vps-k8s/docs/checklist.md

Guided bootstrap checklist

A single-page, ordered checklist covering the entire path from bare machine to a working GitOps loop. It's meant to be worked through with Claude, one item at a time — ask Claude to walk you through this list, and it will run each step with you, wait for your output, confirm it worked, and only then move to the next one. See CLAUDE.md at the repo root for how Claude is primed to do this.

Each item names the doc it's drawn from, in case you want the full explanation before or after running it. Replace <NODE_IP>, YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME, and the MetalLB IP addresses with your real values throughout — Claude will remind you if you paste a command still containing a placeholder, and will ask you for the IP addresses directly in Phase 5 rather than guessing them.

Phase 1 — Prerequisites (01)

• Target machine chosen, reachable on the network, with a stable (ideally DHCP-reserved) IP address
• Talos amd64 ISO downloaded, machine booted from it, sitting at the boot screen
• talosctl version --client runs successfully
• kubectl version --client runs successfully
• argocd version --client runs successfully
• Repo forked on GitHub and cloned locally as your own copy

Phase 2 — Talos bootstrap (02, talos/README.md)

• talosctl gen config gitops-starter https://<NODE_IP>:6443 --output-dir _out --config-patch-control-plane @talos/patch-controlplane.yaml run — _out/controlplane.yaml, worker.yaml, talosconfig exist
• TALOSCONFIG exported (or talosctl config endpoint/node set) to _out/talosconfig
• talosctl apply-config --insecure --nodes <NODE_IP> --file _out/controlplane.yaml run, node rebooted
• talosctl bootstrap --nodes <NODE_IP> run — exactly once
• talosctl kubeconfig --nodes <NODE_IP> . run, KUBECONFIG pointed at the result
• kubectl get nodes shows one node, Ready

Phase 3 — Argo CD install (03, argocd/README.md)

• kubectl create namespace argocd
• kubectl apply --server-side -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml
• kubectl -n argocd wait --for=condition=Available --timeout=300s deployment --all completes
• Initial admin password retrieved
• kubectl -n argocd port-forward svc/argocd-server 8080:443 running in its own terminal
• argocd login localhost:8080 --username admin --password <pw> --insecure succeeds

Phase 4 — Hand the cluster to Git (04)

• spec.source.repoURL fixed in all three placeholder files: run grep -rl YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME . to find them (argocd/app-of-apps/app-of-apps.yaml, apps/demo.yaml, apps/metallb.yaml)
• Edit committed and pushed to your fork's main branch
• kubectl apply -f argocd/app-of-apps/app-of-apps.yaml
• argocd app list shows app-of-apps, Synced/Healthy
• argocd app list shows demo and metallb, appeared automatically, both Synced/Healthy
• kubectl -n demo get pods,svc shows the demo app's Pod running (Service EXTERNAL-IP still <pending> — expected for now)

Phase 5 — MetalLB: real IP addresses (05)

• Ask Claude to help pick: a MetalLB pool range, an address for Argo CD's UI, and an address for the demo app — all based on your actual LAN/DHCP setup
• apps/metallb/templates/ipaddresspool.yaml edited to your real pool range
• apps/demo/service.yaml edited to your real demo app address
• docs/network.md updated with the pool range and both addresses (Argo CD's added once patched, below)
• Committed, pushed, and synced (argocd app sync metallb demo)
• kubectl -n demo get svc demo shows a real EXTERNAL-IP; page loads at http://<that-address>
• argocd-server Service patched to LoadBalancer with your chosen Argo CD address (kubectl -n argocd patch svc argocd-server ...)
• Argo CD UI reachable at https://<that-address> with no port-forward running

Phase 6 — Prove the loop (06)

• Edited the <h1> text in apps/demo/configmap.yaml
• Committed and pushed
• argocd app sync demo (or waited for auto-poll) shows the change applied
• Refreshed the browser — new text visible
• (Optional) Triggered self-heal: hand-edited the ConfigMap with kubectl patch, confirmed Argo CD reverted it

You're done when

Every box above is checked, you've watched a change you made in a text editor show up in a browser without ever running kubectl apply yourself for it, and you can explain in your own words what happened between "git push" and the page updating. If you can't yet, that's the sign to ask Claude for a walkthrough of whichever phase felt shaky before calling this finished.

From here: 07-adding-new-apps.md to add something of your own, or 08-growing-up.md for the bigger next steps (more nodes, ingress, secrets management).