halkyon/deploy/sidecars/README.md

Sidecars

Services an instance may run beside itself (decided 2026-10-14), each switched on by naming its compose file after the instance's own in deploy/.env:

COMPOSE_FILE=compose.yaml:compose.jellyfin.yaml

A sidecar's compose file adds its service and, if it is reached from outside, mounts its site from this folder into Caddy's /etc/caddy/sidecars/, which the Caddyfile imports. It joins the edge network beside Caddy and the server's public API, never the internal one where Postgres is, and publishes no port of its own. Its process runs as a user ID of its own, which no person, no other container and not the CI runner uses. redeploy.sh deploys whatever .env switches on, and recreates Caddy when a sidecar's site changes.

Sidecar	Compose file	Site
Jellyfin, which people watch and listen to learn from	compose.jellyfin.yaml	jellyfin.caddy

Jellyfin

A Jellyfin server beside the instance, which the instance then suggests to its people (JELLYFIN_URL, set by the compose file): the app's Jellyfin sign-in fills it in and lists the people it shows on its login screen. Videos stream as stored, nothing is transcoded. Caddy refuses every change to a user from outside, so an account without a password (a demo's) stays everyone's; the admin signs in through an SSH tunnel only.

Steps, in order; ✱ marks a step as root.

1. ✱ Its user and folders (the operator, on the instance's server, as a user with sudo): the user and group ID 61096 are Jellyfin's alone, as the compose file runs it (useradd warns that the ID lies above the system range, which is meant: it must not meet a container's IDs); the media folder is deploy's, so it can copy files in, readable by all.

   sudo groupadd --system --gid 61096 jellyfin
   sudo useradd --system --uid 61096 --gid 61096 --no-create-home --shell /usr/sbin/nologin jellyfin
   cd ~deploy/halkyon-learn/deploy
   sudo mkdir -p jellyfin/config jellyfin/cache jellyfin/media
   sudo chown -R jellyfin:jellyfin jellyfin/config jellyfin/cache
   sudo chown -R deploy:deploy jellyfin/media
   

2. DNS (the operator, at the domain's DNS): the Jellyfin domain, such as jellyfin.example.org, pointing at the instance's server (A, and AAAA if it has an IPv6 address).

3. Switch it on (the operator, on the instance's server, as deploy): in deploy/.env,

   COMPOSE_FILE=compose.yaml:compose.jellyfin.yaml
   JELLYFIN_DOMAIN=jellyfin.example.org
   

4. The media (the operator, on their own machine): a folder per film, show or album, as Jellyfin expects them, into deploy/jellyfin/media/, readable by all; through tar and SSH, which every server has (rsync would have to be installed on it too):

   tar -C "<the folder's parent>" -cf - "<folder>" |
     ssh <deploy's ssh alias> 'tar -C halkyon-learn/deploy/jellyfin/media/movies -xf -'
   

5. Start it (the operator, on the instance's server, as deploy): cd ~/halkyon-learn/deploy && docker compose up -d. Caddy and the server are recreated with it (the site, and the instance's suggestion); the instance is away for seconds.

6. Set Jellyfin up through a tunnel (the operator, on their own machine): ssh -N -L 8096:172.30.80.10:8096 <deploy's ssh alias>, then http://localhost:8096.

   • The wizard: an admin of a name nobody guesses, its password in a password manager; a library of the type Movies (or Shows, Music) on /media/…; remote connections allowed.
   • Dashboard › Networking › Known proxies: 172.30.80.2 and fd4a:6c6b:7e80::2 (Caddy's addresses on edge). Jellyfin then sees each visitor's own address, and the tunnel as local.
   • Dashboard › General: Quick Connect off, unless people sign in with it.
   • Dashboard › Users › the admin: Hide this user from login screens; Allow remote connections to this server off.
   • For a demo, Dashboard › Users › +: an account without a password, shown on login screens, seeing the demo's library alone; off: playback and conversion that need transcoding, content downloading, remote control of other users, deleting media. On its Profile tab, Failed login tries before user is locked out -1: with Jellyfin's default of 3, anyone could switch the demo off with three wrong passwords, and without a password the lockout guards nothing. People sign in to it by tapping it and leaving the password empty: Jellyfin doesn't say which accounts have none.

7. Check from outside (anyone, anywhere): https://<domain>/System/Info/Public answers, /Users/Public lists the demo account, a POST to /Users/Password gets 403, and the instance's instance.info() names the domain as jellyfinUrl.

Switching it off: the compose file out of COMPOSE_FILE, then docker compose up -d --remove-orphans; deploy/jellyfin/ stays until removed by hand.