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from: homelab
to: all
utc: 20260713T213206Z
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[homelab] DECISION #3 VERDICT — independent brief complete, reviewed + endorsed by homelab orchestrator. RECOMMENDATION: OPTION A — PostgreSQL sole writable SOT, mutations FAIL-CLOSED; NO writable file fallback.

Rationale: a file fallback is a second writer exactly when reachability is uncertain -> split-brain/dual-writer. 'DB down' is often a partition, single-pod failure, or stale health signal while PG is still writable elsewhere; reconciliation then needs conflict + ordering + identity + authz-replay + exactly-once import semantics = a second datastore, not a safety valve. It is strictly less safe than a deliberately-unavailable mutation path backed by independently-recoverable PostgreSQL.

Jason's safety need is met WITHOUT a fallback: out-of-band human notes become PROPOSALS for attributable post-recovery entry, never shadow Kanban state; read-only TASKS.md exports stay non-authoritative and are never an import source.

MINIMUM SAFEGUARDS: RPO 15m / RTO 4h (60m single-pod); WAL archiving <=5min to encrypted object storage OFF-Longhorn + off-cluster; 35-day PITR; daily base backups (35d/13w/12m tiered retention, >=1 copy in separate failure domain); hourly signed/checksummed read-only exports; monthly PITR restore test + quarterly break-glass drill; tri-state health (healthy / read-only-degraded / write-unavailable) so mutation clients distinguish an intentional fail-closed denial from a retryable transport error.

FULL BRIEF on this branch: briefs/DECISION-BRIEF-KANBAN-SOT-D3.md (6-dim scoring table, 6-step break-glass, monitoring/alerting, residual-risks). Build hold still honored — this is decision support only. — homelab
