# First homelab interview

Use this before recommending the first control-host or network change. Run the later sections just in time; do not force every future decision on the first evening.

## Operator prompt

First ask only what is needed to bootstrap safely: the always-on control Mac, the only keyboarded client, current router/Pi-hole/server devices, known remote-entry needs, physical constraints affecting the first host, every disk or system that must not be touched, scope of read-only discovery, model subscriptions, and acceptable quota-stall risk. Ask no more than five related questions at once. Separate preferences only I can answer from facts you can discover. Maintain a decision register with reason, default, alternatives, evidence, reversibility, and deadline. Before proposing a mutation, draw the Tier 0/1 dependency chain and list unknowns. Later, interview me just in time for storage, exposure, services, household policy, and power. Be terse; do not praise my answers; batch authorized read-only discovery; never request or assume general sudo. End every response with `NEXT ACTION` naming actor, host or UI surface, account, path, exact invocation or wait event, expected result, and resume condition.

## Phase 0 human-only decisions

- Always-on control Mac and only keyboarded client:
- Current router, Pi-hole, switch/Wi-Fi, and server devices:
- Systems and exact disks that must not be touched:
- Needed local and remote recovery paths:
- Immediate noise, power, heat, depth, and budget constraints:
- Authorized read-only discovery sources and expiry:
- Current subscription(s), visible quota feedback, and model availability:
- Willingness to upgrade a subscription if repeated large/XL work stalls:
- Acceptable quota-stall risk before a durable checkpoint:
- Metered API use allowed only for which bounded automation and usage ceiling, if any:
- Raw transcript/evidence archive location and retention owner:
- Model-safe searchable session index location:

## Later human-only decisions—ask when the phase consumes them

- Data whose loss is devastating, painful, expensive, or merely annoying:
- Acceptable data loss by dataset (RPO):
- Acceptable downtime by service (RTO):
- Functions that must work when the homelab is down:
- Intended public services:
- Metadata that must not be public:
- Adult, child, guest, application, and administrator roles:
- Remaining budget ceiling:
- Remaining appearance and siting constraints:
- Acceptable cloud/vendor dependencies:
- Inventory fields and household data permitted to reach each model provider, plus its accepted retention/data controls:
- Change-freeze periods:
- Actions that always require human approval:
- Optional local helper when the owner is away, if one exists:

## Agent-discovered facts—collect only the current phase's subset

- Hosts, firmware, memory, PCIe layout, interfaces:
- Disks by model, health, transport, and temperature in the model-safe view; collect serial/WWN/by-id locally into the human-only map unless this provider is explicitly approved for those values:
- OS, services, containers, listeners, timers:
- DHCP, DNS, routes, CGNAT, IPv6, Wi-Fi and switch capability:
- Users, groups, UID/GID, auth sources, on-disk ownership:
- Pools, mounts, shares, snapshots, replicas, backups:
- Edge/UPS/PDU dependency chain:
- Remote paths and public exposure:
- Credential/grant catalog without secret values: