DevOps Guide

This guide covers deployment, release pipeline, CI/CD, monitoring, and operational procedures for AgentLens.

Architecture Overview
Docker Image
Release Pipeline
Versioning Strategy
CI/CD Workflows
Helm Chart Deployment
Docker Compose (Local / Dev)
Configuration Reference
Database Operations
Security Considerations
Troubleshooting

Architecture Overview

AgentLens is a single Go binary that serves both the REST API and the embedded React frontend. It uses SQLite by default (zero external dependencies) or PostgreSQL for production deployments.

graph TD
    subgraph "Runtime Container (distroless)"
        BIN[agentlens binary]
        BIN --> API[REST API :8080]
        BIN --> UI[Embedded React SPA]
        BIN --> DB[(SQLite / PostgreSQL)]
    end

    subgraph "Kubernetes"
        SVC[Service] --> BIN
        ING[Ingress] --> SVC
        SA[ServiceAccount] --> K8S_API[K8s API]
        BIN --> K8S_API
    end

    subgraph "External Agents"
        A2A[A2A Agents]
        MCP[MCP Servers]
    end

    BIN -->|discover| A2A
    BIN -->|discover| MCP

Docker Image

Base Image

The production image uses gcr.io/distroless/base-debian12 — no shell, no package manager, minimal attack surface.

Multi-Stage Build

Stage	Base Image	Purpose
1 — Frontend	`oven/bun:1.3.11-alpine`	Build React SPA with Vite
2 — Backend	`golang:1.26.1`	Compile Go binary (CGO for SQLite)
3 — Runtime	`gcr.io/distroless/base-debian12`	Minimal production image

Build Locally

make docker-build       # Builds agentlens:local

Scan for Vulnerabilities

make docker-scan        # Requires Trivy installed locally

Image Tags

Tag	Description
`0.2.0`	Stable release (from `main` branch)
`0.2.0-aeba8e9`	Pre-release (from feature branch, includes commit SHA)
`latest`	Points to most recent stable release

Registry

Images are published to GitHub Container Registry:

ghcr.io/pawelharacz/agentlens:<version>

Release Pipeline

The release workflow (.github/workflows/release.yml) runs on every push to main or via manual dispatch.

Flow

sequenceDiagram
    participant D as Developer
    participant GH as GitHub Actions
    participant S as calculate-versions.sh
    participant GHCR as GHCR (Docker)
    participant OCI as GHCR (Helm OCI)

    D->>GH: Push to main / workflow_dispatch
    GH->>S: Run version calculation
    S->>S: Parse conventional commits
    S->>S: Check changed paths
    S-->>GH: app_version, helm_version, release_app, release_helm

    alt release_app == true
        GH->>GHCR: Build & push Docker image
        GH->>GH: Create GitHub Release + tag
    end

    alt release_helm == true
        GH->>OCI: Package & push Helm chart
        GH->>GH: Create Helm GitHub Release + tag
    end

Manual Release (workflow_dispatch)

You can trigger a release manually from the GitHub Actions UI with optional version overrides:

Input	Description
`app_version`	Override app version (e.g. `1.0.0`). Leave empty for auto-bump.
`helm_version`	Override Helm chart version (e.g. `1.0.0`). Leave empty for auto-bump.

Pre-Releases from Feature Branches

When the script runs on a non-main branch, versions get a SHA suffix automatically:

0.2.0-aeba8e9   # Feature branch pre-release
0.2.0           # Stable release from main

This enables testing Docker images from feature branches before merging.

Local Testing

Run the version calculation locally to see what would be released:

./scripts/calculate-versions.sh

# Output:
# app_version=0.2.0
# helm_version=0.1.1
# release_app=true
# release_helm=false

Test with overrides:

./scripts/calculate-versions.sh --app-override 1.0.0 --helm-override 2.0.0

Versioning Strategy

Two Independent Version Tracks

Track	Tag Format	Triggered By	Artifacts
App	`v1.2.3`	Changes in `cmd/`, `internal/`, `plugins/`, `web/`, `Dockerfile`, `go.mod`, `go.sum`	Docker image, GitHub Release
Helm	`helm/v1.2.3`	Changes in `deploy/helm/`	Helm OCI package, GitHub Release

Semantic Versioning from Conventional Commits

The scripts/calculate-versions.sh script scans commits since the last relevant tag and determines the bump level:

Commit Type	Bump	Example
`fix:`, `fix(api):`, `chore:`, `refactor:`, `docs:`	patch	`0.1.1` → `0.1.2`
`feat:`, `feat(web):`	minor	`0.1.1` → `0.2.0`
`feat!:`, `fix!:`, or `BREAKING CHANGE` in body	major	`0.1.1` → `1.0.0`

The highest bump level across all commits wins. For example, if there are 3 fix: commits and 1 feat: commit, the result is a minor bump.

