homelab/services/dev/obsidian-livesync.nix

{ config, ... }:

# Plain CouchDB 3 node, tuned as the backend for Obsidian Self-hosted LiveSync
# (vrtmrz/obsidian-livesync), which replicates the vault into it via PouchDB.
#
# Published PUBLICLY as https://notes.mgaction.town via neptun's caddy, since
# Obsidian's mobile apps refuse cleartext HTTP and jupiter's *.jupiter.sol
# names can't get a real cert — so the settings below are security-relevant:
#   - `require_valid_user` in both [chttpd] and [chttpd_auth], else CouchDB
#     answers unauthenticated GETs on the open internet.
#   - neptun's vhost allowlists only the plugin's endpoints; Fauxton and
#     cluster/config are reachable only over the tailnet.
#   - Turn on the plugin's end-to-end encryption (+ "Obfuscate Properties"),
#     so this server only ever holds ciphertext — what makes a
#     publicly-reachable credentialed database an acceptable trade.
#
#     Its passphrase must stay a SEPARATE secret from couchdb_admin_password:
#     the CouchDB password is stored here and in secrets/jupiter.yaml, while
#     the E2EE passphrase never leaves the clients (kept in the HomeLab Proton
#     Pass vault, not sops) — reusing one string for both would hand the
#     decryption key to whoever gets the CouchDB credential. Losing the
#     passphrase costs the remote database, not the notes: wipe and
#     re-initialize from a device that still holds the plaintext vault.
{
  services.couchdb = {
    enable = true;

    # Listens on all interfaces, but :5984 is not opened in the firewall, so
    # it's reachable only over tailscale0 (trusted) and localhost — the path
    # neptun's caddy takes.
    bindAddress = "0.0.0.0";
    port = 5984;

    # The vault database is the ONLY copy of the notes once LiveSync is the
    # source of truth, so it belongs on the array, not the 29G eMMC — all
    # three default under /var/lib/couchdb and must move together.
    databaseDir = "/mnt/data/AppData/couchdb";
    viewIndexDir = "/mnt/data/AppData/couchdb";
    configFile = "/mnt/data/AppData/couchdb/local.ini";

    # [admins] ini fragment from sops; services.couchdb.adminPass would render
    # into the world-readable store instead.
    #
    # ⚠️ CouchDB hashes the password at startup and persists it to local.ini
    # (above), which then takes precedence — so changing the sops value alone
    # does NOT rotate it. Also delete the `[admins]` line from
    # /mnt/data/AppData/couchdb/local.ini and restart.
    extraConfigFiles = [ config.sops.templates."couchdb-admins.ini".path ];

    # Values taken from LiveSync's own CouchDB setup documentation; the plugin
    # refuses to replicate (or silently truncates) without them.
    extraConfig = {
      couchdb = {
        # Creates _users/_replicator on first boot instead of leaving the node
        # in the un-set-up state where every request 500s.
        single_node = "true";
        # LiveSync splits notes into chunks, but a big pasted image still
        # arrives as one document. 8MB (the default) is too small.
        max_document_size = "50000000";
      };

      chttpd = {
        require_valid_user = "true";
        max_http_request_size = "4294967296";
        enable_cors = "true";
      };

      chttpd_auth = {
        require_valid_user = "true";
        authentication_redirect = "/_utils/session.html";
      };

      httpd = {
        # Makes CouchDB answer 401 with a WWW-Authenticate challenge rather
        # than a bare 401 body — the plugin's basic-auth flow depends on it.
        "WWW-Authenticate" = ''Basic realm="couchdb"'';
        enable_cors = "true";
      };

      # Obsidian is an Electron/Capacitor app, so its requests carry these
      # non-http origins. Without them desktop and mobile both fail CORS
      # preflight and the plugin reports a bare "cannot connect".
      cors = {
        credentials = "true";
        origins = "app://obsidian.md,capacitor://localhost,http://localhost";
        headers = "accept, authorization, content-type, origin, referer";
        methods = "GET, PUT, POST, HEAD, DELETE";
        max_age = "3600";
      };

      # The module points [log] file at /var/log/couchdb.log, which nothing
      # rotates — on a 29G eMMC an info-level log of every replication request
      # is a slow disk-fill. stderr hands it to journald's capped storage
      # instead (the file setting is then ignored).
      log = {
        writer = "stderr";
        level = "warning";
      };
    };
  };

  # /mnt/data/AppData is drwx--x--- darman:users, so the couchdb user needs
  # group "users" just to traverse into its own database dir. The dir itself
  # is created couchdb:couchdb by the module's tmpfiles rule.
  users.users.couchdb.extraGroups = [ "users" ];

  # databaseDir is outside /var/lib, so systemd derives no mount dependency
  # from it. Without this CouchDB starts with the array missing, creates an
  # empty database on the eMMC, and LiveSync sees a remote vault that lost
  # every note — which it would then happily replicate back to the clients.
  systemd.services.couchdb.unitConfig.RequiresMountsFor = [ "/mnt/data" ];
}