app/docs/interface/operations.md

Secrets, modules and alerts

Three screens that have nothing to do with each other except that an instance you actually depend on needs all of them.

Secrets

A node never holds a credential. A parameter written as

{"$secret": "influx-token"}

is replaced with the stored value when the node is built, and the editor renders any field a node type marks as a credential as a picker over what you have stored.

Secrets is where the values live. Add a name and a value; the value is never shown again, and the list only ever shows names.

They are encrypted at rest with a key derived from the instance's SECRET_KEY, and kept outside the flow repository. That matters because flows are a git repository you may well push somewhere: what gets committed and shared never contains a password.

A name that no longer resolves is a clear error on the node that wanted it ("No secret named 'x'; add it under Secrets") rather than a mysterious authentication failure.

!!! warning "Rotating SECRET_KEY"

The secrets store is encrypted with a key derived from it. Change
`SECRET_KEY` and the store no longer decrypts. Re-enter the secrets, or
plan the rotation properly.

Modules

Node code runs in a virtual environment of its own, on the instance's data volume, separate from the packages Fluksio itself runs on. A pin of yours can never shadow one of ours, and vice versa.

Modules is a pip manifest and an Apply button. It is installed with uv pip sync, so a line you delete is uninstalled rather than left behind. The manifest is versioned alongside your flows, so what a deployment installed is recorded with what uses it.

The page shows what is currently installed, the interpreter's Python version, and whether the manifest and the environment agree. A failed resolve comes back as uv's own output, in the pane, because that is the only thing anyone can act on.

An install takes effect immediately: the worker processes pick up the new interpreter state without the engine restarting.

!!! note "Big scientific stacks"

Installing torch into this venv works and is often the simplest thing. The
alternative, when you already have an environment you would rather not
duplicate, is to attach it as a worker: `fluksio-worker --python
/path/to/venv/bin/python`. See [Remote workers](../code/workers.md).

Alerts

Everything that goes wrong already travels the engine's event bus. Alerts is where you say who hears about it.

Channels

Kind	Settings
ntfy	server, topic, and a token for a protected topic
SMTP	an address to send to (the instance's mail settings do the rest)
Webhook	a URL to POST to
Dashboard	a message name a notification widget reads

Any channel setting may hold a {"$secret": "name"} reference instead of a literal, so a webhook URL with a token in it does not sit in the config.

Rules

A rule is a set of events and the channels they go to. A rule with no events ticked covers all of them, including ones added in later versions, which is usually what you want for the first rule you write.

Event	Fires when
node_error	a node failed
node_health	a connection dropped
flow_quarantined	a flow crashed often enough that the engine stopped restarting it
task_crashed	a background task crashed
engine_degraded	the engine is struggling
cascade_dropped	work was given up on
queue_unavailable	the work queue is unreachable

Test sends one message through a channel so you find out it is misconfigured now rather than at three in the morning.

What it mostly does is not send

This is the part worth knowing before you decide it is broken:

• the same fault repeating is one alert, with a cooldown (15 minutes by default per rule)
• a connection flapping is one story, not one alert per transition
• however bad it gets, ten alerts an hour is the ceiling

An engine that is genuinely on fire produces a handful of messages, not thirty-six thousand.

Admin: users

Superusers get an Admin screen: add, edit and remove accounts, and see who is a superuser.

Accounts that arrived through a portal are badged Portal. They have no password (they sign in at the portal, not here) and they are never superusers. Deleting one cuts their access immediately and independently of the portal, so it works even if the portal cannot be reached. See Accounts and the portal.

The same screen manages OAuth clients, which is how agents are registered.

Settings

Your own account: name, email, password, and appearance (light, dark, or follow the system).

Remote access is where an instance is paired with a portal, remote users are admitted, and the link is cut again. That has its own page.