headquarter/docs/architecture/backend.md

Backend Architecture

Overview

The Headquarter backend is built with FastAPI and follows a layered architecture pattern.

Architecture Diagram

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         FastAPI App                          │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Middleware: CORS → Request Logging → Exception Logging      │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  API Layer (src/api/)                                        │
│  ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌────────┐ ┌──────────┐           │
│  │  Auth   │ │Terminal │ │Projects│ │   Git    │           │
│  │ Routes  │ │   WS    │ │ Routes │ │ Repos    │           │
│  └────┬────┘ └────┬────┘ └───┬────┘ └────┬─────┘           │
├───────┼───────────┼──────────┼───────────┼──────────────────┤
│       │           │          │           │                  │
│  Auth │  Terminal │ Project  │   Git     │                  │
│ Layer │  Manager  │ Service  │ Service   │                  │
│       │  + Session│          │           │                  │
├───────┴───────────┴──────────┴───────────┴──────────────────┤
│  Data Layer                                                  │
│  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐                   │
│  │  Models  │  │ Database │  │   Config │                   │
│  │(SQLAlch) │  │(AsyncPG) │  │(Pydantic)│                   │
│  └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────┘                   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Directory Structure

src/
├── api/                    # API Routes
│   ├── auth.py            # Authentication endpoints
│   ├── terminal.py        # WebSocket terminal endpoint
│   ├── projects.py        # Project endpoints
│   ├── git_repositories.py # Repository endpoints
│   ├── users.py           # User endpoints
│   ├── tool_types.py      # Tool type endpoints
│   ├── ssh_keys.py        # SSH key endpoints
│   └── dashboard.py       # Dashboard endpoints
├── auth/                   # Authentication
│   ├── session.py         # Session management
│   ├── oidc.py            # OAuth2 client
│   ├── dependencies.py    # Auth dependencies
│   └── cookies.py         # Cookie utilities
├── models/                 # Database Models
│   ├── user.py            # User model
│   ├── project.py         # Project model
│   ├── git_repository.py  # Repository model
│   ├── tool_type.py       # Tool type model
│   ├── ssh_key.py         # SSH key model
│   └── user_config.py     # User config model
├── services/              # Business Logic
│   ├── terminal_manager.py # Terminal session manager
│   ├── terminal_session.py # PTY + docker exec session
│   ├── docker.py          # Docker operations
│   └── profile_resolver.py # Profile resolution
├── utils/                  # Utilities
│   ├── git_url_parser.py  # URL parsing
│   ├── git_files.py       # Git file operations
│   └── git_history.py     # Git history operations
├── config.py              # Configuration
├── database.py            # Database setup
└── main.py                # Application entry point

Terminal System

The terminal system provides interactive shell access to running tool instances via WebSocket.

Architecture

Client (WebSocket)
  ↕
terminal.py (FastAPI WS endpoint)
  ├─ Auth validation (session cookie)
  ├─ Instance ownership check
  ├─ Session lifecycle (create / monitor / cleanup)
  └─ Echo state detection (termios)
  ↕
TerminalManager
  ├─ create_session() → spawns TerminalSession
  ├─ _read_loop() → batches PTY output → WebSocket
  ├─ _write_loop() → WebSocket input → PTY
  └─ _heartbeat_loop() → closes idle connections (60s)
  ↕
TerminalSession
  ├─ start() → pty.openpty() + docker exec
  ├─ read_output() → select.select() + os.read()
  ├─ write_input() → os.write() to PTY master
  ├─ resize() → TIOCSWINSZ ioctl
  └─ check_echo_state() → termios.ECHO flag

Protocol

Binary frames: Raw terminal I/O (hot path) Text (JSON) frames: Control messages

Control messages:

Direction	Type	Purpose
Client → Server	ping	Heartbeat (every 15s idle)
Server → Client	pong	Heartbeat response
Client → Server	resize	Terminal dimensions changed
Server → Client	set_echo_state	Enable/disable local echo
Server → Client	session_ended	Container process exited

Message Batching

The read loop batches small PTY reads into single WebSocket frames:

• Buffer accumulates data for up to 16ms
• Flushed immediately when no new data is available
• Reduces WebSocket frame overhead for rapid output

Reconnect Behavior

The server cannot resume a docker exec PTY across connections. On reconnect:

1. Old session is terminated
2. New docker exec is spawned
3. Client restores scrollback from sessionStorage
4. New shell appears seamlessly to the user

Layers

1. API Layer (src/api/)

Responsibilities:

• Define HTTP endpoints
• Parse request parameters
• Return HTTP responses
• Use dependencies for auth and DB

Pattern:

@router.get("/projects")
async def list_projects(
    session: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db_session),
    user_id: str = Depends(get_current_user_id),
):
    # Call service layer
    projects = await project_service.list(session, user_id)
    return projects

2. Auth Layer (src/auth/)

Responsibilities:

• Session management (create, verify, expire)
• OAuth2 flow (login, callback)
• User authentication dependencies

Key Components:

• session.py: HMAC-SHA256 signed cookies
• oidc.py: OAuth2 token exchange
• dependencies.py: FastAPI dependencies for auth

3. Data Layer (src/models/, src/database.py)

Responsibilities:

• Database schema definition
• Async database sessions
• Connection management

Technology:

• SQLAlchemy 2.0 with async support
• asyncpg driver for PostgreSQL
• Alembic for migrations

4. Utility Layer (src/utils/)

Responsibilities:

• Git operations (file browsing, history)
• URL parsing
• Helper functions

Data Flow

Request Lifecycle

1. Request arrives at FastAPI
2. Middleware processes (CORS, logging)
3. Auth dependency verifies session
4. Route handler processes request
5. Database session executes queries
6. Response returned to client

Authentication Flow

1. User clicks login
2. Backend redirects to Authentik
3. User authenticates
4. Authentik redirects with code
5. Backend exchanges code for token
6. Backend fetches user info
7. Backend creates session cookie
8. User is authenticated

Dependencies

Database Session

async def get_db_session() -> AsyncGenerator[AsyncSession, None]:
    async with SessionLocal() as session:
        yield session

Current User

async def get_current_user_id(
    request: Request,
    settings: Settings = Depends(get_settings),
) -> str:
    # Verify session cookie
    # Return user_id

Configuration

Configuration is managed via Pydantic Settings:

class Settings(BaseSettings):
    app_env: str = "development"
    database_url: str = "..."
    authentik_domain: str = "..."
    # ...

Environment variables are automatically loaded from .env files.

Error Handling

Errors are handled at multiple levels:

1. Validation: Pydantic validates request bodies
2. HTTP Exceptions: FastAPI HTTPException for client errors
3. Middleware: ExceptionLoggingMiddleware logs server errors
4. Database: SQLAlchemy errors converted to HTTP responses

Testing

• Unit tests: SQLite in-memory database
• Integration tests: PostgreSQL with transaction rollback
• Fixtures: Shared in conftest.py

Technology Stack

Component	Technology	Version
Web Framework	FastAPI	^0.104
ORM	SQLAlchemy	^2.0
Database Driver	asyncpg	^0.29
Validation	Pydantic	^2.0
Migrations	Alembic	^1.12
HTTP Client	httpx	^0.25
Testing	pytest	^7.4

Related Documentation

• Database Schema
• Frontend Architecture
• API Documentation