Architecture

Rugged is composed of:

  • a command-line (CLI) tool, rugged; and
  • a set of worker daemons, each fulfilling a TUF role.

The interactions between these components is illustrated in this sequence diagram of a simplified package release workflow.

Commands

Rugged commands are triggered by TUF administrators directly, or via the packaging pipeline. These will include:

Commands are implemented using the Click package and the shared TUF library.

Workers

Workers are services running continuously to provide the day-to-day signing operations of the TUF system.

Workers are implemented using the Celery distributed task queue.

They include:

  • The Targets Worker is responsible for updating the Targets’ role metadata with target file hashes, and writing said metadata (targets.json).
    • In a future release, this worker may delegate tasks to additional Targets workers, to:
      • distribute workload (for performance); and/or
      • provide additional isolated signing keys (for security).
  • The Snapshot Worker is responsible for updating and writing the Snapshot role metadata (snapshot.json).
  • The Timestamp Worker is responsible for updating and writing the Timestamp role metadata (timestamp.json).
  • The Root Worker is responsible for updating and writing the Root role metadata (root.json).
    • N.B. The Root Worker is not present during regular operations of the Rugged system. It is spun up only for the performance of administrative tasks, such as:
      • initializing a new TUF repository,
      • generating keypairs,
      • rotating keypairs,
      • etc.
  • The optional Monitor Worker provides a mechanism to trigger TUF signing without requiring any credentials (or the CLI) to be present in the packaging pipeline environment.