runicgateway.com/README.md

# runicgateway.com

The public marketing and documentation site for [Runic Gateway][org] — the platform that puts a
private game server's live state on a public website without ever exposing the game to the internet.

Two audiences: **server administrators** who want to understand and install the platform, and
**developers** who want to build modules and integrations for it. A third arrives with the Android
closed beta: **players**, who want the app.

**The design of record is [`PLAN.md`](PLAN.md).** It is not a sketch — it carries the verified
platform state, the org lead's decisions, the information architecture, and the build phases. Read
it before changing anything here.

**Status: phase 5 of 12 — the app and the beta.** The foundation, the branding pipeline, the
homepage and the five marketing pages are built, and `/app/` and `/beta/` now join them: a signed
APK beside the closed-test signup, backed by a SQLite store on a bind mount and an export CLI. Next
are the legal pages (phase 6) and then the documentation — the installation path, which is the
priority of the whole project — in phases 7 and 8.

---

## Running it

```bash
npm install
npm run dev          # http://localhost:4321
```

```bash
npm run build        # → dist/  (prerendered pages + the Node server entry)
npm start            # serve the built site
```

Node 22 LTS or newer.

## The checks, and why they are not optional

Two of them, both from `PLAN.md` §12. Neither is a linter; each one enforces a promise the site
makes that would otherwise decay quietly.

```bash
npm run check:tokens                              # no colour literal outside the token file
npm run check:brand                               # the branding pipeline's two quiet failures
npm run check                                     # astro check
npm test                                          # the beta signup's decision path
npm run build && npm run check:links              # every internal link resolves (reads the build)
GITEA_TOKEN=<token> npm run check:facts           # every version agrees with its authority
npm run verify                                    # all of the above, in that order
```

**`checkFacts.mjs`** re-reads every version, protocol number and bundle tag in
`src/data/platform.json` from its source of truth over the Gitea API — the sidecar's
`PROTOCOL_VERSION`, the overlay's `overlay.toml`, the website's `MODULE_API_VERSION`, the installer's
published bundle manifest, and each repository's latest release — and fails on any disagreement.

When the platform moves, this repository goes red so that someone updates the site. **That failure is
the feature**, the same mechanism and the same intent as the Integration Kit's `checkCoreApi.js`. §1
of the plan records what it is guarding against: an earlier draft confidently stated the platform was
on protocol 3, because every checkout in the workspace sat on a feature branch whose local `main` had
never been fetched.

It needs a token — anonymous raw fetches fail on this Gitea instance, and a check that silently skips
itself is worse than no check at all. It must be able to read the other repositories in the
organisation, not just this one. CI already has this: the workflow maps the org-level
`REGISTRY_TOKEN` secret into `GITEA_TOKEN` for that step.

**`checkTokens.mjs`** fails the build if a colour literal appears anywhere in `src/` outside
`src/styles/tokens.css`. §7 promises that recolouring the site is a file copy and a container
restart; a mounted `theme.css` can only redefine custom properties, so a literal in a component is a
piece of the site an operator can never reach. Without the check, "one CSS file changes the
appearance" becomes "one CSS file changes most of the appearance".

**`checkBrand.mjs`** guards the two things about the branding pipeline that fail quietly. It puts
every literal `/brand/...` URL in the source through the route's own classifier, so a template
asking for a size that is not on the allowlist fails the build rather than 404ing in a browser; and
it refuses a brand string short enough that replacing it blindly at boot could corrupt a page.

**`checkLinks.mjs`** reads `dist/client` rather than `src/`, because half the links these pages
carry are assembled from data files and template literals and a source scan sees an expression. It
also refuses a commit permalink into any org repository — those stop tracking the document they name
without ever 404ing, which is the failure a link checker would otherwise call healthy.

**`npm test`** is the one check that reads none of the above. Everything else inspects built output,
and the beta signup's logic does not appear there: a honeypot can stop working entirely and produce
a build identical to one where it works. It covers the honeypot, the signed form token, the timing
window, the per-connection rate limit, the global cap, address validation, idempotent duplicates and
removal. Run the file by name — `node --test test/` fails on Node 22, which is what CI uses.

## The closed-beta signup

`/beta` is the only page that renders per request and the only one that writes anything. It handles
its own POST, so the form works with JavaScript disabled and every outcome renders in the real
layout. The store is SQLite on the `data/` bind mount; **the raw IP address is never recorded**,
only a salted hash used to rate-limit.

