team-tryouts/docs/deployment.md

# Team Tryouts - Production Deployment Guide (Windows)

This document outlines the secure production deployment for the Team Tryouts
Flask application on Windows with Nginx reverse proxy.

## Architecture Overview

```
Internet → Nginx (HTTPS:443) → Waitress (127.0.0.1:5000) → Flask App
```

- **Nginx**: TLS termination, static file serving, rate limiting, security headers
- **Waitress**: Production WSGI server with multiple worker threads
- **Flask**: Application logic (never exposed directly to the internet)

## Prerequisites

1. **Python 3.12+** installed
2. **Nginx for Windows** downloaded from [nginx.org](https://nginx.org/en/download.html)
3. **SSL Certificate** (Let's Encrypt via certbot or commercial provider)
4. **Windows Firewall** configured properly

## Step 1: Install Dependencies

```powershell
# Install Python packages
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Create required directories
mkdir logs
mkdir backups
```

## Step 2: Configure Environment Variables

Create a `.env` file in the project root:

```env
# Security (REQUIRED - generate with: python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(32))")
SECRET_KEY=<your-generated-64-char-hex-key>

# Database — PostgreSQL. create_app() refuses to start without this.
# Either form works; the driver is named for you if you leave it out.
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@host:5432/dbname

# Security settings
SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE=true
FORCE_HTTPS=true
FLASK_DEBUG=false

# CORS (set to your actual domain in production)
CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS=https://yourdomain.com

# Discord bot (optional)
DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN=
DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL=

# Backup settings
BACKUP_DIR=./backups
BACKUP_RETENTION_DAYS=30
```

**Important**: Never commit `.env` to version control.

Start from `app/.env.example`, which carries production-safe defaults and
documents every variable. Copying it verbatim gives a configuration that
refuses to start until `SECRET_KEY` and `DATABASE_URL` are filled in, rather
than one that starts and is wide open (OPS-003).

### Binding and proxy trust — read this before going live (OPS-002)

Two variables decide whether the rate limiter, the account lockout and the
audit log mean anything: `HOST` and `TRUSTED_PROXY`. Their built-in defaults
(`0.0.0.0` and `*`) are what this application has always done, kept so that
an existing deployment is not changed under it — **they are not the right
values**, and which values are right depends on your topology.

`TRUSTED_PROXY` decides whose `X-Forwarded-For` Waitress believes, and
therefore which address is recorded and counted. Getting it wrong fails in
one of two directions:

- **too trusting** — anyone who can reach the app without going through nginx
  sets their own client address. Rate limiting, lockout and the `ip=` field
  in `auth.log` all become suggestions;
- **not trusting enough** — every request appears to come from the proxy. One
  shared bucket, so the first person to mistype a password five times locks
  the limiter for the whole club.

Find your case:

| Topology | `HOST` | `TRUSTED_PROXY` | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| **nginx on the same machine as the app** (the common case) | `127.0.0.1` | `127.0.0.1` | Waitress is unreachable except through nginx, and only nginx's forwarded header is believed |
| **App in a Pterodactyl container, nginx elsewhere** | `0.0.0.0` | the proxy's address on the container network, e.g. `10.0.0.5` | The app must accept connections from outside the container, so it cannot bind to loopback. Name the proxy rather than trusting `*` |
| **Same as above, but the port is only reachable from the proxy** (firewall or container network) | `0.0.0.0` | `*` | Acceptable *only* because the network already prevents anyone else connecting. If that is not enforced, this is the first failure above |
| **No proxy at all** | `0.0.0.0` | *(empty)* | Nothing forwards anything; the peer address is the client |

To find out which one you are in, on the node:

```powershell
# Does anything answer on the app's port from outside the machine?
Test-NetConnection <public-ip> -Port 5000
# What address does nginx come from, as the app sees it?
#   Set TRUSTED_PROXY= (empty) briefly, make one request, and read auth.log:
#   the ip= field is then the real peer — which is the proxy.
```

`wsgi.py` prints a warning at startup while both defaults are in place, so an
unconfigured deployment says so in the Pterodactyl console.

