ADR 0001: Artifact factory, not configuration management

Status: accepted

Context

Organizations moving thousands of PCs to Linux need a defined workstation, not only a distribution. Ansible Automation Platform, Satellite, Foreman and MDM products already enforce state across a fleet.

Decision

DeskOS compiles organizational intent into bootc OCI artifacts and stops there. It has no controller, agent, reconciliation loop or fleet state. /etc drift on deployed machines is expected and left to configuration management. Endpoint tooling observes (status) and acts only when a person asks, once (update, rollback). A single requested action is not reconciliation, and the endpoint holds no loop, schedule or automatic enforcement.

Consequences

DeskOS stays small and composes with existing fleet tools. An organization that needs guaranteed runtime enforcement must pair it with configuration management.