Files

cproudlock 784964c907 Bring the wilm branch into main: endpoints plugin, agent, policies, CSV import

Ports the corporate-GitHub wilm branch onto main, keeping the two branches
separate. Thirteen upstream commits arrive with their authorship intact; the
review fixes and the portability work below are on top.

What arrives:

  endpoints plugin  - a ShopDB agent reporting endpoint state, telemetry,
                      services and interfaces, with a command channel the agent
                      long-polls. Ingest stays on the generic collector route
                      (ADR-006); the agent key is a UI-managed single-scope
                      token whose revocation is an instant kill switch.
  computers policies - Configuration and Business Policies (RMM-style), scope
                      trees validated at write time, actions checked against
                      the endpoints command allowlist. Feature-gated: every
                      route 404s while the setting is off, so enabling it can
                      never half-expose the surface.
  asset CSV import  - templates, a collector script carrying the site path, and
                      a validate-then-commit import. A plugin can own a virtual
                      column plus a post-write row hook, which is how a PC's
                      machine number becomes a controls link without a
                      hand-built relationships sheet.
  agent/            - the Windows agent and its installer.

Contract 0.21.0 -> 0.24.0, additive throughout: register_import_hook (0.22),
mint/list/revoke_service_token (0.23), collector_authorized (0.24). The stability
table had no rows for any of them and now does.

MySQL 5.6 portability. The branch stored three policy columns as sa.JSON, the
only JSON columns in the product, and 5.6 has no JSON type: the migration failed
with a bare syntax error near the word JSON. They are TEXT now, through a
JSONText type decorator, so all seventeen call sites still read and write dicts.
The convention elsewhere is already TEXT (guides.blocksjson,
geenforce.manifestjson).

Review fixes carried on top:

  - six policy GETs were jwt_required(optional=True), which authenticates a
    caller without checking anything; they require computers.view now, and six
    redundant jwt_required decorators are gone
  - the agent installer took a default BaseUrl and CollectorKey, so a mistyped
    run silently pointed an endpoint at the wrong instance; both are mandatory
    and a non-https BaseUrl throws unless -AllowInsecureHttp is passed
  - a committing CSV import wrote no audit row

Documentation: the 34 new routes are described in docs/api-inventory.json, which
is hand-maintained on purpose, and the generated spec now covers 331 paths and
477 operations across 22 surfaces. DEVELOPMENT-SETUP's 1071 troubleshooting row
said "use MySQL 8 for dev" and now gives the actual fix, including the trap that
5.6 downgrades ROW_FORMAT=DYNAMIC to Compact with a warning instead of an error.

Full suite 2123 passed, vitest 260 passed, all seventeen plugin chains migrate
clean on MySQL 5.6 and the naming, docs, parity and read-surface gates are green.

2026-08-28 16:17:17 -04:00

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ShopDB Endpoint Agent

A Windows telemetry agent that reports endpoint state to a ShopDB server's endpoints plugin. It runs as a Windows service in production and as a console app for development and testing.

Projects

ShopDbEndpointAgent.Core - contracts, config, logging, collection, and the resilient collector HTTP client. No host concerns; unit-testable.
ShopDbEndpointAgent - the service host (generic host + Windows service lifetime). Composes Core through DI. This is the telemetry runtime.
ShopDbEndpointAgent.Tray - interactive user-session tray app: a system-tray icon with "Send Status now" (on-demand report) and the 5-click issue reporter (ServiceNow flow is still a scaffold). Separate process from the service, because a SYSTEM service cannot draw a tray icon in a user session.

Configuration

Runtime config is layered. Non-secret defaults live in appsettings.json (shipped with the build). The collector key and base URL are provisioned out of band in the registry and win over appsettings.json, so a distributed build never carries the secret and the site can rotate the key without a rebuild.

Registry (production)

Create these values under HKLM\SOFTWARE\GE\ShopDB (64-bit view):

Value	Type	Meaning
`BaseUrl`	String	`https://shopdb.example.net` (server root)
`CollectorKey`	String	The endpoint agent key from Settings -> Endpoints -> Key management

Example (elevated PowerShell):

New-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\GE\ShopDB' -Force | Out-Null
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\GE\ShopDB' -Name 'BaseUrl' -Value 'https://shopdb.example.net'
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\GE\ShopDB' -Name 'CollectorKey' -Value '<paste the generated key>'

appsettings.json (all environments)

Key	Default	Meaning
`baseurl`	""	Dev fallback for the server root (registry wins).
`apikey`	placeholder	Dev fallback for the collector key (registry wins).
`cadenceseconds`	900	Report interval (15 min).
`jitterseconds`	60	Random +/- spread on the interval (anti-herd).
`adoptonfirstrun`	true	Send `adopt=true` on first contact only.
`utilitiespath`	""	Directory of site PowerShell "agent utilities".
`logpath`	""	Override the rolling log directory.

