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Praxis mode: an outbound policy plugin fails open with only a Warn #1768
Description
Problem
In praxis mode, Cortex builds no outbound plugins (outboundEntries, cmd/cortex/praxis.go, from #1765). cortex-gateway runs only its recording filters. A WebSocket upgrade does not go through the gateway. So no outbound plugin runs on any request.
The config keeps its plugin list, and Cortex accepts it. The only signal is one Warn line at start-up and at each reload. The UI and agentop show nothing.
Effect, by plugin type:
| Type | Plugins | In praxis mode |
|---|---|---|
| Policy and limits | opa, cpex, ibac, jwtvalidation, sessionbudget, litellm_budgettrack, sparc, script |
Fails open. A request that the plugin rejects in direct mode gets to the origin. |
| Credentials | tokenexchange, tokenexchangeaiac, tokenbroker, staticinject |
Fails closed. The origin gets no credential and answers 401 or 403. No secret leaks. |
| Routing | inferencerouter |
The request goes to the host the client named. |
| Optimization, parsing | toolprune, contextguru, parsers, lineage |
Cost or features change. Not a safety problem. |
The default laptop config (cmd/cortex/local.go) has only inference-parser and tool-prune, so a default install loses no policy. A user who added a policy plugin and turns on praxis loses it.
Decision for now
Keep the Warn (decided on #1765). #1714 tracks the port or retirement of each plugin ("Still open").
Proposed next step
Fail closed until the gateway runs the policy plugins: validatePraxis (core/config/validate.go) refuses praxis.enabled when a plugin of type policy, credentials or routing is in the outbound list. The default config still passes.
- No plugin capability says "can reject", so the check needs a named list.
- A test must fail when a new plugin is registered and is on neither side of the list, so that the list cannot go out of date without a red test.
- Remove the check for each plugin when Tracker: Move the laptop data plane to Praxis when the upstream gaps close #1714 ports it to the gateway.
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