## Step 3: Configure Nginx

1. Copy `app/nginx.conf` to your Nginx installation directory (e.g., `C:\nginx\conf\`)
2. **Edit the `alias` in the `location /static/` block** to point at this
   checkout's `app/static/` directory — absolute path, forward slashes, keep
   the trailing slash. It ships as `C:/team-tryouts/app/static/`, which is a
   guess about your machine. Nginx resolves a relative path against its own
   install prefix, not against `nginx.conf`.
3. Place SSL certificate files:
   - `C:\nginx\certs\fullchain.pem`
   - `C:\nginx\certs\privkey.pem`
4. Check the configuration parses before restarting: `C:\nginx\nginx.exe -t`
5. Start Nginx: `C:\nginx\nginx.exe`

Nginx serves `/static/` from disk with a 30-day `immutable` cache. That is
only safe because `url_for('static', …)` appends `?v=<mtime>` to every static
URL (`version_static_urls` in `app/app.py`), so a redeployed file is requested
under a new URL. If that stamp is ever removed, remove the cache headers with
it or visitors keep a month-old stylesheet.

After a deploy, confirm the stamp changed rather than trusting it:

```powershell
# The v= value must differ from the one served before the deploy.
(Invoke-WebRequest https://your-domain/auth/login).Content -match 'style\.css\?v=(\d+)'
```

### Obtaining SSL Certificates

Using Let's Encrypt with certbot (recommended):

```powershell
# Using certbot on Windows
certbot certonly --standalone -d yourdomain.com
```

Or use your hosting provider's SSL certificate.

## Step 4: Start the Application

```powershell
# Production start
python wsgi.py

# Or with custom port/threads
$env:PORT=5000
$env:WAITRESS_THREADS=5
python wsgi.py
```

## Step 5: Configure Windows Firewall

```powershell
# Allow only necessary ports
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Nginx HTTPS" -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 443 -Action Allow
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Nginx HTTP Redirect" -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 80 -Action Allow

# Block direct access to Waitress port (5000) from outside
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Block Waitress External" -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 5000 -Action Block
```

## Step 6: Set Up Automated Backups

Create a scheduled task for daily backups:

```powershell
# Run backup script daily at 2:00 AM
$Action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "python" -Argument "backup.py" -WorkingDirectory "C:\path\to\team-tryouts"
$Trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Daily -At 2:00AM
Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "TeamTryoutsBackup" -Action $Action -Trigger $Trigger
```

## Step 7: Run Security Validation

Before going live:

```powershell
# Run the security scanner
python security_scan.py --url https://yourdomain.com
```

All checks must pass before deployment.

## Deploying, and undoing a deployment (OPS-011)

Deployment is the Gitea workflow `.gitea/workflows/git-to-ptero.yaml`, run by
hand (`workflow_dispatch`). It mirrors files over SFTP to the Pterodactyl
node.

### What the workflow guarantees

1. **Nothing ships from a broken tree.** The suite, `ruff check` and
   `ruff format --check` all run on the deploy runner first. A green CI on
   GitHub proves nothing here: the deploy is triggered by hand, on whatever
   the branch currently holds.
2. **Only named files ship.** The payload is an allowlist — `app/`,
   `wsgi.py`, `requirements.txt` — not the working tree minus exclusions.
   A new file at the repository root does not reach production unless
   somebody adds it. The old form is how `clear_db.py`, the test suite and
   the CI definitions got onto the production node.
3. **The deployment is verified.** `/health` is polled for two minutes after
   the upload and the job fails if it never reports healthy. Set the
   `HEALTH_URL` repository secret to `https://<host>/health`; without it the
   workflow warns that the deployment went out unverified.

Deliberately *not* shipped: `run.py` (development entry point), `tests/`,
`migrations/add_tryout_coaches.py` (a one-off, already applied — run it by
hand if a fresh database ever needs it), `docs/`, `audit/`, `clear_db.py`.

### What it does not guarantee

**The switch is not atomic.** Files are mirrored in place, so for the length
of the transfer the node runs a mixture of two versions. And because
`--delete` is off — uploaded contracts, logs and the server's `.env` live
under the deployment root and are absent from the repository — a file
removed from the repository stays on the server for ever.

