# certctl — Self-Hosted Certificate Lifecycle Platform

TLS certificate lifespans are shrinking. The CA/Browser Forum passed [Ballot SC-081v3](https://cabforum.org/2025/04/11/ballot-sc081v3-introduce-schedule-of-reducing-validity-and-data-reuse-periods/) unanimously in April 2025, setting a phased reduction: **200 days** by March 2026, **100 days** by March 2027, and **47 days** by March 2029. Manual certificate management is no longer viable at any scale.

certctl is a self-hosted platform for **end-to-end certificate lifecycle automation** — from issuance through renewal to deployment — with zero human intervention. Track every certificate in your organization, automatically renew them before they expire, and deploy them to your servers without touching a terminal. Private keys never leave your infrastructure.

[![License](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-BSL%201.1-blue.svg)](LICENSE)
[![Go Report Card](https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/shankar0123/certctl)](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/shankar0123/certctl)
![Status: v1.0.0](https://img.shields.io/badge/status-v1.0.0-brightgreen)

## What It Does

certctl gives you a single pane of glass for every TLS certificate in your organization. The **web dashboard** shows your full certificate inventory — what's healthy, what's expiring, what's already expired, and who owns each one. The **REST API** (91 endpoints under `/api/v1/`) lets you automate everything. **Agents** deployed on your infrastructure generate private keys locally, discover existing certificates on disk, and submit CSRs — private keys never leave your servers. The **network scanner** discovers certificates on TLS endpoints across your infrastructure without requiring agents. The background scheduler watches expiration dates and triggers renewals automatically — when certificate lifespans drop to 47 days, certctl handles the constant rotation without human involvement.

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    subgraph "Control Plane"
        API["REST API + Dashboard\n:8443"]
        PG[("PostgreSQL")]
    end

    subgraph "Your Infrastructure"
        A1["Agent"] --> T1["NGINX"]
        A2["Agent"] --> T2["Apache / HAProxy"]
        A3["Agent"] --> T3["F5 · IIS"]
    end

    API --> PG
    A1 & A2 & A3 -->|"CSR + status\n(no private keys)"| API
    API -->|"Signed certs"| A1 & A2 & A3
    API -->|"Issue/Renew"| CA["Certificate Authorities\nLocal CA · ACME · step-ca · OpenSSL"]
```

### Screenshots

| | |
|---|---|
| ![Dashboard](docs/screenshots/dashboard.png) | ![Certificates](docs/screenshots/certificates.png) |
| **Dashboard** — certificate stats, expiry timeline, recent jobs | **Certificates** — full inventory with status, environment, owner filters |
| ![Agents](docs/screenshots/agents.png) | ![Jobs](docs/screenshots/jobs.png) |
| **Agents** — fleet health, hostname, heartbeat tracking | **Jobs** — issuance, renewal, deployment job queue |
| ![Notifications](docs/screenshots/notifications.png) | ![Policies](docs/screenshots/policies.png) |
| **Notifications** — threshold alerts grouped by certificate | **Policies** — enforcement rules with enable/disable and delete |
| ![Issuers](docs/screenshots/issuers.png) | ![Targets](docs/screenshots/targets.png) |
| **Issuers** — CA connectors with test connectivity | **Targets** — deployment targets (NGINX, Apache, HAProxy, F5, IIS) |
| ![Audit Trail](docs/screenshots/audit-trail.png) | |
| **Audit Trail** — immutable log of every action | |

## Quick Start

### Docker Compose (Recommended)

```bash
git clone https://github.com/shankar0123/certctl.git
cd certctl
docker compose -f deploy/docker-compose.yml up -d --build
```

Wait ~30 seconds, then open **http://localhost:8443** in your browser.

The dashboard comes pre-loaded with 15 demo certificates, 5 agents, policy rules, audit events, and notifications — a realistic snapshot of a certificate inventory so you can explore immediately.

Verify the API:
```bash
curl http://localhost:8443/health
# {"status":"healthy"}

curl -s http://localhost:8443/api/v1/certificates | jq '.total'
# 15
```

### Manual Build

