latest commit 6852292c78 JANeumatrix authored 16 hours ago
	..
	README.md	D-113(a2) COMPLETE: DELETE the config.xml path (template, renderer, ISO builder)	16 hours ago

opentofu/templates/ -- the OPNsense config.xml template is DELETED (2026-07-13)

opnsense-config.xml.tmpl no longer exists. Neither do scripts/opnsense-render-config.sh (the renderer) or scripts/opnsense-build-config-iso.sh (the config-seed ISO builder). If you came here looking for them, this is why -- and what to use instead.

Why they are gone

Hand-authoring the appliance's GUI-owned config.xml was the single root cause of every OPNsense-specific bug this project has had:

bug	what hand-authored XML did
DOCFIX-191	the rendered config had no sshd and no key -- it would have locked management out
DOCFIX-192	the rendered config silenced the edge's only console (no serial, no video)
DOCFIX-193	LAN DHCP was never implemented -- and an old-style ISC `<dhcpd>` block would have been inert, because OPNsense 26.1 uses Kea
2026-07-13	a full-config push drops ~667 migration-populated elements, including the only 2 firewall pass rules on the box. It survives only because OPNsense silently regenerates them -- an undocumented self-heal we were depending on

None of those is expressible through the REST API, where sshd, DHCP and firewall rules are typed resources with defaults. You cannot forget to enable sshd in a format where sshd is a typed field.

And the config-seed ISO never worked at all. Per D-112, the OPNsense Configuration Importer can NEVER fire on a pre-installed nano image: opnsense-importer -b probes for a read-only root, finds a writable one with a factory /conf/config.xml already present, and exits without enumerating a single device. Nothing was ever going to read that ISO. It cost a full session on 2026-07-12 to discover.

What to use instead (D-113(a2), ADOPTED + PROVEN 2026-07-13)

Edge configuration is done over the OPNsense REST API. The provisioning chain has no config.xml in it anywhere:

boot the factory nano image
  -> D-112(c) console bootstrap             (enable SSH + install the service key)
  -> scripts/opnsense-bootstrap-apikey.sh   (mints an API key via OPNsense's OWN model --
                                             no GUI click, no re-implemented crypto)
  -> scripts/opnsense-api.sh                (DHCP, firewall, interfaces -- everything else)

Proven end to end against the live Office1 edge on 2026-07-13, read AND write: docs/changelog-20260713-opnsense-api-proven.md, docs/changelog-20260713-opnsense-api-write-proven.md, docs/changelog-20260713-opnsense-apikey-bootstrap.md.

If you are tempted to bring the template back

Don't. A config.xml renderer is not a safety net -- it is a loaded gun pointed at a live router. On 2026-07-13 the repo still contained runbook steps telling an operator to render a config and push it to the edge, which by then would have clobbered live API-managed DHCP (see docs/changelog-20260713-config-xml-danger-sweep.md).

The governing decision is D-113 (docs/design-decisions.md). If you believe the API cannot express something the edge needs, that is a finding worth raising against D-113 -- not a reason to hand-write XML.

Deleted in: docs/changelog-20260713-config-xml-path-deleted.md. The files remain in git history.