Workflows

This page maps the core BareNOC workflows. Every diagram is interactive in your browser — the same flows drive the appliance day-to-day.

The three roles

BareNOC separates the people/agents in the loop:

flowchart LR
    U["Customer / Operator"] -->|"chat client · web · (future) email"| QM["Queue Manager (Juniper)"]
    QM -->|"open · assign · prioritize · close · status"| T[(Ticket Queue)]
    T --> AI["AI Technician"]
    AI -->|"legal + doable, high confidence"| ACT["Run approved action"]
    AI -->|"needs approval or blocked"| HT["Human Tech"]
    HT -->|"approve · guide · act"| AI
    ACT -->|"ask customer to verify"| U
    AI -->|"needs more information"| U

How much the AI may do without a human is a per-deployment choice — see the Autonomy Policy (autonomous / balanced / strict), including the experimental Lily mode.

Ticket lifecycle

flowchart LR
    A["Open<br/>created by user / alert"] -->|"AI Tech picks up"| B["In Progress<br/>AI working"]
    B -->|"needs human approval / blocked"| C["Escalated<br/>human tech"]
    C -->|"approved"| B
    B -->|"action done — ask customer to verify"| D["Customer Action<br/>waiting on customer"]
    D -->|"customer replies / confirms"| B
    B -->|"customer confirms ok-to-close"| E["Closed"]
    C -->|"human closes"| E
    D -->|"human closes"| E

AI Technician pipeline

flowchart LR
    T[Ticket] --> SAN[Sanitizer]
    SAN --> LLM[LLM judgment]
    LLM -->|"not legal / not doable"| ESC[Escalated — human tech]
    LLM --> GATE{Confidence gate}
    GATE -->|"≥0.95 (or read-only ≥0.80)"| EXEC[Auto-execute action]
    GATE -->|"0.80–0.95"| APPR[Escalated — approval]
    GATE -->|"<0.80"| ESC
    EXEC --> DONE[Action runs]
    DONE --> FEED[Customer Action — verify]
    FEED -->|"confirmed"| CLOSE[Closed]
    APPR -->|"approved"| EXEC

Discovery & device onboarding

flowchart LR
    UNIFI["UniFi controller"] -->|"sync every 5 min"| INV[(Inventory)]
    SCAN["Ping scan"] -->|"unclaimed"| INV
    INV -->|"fingerprint (nmap)"| ID["Identified<br/>vendor · OS · open ports"]
    ID -->|"claim + configure"| M[Managed device]
    SELF["User visits /onboard<br/>one-click script"] -->|"barenoc user + scoped sudo + cert + heartbeat"| M
    M -->|"monitor · poll · act"| NOC[NOC / AI Tech]

Management-plane onboarding lockdown

flowchart LR
    DEPLOY["Fresh deployment<br/>Management ACCESS = open"] --> ADOPT["Admin logs in, adopts endpoints"]
    ADOPT --> DESIGNATE["Designate admin terminals<br/>DHCP-reserve → address group → allow rule"]
    DESIGNATE --> LOCK["Lock management<br/>firewall rules deny other VLANs"]
    LOCK --> VERIFY["BareNOC reads posture<br/>verifies lockdown"]

Backups

flowchart LR
    DB[(SQLite + config + secrets)] -->|"every 6h, 30-day retention"| APP[App backup]
    VM[VM snapshot] -->|"daily 1 AM, keep 7"| HOST[(Proxmox host)]
    HOST -->|"weekly Sun, keep 4"| USB[USB drive — LUKS]
    APP --> USB
    USB -->|"drill"| RESTORE[Restore drills]

Chat answer-or-escalate

flowchart LR
    MSG[Chat message] --> Q{ticket/queue question?}
    Q -->|yes| ANS[Answer from the queue]
    Q -->|no| TK[Ticket — new or appended]
    TK --> AI[AI Technician]
    AI -->|"answers / acts"| FEED[Customer Action — verify]
    FEED -->|"confirmed"| CLOSE[Closed]

Monitoring & alerts

• Device reachability — the scheduler health-checks the fleet (ping/SNMP/ UniFi status); devices you opt in via the 🔔 bell get DOWN / RECOVERED emails (no ticket — by design).
• Internet / ISP link — the alert engine probes the LAN gateway + a public host (1.1.1.1) every minute. The UniFi gateway stays ONLINE during an ISP outage (only WAN dies), so device monitoring alone would never catch it. On 3 consecutive probe failures it opens a P1 "Internet connectivity down" ticket + alert email (distinguishes ISP/service vs link/physical), and auto-closes it when connectivity returns. Config: INTERNET_PROBE_* in .env (Settings-independent for now).
• LLM provider outage — if the whole provider chain is down, the worker opens a deduped P1 ticket + alert email (see Autonomy).
• Ticket lifecycle (Settings → Tickets) — tickets handed to a human (escalated) or waiting on the customer get a check-in note + email every per-priority interval (P1 hourly, P2 4 h, P3/P4 daily); tickets the AI resolved are auto-closed after a per-priority hold (default 3 days). Both are fully configurable per priority, and the audit trail records ticket_checkin / ticket_autoclosed.
• Reporting — the Dashboard's Performance & Reporting section tracks action time (first response + resolution), escalations, closures, reopens, auto-closes and LLM cost; charts (created vs resolved, priority mix, resolution time) and CSV/PDF downloads for business reporting.

See Tickets for status details, Chat Client for the messaging flow, and Security for the lockdown design.