```bash
# Prerequisites: Go 1.22+, PostgreSQL 16+
go mod download
make build

# Set up database
export CERTCTL_DATABASE_URL="postgres://certctl:certctl@localhost:5432/certctl?sslmode=disable"
export CERTCTL_AUTH_TYPE=none
make migrate-up

# Start server
./bin/server

# Start agent (separate terminal)
export CERTCTL_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:8443
export CERTCTL_API_KEY=change-me-in-production
export CERTCTL_AGENT_NAME=local-agent
export CERTCTL_AGENT_ID=agent-local-01
./bin/agent --agent-id=agent-local-01
```

## Documentation

| Guide | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| [Concepts](docs/concepts.md) | TLS certificates explained from scratch — for beginners who know nothing about certs |
| [Quick Start](docs/quickstart.md) | Get running in 5 minutes with accurate API examples |
| [Demo Walkthrough](docs/demo-guide.md) | 5-7 minute guided stakeholder presentation |
| [Advanced Demo](docs/demo-advanced.md) | Issue a certificate end-to-end with technical deep-dives |
| [Architecture](docs/architecture.md) | System design, data flow diagrams, security model |
| [Connectors](docs/connectors.md) | Build custom issuer, target, and notifier connectors |
| [Compliance Mapping](docs/compliance.md) | SOC 2 Type II, PCI-DSS 4.0, NIST SP 800-57 alignment guides |

## Architecture

```mermaid
flowchart TB
    subgraph "Control Plane (certctl-server)"
        DASH["Web Dashboard\nReact SPA"]
        API["REST API\nGo 1.22 net/http"]
        SVC["Service Layer"]
        REPO["Repository Layer\ndatabase/sql + lib/pq"]
        SCHED["Scheduler\nRenewal · Jobs · Health · Notifications · Short-Lived Expiry · Network Scan"]
    end

    subgraph "Data Store"
        PG[("PostgreSQL 16\n19 tables\nTEXT primary keys")]
    end

    subgraph "Agents"
        AG["certctl-agent\nKey generation · CSR · Deployment"]
    end

    DASH --> API
    API --> SVC --> REPO --> PG
    SCHED --> SVC
    AG -->|"Heartbeat + CSR"| API
    API -->|"Cert + Chain"| AG
```

### Key Design Decisions

- **Private keys isolated from the control plane.** Agents generate ECDSA P-256 keys locally and submit CSRs (public key only). The server signs the CSR and returns the certificate — private keys never touch the control plane. Server-side keygen is available via `CERTCTL_KEYGEN_MODE=server` for demo/development only.
- **TEXT primary keys, not UUIDs.** IDs are human-readable prefixed strings (`mc-api-prod`, `t-platform`, `o-alice`) so you can identify resource types at a glance in logs and queries.
- **Handler → Service → Repository layering.** Handlers define their own service interfaces for clean dependency inversion. No global service singletons.
- **Idempotent migrations.** All schema uses `IF NOT EXISTS` and seed data uses `ON CONFLICT (id) DO NOTHING`, safe for repeated execution.

### Database Schema

| Table | Purpose |
|-------|---------|
| `managed_certificates` | Certificate records with metadata, status, expiry, tags |
| `certificate_versions` | Historical versions with PEM chains and CSRs |
| `renewal_policies` | Renewal window, auto-renew settings, retry config, alert thresholds |
| `issuers` | CA configurations (Local CA, ACME, etc.) |
| `deployment_targets` | Target systems (NGINX, F5, IIS) with agent assignments |
| `agents` | Registered agents with heartbeat tracking, OS/arch/IP metadata |
| `jobs` | Issuance, renewal, deployment, and validation jobs |
| `teams` | Organizational groups for certificate ownership |
| `owners` | Individual owners with email for notifications |
| `policy_rules` | Enforcement rules (allowed issuers, environments, metadata) |
| `policy_violations` | Flagged non-compliance with severity levels |
| `audit_events` | Immutable action log (append-only, no update/delete) |
| `notification_events` | Email and webhook notification records |
| `certificate_target_mappings` | Many-to-many cert ↔ target relationships |
| `certificate_profiles` | Named enrollment profiles with allowed key types, max TTL, crypto constraints |
| `agent_groups` | Dynamic device grouping by OS, architecture, IP CIDR, version |
| `agent_group_members` | Manual include/exclude membership for agent groups |
| `certificate_revocations` | Revocation records with RFC 5280 reason codes, serial numbers, issuer notification status |
| `discovered_certificates` | Filesystem and network-discovered certificates with fingerprint deduplication |
| `discovery_scans` | Discovery scan history with timestamps and agent attribution |
| `network_scan_targets` | Network scan target definitions with CIDRs, ports, schedule, and scan metrics |

## Configuration

All server environment variables use the `CERTCTL_` prefix:

| Variable | Default | Description |
|----------|---------|-------------|
| `CERTCTL_SERVER_HOST` | `127.0.0.1` | Server bind address |
| `CERTCTL_SERVER_PORT` | `8080` | Server listen port |
| `CERTCTL_DATABASE_URL` | `postgres://localhost/certctl` | PostgreSQL connection string |
| `CERTCTL_DATABASE_MAX_CONNS` | `25` | Connection pool size |
| `CERTCTL_LOG_LEVEL` | `info` | Log level: `debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error` |
| `CERTCTL_LOG_FORMAT` | `json` | Log format: `json` or `text` |
| `CERTCTL_AUTH_TYPE` | `api-key` | Auth mode: `api-key`, `jwt`, or `none` |
| `CERTCTL_AUTH_SECRET` | — | Required for `api-key` and `jwt` auth types |
| `CERTCTL_KEYGEN_MODE` | `agent` | Key generation mode: `agent` (production) or `server` (demo only) |
