openclaw-k8s-toggle-operator 0.0.6

Matrix-controlled Kubernetes deployment toggle operator

openclaw-k8s-toggle-operator

Matrix-controlled Kubernetes deployment toggle operator. Connects to a Matrix homeserver with E2E encryption and listens for chat commands to scale a K8s deployment between 0 and 1 replicas.

Extracted from the inline clawdbot_operator.py ConfigMap in the Ansible infrastructure repo (roles/kubectlstuff/files/clawdbot_operator.py).

Status

Beta (v0.0.1) — the core Matrix bot and K8s scaling loop is implemented. The project scaffolding (packaging, Docker image, CI) is in place.

Bot Commands

Send these as plain text messages in a Matrix room with the bot (encrypted or unencrypted):

Command	Action
start / on	Scale deployment to 1 replica
stop / off	Scale deployment to 0 replicas
status	Show deployment replica counts
help	Show available commands

Only users listed in ALLOWED_USERS can send commands. The bot auto-accepts room invitations from allowed users.

Architecture

• Runs as a single-replica Deployment in a dedicated namespace
• Uses the Kubernetes Python client with in-cluster config to patch deployment scale
• Connects to Matrix via matrix-nio with E2E encryption (libolm)
• TOFU device trust — automatically trusts all devices of allowed users
• Crypto store must be on a persistent volume or the bot loses decryption keys on restart
• Auto-reconnect loop with exponential backoff (max 20 retries)

Configuration

Variable	Required	Default
MATRIX_HOMESERVER	no	http://synapse.matrix.svc.cluster.local:8008
MATRIX_USER	yes	—
MATRIX_PASSWORD	yes	—
ALLOWED_USERS	yes	— (comma-separated full Matrix user IDs)
DEPLOYMENT_NAME	no	clawdbot
DEPLOYMENT_NAMESPACE	no	clawdbot
CRYPTO_STORE_PATH	no	/data/crypto_store
ECHO_MODE	no	true (echo user messages with lobster emoji before processing)
LOGURU_LEVEL	no	DEBUG

Kubernetes Deployment

RBAC

The operator requires a ServiceAccount with a Role scoped to the target namespace:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: openclaw-toggle-operator
  namespace: clawdbot
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: Role
metadata:
  name: openclaw-toggle-operator
  namespace: clawdbot
rules:
  - apiGroups: ["apps"]
    resources: ["deployments", "deployments/scale"]
    verbs: ["get", "patch"]
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
  name: openclaw-toggle-operator
  namespace: clawdbot
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: Role
  name: openclaw-toggle-operator
subjects:
  - kind: ServiceAccount
    name: openclaw-toggle-operator
    namespace: clawdbot

Deployment

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: openclaw-toggle-operator
  namespace: clawdbot
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: openclaw-toggle-operator
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: openclaw-toggle-operator
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: openclaw-toggle-operator
      containers:
        - name: operator
          image: xomoxcc/openclaw-k8s-toggle-operator:latest
          env:
            - name: MATRIX_USER
              value: "clawdbot-operator"
            - name: MATRIX_PASSWORD
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: openclaw-toggle-operator
                  key: matrix-password
            - name: ALLOWED_USERS
              value: "@henning:matrix.example.com,@openclaw:matrix.example.com"
            # - name: MATRIX_HOMESERVER
            #   value: "http://synapse.matrix.svc.cluster.local:8008"  # default
            # - name: DEPLOYMENT_NAME
            #   value: "clawdbot"                                      # default
            # - name: DEPLOYMENT_NAMESPACE
            #   value: "clawdbot"                                      # default
            # - name: CRYPTO_STORE_PATH
            #   value: "/data/crypto_store"                            # default
            # - name: ECHO_MODE
            #   value: "true"                                          # default
          volumeMounts:
            - name: crypto-store
              mountPath: /data/crypto_store
          resources:
            requests:
              cpu: 50m
              memory: 64Mi
            limits:
              cpu: 500m
              memory: 128Mi
      volumes:
        - name: crypto-store
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: openclaw-toggle-operator-crypto

Installation

From PyPI

pip install openclaw-k8s-toggle-operator

From source

git clone https://github.com/vroomfondel/openclaw-k8s-toggle-operator.git
cd openclaw-k8s-toggle-operator
make venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install .

Docker

docker build -t openclaw-k8s-toggle-operator .

Or via Makefile:

make docker

Multi-arch build script

build-container-multiarch.sh builds and pushes multi-arch images (amd64 + arm64).

./build-container-multiarch.sh              # login + full multi-arch build & push
./build-container-multiarch.sh onlylocal    # login + local-only build (no push)
./build-container-multiarch.sh login        # Docker Hub login only

Usage

# Run directly
openclaw-k8s-toggle-operator

# Or via Python module
python -m openclaw_k8s_toggle_operator

Connectivity test

Test Matrix homeserver connectivity without starting the full operator (useful as a pre-flight check or container readiness probe):

# Via console script (after pip install)
openclaw-k8s-toggle-operator-conntest

# Via Python module
python -m openclaw_k8s_toggle_operator conntest

Exits 0 on successful login, 1 on failure. Only tests Matrix — does not require in-cluster K8s access.

Development

Makefile targets

Target	Description
make venv	Create virtualenv and install all dependencies
make tests	Run pytest
make lint	Format code with black (line length 120)
make isort	Sort imports with isort
make tcheck	Static type checking with mypy
make commit-checks	Run pre-commit hooks on all files
make prepare	Run tests + commit-checks
make pypibuild	Build sdist + wheel with hatch
make pypipush	Publish to PyPI with hatch
make docker	Build Docker image

License

GNU Lesser General Public License v3