Installer Architecture

Installers

Installer	Target	Tech	Output
Child Device (Windows)	Kid's Windows 10/11 PC, or all-in-one parent/child PC	Inno Setup 6 + PyInstaller bundle	GuardianNodeChildSetup-0.1.0-alpha.1.exe
Server (Windows)	Parent's Windows server PC	Inno Setup 6 + PyInstaller backend bundle	GuardianNodeServerSetup-0.1.0-alpha.1.exe
Server (Linux)	Parent's Linux server PC	Shell script + systemd / Docker	install.sh + Docker Compose

Build Pipeline

installer/build/build_all.sh stages PyInstaller bundles, copies the built Vite dashboard, verifies pinned WinSW/Inno downloads, and compiles the Inno scripts. Release mode fails closed unless real prebuilt bundles are supplied.

Child Device Installer

The shipped child installer is implemented in installer/child-device-windows/GuardianNodeChildSetup.iss.

Flow:

1. Choose all-in-one mode or connect to an existing server.
2. In separated mode, enter the explicit server URL and pairing code from the parent dashboard.
3. In all-in-one mode, run a hardware probe and choose the model tier.
4. Install the endpoint broker, agent, tray, watchdog services, optional backend, and scheduled logon tasks.
5. Open the dashboard only when the installer knows the dashboard URL.

Repair and upgrade installs preserve the established mode, pairing identity, endpoint, and runtime configuration. They finish model prerequisites before entering maintenance mode, stop but retain existing service registrations, and create a timestamped database/config/key snapshot under %ProgramData%\GuardianNode\backups\installer-*. If setup aborts, Inno restores replaced files and the installer restarts the prior service/task set and removes the maintenance marker. Success requires /api/health/ready.

The agent and tray run in the signed-in Windows user session because service session 0 cannot capture the desktop. The GuardianNode Endpoint Broker runs as a service and is intended to own device credentials, queue state, pause state, and backend upload transport. Watchdog services are resilience helpers.

The alpha does not ship a tested password-gated uninstaller wrapper. Uninstall protection relies on normal Windows administrator/UAC permissions plus service ACLs; do not describe uninstall as password-gated until a clean-machine Windows test proves that end-to-end path.

Windows ProgramData ACL Matrix

Target ACLs for clean-machine testing:

Path	Contents	Intended access
%ProgramData%\GuardianNode\keys\setup_token.json	One-time setup token	SYSTEM + Administrators only; the server shortcut self-elevates before display
%ProgramData%\GuardianNode\keys\device_bootstrap_token.json	One-time local device enrollment token	SYSTEM + Administrators create; current alpha agent reads during all-in-one enrollment only
%ProgramData%\GuardianNode\keys\master.key.dpapi	DPAPI-wrapped evidence encryption key for new Windows backend installs	SYSTEM + Administrators only; machine-bound, so create a portable key backup before migration
%ProgramData%\GuardianNode\keys\master.key	Legacy/raw evidence encryption key for migrated alpha installs	SYSTEM + Administrators only; remove only after a verified portable key backup
%ProgramData%\GuardianNode\evidence\	Encrypted evidence blobs	SYSTEM + Administrators only
%ProgramData%\GuardianNode\server.env	Backend service configuration	SYSTEM + Administrators modify
%ProgramData%\GuardianNode\agent.yaml	Child capture configuration	Administrators modify; interactive users read non-secret capture settings
%ProgramData%\GuardianNode\pending_pairing.json	Installer-to-broker enrollment handoff	Administrators create; broker reads and deletes
%ProgramData%\GuardianNode\Secure\device.json	Device bearer token and backend URL	Broker-owned target storage; SYSTEM + Administrators only after Windows ACL qualification
%ProgramData%\GuardianNode\device.json	Legacy device credential from older alpha installs	Broker migration source only; not the intended current authority
%ProgramData%\GuardianNode\Secure\pause_state.json	Authoritative pause state in broker mode	Broker-owned target storage; SYSTEM + Administrators only after Windows ACL qualification
%ProgramData%\GuardianNode\paused_until	Legacy local pause marker	Compatibility fallback only; not acceptable for a qualified installer release
%ProgramData%\GuardianNode\AgentSecure\queue.sqlite and queue.key	Durable upload queue	Broker-owned target storage; SYSTEM + Administrators only after Windows ACL qualification
%ProgramData%\GuardianNode\logs\	Agent/tray/backend logs	Service/agent append; Administrators read