### Rolling back

There is no previous release on the node to switch back to, so a rollback is
a forward deployment of a known-good commit:

```bash
# 1. Find the last deployment that was verified healthy — the workflow run
#    log names the commit.
git log --oneline

# 2. Deploy that commit. In the Gitea UI, run the "Push to SFTP" workflow
#    against the tag or branch pointing at it. Tag known-good releases so
#    this step does not depend on reading a log:
git tag -a deploy-2026-08-11 -m "verified healthy" <commit>
git push origin deploy-2026-08-11   # requires the push freeze to be lifted

# 3. Confirm.
curl -fsS https://<host>/health
```

A rollback does **not** undo a database migration. If the deployment that
broke production also changed the schema, restore from backup first —
`docs/database-restore.md`.

### Making the switch atomic

The remaining work, and why it is not done here. A release-directory layout
looks like this on the node:

```
/home/container/
├── releases/
│   ├── 2026-08-11-a1b2c3/
│   └── 2026-08-10-9f8e7d/
├── current -> releases/2026-08-11-a1b2c3
├── documents/          # shared, never inside a release
├── logs/               # shared
└── .env                # shared
```

Three prerequisites. One is done, two are not:

| # | Prerequisite | State |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Pterodactyl startup command must run the app from `current/`, and the server must be restarted on switch | **Panel change.** Cannot be made or verified from the repository |
| 2 | `documents/`, `logs/` and `.env` must sit beside the releases, not inside one. `DOCUMENTS_ROOT` and `LOG_DIR` point the document store and the logs at fixed paths (`app/storage.py`) | Mechanism ready, **not yet configured on the node** |
| 3 | Contract paths must be relative to that root, or the first switch strands every contract ever uploaded | **Done.** New rows store a relative path; rows written earlier keep their absolute one and still resolve, so no data migration is needed |

Prerequisite 3 was a defect on its own, not just a blocker: paths were built
from `os.getcwd()`, so starting the server from a different directory would
have sent new contracts to a new tree and made the existing ones unreadable
— with the database still claiming they were there.

**The same defect was in two more places, and one of them mattered more.**
`logs/` and `backups/` were built from `os.getcwd()` too (OBS-006), and the
backup script kept its own copy of the document path — so it archived
`./documents` no matter what `DOCUMENTS_ROOT` said. Following prerequisite 2
was therefore enough, on its own, to make every contract backup empty; the
script prints `No documents directory…` and still exits 0, so a scheduled
task watching the exit code would have seen green indefinitely. All three
roots now come from `app/storage.py`, and the backup run prints the document
source it used.

**After setting `DOCUMENTS_ROOT` on the node, run the backup once by hand**
and check the `Document source:` line and the size of the resulting
`documents_backup_*.zip`.

## Security Checklist

- [ ] `.env` is not committed to repository
- [ ] `SECRET_KEY` is strong (64+ hex characters, randomly generated)
- [ ] `FLASK_DEBUG` is set to `false`
- [ ] Nginx is running with HTTPS (port 443)
- [ ] HTTP (port 80) redirects to HTTPS
- [ ] TLS 1.2+ configured (TLS 1.0/1.1 disabled)
- [ ] HSTS header is present (`max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload`)
- [ ] CSP header is configured with no `unsafe-eval`
- [ ] `server_tokens` is `off` in Nginx
- [ ] File uploads restricted to PDF only
- [ ] File uploads limited to 16MB
- [ ] Database backups scheduled daily
- [ ] Firewall rules applied (only 80/443 open)
- [ ] Application is not running as administrator
- [ ] Logs directory exists and is writable
- [ ] Health check endpoint returns 200

## Monitoring

- **Application logs**: `./logs/app.log`
- **Error logs**: `./logs/errors.log`
- **Auth logs**: `./logs/auth.log`
- **Nginx access logs**: `C:\nginx\logs\access.log`
- **Nginx error logs**: `C:\nginx\logs\error.log`

Monitor these logs regularly for suspicious activity.

## Maintenance

- Run `pip-audit` weekly to check for vulnerabilities
- Run `python security_scan.py` after any configuration changes
- Test backup restoration quarterly
- Review and rotate `SECRET_KEY` if compromised
- Keep Python and system packages updated