Put every tmpfs path in one place both layers can read

Deployment/master.conf.template

@@ -122,6 +122,44 @@
     STATE_DIR="/boot/config/plugins/varaverk/State_Files"
     PERSISTENT_CONF_CACHE="/boot/config/plugins/varaverk/.cache/vv/d"
 
+# ── Cache Roots ──
+# Everything Varaverk keeps in RAM, under one root, defined once.
+#
+# These used to be four literals in load_config.sh and three more in the PHP layer, spread over
+# /tmp/vv_cache, /tmp/arr_cache, /tmp/.cache/vv/d, /tmp/.cache/vv/ai and /tmp/varaverk_ai_jobs —
+# five naming schemes, and no single place that could tell you what Varaverk had in tmpfs. PHP
+# could not read load_config.sh, so it restated the paths it needed and the two layers were kept
+# in agreement by hand. They live here because master.conf is the one file both layers actually
+# read: bash sources it, and the PHP conf parser resolves ${VAR} against it the same way.
+#
+# ONE ROOT, NOT ONE DIRECTORY. The subdirectories are deliberately separate and must stay that
+# way — they have genuinely different rules:
+#
+#   conf/  holds partner credentials, is chmod 700, and IS snapshotted to PERSISTENT_CONF_CACHE
+#          so it survives a reboot.
+#   ai/    holds non-secret token counters that are worthless when stale and must NOT be
+#          preserved across a reboot — losing them means "not collected here" until the next
+#          sync, which is the honest answer.
+#   jobs/  holds in-flight work handed off to a detached worker — an AI answer being generated,
+#          a container action being applied. chmod 700: each is readable by anyone who can guess
+#          its token, which is why the tokens are random_bytes and not sequential.
+#   arr/   is the large one (100s of MB) and is restored from a DATA_DIR backup on demand.
+#   api/   is the WebGUI payload cache, and is the only one safe to delete at any moment.
+#
+# Collapsing those into a single directory would give the credentials the token cache's
+# persistence rules, or the reverse. The win here is one definition, not one folder.
+#
+# Point VV_CACHE_ROOT somewhere else and everything follows. It must be on a filesystem that is
+# cleared or safe to clear on boot — every consumer treats a missing cache as a cold start, and
+# nothing here is a source of truth for anything.
+    VV_CACHE_ROOT="/tmp/varaverk"
+    VV_CACHE_DIR="${VV_CACHE_ROOT}/api"          # WebGUI payload cache — monitor, arrs, ai
+    CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR="${VV_CACHE_ROOT}/conf"   # partner host*.conf — chmod 700, snapshotted
+    ARR_CACHE_DIR="${VV_CACHE_ROOT}/arr"         # arr payloads — restored from DATA_DIR on demand
+    AI_TOKEN_CACHE_DIR="${VV_CACHE_ROOT}/ai"     # partner token ledgers — never preserved
+    AI_JOB_DIR="${VV_CACHE_ROOT}/jobs/ai"        # in-flight AI answers — chmod 700
+    DOCKER_JOB_DIR="${VV_CACHE_ROOT}/jobs/docker" # in-flight container actions — chmod 700
+
 # ── Version Parity ──
 # Controls behaviour when local and remote unRAID versions differ.
 # Major version mismatch always aborts regardless of this setting.

Plugin/unraid/api/docker_action.php

@@ -95,7 +95,9 @@ header('Content-Type: application/json');
 // take, because the operator's next move is to try again on a machine that already did it.
 require_once dirname(__DIR__) . '/include/config.php';
 
-define('VV_JOB_DIR', '/tmp/varaverk_dk_jobs');
+// VV_JOB_DIR is defined in config.php with every other tmpfs path, read from DOCKER_JOB_DIR in
+// master.conf. It was declared here, inside an endpoint, which is why a survey of Varaverk's
+// cache and job directories missed it entirely.
 
