The install service and admin API as built (website#142), plus the two things §2.7.2 got wrong before there was any code to check them against. The top-level directory rule was checking against nothing real. module-uo's release workflow packs module-uo-<version>/, not uo/, so "reject a top-level directory whose name is not the manifest's id" would have refused every bundle that exists. That level is stripped instead - its name belongs to whoever published the bundle, the directory it lands in has to be the id the loader scans for - and what replaces the check is stronger: the UNPACKED module.json must agree with the install manifest about id and version. And tar has to be pinned forward rather than merely depended on. Installing it gets 6.x, which npm audit reports as critical, and the advisory list reads as this feature's own threat model: hardlink traversal via drive-relative linkpath, symlink poisoning, hardlink escape through a symlink chain, PAX size override on GNU long-name headers, decompression DoS. Refusing symlink and hardlink entry types outright is what takes the extractor off most of that list rather than depending on the library to contain them. Also records the measurement behind the two-pass unpack, which was assumed in the plan and is now known: node-tar DOES reject an escaping member, but late. An archive whose fourth member escapes throws and leaves the first three on disk - and the loader only asks whether module.json is present, so a half-unpacked bundle is a module as far as the next boot is concerned. Refreshes api-route-inventory.json (158 -> 166 public) and the route count in BACKEND_DESIGN, and documents module_source_hosts beside the other seeded settings keys - bootstrapped from the environment, owned by the database. Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
Runic Gateway — Documentation
Central documentation for the Runic Gateway platform. The docs here were extracted from the two code repositories (with full commit history preserved) so they live in one place, independent of either codebase.
Layout
website/ docs from the website core (Node/Express + MariaDB + React/Vite)
modules/ docs for installable game modules — one directory per module id
link/ docs from the ServUO bridge (C# plugin + Rust sidecar + Node WS)
android/ docs from the native Android client (Kotlin + Jetpack Compose)
installer/ docs for the installer that deploys a shard's bridge components
ci/ cross-cutting CI/quality notes
Setting up a shard? installer/INSTALL.md is the operator guide, and
the installer is the supported path: one binary deploys the plugin overlay, installs the uo-link
sidecar as a service, and hands you the values the website needs.
website/
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| BACKEND_DESIGN.md | API contract, DB schema, security model |
| HERO_EDITOR.md | Hero canvas editor feature spec |
| THEMING_AND_NAV.md | Admin-configurable theme, brand assets and navigation — build contract |
| MODULE_SYSTEM.md | Making the site game-agnostic: game logic becomes an installable module — design of record |
| MODULE_API.md | The module ↔ core contract: ctx, the register* calls, the client registry and the loader's obligations |
| WIKI_UPGRADE.md | Wiki subsystem upgrade notes |
| SHARD_VISIBILITY.md | Who sees which shard data — the admin-configurable audience framework |
| SPAWN_ATLAS.md | The bestiary / spawn atlas: what the shard contains, parsed from its own ServUO tree |
| CLILOCS.md | UO's id → name table: converting one from your client so items have names |
| UOFIDDLER.md | Operator runbook — step-by-step extraction from your own UO client (cliloc table, creature art) |
| MARKETPLACE.md | The player-vendor index: how it is gathered, what it costs, how to tune it |
| website-README.md | Snapshot of the website repo's README (setup/run reference) |
| PROJECT_TREE.md | Auto-generated snapshot of the repo's tracked file layout |
modules/
Documentation for installable game modules aggregates here rather than in each module's repo (MODULE_SYSTEM.md §2.10). The website core knows nothing about any particular game; a module is what makes it a site for one.
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| uo/ | module-uo — the Ultima Online module: what it serves, what it owns, and what an operator needs |
| rust-dryrun.md | A written, deliberately unimplemented module-rust — the test that the module contract generalises past the game it was extracted from |
link/
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| INTEGRATION.md | How the website integrates with the uo-link sidecar |
| PROTOCOL_2.md | Protocol 2.0 / 2.1 design |
| v3.md | Protocol 3.0 design — shard content/standings streams + the visibility framework |
| ADMIN_CONTROLS.md | Staff write-plane (kick/ban/broadcast, page queue) |
| SHARD_PREREQS.md | Shard-side prerequisites for the bridge |
| PLAN.md | uo-link build plan |
| RESEARCH.md | Research notes |
| link-README.md | Snapshot of the link repo's README |
| PROJECT_TREE.md | Auto-generated snapshot of the repo's tracked file layout |
android/
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| PLAN.md | Android client build plan / milestones |
| COVERAGE_PLAN.md | Test-coverage rollout plan |
| APP_LINKS.md | Android App Links / deep-link setup |
| theme-plan.md | Theming plan |
| TRUSTED_DEVICES_APP_HANDOFF.md | Trusted-devices app handoff notes |
| PROJECT_TREE.md | Auto-generated snapshot of the repo's tracked file layout |
installer/
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| INSTALL.md | Start here to set up a shard — the installer deploys the plugin overlay and the uo-link sidecar, registers the service, and connects it to the website. Appendix A is the same thing by hand, still supported |
| PLAN.md | Installer design of record — phases, locked decisions, the bundle/compat-matrix model |
Provenance
website/*was extracted fromRunicGateway/websiteviagit filter-repo.link/*was extracted fromRunicGateway/linkviagit filter-repo.
Commit history and authorship for each doc are preserved. The two source repos retain a short pointer to this repo in their own READMEs; the authoritative copy of each document now lives here.
License
Runic Gateway's documentation is free: licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later — see LICENSE.md.
Copyright (C) 2026 Runic Gateway
This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. You may redistribute and/or modify it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation,
either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
Contributions are welcome — please read CONTRIBUTING.md (note the AI-usage disclosure requirement) and our Code of Conduct.