Patronus dev log 2: Kubernetes, a React UI, and a Rust workspace that wouldn’t build

Part 2 in the Patronus dev log series.

Backdated, written in November 2026 from the git log and CI records. Part 1 covered October 8 to 11.

October 12 to 14

The run continues. A Kubernetes operator with a Helm chart and CRD generation (the log calls it Sprint 36 and 37), “Integration Testing & CI/CD Pipeline” as Sprint 39 (October 12), a project status document as Sprint 40, then a topology visualization, LZ4 compression for WAN links, a React dashboard hooked up to the Rust backend, and OpenTelemetry tracing on the 13th. One commit on the 14th, then nothing until December.

In total, 98 commits in October 2025, and all 15 CI runs that month were skipped.

December

December has commits on four days. On the 12th: “Remove GitHub CI/CD configuration”. I moved off GitHub Actions to my own Forgejo, the same week I did it for Horcrux (part 2 of that series). Same reason as there: GitHub likes to block things, and the repo is still mirrored to GitHub.

December 16: “fix: Complete Rust workspace compilation and dependency resolution”, 54 files. Its message lists missing workspace dependencies (uuid, sysinfo, reqwest, chrono), API breaks from base64, axum and sysinfo upgrades, netlink imports, missing nix features, an async recursion that needed Box::pin, “syntax errors in derive macros and missing brackets” and missing feature flags. The workspace claimed 19 crates and 45,000 lines on day one, and two months later it hadn’t compiled cleanly. That contradicts the “Complete Implementation” commit from part 1.

December 17, “Comprehensive code review fixes and feature completions”: unwrap() calls replaced in backup and validation code, NaN-safe float comparisons in the detection modules, and “wire web handlers to actual sysinfo metrics (CPU, memory, disk, network)”. So until then the dashboard metrics weren’t coming from the machine. Also: alert conditions now checked against system metrics, CIDR matching for NetworkPolicy completed, and a hardcoded address removed from HA election.

December 19 added flow tracking, an installer crate and eBPF/XDP enhancements. The repo then goes quiet until September 24, 2026, nine months.

What I think of this period

In those weeks the repo’s documents described a finished product, while the code still needed a compile fix, and then a review pass before the dashboard showed real numbers. The 15 skipped runs in October and 11 more in December mean CI never tested any of it.

The commits from this period say what was done and never why, so I have no design decisions to report.

Other parts: Part 1.