Pangolin Server
Documentation.

Purpose

Secure server infrastructure designed around strong isolation, sensible defaults, and observable system behavior. The documentation explains the project boundary, architecture, setup flow, operational model, security considerations, and known limitations.

Installation

Start from a clean, supported environment. Obtain the project source, verify the revision and inputs, and follow the project-specific bootstrap procedure. Do not execute unknown artifacts before inspecting them.

$ inspect source
$ verify revision and inputs
$ apply the documented setup
$ validate the resulting state

Architecture

Pangolin Server is a defensive infrastructure pattern: reduce exposed services, separate responsibilities, make system behavior observable, and keep recovery procedures explicit.

Configuration

Configuration should be explicit and version-controlled wherever practical. Keep environment-specific secrets, credentials, and private operational values outside the public configuration. The goal is a small, reviewable set of inputs.

Security model

Pangolin Server is a research project, not a blanket security guarantee. Establish trust boundaries, minimize exposed interfaces, isolate untrusted inputs, and verify the resulting state. Hardening should be validated against the actual workload.

Operational constraints

• Hardening should be validated against the actual workload.
• Do not expose administrative interfaces unnecessarily.
• Backups and recovery are part of the security design.
• Review changes instead of treating a baseline as permanent.

Operations

Use the documented workflow to create, inspect, reset, and reproduce the environment. Record versions, configuration changes, test inputs, and relevant observations so another operator can understand the result.

Troubleshooting

When something fails, first verify the environment, versions, inputs, and network boundaries. Reduce the problem to the smallest reproducible case, capture logs, and compare against a known-good configuration.

First checks

• Confirm the documented version and environment.
• Check logs and system state before changing multiple variables.
• Reproduce from a clean state where possible.