| `CERTCTL_ACME_DIRECTORY_URL` | — | ACME directory URL (e.g., Let's Encrypt staging) |
| `CERTCTL_ACME_EMAIL` | — | Contact email for ACME account registration |
| `CERTCTL_ACME_CHALLENGE_TYPE` | — | ACME challenge type: `http-01` (default) or `dns-01` |
| `CERTCTL_CA_CERT_PATH` | — | Path to CA certificate for sub-CA mode |
| `CERTCTL_CA_KEY_PATH` | — | Path to CA private key for sub-CA mode |
| `CERTCTL_CORS_ORIGINS` | — | Comma-separated allowed CORS origins (empty = same-origin, `*` = all) |
| `CERTCTL_RATE_LIMIT_ENABLED` | `true` | Enable/disable token bucket rate limiting |
| `CERTCTL_RATE_LIMIT_RPS` | `50` | Requests per second limit |
| `CERTCTL_RATE_LIMIT_BURST` | `100` | Maximum burst size for rate limiter |
| `CERTCTL_DATABASE_MIGRATIONS_PATH` | `./migrations` | Path to SQL migration files |
| `CERTCTL_SCHEDULER_RENEWAL_CHECK_INTERVAL` | `1h` | How often the scheduler checks for expiring certs |
| `CERTCTL_SCHEDULER_JOB_PROCESSOR_INTERVAL` | `30s` | How often the scheduler processes pending jobs |
| `CERTCTL_SCHEDULER_AGENT_HEALTH_CHECK_INTERVAL` | `2m` | How often the scheduler checks agent health |
| `CERTCTL_SCHEDULER_NOTIFICATION_PROCESS_INTERVAL` | `1m` | How often the scheduler processes pending notifications |
| `CERTCTL_ACME_DNS_PRESENT_SCRIPT` | — | Script to create DNS-01 `_acme-challenge` TXT record |
| `CERTCTL_ACME_DNS_CLEANUP_SCRIPT` | — | Script to remove DNS-01 `_acme-challenge` TXT record |
| `CERTCTL_STEPCA_URL` | — | step-ca server URL |
| `CERTCTL_STEPCA_PROVISIONER` | — | step-ca JWK provisioner name |
| `CERTCTL_STEPCA_KEY_PATH` | — | Path to step-ca provisioner private key (JWK JSON) |
| `CERTCTL_STEPCA_PASSWORD` | — | step-ca provisioner key password |
| `CERTCTL_OPENSSL_SIGN_SCRIPT` | — | Script for OpenSSL/Custom CA certificate signing |
| `CERTCTL_OPENSSL_REVOKE_SCRIPT` | — | Script for OpenSSL/Custom CA certificate revocation |
| `CERTCTL_OPENSSL_CRL_SCRIPT` | — | Script for OpenSSL/Custom CA CRL generation |
| `CERTCTL_OPENSSL_TIMEOUT_SECONDS` | `30` | Timeout for OpenSSL script execution |
| `CERTCTL_NETWORK_SCAN_ENABLED` | `false` | Enable server-side network certificate discovery (TLS scanning) |
| `CERTCTL_NETWORK_SCAN_INTERVAL` | `6h` | How often the scheduler runs network scans |
| `CERTCTL_SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL` | — | Slack incoming webhook URL for notifications |
| `CERTCTL_TEAMS_WEBHOOK_URL` | — | Microsoft Teams incoming webhook URL |
| `CERTCTL_PAGERDUTY_ROUTING_KEY` | — | PagerDuty Events API v2 routing key |
| `CERTCTL_OPSGENIE_API_KEY` | — | OpsGenie Alert API key |

Agent environment variables:

| Variable | Default | Description |
|----------|---------|-------------|
| `CERTCTL_SERVER_URL` | `http://localhost:8080` | Control plane URL |
| `CERTCTL_API_KEY` | — | Agent API key |
| `CERTCTL_AGENT_NAME` | `certctl-agent` | Agent display name |
| `CERTCTL_AGENT_ID` | — | Registered agent ID (required) |
| `CERTCTL_KEY_DIR` | `/var/lib/certctl/keys` | Directory for storing private keys (agent keygen mode) |
| `CERTCTL_DISCOVERY_DIRS` | — | Comma-separated directories to scan for existing certificates (e.g., `/etc/nginx/certs,/etc/ssl/certs`) |

Docker Compose overrides these for the demo stack (see `deploy/docker-compose.yml`): port `8443`, auth type `none`, database pointing to the postgres container.

## MCP Server (AI Integration)

certctl ships a standalone MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes all 76 API endpoints as tools for AI assistants — Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, OpenClaw, VS Code Copilot, and any MCP-compatible client.

