Self-Protection Guardrails

Vigo includes hardcoded, non-configurable guardrails that prevent configs, pushes, and workflows from destroying the agent, server, or their dependencies on managed nodes. These guardrails are enforced at two layers and cannot be bypassed — even in dangerous mode.

Two-Layer Defense

Server-Side (Config Load Time)

The server validates all module resources when config is published (vigocli config publish). Resources that violate guardrails are rejected with an error before they reach any agent. Ad-hoc task commands are also validated before dispatch.

Enforcement points:

• vigocli config publish — module validation
• vigocli task run — command validation
• Config reload after vigocli config publish

Agent-Side (Runtime)

The agent checks every resource against guardrails before applying it. This is the last line of defense — even if a malformed config somehow bypasses server validation, the agent will refuse to apply it. Returns an error result for the resource without executing it.

Enforcement point: Before every resource executor dispatch in the convergence loop.

Protected Paths

Resources of type file, directory, symlink, file_line, blockinfile, ini, json_file, replace, and field_edit are blocked from targeting these paths or any child path beneath them.

Unix (Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, illumos)

Path	Purpose
/usr/local/sbin/vigo	Agent binary
/etc/vigo-envoy/	Agent configuration
/etc/vigo/	Agent configuration (alternate)
/var/lib/vigo/	Agent state (LMDB)
/etc/systemd/system/vigo-envoy.service	Agent systemd unit (Linux)
/usr/local/etc/vigo-envoy/	Agent configuration (macOS/FreeBSD)
/Library/Vigo/	Agent installation (macOS)
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vigo.envoy.plist	Agent launchd plist (macOS)
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/vigo_envoy	Agent rc.d script (FreeBSD/NetBSD)
/var/svc/manifest/system/vigo-envoy.xml	Agent SMF manifest (illumos)
/usr/local/sbin/vigosrv	Server binary
/usr/local/bin/vigocli	CLI binary
/usr/local/sbin/vigo-license-manager	License manager binary
/srv/vigo/	Server data directory (config, secrets, database, TLS)
/etc/systemd/system/vigosrv.service	Server systemd unit (Linux)

Windows

Path	Purpose
C:\Program Files\Vigo\	Agent and server installation
C:\ProgramData\Vigo\	Agent and server data

Path Matching

A resource targets a protected path if its target_path (or path) attribute:

• Exactly matches a protected path, OR
• Is a child of a protected path (starts with the protected path followed by /)

Symlinks are resolved before matching — a symlink pointing into a protected directory is blocked.

Protected Services

Service resources are blocked from setting these services to stopped, disabled, masked, or absent:

Service	Purpose
vigo-envoy	Agent daemon
vigosrv	Server daemon

Starting, enabling, or restarting these services is allowed.

Protected Packages

Package resources are blocked from setting these packages to state: absent:

Package	Purpose
vigo	Agent package
vigosrv	Server package
vigocli	CLI package

Installing or upgrading these packages is allowed.

Blocked Command Patterns

Exec resources and ad-hoc task commands are scanned for these patterns (case-insensitive substring match):

Linux (systemd)

Pattern	Action Blocked
systemctl stop vigo	Stopping agent service
systemctl disable vigo	Disabling agent service
systemctl mask vigo	Masking agent service
systemctl stop vigosrv	Stopping server service
systemctl disable vigosrv	Disabling server service
systemctl mask vigosrv	Masking server service

BSD (rc.d / service)

Pattern	Action Blocked
service vigo-envoy stop	Stopping agent (FreeBSD/NetBSD)
service vigo_envoy stop	Stopping agent (alternate name)
service vigosrv stop	Stopping server

OpenBSD (rcctl)

Pattern	Action Blocked
rcctl stop vigo	Stopping agent
rcctl disable vigo	Disabling agent

macOS (launchctl)

Pattern	Action Blocked
launchctl unload com.vigo	Unloading agent plist
launchctl remove com.vigo	Removing agent service
launchctl bootout com.vigo	Booting out agent service

illumos (SMF)

Pattern	Action Blocked
svcadm disable vigo	Disabling agent SMF service
svccfg delete vigo	Deleting agent SMF manifest

Process Termination (all Unix)

Pattern	Action Blocked
pkill vigo	Killing agent process
pkill vigosrv	Killing server process
killall vigo	Killing agent process
killall vigosrv	Killing server process
kill -9 vigo	Force-killing agent
kill -9 vigosrv	Force-killing server

File Removal (all Unix)

Pattern	Action Blocked
rm /usr/local/sbin/vigo	Deleting agent binary
rm /usr/local/sbin/vigosrv	Deleting server binary
rm /usr/local/bin/vigocli	Deleting CLI binary
rm /usr/local/sbin/vigo-license-manager	Deleting license manager
rm -rf /etc/vigo	Deleting agent config
rm -rf /var/lib/vigo	Deleting agent state
rm -rf /srv/vigo	Deleting server data
rm -rf /etc/vigo-envoy	Deleting agent config
rm -rf /library/vigo	Deleting agent (macOS)

Windows

Pattern	Action Blocked
sc stop vigo	Stopping agent service
sc delete vigo	Deleting agent service
taskkill /im vigo	Killing agent process
del /f vigo.exe	Deleting agent binary
rmdir /s vigo	Deleting agent directory

Additional Push/Exec Protection

Beyond pattern matching, any rm or unlink command that references a protected path (from the Protected Paths table above) is blocked. This catches variations like rm -f /srv/vigo/server.yaml or unlink /etc/vigo/config.

Dangerous Mode

The dangerous flag in the config loader allows exec resources without idempotency guards (onlyif, unless). However, dangerous mode does not bypass self-protection guardrails. A resource that targets a protected path, service, package, or command pattern is always blocked regardless of the dangerous flag.

Idempotency Requirements

Separately from self-protection, Vigo enforces idempotency on exec resources. Exec resources must include at least one guard unless they are triggered by subscribes or watch_secret:

Guard	Behavior
onlyif: command	Skip if guard command exits non-zero
unless: command	Skip if guard command exits zero

This prevents exec resources from running unconditionally on every convergence cycle.