Release Orchestrator

Verified against commit 942a18727c (2026-09-26, DOC-2 of SPRINT_20260926_001). Re-verify by reading the evidence paths listed in the Evidence section of architecture.md.

Service wiring (image, database and role, compose profile, bundle presence) is generated in the service inventory; this dossier does not restate it.

Central release control plane for non-Kubernetes container estates.

Status: active implementation. Runtime deployment paths are live-verified; selected production hardening remains open. Source: src/ReleaseOrchestrator/ (WebApi __Apps/StellaOps.ReleaseOrchestrator.WebApi, libraries __Libraries/StellaOps.ReleaseOrchestrator.*, agents __Agents/StellaOps.Agent.*). Hosts: release-orchestrator (WebApi, Router consumer group release-orchestrator), release-orchestrator-agent-ca-init (one-shot agent CA initializer) and agent-core (target-resident agent), in both devops/compose/docker-compose.stella-services.yml and the release bundle devops/release/bundle/docker-compose.yml. Database: own database stellaops_release_orchestrator via STELLAOPS_POSTGRES_RELEASE_ORCHESTRATOR_CONNECTION; schemas release_orchestrator, release, release_orchestrator_agent, scripts, auto-migrated on startup. Technical dossier: architecture.md.

Runtime runbooks and evidence:

• Ansible delivery environment onboarding — general AnsibleHost setup through public APIs, including managed inventory/vars, broker-resolved secrets, agent readiness, and live acceptance requirements.
• Local Docker Desktop ComposeHost runbook — Windows-local deployment path through the assigned agent’s mounted Docker socket; no SSH, WinRM, or Docker TCP listener.
• Deployment VM E2E runbook — repeatable live Docker/Compose/SSH/WinRM target proof.
• Deployment E2E handover — Hyper-V target topology and operational state.
• Release E2E 2026-05-05 index (archived) (pruned evidence docs-archive/qa/feature-checks/runs-2026-live-snapshot/RELEASE_E2E_2026-05-05/INDEX.md at 3f422b9b72) — original stub-API finding, replay attempts, and follow-up sprint map.

Purpose

The Release Orchestrator extends Stella Ops from a vulnerability scanning platform into Stella Ops Suite — a unified release control plane for non-Kubernetes container environments. It integrates:

• Existing capabilities: SBOM generation, reachability-aware vulnerability analysis, VEX support, policy engine, evidence locker, deterministic replay
• New capabilities: Environment management, release orchestration, promotion workflows, deployment execution, progressive delivery, audit-grade release governance

ReleaseOrchestrator is also the sole owner of deployment-topology persistence and of the topology setup routes used by the Console (/api/v1/regions, /api/v1/environments, /api/v1/targets, /api/v1/agents, /api/v1/infrastructure-bindings, /api/v1/pending-deletions). No other service hosts or migrates this state. Release Orchestrator does not serve /api/v1/workflows, and it does not call the dormant Workflow engine (src/Workflow).

Scope

Documentation Structure

Design & Principles

• Design Principles — Core principles and invariants
• Key Decisions — Architectural decision record

Implementation

• Implementation Guide — .NET 10 patterns and best practices
• Test Structure — Test organization and guidelines

Module Architecture

• Module Overview — All modules and themes
• Integration Hub (INTHUB) — External integrations
• Environment Manager (ENVMGR) — Environments and targets
• Release Manager (RELMAN) — Release bundles and versions
• Promotion Manager (PROMOT) — Approvals and gates
• Deploy Orchestrator (DEPLOY) — Deployment execution
• Agents (AGENTS) — Deployment agents
• Execution Plugins - Build/scan/deploy/verify execution plugin contract
• Progressive Delivery (PROGDL) — A/B and canary
• Release Evidence (RELEVI) — Evidence packets
• Plugin System (PLUGIN) — Plugin infrastructure

Data Model

• Database Schema — PostgreSQL schema specification
• Entity Definitions — Entity descriptions

API Specification

• API Overview — API design principles
• API Reference — Generated endpoint reference (from openapi/v1.json)
• Environment APIs — Environment endpoints
• Release APIs — Release endpoints
• Release Seal Aggregate API — POST /api/v1/release-orchestrator/releases/seal one-call sealed release
• Promotion APIs — Promotion endpoints
• Promotion Runtime Gap Closure Plan — Docs-to-runtime delivery sequence
• Agent APIs — Agent endpoints
• WebSocket APIs — Real-time endpoints

Promotion and Gates

• Promotion State Machine — Promotion state machine
• Evidence-Based Release Gates — Data-driven evidence gate contract and outcomes
• Reachability Promotion Gate — Promotion-time reachability gate (ReachabilityGatePlugin)

Security

• Security Overview — Security principles
• Authentication & Authorization — AuthN/AuthZ
• Agent Security — Agent security model
• Threat Model — Threats and mitigations
• Audit Trail — Audit logging

Integrations

• Integration Overview — Integration types
• Connector Interface — Connector specification
• Webhook Architecture — Webhook handling
• CI/CD Patterns — CI/CD integration patterns

Deployment

• Deployment Overview — Architecture overview
• Deployment Strategies — Deployment strategies
• Docker/Compose Runtime Contract - target runtime success boundary and evidence requirements
• Agent-Based Deployment — Agent deployment
• Agentless Deployment — SSH/WinRM deployment
• Artifact Generation — Generated artifacts

Progressive Delivery

• Progressive Overview — Progressive delivery architecture (PROGDL module)
• A/B Releases — A/B release models
• Canary Controller — Canary implementation
• Router Plugins — Traffic routing plugins

UI/UX

• Dashboard Specification — Dashboard screens
• Screen Reference — Key UI screens

Operations

• Metrics — Metrics specification
• Logging — Logging patterns
• Tracing — Distributed tracing
• Alerting — Alert rules

Implementation

• Roadmap — Implementation phases
• Resource Requirements — Sizing
• Component Version Sync — Registry discovery for component versions

Enhancements & Forward Design

Design specifications for advanced capabilities; implementation maturity varies by topic (see each doc and the relevant StellaOps.ReleaseOrchestrator.* library).

• Agent Operations
• Agent Resilience
• Compliance Reporting — backs ReleaseOrchestrator.Compliance
• Developer Experience
• Drift Remediation — backs ReleaseOrchestrator.SelfHealing
• Multi-Language Scripts
• Multi-Region Federation — backs ReleaseOrchestrator.Federation
• Performance Optimizations — backs ReleaseOrchestrator.Performance
• Progressive Delivery (enhancements)
• Rollback Intelligence

Appendices

• Glossary — Term definitions
• Configuration Reference — Configuration options
• Error Codes — API error codes
• Evidence Schema — Evidence packet format
• Optional Promotion Capsule — Optional DSSE capsule and human_decision envelope profile

Quick Reference

Key Principles

1. Digest-first release identity — Releases are immutable OCI digests, not tags
2. Evidence for every decision — Every promotion/deployment produces sealed evidence
3. Pluggable everything, stable core — Integrations are plugins; core is stable
4. No feature gating — All plans include all features
5. Offline-first operation — Core works in air-gapped environments
6. Immutable generated artifacts — Every deployment generates stored artifacts

Platform Themes

Retired: the Release Orchestrator workflow-engine design documents (workflow engine module, workflow templates, execution state machine, workflow API, workflow editor, workflow visualization) describe the deleted StellaOps.ReleaseOrchestrator.Workflow assembly and are archived under docs-archive/modules/release-orchestrator/.