OpenShell/deploy/rpm/CONFIGURATION.md

OpenShell Gateway Configuration (RPM)

Configuration reference for the OpenShell gateway when installed via the RPM package on Fedora and RHEL systems.

For first-time setup, see QUICKSTART.md. For troubleshooting, see TROUBLESHOOTING.md.

Default configuration

The RPM ships a default TOML configuration template at /usr/share/openshell-gateway/gateway.toml.default. On first start of openshell-gateway.service, the systemd unit copies this template to ~/.config/openshell/gateway.toml if no config file exists there yet.

The defaults are tuned for rootless Podman use:

[openshell]
version = 2

[openshell.gateway]
compute_driver = "podman"

The RPM does not override bind_address. The primary listener uses the built-in 127.0.0.1:17670 default. Host-networked Podman supervisors connect to this same loopback listener, so the gateway does not expose another host interface.

compute_driver = "podman" pins the compute driver to Podman. Without this, the gateway auto-detects in order: Kubernetes, Podman, Docker. Pinning prevents unexpected driver selection if Docker is also installed on the host.

Customizing the configuration

Edit ~/.config/openshell/gateway.toml directly. The package-owned template at /usr/share/openshell-gateway/gateway.toml.default is not read at runtime and may change during an RPM upgrade. The active user copy is preserved. During a schema-v2 upgrade, the service replaces only the recognized package-generated v1 copy; it never rewrites an edited configuration. Before generating certificates or starting the gateway, the service runs openshell-gateway config preflight against the effective configuration and stops if validation fails.

To apply environment variable overrides that persist across upgrades without editing the TOML file, add them to ~/.config/openshell/gateway.env:

# Example: explicitly expose the primary listener on one host interface
OPENSHELL_BIND_ADDRESS=192.168.1.10

To override the path to the TOML config file entirely:

# In ~/.config/openshell/gateway.env
OPENSHELL_GATEWAY_CONFIG=/path/to/custom/gateway.toml

For one-off service overrides that persist across package upgrades:

systemctl --user edit openshell-gateway

TLS (mTLS)

The RPM enables mutual TLS by default. The gateway requires a valid client certificate for all API connections. Its primary listener uses 127.0.0.1:17670; Podman supervisor sessions use that same listener.

Auto-generated certificates

On first start, the systemd user service runs openshell-gateway generate-certs --output-dir ~/.local/state/openshell/tls --server-san host.openshell.internal to generate certificates with rcgen (the same routine the CLI uses for local mTLS bundles). The unit sets OPENSHELL_LOCAL_TLS_DIR to that path and uses the same value for certificate generation and gateway startup. To use a custom bundle location, set OPENSHELL_LOCAL_TLS_DIR in ~/.config/openshell/gateway.env before starting the service.

File	Purpose	Location
CA certificate	Root of trust	~/.local/state/openshell/tls/ca.crt
CA private key	Signs server and client certs	~/.local/state/openshell/tls/ca.key
Server certificate	Gateway TLS identity	~/.local/state/openshell/tls/server/tls.crt
Server private key	Gateway TLS key	~/.local/state/openshell/tls/server/tls.key
Client certificate	CLI and sandbox identity	~/.local/state/openshell/tls/client/tls.crt
Client private key	CLI and sandbox key	~/.local/state/openshell/tls/client/tls.key

Client certificates are also copied to the CLI auto-discovery directory:

~/.config/openshell/gateways/openshell/mtls/
  ca.crt
  tls.crt
  tls.key

The CLI automatically discovers these certificates when connecting to a gateway on localhost or 127.0.0.1.

Server certificate SANs

The auto-generated server certificate includes these Subject Alternative Names:

• localhost
• openshell
• openshell.openshell.svc
• openshell.openshell.svc.cluster.local
• host.containers.internal
• host.docker.internal
• host.openshell.internal
• 127.0.0.1

To connect from a remote machine, you need externally-managed certificates with additional SANs. See "Remote CLI access" in TROUBLESHOOTING.md.

Using externally-managed certificates

To use certificates from an external CA or cert-manager:

1. Place the server cert, key, and CA cert on the filesystem.

2. Edit ~/.config/openshell/gateway.toml:

   [openshell.gateway.tls]
   cert_path = "/path/to/server/tls.crt"
   key_path = "/path/to/server/tls.key"
   client_ca_path = "/path/to/ca.crt"
   

3. Place the client cert where the CLI expects it:

   ~/.config/openshell/gateways/openshell/mtls/
     ca.crt
     tls.crt
     tls.key
   

Rotating certificates

Delete the TLS state directory and restart the gateway:

rm -rf ~/.local/state/openshell/tls
systemctl --user restart openshell-gateway

The gateway regenerates the PKI on next start.

Disabling TLS

WARNING: With TLS disabled, the gateway API has no authentication. Keep the bind address on 127.0.0.1, or place the gateway behind a TLS-terminating reverse proxy that enforces its own authentication.

