-latest/g' .github/workflows/*.yml for the case where axiom is offline mid-PR-storm and we need GitHub-hosted fallback fast. Operator manually re-enables billing or accepts the consumption for that day.

Risks

#	Risk	Likelihood	Mitigation
1	CT 111 down → PRs queue indefinitely	medium	Beszel alerts on CT 111 down; D5 revert path documented
2	PAT expires silently → new jobs fail registration	medium	Calendar reminder at PAT mint time (90 days); runner logs surface failure on next restart
3	Malicious PR exfiltrates from runner	low (repo-scoped, "require approval" enabled)	Repo Settings gate; runner has no creds beyond secrets.HOMELAB_CI_POSTGRES_BASE_URL (scoped to deckhearth_ci schema, no other DB access)
4	Per-run DB litter on CT 102 if if: always() cleanup itself fails	low	Add a weekly cron on CT 102: psql ... -c "DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS …" FOREACH ci_run_* older than 7d
5	Cache poisoning across runs (shared ~/.npm between runner-1 and runner-2)	low	npm ci validates against package-lock.json checksum; corrupt cache is self-healing
6	Two ephemeral runners insufficient for peak load (5+ jobs per PR)	medium	Add runner-3: block in CT 111 compose; ~200 MB RAM per slot
7	Workflow file regressions (drift back to ubuntu-latest)	low	Add a forbidden-patterns check (8th gate): grep -rE "^\s*runs-on:\s*ubuntu-latest" .github/workflows/ should match only the agent-context-drift cron

Decomposition (proposed briefs)

1. Brief 1 — Workflow migration. Single PR. Find/replace runs-on: ubuntu-latest → runs-on: [self-hosted, axiom] in ci.yml, preview-smoke.yml, visual-diff.yml, pr-health-rollup.yml. Leave agent-context-drift.yml untouched (D4). Add a HOMELAB_CI_POSTGRES_BASE_URL secret to the repo before the PR opens (otherwise migrate job will fail on first run).
2. Brief 2 — Migrate-job rewire. Same PR or split? Recommend SAME PR — the migrate job is part of ci.yml, splitting introduces a window where migrate runs on the self-hosted runner with no Postgres. Keep coupled.
3. Brief 3 — Forbidden-pattern gate (Risk #7). Add 8th check to the forbidden-patterns job: runs-on: ubuntu-latest is only allowed in agent-context-drift.yml. Cheap insurance against drift.
4. Brief 4 — Documentation. Update AGENTS.md § 6 Testing + § 7 Deployment with the self-hosted runner story + the D5 revert path. Add axiom-server/proxmox/ct111/README.md as a cross-reference.

Briefs 1 + 2 are tightly coupled — recommend single combined PR. Briefs 3 + 4 are independent and can dispatch in parallel after Brief 1+2 lands.

Validation

After Brief 1+2 merges:

1. Open a no-op PR (e.g. add a trailing newline to README.md — wait, that hits paths-ignore. Use a 1-line code comment in pages/index.js instead).
2. Confirm in the PR's Checks tab: all jobs report In progress on axiom-runner-1 or axiom-runner-2 within 10s of dispatch.
3. Confirm GitHub Actions billing page shows zero minute consumption for that PR.
4. SSH axiom and verify the per-run DB was created + dropped: ./proxmox/scripts/sync.sh exec 102 "docker exec postgres psql -U postgres -c '\l'" — no ci_run_* databases should linger.

Acceptance

• 4/4 workflows green on self-hosted runner.
• GitHub Actions minute consumption drops to ~0 (only the weekly agent-context-drift cron remains on ubuntu-latest).
• Forbidden-pattern gate (8th check) catches accidental runs-on: ubuntu-latest reintroduction.
• AGENTS.md § 6/7 updated; CT 111 README cross-referenced.

Queued follow-ups

• seed-visual-baselines-on-linux — already queued (see ship-readiness.md). With axiom now in the loop, this gets easier: baselines can generate on CT 111 directly via npm run test:visual:update against a preview deploy, producing Linux-compatible PNGs the CI runner will match exactly.
• cleanup-stale-ci-runs-cron — weekly cron on CT 102 to drop ci_run_* DBs older than 7d (Risk #4 mitigation, defensive).