When Does Helm Version Bump?

Helm chart version bumps only when files in deploy/helm/ change. Changing the Docker image tag for a deployment does not require a new chart version — use --set image.tag=X instead:

helm upgrade agentlens oci://ghcr.io/pawelharacz/charts/agentlens \
  --set image.tag=0.3.0

CI/CD Workflows

Overview

Workflow	Trigger	Purpose
`ci.yml`	PRs to `main`	Lint, test, build
`code-scanning.yml`	PRs, push to `main`, weekly	CodeQL, govulncheck, Trivy, Helm lint
`e2e.yml`	PRs to `main`	Playwright E2E tests
`release.yml`	Push to `main`, manual dispatch	Version calculation, Docker + Helm release

CI Pipeline (`ci.yml`)

graph LR
    A[Lint] --> C[Build]
    B[Test] --> C

Job	Steps
Lint	`go vet` → `golangci-lint` → TypeScript type check
Test	Go tests with coverage report
Build	Frontend build (Bun/Vite) → Go binary build (CGO)

Code Scanning (`code-scanning.yml`)

Job	Tool	Scope
CodeQL	GitHub CodeQL	Go + JavaScript/TypeScript static analysis
govulncheck	`golang.org/x/vuln`	Go dependency vulnerabilities
Docker Scan	Trivy	Container image vulnerabilities (CRITICAL, HIGH)
Helm Lint	Helm CLI	Chart validation

E2E Tests (`e2e.yml`)

Runs Playwright against a real AgentLens instance with mock A2A/MCP agents. Covers authentication, catalog browsing, settings management, and user administration.

Helm Chart Deployment

Install from OCI Registry

helm install agentlens oci://ghcr.io/pawelharacz/charts/agentlens \
  --version 0.1.1 \
  --namespace agentlens \
  --create-namespace

Key Values

Value	Default	Description
`replicaCount`	`1`	Number of pods
`image.repository`	`ghcr.io/pawelharacz/agentlens`	Container image
`image.tag`	`""` (appVersion)	Image tag override
`service.port`	`80`	Service port
`service.targetPort`	`8080`	Container port
`database.dialect`	`sqlite`	`sqlite` or `postgres`
`database.postgres.*`	—	PostgreSQL connection settings
`auth.jwtSecret`	`""`	JWT signing secret (auto-generated if empty)
`auth.existingSecret`	`""`	Reference to existing K8s Secret for JWT
`persistence.enabled`	`true`	Enable PVC for SQLite data
`persistence.size`	`1Gi`	PVC size
`env.AGENTLENS_KUBERNETES_ENABLED`	`"true"`	Enable K8s service discovery
`env.AGENTLENS_LOG_LEVEL`	`"info"`	Log level (`debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error`)

Production Deployment with PostgreSQL

helm install agentlens oci://ghcr.io/pawelharacz/charts/agentlens \
  --namespace agentlens \
  --create-namespace \
  --set database.dialect=postgres \
  --set database.postgres.host=postgres.db.svc.cluster.local \
  --set database.postgres.port=5432 \
  --set database.postgres.user=agentlens \
  --set database.postgres.password=<secret> \
  --set database.postgres.dbname=agentlens \
  --set database.postgres.sslmode=require \
  --set auth.jwtSecret=<strong-random-secret> \
  --set persistence.enabled=false

Upgrade Image Only (No Chart Change)

helm upgrade agentlens oci://ghcr.io/pawelharacz/charts/agentlens \
  --reuse-values \
  --set image.tag=0.3.0

RBAC

The chart creates a ClusterRole and ClusterRoleBinding that grants the pod read access to Kubernetes Services — required for K8s agent discovery. To disable:

--set clusterRole.create=false \
--set env.AGENTLENS_KUBERNETES_ENABLED=false

Docker Compose (Local / Dev)

SQLite (Default)

cd examples
docker compose up

Starts AgentLens on http://localhost:8080 with mock A2A and MCP agents.

PostgreSQL

cd examples
docker compose -f docker-compose.postgres.yaml up

Includes PostgreSQL 16 with health checks. Data persisted in pgdata volume.

Reset Database

docker compose -f docker-compose.postgres.yaml down -v
docker compose -f docker-compose.postgres.yaml up

Configuration Reference

AgentLens is configured via YAML file (agentlens.yaml) or environment variables. Environment variables take precedence.

