Files
certctl/docs
shankar0123 969853ee53 docs: Phase 4 follow-on batch 4 — 5 final target per-pages
Extracts the remaining target connectors:

- ssh.md (194 lines) — agentless SSH/SFTP deploy with full
  host-key-acceptance threat model (what's accepted, what's not,
  mitigations including known_hosts enforcement and SSH cert auth);
  V3-Pro forward path
- wincertstore.md (118 lines) — non-IIS Windows services via local
  PowerShell or WinRM proxy mode; store selection (My / Root /
  WebHosting); private-key permissions guidance
- jks.md (189 lines) — JKS / PKCS#12 via keytool with full atomic
  snapshot+rollback contract (Bundle 8 'snapshot → delete → import →
  reload'), keytool argv password exposure threat model + mitigations
- aws-acm.md (208 lines) — ACM target with full IAM policy, IRSA /
  instance-profile / SSO auth recipes, atomic-rollback contract,
  ALB attachment Terraform recipe, procurement-checklist crib
- azure-kv.md (195 lines) — Key Vault target with managed-identity /
  workload-identity / service-principal auth recipes, version-
  semantics rollback caveat (no in-place restore without soft-delete),
  App Gateway / Front Door attachment recipe

Index forward-list expanded to enumerate all 15 target connectors
(5 from Phase 4 structural + 5 from batch 3 + 5 from this batch) in
alphabetical order.

This is part 4 of 4 for the Phase 4 follow-on (per-connector page
extraction) tracked in cowork/docs-overhaul-phase-2-restructure-2026-05-04/log.md.

Net add: 5 files, 904 lines. No content removed from index.md.

End-state of Phase 4 follow-on:
- 13 issuer per-pages (5 batch 1 + 8 batch 2)
- 15 target per-pages (5 Phase 4 structural + 5 batch 3 + 5 batch 4)
- index.md keeps its inline reference content; per-pages add
  operator depth on top, matching the pattern set by
  apache/f5/iis/k8s/nginx in Phase 4 structural
2026-05-05 04:07:21 +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
CLI certctl-cli command reference and CI/CD integration patterns
MCP server Model Context Protocol integration for AI assistants
Release verification Cosign / SLSA / SBOM verification procedure
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
Helm deployment Kubernetes installation via the bundled chart
Performance baselines Operator-runnable benchmarks for regression spot checks
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 prerequisites Before running QA: stack boot, demo data baseline, env vars
QA test suite qa_test.go reference for release QA
GUI QA checklist Manual GUI verification pass for release
Release sign-off Release-day checklist — code state, automated gates, manual QA, artefact verification
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.