 $action = trim($_POST['action'] ?? '');
 $name   = trim($_POST['name']   ?? '');

Plugin/unraid/include/ai.php

@@ -79,7 +79,8 @@
 
 require_once __DIR__ . '/config.php';
 
-define('VV_AI_JOB_DIR', '/tmp/varaverk_ai_jobs');
+// VV_AI_JOB_DIR and VV_AI_TOKEN_CACHE_DIR are defined in config.php with every other cache path,
+// read from master.conf so this layer and load_config.sh cannot disagree about where they are.
 const VV_AI_KINDS = ['header', 'readme', 'manual', 'template', 'doc'];
 
 // Profiles — what each one is, and what it is allowed to see and do. One table, in one file,
@@ -671,10 +672,9 @@ function vv_ai_token_prune(string $db): void {
 // Partner ledgers pulled by AI/ai_token_sync.sh into tmpfs. Same trick conf_sync.sh uses for
 // partner confs: the reader treats a missing file as "unknown", never as zero.
 //
-// Mirrors AI_TOKEN_CACHE_DIR in load_config.sh. Hardcoded rather than read from conf because it
+// The directory is AI_TOKEN_CACHE_DIR from master.conf, resolved in config.php. It used to be
-// is a derived path constant on the shell side too — neither end reads it from a conf file, so
+// hardcoded here, on the reasoning that the shell side hardcoded it too and so there was no
-// there is no single value to drift away from.
+// single value to drift away from — true when it was written, and no longer true.
-const VV_AI_TOKEN_CACHE_DIR = '/tmp/.cache/vv/ai';
 
 // Aggregates the file into today / last 7 days / all time, both overall and per host.
 //

Plugin/unraid/include/config.php

@@ -57,7 +57,8 @@
 //   master.conf       HOST<n> / HOST<n>_NAME — host identity
 //   host*.conf        HOST*_SSH_KEY — used for setup-state and conf push
 //   ident.cfg         timeZone — Unraid's own setting, adopted for the whole PHP layer
-//   VV_CACHE_DIR      /tmp/vv_cache (tmpfs — RAM speed, cleared on reboot)
+//   master.conf       VV_CACHE_ROOT and the cache paths derived from it — shared with
+//                     load_config.sh, which reads the same keys from the same file
 // ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
 
 // ── Timezone ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
@@ -113,7 +114,45 @@ define('CUSTOM_SCRIPTS_DIR', $_vv_cfg['CUSTOM_SCRIPTS_DIR'] ?? '/boot/config/plu
 unset($_vv_cfg);
 
 define('VV_SETUP_STATE_FILE', STATE_DIR . '/varaverk_setup.db');
-define('VV_CACHE_DIR',        '/tmp/vv_cache');
+
+// ── Cache roots ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+// Read from master.conf so this layer and load_config.sh resolve the same paths from the same
+// line. They used to be literals in three PHP files, restating what load_config.sh already said,
+// because PHP cannot source bash — and the two sets were kept in agreement by hand.
+//
+// Deliberately NOT via vv_conf_vars(). That parses master.conf and this host's conf in full and
+// calls vv_detect_host() on the way, and api/monitor.php's documented fast path loads this file
+// and nothing else in order to reach vv_cache_read() on a cache hit. Making every request pay a
+// full conf parse to learn a directory name would tax the exact path built to be cheap. One
+// file, seven keys, no host detection.
+//
+// The fallbacks are the pre-consolidation paths, matching load_config.sh: an installation whose
+// conf has not been through conf_upgrade yet keeps using what it is already using, rather than
+// silently relocating its caches because a variable was missing.
+$_vv_cache = [];
+foreach (@file(CONF_DIR . '/master.conf') ?: [] as $_l) {
+    if (preg_match('/^\s*(VV_CACHE_ROOT|VV_CACHE_DIR|CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR|ARR_CACHE_DIR'
+                 . '|AI_TOKEN_CACHE_DIR|AI_JOB_DIR|DOCKER_JOB_DIR)\s*=\s*"?([^"#\r\n]+?)"?\s*(?:#.*)?$/',
+                   $_l, $_m)) {
+        $_vv_cache[$_m[1]] = trim($_m[2]);
+    }
+}
+$_vv_root = $_vv_cache['VV_CACHE_ROOT'] ?? '/tmp/varaverk';
+// Resolves the one reference the conf actually uses. This is not a general bash expander and is
+// not trying to be — vv_conf_vars() owns that, and every value here is one level deep by design.
+$_vv_path = function (string $key, string $fallback) use ($_vv_cache, $_vv_root): string {
+    $v = trim($_vv_cache[$key] ?? '');
+    if ($v === '') return $fallback;
+    return str_replace(['${VV_CACHE_ROOT}', '$VV_CACHE_ROOT'], $_vv_root, $v);
+};
+define('VV_CACHE_ROOT',         $_vv_root);
+define('VV_CACHE_DIR',          $_vv_path('VV_CACHE_DIR',       '/tmp/vv_cache'));
+define('VV_CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR', $_vv_path('CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR', '/tmp/.cache/vv/d'));
+define('VV_ARR_CACHE_DIR',      $_vv_path('ARR_CACHE_DIR',      '/tmp/arr_cache'));
+define('VV_AI_TOKEN_CACHE_DIR', $_vv_path('AI_TOKEN_CACHE_DIR', '/tmp/.cache/vv/ai'));
+define('VV_AI_JOB_DIR',         $_vv_path('AI_JOB_DIR',         '/tmp/varaverk_ai_jobs'));
+define('VV_JOB_DIR',            $_vv_path('DOCKER_JOB_DIR',     '/tmp/varaverk_dk_jobs'));
+unset($_vv_cache, $_vv_root, $_vv_path, $_l, $_m);
 
