nself dogfood

Verify that this nSelf installation runs the nSelf CLI stack correctly — the nSelf-First doctrine in action. Used in CI smoke tests and production audits.

Quick start

# Run the dogfood verification suite
nself dogfood

# Full audit with detailed report
nself dogfood audit

# Generate a shareable report
nself dogfood report

Synopsis

nself dogfood [SUBCOMMAND] [FLAGS]

Description

The nSelf-First doctrine requires that every nSelf-powered project starts and manages its backend via the nself CLI — never through raw docker compose or SSH mutations. The dogfood command verifies that this installation is compliant: all running containers are managed by nself, the compose files carry the GENERATED BY nself build header, and no side-channel config has been applied.

This command is internal — it is used in nSelf's own CI smoke tests (verifying that nself.org is running on the nSelf stack) and can be used by operators to confirm that their deployment did not drift from the CLI-managed state.

audit runs a deeper check: it inspects every docker-compose.yml in the project for the generated header, verifies no orphaned containers exist outside the nSelf namespace, and checks that all custom services use the CS_N slot convention.

report produces a JSON or Markdown report summarising the audit findings. Useful for compliance records or sharing with your team.

Subcommands

nself dogfood (no subcommand)

Quick smoke test: verifies the core stack is CLI-managed and healthy.

nself dogfood
# ✓ docker-compose.yml is nself-generated
# ✓ All containers are CLI-managed (no orphans)
# ✓ postgres healthy
# ✓ hasura healthy
# ✓ auth healthy
# ✓ nginx healthy
# ✓ nSelf-First doctrine: compliant

nself dogfood audit

Deep compliance audit: checks all compose files, custom services, and plugin config.

nself dogfood audit
# Compose files
#   ✓ docker-compose.yml — nself-generated header present
#   ✓ docker-compose.override.yml — nself-generated header present
#   ✗ docker-compose.local.yml — missing generated header (manual edit detected)
#
# Custom services
#   ✓ CS_1 ping_api — registered in nself config
#   ✗ CS_2 my_service — running but not in CS_N config (side-channel detected)
#
# Orphaned containers
#   ✗ old_redis — running outside nSelf namespace
#
# Verdict: 2 violations detected. Run 'nself dogfood audit --fix' to remediate.

nself dogfood report

Generate a formatted compliance report.

# Markdown report
nself dogfood report

# JSON report for CI integration
nself dogfood report --json

# Save to file
nself dogfood report --json > dogfood-report.json

Flags

Examples

CI smoke test

# In GitHub Actions after deploy:
- name: Dogfood verification
  run: nself dogfood --json > dogfood.json && cat dogfood.json

Production compliance check

nself dogfood audit --env prod --strict
# Exits 1 if any violation (including warnings) is found

Generate and save a compliance report

nself dogfood report --json | jq '{
  timestamp: .timestamp,
  compliant: .compliant,
  violations: [.checks[] | select(.status != "pass")]
}' > compliance-$(date +%F).json

Exit codes

• 0 — fully compliant with the nSelf-First doctrine
• 1 — violations detected
• 2 — could not connect to Docker or read compose files

Related

• nself doctor — general diagnostics
• nself deploy — compliant remote deployment
• nself init — initialise a project in compliance from the start