```bash
# Install
go install github.com/shankar0123/certctl/cmd/mcp-server@latest

# Configure
export CERTCTL_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:8443   # certctl API endpoint
export CERTCTL_API_KEY=your-api-key               # optional if auth disabled

# Run (stdio transport — add to your AI client config)
mcp-server
```

**Claude Desktop** (`claude_desktop_config.json`):
```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "certctl": {
      "command": "mcp-server",
      "env": {
        "CERTCTL_SERVER_URL": "http://localhost:8443",
        "CERTCTL_API_KEY": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

83 tools organized by resource: certificates (9), CRL/OCSP (3), issuers (6), targets (5), agents (8), discoveries (7), jobs (5), policies (6), profiles (5), teams (5), owners (5), agent groups (6), audit (2), notifications (3), stats (5), metrics (1), health (4).

## CLI

certctl ships a command-line tool for terminal-based certificate management workflows.

```bash
# Install
go install github.com/shankar0123/certctl/cmd/cli@latest

# Configure
export CERTCTL_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:8443
export CERTCTL_API_KEY=your-api-key

# Commands
certctl-cli list-certs                    # List all certificates
certctl-cli get-cert --id mc-api-prod     # Get certificate details
certctl-cli renew-cert --id mc-api-prod   # Trigger renewal
certctl-cli revoke-cert --id mc-api-prod --reason keyCompromise
certctl-cli list-agents                   # List registered agents
certctl-cli list-jobs                     # List jobs
certctl-cli health                        # Server health check
certctl-cli metrics                       # Server metrics
certctl-cli import --file certs.pem       # Bulk import from PEM file

# Output formats
certctl-cli list-certs --format json      # JSON output (default: table)
```

## API Overview

All endpoints are under `/api/v1/` and return JSON. List endpoints support pagination (`?page=1&per_page=50`). Full request/response schemas are available in the [OpenAPI 3.1 spec](api/openapi.yaml).

### Certificates
```
GET    /api/v1/certificates              List (filter, sort, cursor, sparse fields)
POST   /api/v1/certificates              Create
GET    /api/v1/certificates/{id}          Get
PUT    /api/v1/certificates/{id}          Update
DELETE /api/v1/certificates/{id}          Archive (soft delete)
GET    /api/v1/certificates/{id}/versions Version history
GET    /api/v1/certificates/{id}/deployments  List deployment targets
POST   /api/v1/certificates/{id}/renew    Trigger renewal → 202 Accepted
POST   /api/v1/certificates/{id}/deploy   Trigger deployment → 202 Accepted
POST   /api/v1/certificates/{id}/revoke   Revoke with RFC 5280 reason code
GET    /api/v1/crl                        Certificate Revocation List (JSON)
GET    /api/v1/crl/{issuer_id}            DER-encoded X.509 CRL
GET    /api/v1/ocsp/{issuer_id}/{serial}  OCSP responder (good/revoked/unknown)
```

### Agents
```
GET    /api/v1/agents                     List
POST   /api/v1/agents                     Register
GET    /api/v1/agents/{id}                Get
POST   /api/v1/agents/{id}/heartbeat      Record heartbeat
POST   /api/v1/agents/{id}/csr            Submit CSR for issuance
GET    /api/v1/agents/{id}/certificates/{certId}  Retrieve signed certificate
GET    /api/v1/agents/{id}/work            Poll for pending deployment jobs
POST   /api/v1/agents/{id}/jobs/{jobId}/status  Report job completion/failure
POST   /api/v1/agents/{id}/discoveries    Submit certificate discovery scan results
```

### Certificate Discovery
```
GET    /api/v1/discovered-certificates    List discovered certificates (?agent_id, ?status)
GET    /api/v1/discovered-certificates/{id}  Get discovery detail
POST   /api/v1/discovered-certificates/{id}/claim  Link discovered cert to managed cert
POST   /api/v1/discovered-certificates/{id}/dismiss  Dismiss discovery
GET    /api/v1/discovery-scans            List discovery scan history
GET    /api/v1/discovery-summary          Aggregated discovery status (new, claimed, dismissed counts)
```

### Infrastructure
```
GET    /api/v1/issuers                    List issuers
POST   /api/v1/issuers                    Create
GET    /api/v1/issuers/{id}               Get
PUT    /api/v1/issuers/{id}               Update
DELETE /api/v1/issuers/{id}               Delete
POST   /api/v1/issuers/{id}/test          Test connectivity

GET    /api/v1/targets                    List deployment targets
POST   /api/v1/targets                    Create
GET    /api/v1/targets/{id}               Get
PUT    /api/v1/targets/{id}               Update
DELETE /api/v1/targets/{id}               Delete
```