 // Read the setup state file into a key=>value array.
 function vv_setup_state_read(): array {

System_Essentials/conf_sync.sh

@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@ for host_var in $(compgen -v | grep -E '^HOST[0-9]+$' | sort); do
     fi
 
     if [[ "$DRY_RUN" == true ]]; then
-        warn "DRY RUN — would push ${MY_ID,,}.conf → $partner_host:/tmp/.cache/vv/d/"
+        warn "DRY RUN — would push ${MY_ID,,}.conf → $partner_host:$CACHE_DIR/"
         continue
     fi
 

Watchdogs/System/conf_cache_watchdog.sh

@@ -146,7 +146,11 @@ require_partnership
 [[ "${CONF_SYNC_ENABLED:-true}" != "true" ]] && exit 0
 [[ -z "${REMOTE_ID:-}"         ]]            && exit 0
 
-RAM_CACHE="/tmp/.cache/vv/d"
+# The exported variable, not a literal. This was hardcoded while load_config.sh already exported
+# CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR, so the watchdog would have gone on watching an empty directory the moment
+# that path moved — and reported the cache healthy because nothing was ever missing from a
+# location nothing writes to.
+RAM_CACHE="$CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR"
 SAVE_DIR="${PERSISTENT_CONF_CACHE:-}"
 
 # SAVE_DIR is rm -rf'd below and is built from ${SCRIPTS_DIR}. If that is ever unset the

load_config.sh

@@ -76,8 +76,9 @@
 #
 # It then defines the paths the rest of the ecosystem builds on:
 #
-#   CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR   /tmp/.cache/vv/d — tmpfs partner conf cache, cleared each reboot
+#   VV_CACHE_ROOT        everything Varaverk keeps in RAM, one root, defined in master.conf
-#   ARR_CACHE_DIR        /tmp/arr_cache   — tmpfs, restored from DATA_DIR on demand
+#   CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR   $VV_CACHE_ROOT/conf — partner conf cache, chmod 700, snapshotted
+#   ARR_CACHE_DIR        $VV_CACHE_ROOT/arr  — restored from DATA_DIR on demand
 #
 # Everything else (STATE_DIR, DATA_DIR, thresholds, credentials) comes out of master.conf and
 # host*.conf, which this file sources rather than defines.
@@ -130,6 +131,23 @@
     fi
     source "$LOAD_CONFIG_DIR/Configurations/master.conf"
 