To disable TLS (not recommended for production):

1. Edit ~/.config/openshell/gateway.toml:

   [openshell.gateway]
   disable_tls = true
   

2. Remove or comment out the guest_tls_* entries in ~/.config/openshell/gateway.toml if they are set.

3. Restart the gateway.

Sandbox TLS

When mTLS is enabled, the Podman driver bind-mounts the client certificates into each sandbox container so the supervisor process can establish an mTLS connection back to the gateway.

The following TOML fields control the host-side paths of the client certificates that are mounted into sandbox containers:

[openshell.gateway]
guest_tls_ca = "/home/user/.local/state/openshell/tls/ca.crt"
guest_tls_cert = "/home/user/.local/state/openshell/tls/client/tls.crt"
guest_tls_key = "/home/user/.local/state/openshell/tls/client/tls.key"

Inside the container, the supervisor reads them from:

• /etc/openshell/tls/client/ca.crt
• /etc/openshell/tls/client/tls.crt
• /etc/openshell/tls/client/tls.key

On SELinux-enabled systems, the Podman driver automatically applies the :z relabel option to these bind mounts. No manual SELinux configuration is required.

Configuration reference

Upgrading from a previous release? See the "Migrating from gateway.env" section in TROUBLESHOOTING.md for the env-to-TOML mapping and notes on the default port, bind address, and database path changes.

Gateway and driver settings have local runtime defaults. The gateway reads ~/.config/openshell/gateway.toml when that file exists. Set OPENSHELL_GATEWAY_CONFIG in the launch environment to use a different file.

Use systemctl --user edit openshell-gateway for service environment overrides that persist across package upgrades.

Gateway settings

TOML option	Default	Description
bind_address	127.0.0.1:17670 (gateway default)	Address for the primary gRPC/HTTP API listener.
compute_driver	"podman" (RPM default)	When unset, the gateway auto-detects Kubernetes, then Podman, then Docker. The RPM default pins to Podman; legacy compute_drivers lists are rejected.
[openshell.drivers.podman].default_image	ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell-community/sandboxes/base:latest	Default sandbox image.
[openshell.drivers.podman].sandbox_runtime_image	ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell/sandbox:latest	Static musl sandbox runtime image mounted into Podman workloads.
[openshell.drivers.podman].supervisor_image	ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell/supervisor:latest	Dynamic glibc supervisor image used outside the workload.
[openshell.gateway].guest_tls_ca, guest_tls_cert, guest_tls_key	auto-generated paths	Gateway-owned client TLS material injected into the selected local driver and mounted into sandbox containers.
[openshell.gateway.tls] paths	auto-generated paths	Server TLS certificate, key, and client CA.
disable_tls	unset	Set to true to disable TLS.

The database URL is not accepted in TOML. When OPENSHELL_DB_URL is unset, the gateway uses sqlite:$XDG_STATE_HOME/openshell/gateway/openshell.db.

Driver TOML settings

Create ~/.config/openshell/gateway.toml when you need to customize driver settings:

[openshell]
version = 2

[openshell.gateway]
compute_driver = "podman"

[openshell.drivers.podman]
network_name = "openshell"
default_image = "ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell-community/sandboxes/base:latest"
image_pull_policy = "if_not_present"
health_check_interval_secs = 10
stop_timeout_secs = 10

Image management

The gateway pulls container images automatically on first sandbox creation. The default pull policy is if_not_present, which means images are pulled once and then cached by Podman.

To update cached images:

podman pull ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell/supervisor:latest
podman pull ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell-community/sandboxes/base:latest

Or set image_pull_policy = "always" in [openshell.drivers.podman] to pull on every sandbox creation.

To pin specific image versions instead of :latest, set these values in [openshell.drivers.podman]:

sandbox_runtime_image = "ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell/sandbox:v0.0.37"
supervisor_image = "ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell/supervisor:v0.0.37"
default_image = "ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell-community/sandboxes/base:v0.0.37"

For air-gapped environments:

1. On a connected machine, pull and save the images:

   podman pull ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell/supervisor:latest
   podman pull ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell-community/sandboxes/base:latest
   podman save -o supervisor.tar ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell/supervisor:latest
   podman save -o sandbox.tar ghcr.io/nvidia/openshell-community/sandboxes/base:latest
   

2. Transfer the tarballs to the air-gapped host and load them:

   podman load -i supervisor.tar
   podman load -i sandbox.tar
   

3. Set pull policy to never:

   [openshell.drivers.podman]
   image_pull_policy = "never"
   

File locations

Purpose	Path
Gateway binary	/usr/bin/openshell-gateway
CLI binary	/usr/bin/openshell
Systemd user unit	/usr/lib/systemd/user/openshell-gateway.service
Default TOML config template (read-only)	/usr/share/openshell-gateway/gateway.toml.default
Active gateway TOML configuration	~/.config/openshell/gateway.toml
Optional environment variable overrides	~/.config/openshell/gateway.env
TLS certificates	~/.local/state/openshell/tls/
CLI client certs	~/.config/openshell/gateways/openshell/mtls/
Gateway database	~/.local/state/openshell/gateway/openshell.db