The current architecture introduces the GuardianNodeBroker service so the interactive capture helper no longer needs to own the backend bearer token or durable queue. Clean Windows 11 alpha validation has qualified the installer path for technical-parent public alpha use. Re-run named-pipe ACL, ProgramData ACL, standard-user, upgrade/repair/uninstall, and multi-session checks before each public installer release.

After installing on a Windows qualification machine, run the bundled ACL collector from an elevated PowerShell prompt:

& "$env:ProgramFiles\GuardianNode\qualify_acls.ps1"

It writes icacls, Get-Acl, service SDDL, and scheduled-task evidence under %ProgramData%\GuardianNode\logs\qualification and fails if low-privilege identities can read or write broker secrets, queue, policy, pause, or service state.

Windows Server Installer

The shipped server installer is implemented in installer/server-windows/GuardianNodeServerSetup.iss.

Flow:

1. Probe hardware and choose the model tier.
2. Install Ollama and pull the chosen model(s).
3. Install and start the WinSW backend service.
4. Open the local web setup wizard at http://127.0.0.1:8787/setup.

Server repair/upgrade follows the same pre-upgrade snapshot and readiness gate, preserves server.env, and restarts the previous backend service if setup fails.

Fresh installs bind to loopback and do not open a Windows Firewall LAN rule. First-run setup requires the one-time setup token stored in %ProgramData%\GuardianNode\keys\setup_token.json; the Start Menu includes a helper shortcut to display it. For this alpha, LAN access is a manual administrator change after first-run setup, not a dashboard workflow.

All-in-one device enrollment uses a separate %ProgramData%\GuardianNode\keys\device_bootstrap_token.json against POST /api/devices/bootstrap-local. The administrator setup token must never be copied into pending_pairing.json or sent to a device-pairing endpoint.

Both the server-only and all-in-one Windows installers write %ProgramData%\GuardianNode\server.env through the shared installer/shared/server_env_windows.iss helper before the backend service is started. That file records the detected classifier tier, text/vision model names, local Ollama URLs for each role, classifier timeout/context/image settings, loopback bind settings, and non-secret runtime defaults.

Linux Server Installer

installer/server-linux/install.sh:

1. Detects the distro and installs Python, SQLite, Tesseract, Git, curl, and Avahi packages.
2. Creates a guardiannode system user and /var/lib/guardiannode.
3. Creates a root/service-user-only one-time setup token.
4. Stages the source tree under /opt/guardiannode/staging, normalizing both flat archives and GitHub-style archives with one top-level directory.
5. Validates required source files and builds a staged virtualenv before moving the live /opt/guardiannode/src or /opt/guardiannode/venv trees.
6. Moves the previous source/venv into archived directories only after staged validation succeeds, and rolls back those trees if the new backend fails its health check.
7. Probes hardware, pulls Ollama models unless disabled, writes systemd, starts guardiannode-backend.service, and prints the local URL plus setup token.

Fresh Linux installs bind to 127.0.0.1 and set GUARDIANNODE_MDNS_ENABLED=false. Do not expose the service on a LAN until after first-run setup is complete.

Docker Compose follows the same safety posture: the published port is bound to 127.0.0.1 by default.

Discovery

mDNS is advisory only in this alpha. A child device must be configured with an explicit parent server URL because mDNS advertisements do not authenticate the server. Future enrollment should pin a server public key or certificate fingerprint together with a one-time enrollment secret.

Service Naming

Installed services use GuardianNode-branded names: GuardianNodeBackend, GuardianNodeBroker, and GuardianNodeWatchdog. Transparent naming is intentional; tamper resistance comes from Windows permissions, not hiding process names.