+# ━━━ Cache roots ━━━
+# Resolved here, immediately after master.conf, rather than with the other derived paths further
+# down — the partner-conf cache is read a few lines below to source HOST2_* vars, and that block
+# used to carry its own copy of the path precisely because the variable did not exist yet at that
+# point. Defining these the moment master.conf provides them removes the reason for the copy.
+#
+# The fallbacks are the pre-consolidation paths: an installation whose conf has not been through
+# conf_upgrade keeps using what it is already using rather than silently relocating its caches.
+# The PHP layer reads the same keys out of the same file, with the same fallbacks.
+    VV_CACHE_ROOT="${VV_CACHE_ROOT:-/tmp/varaverk}"
+    VV_CACHE_DIR="${VV_CACHE_DIR:-/tmp/vv_cache}"
+    CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR="${CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR:-/tmp/.cache/vv/d}"
+    ARR_CACHE_DIR="${ARR_CACHE_DIR:-/tmp/arr_cache}"
+    AI_TOKEN_CACHE_DIR="${AI_TOKEN_CACHE_DIR:-/tmp/.cache/vv/ai}"
+    AI_JOB_DIR="${AI_JOB_DIR:-/tmp/varaverk_ai_jobs}"
+    DOCKER_JOB_DIR="${DOCKER_JOB_DIR:-/tmp/varaverk_dk_jobs}"
+
 # ━━━ Auto-discover and source all host*.conf files ━━━
 # Sorted for consistent load order — HOST1 before HOST2 before HOST3 etc.
 # Each host conf extends the shared PROFILE_* arrays and adds host-specific vars.
@@ -160,7 +178,7 @@
 # (HOST2_*, HOST3_*, …) available without committing credentials to the git repo
 # or violating sparse checkout — partner confs live in RAM only, cleared on reboot.
 # Confs already loaded from disk are skipped — disk copy is authoritative.
-    _VV_CONF_CACHE="/tmp/.cache/vv/d"
+    _VV_CONF_CACHE="$CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR"
     if [[ -d "$_VV_CONF_CACHE" ]]; then
         while IFS= read -r _conf; do
             [[ -f "$_conf" ]] || continue
@@ -195,16 +213,11 @@
 # re-deriving from SCRIPTS_DIR or hardcoding /var/log or /tmp paths inline.
     CONF_DIR="${SCRIPTS_DIR}/Configurations"
     LOG_DIR="/var/log/varaverk"
-    VV_CACHE_DIR="/tmp/vv_cache"
+
-    CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR="/tmp/.cache/vv/d"   # tmpfs — cleared every reboot, repopulated by conf_sync.sh
+    # Cache roots were resolved right after master.conf was sourced, because the partner-conf
-    ARR_CACHE_DIR="/tmp/arr_cache"           # tmpfs — cleared every reboot, restored from DATA_DIR backup by arr_cache_age_seconds()
+    # cache is read before this point. Exported here with the rest.
-    # Partner AI ledgers pulled by AI/ai_token_sync.sh. A sibling of the conf cache rather than
+    export CONF_DIR LOG_DIR VV_CACHE_ROOT VV_CACHE_DIR CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR ARR_CACHE_DIR \
-    # the same directory: that one holds credentials at chmod 700 and is snapshotted to /boot by
+           AI_TOKEN_CACHE_DIR AI_JOB_DIR DOCKER_JOB_DIR
-    # conf_cache_save.sh. These are non-secret counters that are worthless when stale, so they
-    # must not be preserved across a reboot — losing them just means "not collected here" until
-    # the next sync, which is the honest answer anyway.
-    AI_TOKEN_CACHE_DIR="/tmp/.cache/vv/ai"   # tmpfs — cleared every reboot, repopulated by ai_token_sync.sh
-    export CONF_DIR LOG_DIR VV_CACHE_DIR CONF_RAM_CACHE_DIR ARR_CACHE_DIR AI_TOKEN_CACHE_DIR
 
 # ━━━ Cleanup ━━━
     unset _conf _host_confs_loaded _adapter LOAD_CONFIG_DIR