### Organization
```
GET    /api/v1/teams                      List teams
POST   /api/v1/teams                      Create
GET    /api/v1/teams/{id}                 Get
PUT    /api/v1/teams/{id}                 Update
DELETE /api/v1/teams/{id}                 Delete
GET    /api/v1/owners                     List owners
POST   /api/v1/owners                     Create
GET    /api/v1/owners/{id}                Get
PUT    /api/v1/owners/{id}                Update
DELETE /api/v1/owners/{id}                Delete
```

### Operations
```
GET    /api/v1/jobs                       List (filter: status, type)
GET    /api/v1/jobs/{id}                  Get
POST   /api/v1/jobs/{id}/cancel           Cancel
POST   /api/v1/jobs/{id}/approve          Approve (interactive renewal)
POST   /api/v1/jobs/{id}/reject           Reject (interactive renewal)

GET    /api/v1/policies                   List policy rules
POST   /api/v1/policies                   Create
GET    /api/v1/policies/{id}              Get
PUT    /api/v1/policies/{id}              Update (enable/disable)
DELETE /api/v1/policies/{id}              Delete
GET    /api/v1/policies/{id}/violations   List violations for rule

GET    /api/v1/profiles                   List certificate profiles
POST   /api/v1/profiles                   Create
GET    /api/v1/profiles/{id}              Get
PUT    /api/v1/profiles/{id}              Update
DELETE /api/v1/profiles/{id}              Delete

GET    /api/v1/agent-groups               List agent groups
POST   /api/v1/agent-groups               Create
GET    /api/v1/agent-groups/{id}          Get
PUT    /api/v1/agent-groups/{id}          Update
DELETE /api/v1/agent-groups/{id}          Delete
GET    /api/v1/agent-groups/{id}/members  List members

GET    /api/v1/audit                      Query audit trail
GET    /api/v1/audit/{id}                 Get audit event
GET    /api/v1/notifications              List notifications
GET    /api/v1/notifications/{id}         Get notification
POST   /api/v1/notifications/{id}/read    Mark as read
```

### Observability
```
GET    /api/v1/stats/summary              Dashboard summary (totals, expiring, agents, jobs)
GET    /api/v1/stats/certificates-by-status  Certificate counts grouped by status
GET    /api/v1/stats/expiration-timeline   Expiration buckets (?days=30)
GET    /api/v1/stats/job-trends            Job success/failure over time (?days=7)
GET    /api/v1/stats/issuance-rate         Certificate issuance rate (?days=7)
GET    /api/v1/metrics                     JSON metrics (gauges, counters, uptime)
GET    /api/v1/metrics/prometheus          Prometheus exposition format (text/plain)
```

### Network Discovery
```
GET    /api/v1/network-scan-targets       List scan targets
POST   /api/v1/network-scan-targets       Create scan target (CIDRs, ports, schedule)
GET    /api/v1/network-scan-targets/{id}  Get scan target
PUT    /api/v1/network-scan-targets/{id}  Update scan target
DELETE /api/v1/network-scan-targets/{id}  Delete scan target
POST   /api/v1/network-scan-targets/{id}/scan  Trigger immediate scan
```

### Auth
```
GET    /api/v1/auth/info                  Auth mode info (no auth required)
GET    /api/v1/auth/check                 Validate credentials
```

### Health
```
GET    /health                            Server health check
GET    /ready                             Readiness check
```

## Supported Integrations

### Certificate Issuers
| Issuer | Status | Type |
|--------|--------|------|
| Local CA (self-signed + sub-CA) | Implemented | `GenericCA` |
| ACME v2 (Let's Encrypt, Sectigo) | Implemented (HTTP-01 + DNS-01) | `ACME` |
| step-ca | Implemented | `StepCA` |
| OpenSSL / Custom CA | Implemented | `OpenSSL` |
| Vault PKI | Planned | — |
| DigiCert | Planned | — |

**Note:** ADCS integration is handled via the Local CA's sub-CA mode — certctl operates as a subordinate CA with its signing certificate issued by ADCS.

