Product
AcmeMux adds a focused browser workflow around one native lego workspace. It makes configuration, execution, scheduling, and outcomes understandable while keeping upstream ownership intact.
The operational gap
lego is a capable ACME client with broad provider support. In a home lab or self-hosted environment, it commonly begins as a command, configuration file, credential file, and timer. That is enough to issue a certificate. It is not always enough to explain the complete system six months later.
AcmeMux supplies one operational surface for the questions that accumulate around that command. It records which exact executable was reviewed, which native paths are in scope, which supported fields can change, when the daily evaluation will run, and what the latest operation safely reported.
01 Runtime trust
AcmeMux does not download or discover lego. An administrator supplies an absolute path and reviews the executable's canonical path, SHA-256 digest, version, platform, ownership, permissions, Linux capabilities, and Go build identity.
Managed use requires an exact supported artifact. If the file or any reviewed identity changes, execution stops until the replacement is explicitly inspected and adopted.
02 Workspace adoption
AcmeMux adopts an existing lego working directory and configuration or creates a supported native configuration. It does not import certificates into an application-owned vault or copy configuration into a second desired-state database.
Filesystem checks reject symbolic-link surprises, unsafe ownership, broad permissions, unexpected file types, and source changes during review or activation.
03 Typed configuration
Forms cover supported certificate authorities, accounts, certificates, renewal controls, HTTP-01, and curated DNS-01 providers. Public values and write-only secrets follow different presentation and persistence paths.
Unknown valid native fields are preserved rather than silently deleted. They block managed operations until the administrator decides how to handle them outside AcmeMux.
04 Constrained operations
Manual and scheduled operations converge on the same durable worker. The broker starts the retained executable directly with the reviewed configuration path, an allowlisted environment, no standard input, bounded output, process-tree controls, and a 30-minute limit.
AcmeMux never exposes an arbitrary shell, custom arguments, or hook commands through the browser.
05 Daily scheduling
Select one local wall-clock time and IANA time zone. AcmeMux persists the exact UTC schedule, handles daylight-saving transitions, coalesces missed dates, and prevents replay after an interrupted operation.
lego remains authoritative for ACME Renewal Information, certificate lifetime, renewal thresholds, provider behavior, and random delay.
06 Health and evidence
Certificate inventory is read from native storage and classified at an exact observation instant. The interface distinguishes healthy, expiring, expired, stale, unavailable, completed, failed, interrupted, partial, and ambiguous states without presenting old evidence as current.
Only the latest bounded operation result is retained, with secret-aware limits and redaction at collection, persistence, and presentation boundaries.
MVP boundary
A smaller starting surface is a product feature. These current exclusions keep the MVP trustworthy while future lifecycle capabilities receive explicit designs, tests, and recovery paths.
lego owns the protocol, provider integrations, accounts, orders, and renewal decisions.
Private keys and certificate material stay in the native workspace under host filesystem controls.
Browser users cannot supply shell, hooks, environment variables, executable arguments, or provider plugins.
Moving certificates into a load balancer or web server currently remains separate infrastructure automation.
The MVP serves one administrator, one executable, and one workspace on one trusted host.
The product does not send analytics, crash reports, usage events, or tracking identifiers.
Product destination
AcmeMux is intended to grow from safe lego operation into self-hosted certificate lifecycle management: inventory and discovery, public and private issuance, policy, renewal, alerts, deployment, access control, audit evidence, and recoverable operations.
The constraints above are honest statements about today's release, not a claim that certificate lifecycle ends at one workspace. Read the full product direction.
Current fit
AcmeMux is aimed at an individual home-lab or self-hosted administrator who wants a safer and more understandable way to operate lego without handing certificate authority to a hosted third party.
First public release