For a dev box, set baseurl and apikey here and skip the registry.

Running

Console (dev), one report then exit:

dotnet run --project ShopDbEndpointAgent -- --once

Console (dev), continuous cadence loop:

dotnet run --project ShopDbEndpointAgent -- --console

Install as a Windows service

Publish self-contained, then register with sc.exe (elevated):

dotnet publish ShopDbEndpointAgent -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained -o C:\ProgramData\ShopDB\EndpointAgent\bin
sc.exe create "ShopDBEndpointAgent" binPath= "C:\ProgramData\ShopDB\EndpointAgent\bin\shopdb-endpoint-agent.exe" start= auto DisplayName= "ShopDB Endpoint Agent"
sc.exe description "ShopDBEndpointAgent" "Reports endpoint telemetry to ShopDB."
sc.exe start "ShopDBEndpointAgent"

The service runs as LocalSystem by default, which it needs to read the Security event channel and system WMI.

Tray app (system-tray icon)

The tray is a per-user process, not a service, so it starts at sign-in rather than under sc.exe. install-shopdbagent.ps1 handles it: it copies shopdb-endpoint-tray.exe next to the agent, registers an HKCU logon autostart (Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ShopDbEndpointTray), and launches it for the current user. Run the installer from the operator's own session so the autostart lands in the right user hive. Pass -NoTray for a headless, service-only install.

Right-click the tray icon for:

Send Status now - reports this PC to ShopDB immediately so the monitor page refreshes without waiting for the next cadence tick. It shells out to shopdbagent.exe --once, reusing the exact production collection path; the tray holds no collector key. A balloon tip reflects success or failure (on failure, see the rolling agent log).
Report an issue... - the ServiceNow ticket flow (scaffold; submission path is an open decision).

A desktop shortcut to shopdb-endpoint-tray.exe can be added later for an explicitly launchable ServiceNow surface.

WebUI command execution model (security context)

The WebUI can send an endpoint an allowlisted command (server source of truth: plugins/endpoints/commands.py; agent handler: CommandExecutor). The agent service runs as LocalSystem, but not every command runs in that context. The launch context is chosen per action so processes surface to the operator while privileged operations keep the token they need:

Generic process_start (for example DncMain, UDC) launches into the ACTIVE CONSOLE USER's session at medium integrity, so the app is visible on the operator's desktop. CyberArk/EPM brokers any elevation afterward.
Generic process_stop / process_status run as SYSTEM (kill and probe).
service_start / service_stop / service_status run as SYSTEM, because service control requires the admin/SYSTEM token.
mtconnect_start / mtconnect_stop / mtconnect_status all run as SYSTEM, because MTConnect is the "UDC MTConnect Agent" Windows service and service control requires the admin/SYSTEM token. mtconnect_start runs install.bat (Agent.exe install) to install or repair the service, then ensures it is running; mtconnect_stop stops the service; mtconnect_status queries it. run.bat (agent.exe run agent.cfg) is a foreground TESTING launcher and is deliberately NOT used by the agent.
system_restart runs as SYSTEM and reboots the machine immediately via shutdown.exe /r /t 0 (no grace timer). It is a fixed action with no target, gated server-side by the dedicated endpoints.restart permission on top of endpoints.command, and fronted by a WebUI confirmation gate.

Do not route MTConnect through the generic process_start user-session path or service control breaks. MTConnect is intentionally absent from the process_start launch map for the same reason; the fixed mtconnect_* handler owns it.

Behavior note for redeploys: the MTConnect service-control model is a runtime change, so the agent must be rebuilt and redeployed for it to take effect. Server-side command/allowlist/RBAC changes are picked up by the container rebuild; rebuild and redeploy the agent whenever the runtime launch/control logic itself changes.

Diagnostics

Rolling file log: %ProgramData%\ShopDB\EndpointAgent\logs\agent-YYYYMMDD.log (14-day retention).
Windows Event Log: agent runtime failures and unhandled exceptions are written to the Application log under source ShopDB Endpoint Agent. The source is created on first elevated run (or by the installer). Filter Event Viewer by that source to see agent/system interop failures.

Agent utilities (PowerShell seam)

If utilitiespath points at a directory, the runtime runs each *.ps1 there per report, parses its JSON stdout, and merges the result into the report. This is the seam the future server-side "Agent configuration" settings page uses to push site-authored collectors down. Scripts must be code-signed and allow-listed before this is enabled in the field (rollout concern).

Logging extensibility

All runtime code logs through Microsoft.Extensions.Logging (ILogger). Adding a sink later (a ShopDB HTTP sink, Seq, syslog) is a host-builder change in Program.cs::ConfigureLogging with no changes to the worker, collector, or client.

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