There is no admin page, by design — the tester list is managed from a shell:

```bash
npm run beta -- stats                  # counts, and where the store lives
npm run beta -- export                 # a CSV record + a .txt to paste into Play; marks rows exported
npm run beta -- export -- --all        # everything, including already-exported rows
npm run beta -- remove someone@example.com
```

| Variable | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| `DATA_DIR` | `./data` | The bind mount holding `beta.sqlite` and `exports/` |
| `BETA_IP_SALT` | random per process | Salts `ip_hash`. Unset means rate limits reset on restart |
| `BETA_FORM_KEY` | random per process | Signs the form token, so a script must fetch the page before posting |
| `BETA_TOTAL_CAP` | `500` | Rows above which the form closes and says so |
| `BETA_PER_HOUR` / `BETA_PER_DAY` | `3` / `24` | Attempts one connection may make |

Neither random default is a placeholder to be replaced by a constant: a hard-coded salt would make
every deployment's hashes identical and therefore reversible by anyone holding this repository.

## Branding is bind-mounted data

`brand-default/` is baked into the image and always complete. `brand/` is the bind mount and may be
empty, partial or full. **Every file resolves against the mount first and the defaults second, per
file**, so overriding only `theme.css` leaves every logo stock and an empty mount produces exactly
the stock site. Nothing here goes through Vite, which would fingerprint the filenames into the build
and put them out of the mount's reach.

**Rebranding is one file.** `brand-default/` holds a single raster — `logo.png` — and `GET /brand/*`
derives every size the site asks for from whichever `logo.png` is in force: the header mark at three
pixel ratios, the install icons, the apple-touch icon, the favicons and a real multi-resolution
`favicon.ico`. Drop in one file, restart, and the browser tab and the installed icon change with the
header.

**Brand text is applied at boot.** Pages are prerendered, so the site name, tagline and links are
baked into HTML that a mounted file cannot reach. `npm start` runs `scripts/applyBrand.mjs` first,
which rewrites the built HTML from what it last applied to what the mount now says — recorded in
`dist/.brand-applied.json`, so the second edit works as well as the first. An empty mount makes it a
no-op.

**A mounted `theme.css` wins by cascade layer, not by link order.** `tokens.css` is inside
`@layer tokens`; the mounted stylesheet is unlayered and therefore beats it wherever the browser
encounters it. Do not "fix" this by reordering the links — Astro emits its own stylesheet after the
head markup, which is what made the ordering approach silently useless.

To try it: put a `theme.css`, a `logo.png` or a `brand.json` in `brand/`, run `npm run build` and
`npm start`. `curl -I` any `/brand/*` URL and the `X-Brand-Source` header says which of mount,
defaults or derivation answered.

Regenerating the stock assets is a separate, manual step — `npm run brand:assets` — because it reads
the emblem and the Cinzel outlines from the sibling checkouts in the workspace. Its output is
committed so that CI never needs either.

## Layout

```
src/
  data/platform.json     Every externally-sourced fact. No version is written in prose.
  styles/tokens.css      THE token file — the only place a colour literal may appear.
  styles/global.css      The layout shell, built entirely from tokens.
  styles/starlight.css   Restates our tokens as Starlight's, so the docs cannot drift.
  layouts/, components/  The marketing chrome.
  pages/                 Marketing routes.
  pages/beta.astro       The signup. Renders AND handles its own POST — runs per request.
  content/docs/docs/     Documentation. The extra level mounts Starlight at /docs.
  pages/brand/           GET /brand/* — the mount, resolved and derived. Runs per request.
  lib/brand.mjs          The single accessor for brand text, plus liveBrand() for the two
                         routes that render per request and so miss the boot rewrite.
  lib/brandAssets.mjs    Mount-first resolution and on-demand derivation.
  lib/betaStore.mjs      The SQLite store: schema, dedupe, rate-limit window, cap, removal.
  lib/betaSignup.mjs     Everything between a POST body and a row. Never throws.
  lib/tokens.mjs         Reads tokens.css at build time, for the few values that leave CSS.
  config/sidebar.mjs     The documentation journey, and the planned tree behind it.
brand-default/           The stock brand, baked into the image and always complete.
scripts/                 The build-time checks, plus applyBrand (boot), brand:assets (manual)
                         and beta.mjs (the tester-list CLI).
test/                    node --test. The logic the other checks cannot see.
```

Two directories are bind mounts at runtime and are **not** in the repository: `brand/` overrides
anything in `brand-default/` per file, and `data/` holds the beta signup store. See `PLAN.md` §6
and §7.

## Contributing

Branch from `main` (`feature/…`, `fix/…`, `docs/…`, `chore/…`) and use
[Conventional Commits](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/). Run `npm run verify` before opening a
pull request.

**AI-assisted contributions must be disclosed**, per org policy: tick the box in the pull request
template naming the tool, and mark AI-authored commits with a trailer such as
`Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>`. Undisclosed AI-generated contributions may be
closed.

## Licence

GPL-3.0-or-later, in common with every repository in the organisation. See [LICENSE](LICENSE).

[org]: https://gitea.whitlocktech.com/RunicGateway