Explanation on ZTD — Zero Trust Dev

The zero-trust model

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The zero-trust model

ZTD’s name is its thesis: the host never implicitly trusts the guest. The guest is treated as compromised-by-default, and ZTD’s job is to guarantee the blast radius of anything that happens inside ends at the VM.

This is what makes it safe to run an agent in “YOLO” mode — no per-action approval prompts. The guardrail is a machine boundary, not a dialog box you’d eventually click through anyway.

Architecture

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Architecture

Two principles shape ZTD: one interface across every backend, and all orchestration tooling in Docker.

One interface, many backends

 ztd CLI (Go / Cobra) ← the single binary; assets embedded
 │
 ├── host lane ─────────────────────────► vz (macOS)
 │ (bash, on the host) lima / Virtualization.framework
 │
 └── container lane
 │ Taskfile → Terraform root ← runs inside the toolbox container
 │ selects ONE backend module by TARGET
 ┌─────────────┼───────────────────────┐
 kvm-local proxmox ec2
 (libvirt) (bpg/proxmox) (aws provider)
 └─────────────┴───────────────────────┘
 │ all four consume the SAME
 cloud-init (Docker + Node + agent + creds)

The CLI routes each verb down one of two lanes. Most dispatch into the toolbox container, which runs Task and Terraform; the host lane runs bash directly on the host for the verbs that inspect or mutate host state (check, setup, the agent workflow) and for the whole vz backend, which has no usable Terraform provider and drives Apple’s hypervisor from the host.

Cattle, not pets

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Cattle, not pets

A ZTD VM is cattle: created for a task, run unattended, and destroyed. It is never a pet — a long-lived box you nurture, patch, and fear losing.

The lifecycle

up ─▶ provision ─▶ inject ephemeral key + synced secrets ─▶ sync/clone repo
 ─▶ launch agent (YOLO) ─▶ agent works autonomously
 ─▶ push result branch [+ open MR] ─▶ export audit ─▶ down (manual, v1)

The operator initiates; the run is autonomous. Results are durable because they land in git — a branch or merge request. The VM itself holds nothing of value, so destroying it costs nothing.

Roadmap

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Roadmap

ZTD is pre-v1. Phases 0, 1 and 2 are complete — all four backends are validated end to end and the Go CLI ships as an installable binary. Phase 3 is in progress.

Phase 0 — done

Dockerized Terraform + Taskfile. Backends kvm (local) and proxmox. Shared cloud-init. Single interface via TARGET. Host needs only Docker (plus libvirt/qemu for local).

Phase 1 — done

All three backends — kvm, proxmox, and ec2 — validated end-to-end (./ztd test green on each).