One machine first; the tailnet is an operator choice

Status: accepted · 2026-09-04

Context

The factory ran across two machines (a writer host and the operator's seat) joined by a Tailscale tailnet, and the docs were written that way round. The code never references the network: the only places it appears are the address given to --serve and the URLs in the drawer's config.

Decision

Holophyte is a single-machine tool that happens to work across machines. Docs are written single-machine first with no real addresses; the two-machine setup is a second page. --serve PORT defaults to loopback. Review bots, tailnets and hosted stores are optional layers around a core that is one machine, one store, one loop.

Consequences

A docs rewrite and a ten-minute code change. The daemon's "no auth, bind address is the boundary" rule reads correctly on both setups.

Tickets

To file: single-machine docs; --serve PORT loopback default.