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
`AGENTLENS_PORT`	`8080`	HTTP server port
`AGENTLENS_DATA_DIR`	`data`	Directory for SQLite database
`AGENTLENS_LOG_LEVEL`	`info`	Log level
`AGENTLENS_DB_DIALECT`	`sqlite`	Database dialect (`sqlite`, `postgres`)
`AGENTLENS_DB_POSTGRES_HOST`	—	PostgreSQL host
`AGENTLENS_DB_POSTGRES_PORT`	`5432`	PostgreSQL port
`AGENTLENS_DB_POSTGRES_USER`	—	PostgreSQL user
`AGENTLENS_DB_POSTGRES_PASSWORD`	—	PostgreSQL password
`AGENTLENS_DB_POSTGRES_DBNAME`	—	PostgreSQL database name
`AGENTLENS_DB_POSTGRES_SSLMODE`	`prefer`	PostgreSQL SSL mode
`AGENTLENS_KUBERNETES_ENABLED`	`false`	Enable K8s service discovery
`AGENTLENS_KUBERNETES_NAMESPACE`	`""`	Limit discovery to namespace (empty = all)
`AGENTLENS_HEALTH_CHECK_ENABLED`	`true`	Enable periodic health checks
`AGENTLENS_HEALTH_CHECK_INTERVAL`	`30s`	Health check interval
`AGENTLENS_DISCOVERY_INTERVAL`	`60s`	Discovery poll interval
`AGENTLENS_JWT_SECRET`	(auto-generated)	JWT signing secret
`AGENTLENS_SESSION_DURATION`	`24h`	JWT token lifetime

Health Endpoint

GET /healthz → 200 OK

Use for Kubernetes liveness/readiness probes (already configured in the Helm chart).

Database Operations

Migrations

Migrations run automatically on startup. They are idempotent and versioned in internal/db/migrations.go.

Backup SQLite

# From host (Docker Compose)
docker compose exec agentlens cp /data/agentlens.db /data/agentlens.db.bak

# From K8s
kubectl exec -n agentlens deploy/agentlens -- cp /data/agentlens.db /data/agentlens.db.bak
kubectl cp agentlens/agentlens-<pod>:/data/agentlens.db.bak ./agentlens-backup.db

Switch from SQLite to PostgreSQL

Deploy PostgreSQL (or use a managed service)
Update configuration: AGENTLENS_DB_DIALECT=postgres + connection settings
Restart AgentLens — migrations run automatically on the new database
Note: data is not migrated automatically between dialects

Security Considerations

Container Security

Distroless base image — no shell, no package manager, no unnecessary binaries
Non-root execution — distroless runs as non-root by default
Trivy scanning — automated in CI on every PR and push to main
CodeQL analysis — static analysis for Go and TypeScript

Application Security

JWT authentication — HS256, HttpOnly/Secure/SameSite=Strict cookies
bcrypt password hashing — cost factor 12, minimum 10 characters
Account lockout — 5 failed attempts → 15-minute lockout
RBAC — permission-based access control (catalog:read, users:write, etc.)
Parameterized queries — all database access through GORM, no raw SQL interpolation

Secrets Management

Secret	How to Provide
JWT signing key	`AGENTLENS_JWT_SECRET` env var or `auth.jwtSecret` Helm value
PostgreSQL password	`AGENTLENS_DB_POSTGRES_PASSWORD` env var or Helm value
K8s Secret reference	`auth.existingSecret` Helm value (mounts as env)

If no JWT secret is configured, one is auto-generated at startup (tokens won't survive restarts).

Troubleshooting

Container Won't Start

# Check logs
kubectl logs -n agentlens deploy/agentlens

# Common issues:
# - "database is locked" → SQLite PVC not writable, check persistence settings
# - "connection refused" on PostgreSQL → check host/port/credentials
# - "no such host" → DNS issue, verify service name

K8s Discovery Not Finding Agents

Agents must have the annotation agentlens.io/protocol: a2a|mcp on their Service:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: my-agent
  annotations:
    agentlens.io/protocol: a2a
    agentlens.io/port: "9001"          # optional, defaults to first port
    agentlens.io/card-path: "/.well-known/agent-card.json"  # optional

Verify the ServiceAccount has list/watch permissions on Services:

kubectl auth can-i list services --as system:serviceaccount:agentlens:agentlens -A

Health Check Failures

# Check health endpoint directly
kubectl exec -n agentlens deploy/agentlens -- wget -qO- http://localhost:8080/healthz

# If using distroless (no wget), port-forward instead:
kubectl port-forward -n agentlens deploy/agentlens 8080:8080
curl http://localhost:8080/healthz

Release Pipeline Issues

# Check what version would be released
./scripts/calculate-versions.sh

# Check which tags exist
git tag --list | sort -V

# Check commits since last release
git log --oneline v0.1.1..HEAD

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