proxmox

Proxmox VE Operations

Operates a Proxmox Virtual Environment (PVE) estate: hypervisor lifecycle, golden-image builds, major-version upgrades, and multi-node estate services (PDM, PBS).

Claims in this skill are labeled by provenance: doc-sourced (cited to an official Proxmox source), or session-proven 2026-07-09 (observed live against two production nodes during a same-day 8.x-to-9.2.4 / Debian-13.5 modernization). Neither label is a guarantee against future PVE releases — re-verify against the authoritative docs below before relying on version-specific behavior.

Authoritative docs rule

PVE's API and CLI surface drifts across versions faster than training data tracks. Before implementing anything version-sensitive (parameter names, content types, breaking changes), consult the node-served documentation instead of guessing:

• https://<node>:8006/pve-docs/index.html — version-matched to the exact PVE build running on that node. Always current for that node; never stale.
• https://<node>:8006/pve-docs/api-viewer/apidoc.js — the live API schema for that node's exact version (parameters, methods, return shapes).

Substitute the node's LAN IP or hostname. These pages require the self-signed cert or -k/--insecure when fetched with curl. Prefer them over memory for any claim about parameter availability, content-type gating, or breaking changes between versions — see references/upgrade-8-to-9.md for a documented case (import-from vs import) where getting this wrong breaks the golden-image pipeline.

Two-tier access model

Two access tiers cover every operation. Escalate to the higher tier only when the lower tier cannot perform the operation.

Tier	Credential	Covers
API token	op://<vault>/<pve-api-token> (1Password)	VM/LXC lifecycle (create, clone, start, stop, destroy), storage inspection, node/version queries, disk import via import-from, cloud-init config, templating (qm template over the API)
Host root SSH	node root, out-of-band (AMT/console for recovery)	apt/dist-upgrade, pve8to9, Ceph administration, qm importdisk from local files, in-guest provisioning over SSH, anything touching the host OS below the PVE API surface

Escalation rule: default to the API token. Escalate to host SSH only for operations the PVE REST API does not expose — package management, OS-level upgrades, and Ceph cluster administration are the primary cases. scripts/proxmox.nu (the existing implementation, see ~/github/infra/scripts/proxmox.nu) wraps the API-token tier: nodes, storage, vms, nextid, version, preflight, status <vmid>, destroy <vmid>. The preflight subcommand snapshots version + running-guest state before any upgrade — run it before escalating to the SSH tier for a pve8to9 pass.

Secret safety (per /core:security): confirm the token exists without printing its value —

test -n "$(op read 'op://<vault>/<pve-api-token>/credential' 2>/dev/null)" && echo "set" || echo "empty"

Never op read --reveal or echo the credential in agent output, logs, or PR descriptions.

Golden-image builds (pure-API, PVE 9.x)

scripts/golden-image.nu builds a golden Ubuntu template using only the API token — no SSH to the PVE host, no netboot-install of what Canonical already ships (reuse-first). Pipeline: enable import+images content on a storage → download the Canonical cloud image → create a VM via disk import-from + cloud-init → SSH into the guest (not the host) to provision → qm template → clone-and-verify. See references/golden-image.md for the full recipe, the import-from-vs-import version trap, and templating rules (cloud-init clean, machine-id reset, linked vs full clone).

PVE 8-to-9 upgrade

The 8→9 jump is a Debian major upgrade (12 Bookworm → 13 Trixie), not a point-release dist-upgrade. It requires host root SSH throughout and has blockers beyond what Proxmox's own upgrade guide documents. See references/upgrade-8-to-9.md for the full sequence, the blocker checklist (systemd-boot, Ceph version gate, GRUB/EFI), and four session-proven operational gotchas (reboot backgrounding, kernel-based reboot polling, slow first boot, zsh word-splitting).

Estate services — PDM and PBS

For a 2-node (or generally sub-3-node) estate, Proxmox Datacenter Manager (PDM) delivers single-pane management and cross-node live migration without the quorum fragility of a PVE cluster. Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) provides deduplicated backups independent of clustering. See references/estate-services.md for the cluster-vs-PDM decision table and the version pairing with PVE 9.x.

Automation surfaces

Four ways to drive Proxmox programmatically — REST API + CLI tools, the bpg/proxmox Terraform/OpenTofu provider, Packer, and the existing nushell helpers — plus a Runex-specific parameter-naming gotcha. See references/automation.md.

Anti-fabrication

Every claim in this skill and its references is labeled doc-sourced (cited to an official Proxmox source or a file in this repository) or session-proven 2026-07-09 (observed live, not documented elsewhere) — never presented as fact from unverified memory. Before asserting a PVE parameter, content type, or breaking change not covered here, consult the authoritative docs rule above rather than guessing. Load /core:anti-fabrication for the full validation discipline.

Reuse-first defaults

• Golden images: reuse Canonical's published cloud image via import-from; do not netboot-install a distro PVE already has an official cloud image for.
• Multi-node management: reuse PDM before standing up a PVE cluster (references/estate-services.md) — clustering earns its keep only at ≥3 nodes.
• Terraform: reuse the bpg/proxmox provider already wired in ~/github/infra/terraform/proxmox/ (verified present: main.tf, variables.tf, versions.tf pin bpg/proxmox, two per-node k3s_node resources) rather than hand-rolling API calls for anything Terraform-managed already covers.
• Existing scripts: ~/github/infra/scripts/proxmox.nu (API wrapper), golden-image.nu (image pipeline), proxmox-template.nu (legacy netboot-build template helper, superseded by golden-image.nu's pure-API path for new builds) already implement the patterns in this skill — extend them before writing new API-calling code.

References

• references/golden-image.md — pure-API golden-image build recipe, import-from/import version trap, templating rules, macOS/libguestfs caveat
• references/upgrade-8-to-9.md — full 8→9 sequence, blocker checklist, session-proven operational gotchas, PDM/PBS version pairing
• references/estate-services.md — cluster vs. PDM decision, PBS backup role
• references/automation.md — REST/CLI, Terraform, Packer vs. pure-API import, nushell helpers, Runex param-naming gotcha