### Deployment Targets
| Target | Status | Type |
|--------|--------|------|
| NGINX | Implemented | `NGINX` |
| Apache httpd | Implemented | `Apache` |
| HAProxy | Implemented | `HAProxy` |
| F5 BIG-IP | Interface only | `F5` |
| Microsoft IIS | Interface only | `IIS` |
| Kubernetes Secrets | Planned | — |

### Notifiers
| Notifier | Status | Type |
|----------|--------|------|
| Email (SMTP) | Implemented | `Email` |
| Webhooks | Implemented | `Webhook` |
| Slack | Implemented | `Slack` |
| Microsoft Teams | Implemented | `Teams` |
| PagerDuty | Implemented | `PagerDuty` |
| OpsGenie | Implemented | `OpsGenie` |

## Development

```bash
# Install dev tools (golangci-lint, migrate CLI, air)
make install-tools

# Run tests
make test

# Run with coverage
make test-coverage

# Lint
make lint

# Format
make fmt
```

### Docker Compose

```bash
make docker-up          # Start stack (server + postgres + agent)
make docker-down        # Stop stack
make docker-logs-server # Server logs
make docker-logs-agent  # Agent logs
make docker-clean       # Stop + remove volumes
```

## Security

### Private Key Management
- **Agent keygen mode (default)**: Agents generate ECDSA P-256 keys locally and store them with 0600 permissions in `CERTCTL_KEY_DIR` (default `/var/lib/certctl/keys`). Only the CSR (public key) is sent to the control plane. Private keys never leave agent infrastructure.
- **Server keygen mode (demo only)**: Set `CERTCTL_KEYGEN_MODE=server` for development/demo with Local CA. The control plane generates RSA-2048 keys server-side. A log warning is emitted at startup.

### Authentication
- Agent-to-server: API key (registered at agent creation)
- API key and JWT auth types supported; `none` for demo/development
- Auth type and secret configured via `CERTCTL_AUTH_TYPE` and `CERTCTL_AUTH_SECRET`

### Audit Trail
- Immutable append-only log in PostgreSQL (`audit_events` table)
- Every lifecycle action attributed to an actor with timestamp and resource reference
- No update or delete operations on audit records
- Every API call recorded to audit trail with method, path, actor, SHA-256 body hash, response status, and latency (M19)

## Roadmap

### V1 (v1.0.0 released)
All nine development milestones (M1–M9) are complete. The backend covers the full certificate lifecycle: Local CA and ACME v2 issuers, NGINX/Apache/HAProxy/F5/IIS target connectors, threshold-based expiration alerting, agent-side ECDSA P-256 key generation, API auth with rate limiting, and a React dashboard with 19 pages wired to the real API. The CI pipeline runs build, vet, test with coverage gates (service layer 30%+, handler layer 50%+), frontend type checking, Vitest test suite, and Vite production build on every push. Docker images are published to GitHub Container Registry on every version tag via the release workflow.

