Files
certctl/docs
shankar0123 12d7b1f51d docs: Phase 11 follow-on — fix inter-doc cross-references in deeper subdirs
Per Phase 1 audit at cowork/docs-overhaul-phase-1-audit-2026-05-04/.
Continuation of Phase 11 (commit dca1900 handled README + first round
of docs/ links). This commit fixes the remaining inter-doc broken
links in the deeper subdirectories.

Per source directory:

  docs/getting-started/quickstart.md (1 fix):
    (connectors.md) → (../reference/connectors/index.md)

  docs/contributor/test-environment.md (2 fixes):
    (tls.md) → (../operator/tls.md)
    (upgrade-to-tls.md) → (../archive/upgrades/to-tls-v2.2.md)

  docs/contributor/testing-strategy.md (4 fixes):
    `docs/security.md` → `docs/operator/security.md`
    (security.md) → (../operator/security.md)
    `docs/testing-guide.md` (kept; testing-guide.md still at top level
      pending Phase 5 prune)
    (testing-guide.md) → (../testing-guide.md)

  docs/migration/acme-from-traefik.md (2 sites, multi-link):
    (./acme-cert-manager-walkthrough.md) → (./acme-from-cert-manager.md)
    (./acme-server.md) → (../reference/protocols/acme-server.md)

  docs/migration/cert-manager-coexistence.md (1 fix):
    (./quickstart.md) → (../getting-started/quickstart.md)

  docs/migration/from-acmesh.md (2 fixes):
    (connectors.md) → (../reference/connectors/index.md)
    (./examples.md) → (../getting-started/examples.md)

  docs/migration/acme-from-caddy.md (multi-link):
    (./acme-cert-manager-walkthrough.md) → (./acme-from-cert-manager.md)
    (./acme-server.md) → (../reference/protocols/acme-server.md)

  docs/migration/acme-from-cert-manager.md (multi-link):
    (./acme-server.md) → (../reference/protocols/acme-server.md)
    (./acme-server-threat-model.md) → (../reference/protocols/acme-server-threat-model.md)
    (./acme-caddy-walkthrough.md) → (./acme-from-caddy.md)
    (./acme-traefik-walkthrough.md) → (./acme-from-traefik.md)

  docs/migration/from-certbot.md (2 fixes):
    (./concepts.md) → (../getting-started/concepts.md)
    (./examples.md) → (../getting-started/examples.md)

  docs/operator/tls.md (3 sites):
    (upgrade-to-tls.md) → (../archive/upgrades/to-tls-v2.2.md)
    (quickstart.md) → (../getting-started/quickstart.md)
    (test-env.md) → (../contributor/test-environment.md)

  docs/operator/runbooks/disaster-recovery.md (5 fixes):
    (crl-ocsp.md) → (../../reference/protocols/crl-ocsp.md)
    (tls.md) → (../../operator/tls.md)
    (security.md) → (../../operator/security.md)
    (scep-intune.md) → (../../reference/protocols/scep-intune.md)
    (est.md) → (../../reference/protocols/est.md)

After this commit, the major operator-facing surfaces have valid
cross-refs. Some lower-traffic docs (compliance/soc2.md, compliance/
nist-sp-800-57.md, deeper reference/* docs) may still have broken
inter-doc links; those will surface during the Phase 4 follow-on
(per-connector page extraction) and Phase 5 (testing-guide prune)
work and can be fixed there incrementally.
2026-05-05 03:31:05 +00:00
..

certctl Documentation

Last reviewed: 2026-05-05

The full docs index, organized by audience. Pick the section that matches what you need to do; each link below opens a focused doc rather than a wall of text.

For the elevator pitch and quickstart commands, see the repo README.md at the root. For the marketing site, see certctl.io.


Getting Started

You're new to certctl, just cloned the repo, or want to understand what it does before installing.

Doc What it covers
Concepts TLS certificates explained for beginners — CAs, ACME, EST, private keys, the full glossary
Quickstart Five-minute setup with Docker Compose, dashboard tour, API tour
Examples Five turnkey scenarios — ACME+NGINX, wildcard DNS-01, private CA+Traefik, step-ca+HAProxy, multi-issuer
Advanced demo End-to-end certificate lifecycle with technical depth at each step
Why certctl Positioning vs ACME clients, agent-based SaaS, enterprise platforms; when to look elsewhere

Reference

You're operating certctl in production or building integrations and need authoritative technical detail.

