Ekklesia/README.md

# Ekklesia

Ekklesia is an open, modular church technology platform for composing backend capabilities
into independently developed dashboards, websites, mobile apps, kiosks, displays, and other
surfaces.

## Current status

Phase 3 is complete, Phase 4A (Core identity foundation) and Phase 4B (identity HTTP transport)
have landed, and Phase 4C (Core authorization) is in progress. The repository includes
public module contracts, independently versioned capabilities, static module manifests,
deterministic automatic discovery, compiled server loading, a staged capability registry,
dependency-ordered lifecycle with rollback, module-owned Drizzle table contracts, deterministic
schema aggregation, and a cloneable backend-only module template. Migration artifacts have
module-owned Drizzle contracts, deterministic offline discovery, explicit destructive-change
declarations, and exact checksums. Core provides read-only applied-history planning and a locked,
whole-batch transactional PostgreSQL runner with exact external destructive approval matching. A
hermetic live PostgreSQL suite proves history, rollback, statement breakpoints, advisory-lock
concurrency and release, exact destructive approvals, and sanitization against the production
adapter. A Core-owned `pnpm doctor` dashboard combines the existing static discovery and read-only
migration-planning services into one concise readiness report.

Phase 4A added Core-owned identity foundations: a Core-owned Better Auth database schema
(`ekklesia_core_user`, `ekklesia_core_session`, `ekklesia_core_account`,
`ekklesia_core_verification`), a first-class Core-owned migration source that coexists with
module-owned migrations under the exact same migration system, minimal opaque-identity contracts
in `@ekklesia/contracts`, and an explicit Better Auth construction boundary in Core. See
[Identity](docs/development/identity.md) and
[ADR 0010](docs/architecture/decisions/0010-core-identity-and-better-auth-adoption.md).

Phase 4B adds identity HTTP transport: a minimal Hono-based `apps/api` composition root
(`pnpm api:start`) mounts Better Auth at `/api/auth/*` and exposes `GET /api/v1/principal` behind
Core's own Fetch-compatible identity runtime — Core still does not depend on Hono, and modules
still cannot reach any of this. Public email/password registration is intentional; every account
receives identical lowest-privilege baseline status and signup order never grants elevation. See
[API](docs/development/api.md) and
[ADR 0011](docs/architecture/decisions/0011-identity-http-transport-and-public-enrollment.md).
**No email verification, password recovery, or Dashboard exists yet** — that, along with
production approval-provider composition, jobs, physical storage provisioning, surfaces, and
feature modules, remains later vertical slices. Public registration is not yet ready for a real
public launch.

Phase 4C (in progress) adds Core's authorization foundation on top of identity: a schema,
evaluator, and store for platform owners, explicit grants, and relationship-derived grants; a
smallest-possible immutable permission registry; an explicit, single-use, concurrency-safe
platform-owner bootstrap command (`pnpm authorization:bootstrap-owner`, never HTTP-exposed, never
inferred from signup order); and, in `apps/api`, reusable Hono authorization enforcement plus a
narrowly scoped `/api/v1/grants` HTTP API for managing *explicit* grants only, requiring an exact
trusted `Origin` on every mutation. Roles/groups/teams/tenants, an owner-management HTTP endpoint,
service accounts/API tokens, and module-permission registration remain later work. See
[Authorization](docs/development/authorization.md).

## Quick start

Prerequisites: Node.js 24 LTS, pnpm 11.12, and Docker with Compose.

```bash
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
cp .env.example .env
pnpm infrastructure:up
pnpm modules:validate
pnpm migrations:validate
pnpm identity:schema:validate
pnpm doctor
pnpm migrations:plan
pnpm test:migrations:integration
pnpm verify
```

`pnpm doctor` builds the workspace first, then reports the supported Node.js runtime, installed
modules and dependency order, schema and migration inventories, optional read-only PostgreSQL
planning, and the current object-storage integration state. It never applies migrations, creates a
history table, starts module servers, or performs storage operations. Schema discovery does import
compiled schema-definition entrypoints; those entrypoints are contractually side-effect-free.

With no installed modules and no `DATABASE_URL`, the current repository produces a report shaped
like this:

```text
Ekklesia Doctor

Platform
  ✓ Runtime version supported
    Active Node.js satisfies the declared supported range.

Modules
  ✓ Module discovery complete
    0 modules installed
  ✓ Dependency graph valid
    Dependency order is empty.

Data definitions
  ✓ Schemas validated
    0 modules · 0 tables
  ✓ Migrations validated
    1 migration · checksums valid
    core:0000_identity_core_tables · f8f2086ef06f

PostgreSQL
  ○ Connection check skipped
    DATABASE_URL is not configured.
  ○ Migration plan skipped
    A validated migration inventory and configured PostgreSQL connection are required.

Identity
  ○ Identity configuration skipped
    Core identity schema defines 4 tables (ekklesia_core_account, ekklesia_core_session, ekklesia_core_user, ekklesia_core_verification).
    Identity runtime configuration (signing key, base URL, trusted origins) is not set.

Object storage
  ○ Check unavailable
    Core storage integration has not been implemented yet.

Result: READY WITH WARNINGS
```

Checks have stable pass, warning, failure, or skipped states. Warnings and skipped optional checks
produce `READY WITH WARNINGS` and exit zero; any failure produces `NOT READY` and exit one. The
dashboard is human-readable local guidance, not a replacement for automated CI evidence.

`pnpm migrations:plan` uses `DATABASE_URL` from the uncommitted `.env` and is read-only.
`pnpm migrations:apply` uses the same validated inventory but mutates PostgreSQL under Core's
advisory lock and one transaction. Review the plan before applying. Destructive migrations are
blocked by default and require an exact externally supplied approval; there is no force flag.

The runner has both deterministic unit coverage through a narrow database port and a separate live
PostgreSQL integration suite. The live command creates and destroys disposable Docker
infrastructure; it remains separate from the Docker-free `pnpm verify` gate.

`pnpm identity:schema:validate` regenerates Better Auth's canonical schema with the pinned local
CLI into a temporary location and structurally compares it against the checked-in
`core/src/identity/schema.ts`, then removes the temporary output. It requires no `DATABASE_URL`
and is part of `pnpm verify`. See [Identity](docs/development/identity.md) for the full upgrade
workflow.

`pnpm api:start` builds the workspace, then starts the identity HTTP transport
(`GET /api/v1/principal`, Better Auth mounted at `/api/auth/*`) against an already-migrated
`DATABASE_URL` — it never applies migrations itself. See [API](docs/development/api.md) for
required configuration, routes, and a full request/response transcript.

Run `pnpm infrastructure:smoke` for an isolated end-to-end PostgreSQL and authenticated S3 check.

The development services bind only to loopback:

- PostgreSQL: `127.0.0.1:5432`
- S3-compatible object storage: `127.0.0.1:8333`

The values in `.env.example` are development-only and must never be reused in a deployed
environment.

## Architecture

- [Platform architecture](docs/architecture/platform-architecture.md)
- [Repository boundaries](docs/architecture/repository-boundaries.md)
- [Repository workflow](docs/development/repository-workflow.md)
- [Testing](docs/development/testing.md)
- [Identity](docs/development/identity.md)
- [API](docs/development/api.md)
- [Authorization](docs/development/authorization.md)
- [Module development](docs/module-development/README.md)
- [Architecture decisions](docs/architecture/decisions/README.md)

No open-source license has been selected yet. A license should be added only after the project
owner makes that decision.