### V2: Operational Maturity
- **M10: Agent Metadata + Targets** ✅ — agents report OS, architecture, IP, hostname, version via heartbeat; Apache httpd and HAProxy target connectors
- **M11: Crypto Policy + Profiles + Ownership** ✅ — certificate profiles (named enrollment profiles with allowed key types, max TTL, crypto constraints), certificate ownership tracking (owners + teams + notification routing), dynamic agent groups (OS/arch/IP CIDR/version matching), interactive renewal approval (AwaitingApproval state)
- **M12: Sub-CA + DNS-01 + step-ca** ✅ — Local CA sub-CA mode (enterprise root chain with RSA/ECDSA/PKCS#8), ACME DNS-01 challenges (script-based DNS hooks for any provider, wildcard cert support), step-ca issuer connector (native /sign API with JWK provisioner auth)
- **M15a: Core Revocation** ✅ — revocation API with all RFC 5280 reason codes, JSON CRL endpoint, webhook + email revocation notifications, best-effort issuer notification, `certificate_revocations` table with idempotent recording, 48 new tests
- **M15b: OCSP + Revocation GUI** ✅ — embedded OCSP responder (GET /api/v1/ocsp/{issuer_id}/{serial}), DER-encoded X.509 CRL (GET /api/v1/crl/{issuer_id}), short-lived cert exemption (TTL < 1h skip CRL/OCSP), revocation GUI with reason modal, ~31 new tests
- **M13: GUI Operations** ✅ — bulk cert operations (multi-select → renew, revoke, reassign owner), deployment status timeline, inline policy/profile editor, target connector configuration wizard, audit trail export (CSV/JSON), short-lived credentials dashboard view
- **M14: Observability** ✅ — dashboard charts (expiration heatmap, cert status distribution, job trends, issuance rate), agent fleet overview with OS/arch grouping, JSON metrics endpoint, stats API (5 endpoints), structured logging with request IDs, deployment rollback
- **M18a: MCP Server** ✅ (V2.1) — AI-native integration, all 76 REST API endpoints exposed as MCP tools for Claude, Cursor, OpenClaw, and any MCP-compatible client
- **M19: Immutable API Audit Log** ✅ — every API call recorded to immutable audit trail (method, path, actor, SHA-256 body hash, status, latency), async recording via goroutine, configurable path exclusions
- **M16a: Notifier Connectors** ✅ — Slack (incoming webhook), Microsoft Teams (MessageCard), PagerDuty (Events API v2), OpsGenie (Alert API v2) — config-driven enablement via env vars
- **M17: Additional Connectors** ✅ — OpenSSL/Custom CA issuer connector (script-based signing with configurable timeout)
- **M16b: CLI + Bulk Import** ✅ — `certctl-cli` with 10 subcommands (list/get/renew/revoke certs, list agents/jobs, health, metrics, PEM bulk import), stdlib-only, JSON/table output
- **M20: Enhanced Query API** ✅ — sparse field selection (`?fields=`), sort with direction (`?sort=-notAfter`), time-range filters (`expires_before`, `created_after`, etc.), cursor-based pagination (`?cursor=&page_size=`), `GET /certificates/{id}/deployments`, additional filters (`agent_id`, `profile_id`)
- **M18b: Filesystem Cert Discovery** ✅ — agents scan configured directories (PEM/DER), report findings to control plane, deduplication by SHA-256 fingerprint, claim/dismiss/triage workflow via API
- **M21: Network Cert Discovery** ✅ — server-side active TLS scanning of CIDR ranges and ports, concurrent probing (50 goroutines), CIDR expansion with /20 safety cap, sentinel agent pattern for discovery pipeline reuse, CRUD API for scan targets, scheduler integration (6h default)
- **M22: Prometheus Metrics** ✅ — `GET /api/v1/metrics/prometheus` returns Prometheus exposition format (`text/plain; version=0.0.4`), 11 metrics with `certctl_` prefix, compatible with Prometheus, Grafana Agent, Datadog Agent, Victoria Metrics
- **Compliance Mapping** ✅ — SOC 2 Type II, PCI-DSS 4.0, NIST SP 800-57 capability mapping documentation

### V3: Team & Enterprise
Team access controls, identity provider integration, enterprise deployment targets, compliance and risk scoring, advanced fleet operations, event-driven architecture, advanced search, real-time operational views, and premium CA integrations.

### V4+: Cloud, Scale & Passive Discovery
Passive network discovery (TLS listener), Kubernetes integration, cloud infrastructure targets (AWS ALB/ACM, Azure Key Vault), extended CA support, and platform-scale features.

## License

Certctl is licensed under the [Business Source License 1.1](LICENSE). The source code is publicly available and free to use, modify, and self-host. The one restriction: you may not offer certctl as a managed/hosted certificate management service to third parties.