Doc What it covers
Architecture System design, data flow, security model, deployment topologies
API OpenAPI 3.1 spec, integration patterns, client SDK generation
MCP server Model Context Protocol integration for AI assistants
Intermediate CA hierarchy Multi-level CA tree management — RFC 5280 §3.2/§4.2.1.9/§4.2.1.10 enforcement
Deployment model Atomic write, post-deploy verify, rollback semantics across all targets
Vendor matrix Tested vendor versions per target connector

Connectors

Doc What it covers
Connector index Issuer/target/notifier interface contracts, registry, scanners
Apache Apache httpd connector deep dive
F5 BIG-IP F5 connector — proxy agent + transactional iControl REST
IIS Microsoft IIS — local PowerShell + WinRM modes
Kubernetes Secrets Kubernetes Secrets connector
NGINX NGINX connector — deploy contract + quirks

Protocols

Doc What it covers
ACME server Run certctl as an RFC 8555 + RFC 9773 ARI ACME server
ACME server threat model Security posture for the ACME server endpoint
SCEP server RFC 8894 native SCEP server — RA cert config, multi-profile dispatch, must-staple, mTLS sibling route
SCEP for Microsoft Intune Intune-specific deployment guide — NDES replacement playbook
EST server RFC 7030 EST server — 802.1X / Wi-Fi enrollment, IoT bootstrap, channel binding
CRL & OCSP RFC 5280 CRL + RFC 6960 OCSP responder for relying parties
Async CA polling Bounded polling for async-CA issuer connectors

Operator

You're running certctl in production and need operational guidance.

Doc What it covers
Security posture Auth, rate limits, encryption at rest, key rotation
Control plane TLS Self-signed bootstrap, operator-supplied Secret, cert-manager Certificate CR
Database TLS PostgreSQL transport encryption
Approval workflow Two-person integrity gate for high-stakes issuance
Legacy clients (TLS 1.2) Reverse-proxy runbook for embedded EST/SCEP clients on TLS 1.2

Runbooks

Runbook When
Cloud targets AWS ACM + Azure Key Vault deployment, debugging, rollback
Expiry alerts Per-policy multi-channel routing matrix, severity tiers
Disaster recovery CRL cache, OCSP responder cert, CA private-key rotation, Postgres restore

Migration

You're moving from another cert-management tool to certctl, or running both in parallel.

From Doc
Certbot migration/from-certbot.md
acme.sh migration/from-acmesh.md
cert-manager (coexistence, not replacement) migration/cert-manager-coexistence.md
Caddy ACME (point Caddy at certctl) migration/acme-from-caddy.md
cert-manager ACME (point cert-manager at certctl) migration/acme-from-cert-manager.md
Traefik ACME (point Traefik at certctl) migration/acme-from-traefik.md

Compliance

You're working through a SOC 2, PCI, or NIST audit and need to map certctl's capabilities to control objectives.

Doc What it covers
Compliance overview What these guides cover and what they don't
SOC 2 Type II Trust Service Criteria mapping (CC6, CC7, CC8, A1)
PCI-DSS 4.0 Requirements 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10
NIST SP 800-57 Key management alignment with NIST guidance

Contributor

You're contributing to certctl, running tests locally, or trying to understand the CI pipeline.

Doc What it covers
Testing strategy What we test and why; per-PR fast gates vs daily deep-scan
Test environment Local environment with real CAs (Pebble, step-ca, etc.)
QA test suite qa_test.go reference for release QA
CI pipeline CI shape, regression guards, adding new checks

Archive

Historical docs preserved for reference. Most operators don't need these.

Doc Why archived
Upgrade to TLS (v2.2) Pre-v2.2 HTTPS-everywhere upgrade procedure
Upgrade past v2 JWT removal G-1 milestone JWT auth removal procedure

Reading order by role

First-time operator: ConceptsQuickstartExamples. About 90 minutes end to end.

Production operator: ArchitectureSecurity postureControl plane TLSDisaster recovery runbook. About 4 hours end to end.

PKI engineer: ACME serverSCEP serverEST serverIntermediate CA hierarchy. About 6 hours end to end.

Auditor / compliance team: Compliance overview → applicable framework doc → Disaster recovery runbookApproval workflowACME server threat model. About 4 hours end to end.

Contributor: ArchitectureTesting strategyTest environmentCI pipeline. About 3 hours end to end.