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Praxis Praxis

Getting started

Praxis is a centralized Linux fleet management platform. This guide gets you from first login to a registered system running a job against Vault-backed credentials.

Logging in

Point your browser at the Praxis URL (Caddy serves it - https://localhost for a local install, or your configured domain). Sign in with an administrator account - the initial admin is seeded on first boot; check your deployment docs for the bootstrap password or OIDC setup. If your deployment wires in an OIDC provider (Okta, Keycloak, Azure AD, etc.) you’ll see a “Sign in with SSO” button; otherwise use local username + password.

Session tokens rotate on each page load via refresh tokens - you stay logged in across restarts until your refresh token expires, at which point you re-authenticate.

The dashboard

The Fleet Dashboard (/fleet-dashboard) is your landing page. Top row StatCards summarise fleet posture at a glance:

  • Total Systems - every registered host, active or decommissioned
  • Patch Compliance - percentage of systems fully up to date
  • Unreachable - hosts Praxis could not reach on the last health check (click for the filtered list)
  • Active Jobs - anything currently running
  • Drifted Systems - hosts that diverge from at least one enabled baseline (see Drift Detection)

Below the cards is a HealthBanner that surfaces critical alerts (unreachable hosts, failed jobs, pending security updates) and a set of detail cards: systems-by-status pie, recent activity, groups breakdown.

Tour of the interface

Navigation is six workspace tabs across the top, named for what you are doing rather than for a subsystem. Clicking a tab opens a drawer of its destinations over the current page.

WorkspaceWhat lives there
OperateFleet dashboard, all systems, groups, registration, sessions, access requests and reviews, running commands, approvals
UpdatePackage inventory, available and security updates, repository status, patch policies, advisories, update plans
SecureCredentials, secrets service, SSH security, audit log
AutomateJobs, schedules, maintenance windows, mirrors, channels, profiles, airgap keys
VerifyAlerts, system status, baselines, drift, compliance dashboard, policies, remediation
ReportPackage reports, fleet operations, analytics, config audit, activity feed

The top bar also holds fleet-wide search, exception badges for systems needing attention, your user menu, and notifications. Ctrl-K (or Cmd-K) opens the command palette, which reaches every destination directly and is the fastest route once you know what you want.

Settings and account preferences sit behind the user icon rather than in a workspace. The (?) icon in a page header opens the guide for that page.

Every list page in Praxis follows the same shape: filters at the top, paginated table below, action buttons on the right of each row. Tables share a consistent look so muscle memory transfers.

Add your first system

From the sidebar pick Operate > Register System. Provide:

  • Hostname - must resolve on the network Praxis lives on (or use an IP)
  • IP address - unique across the fleet
  • Distribution + version - picked from the Distro dropdown (Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, Rocky, etc.)
  • Group - static group the system belongs to; all systems must live in exactly one group
  • Credential - the login used to reach this host; see Credentials & Vault

Praxis runs a connectivity test during registration. If it fails you’ll see the SSH error inline - fix the credential or DNS and retry. After registration the system appears in All Systems and Praxis begins the first inventory scan.

Supported platforms. The full patch lifecycle (mirror, content profile, patch, rollback) is supported on the deb family (Ubuntu, Debian) and the EL/dnf family (RHEL, Rocky, AlmaLinux). Other distributions may enroll and collect facts on a best-effort basis but are not serviced for patching. See the Linux support matrix for the full supported / best-effort / unsupported breakdown and known limitations.

Register a credential

Before registering a system you need a credential. From the sidebar open Secure > All Credentials > New Credential:

  • Name - human-readable label
  • Auth method - password or ssh_key
  • Username - the Linux user Praxis connects as (typically a dedicated automation account, e.g. ubuntu or a praxis-svc user)
  • Secret - paste the password or private key body; it’s written straight to Vault, never stored in the Praxis database
  • Sudo method - none, password, or nopasswd (how Praxis automation escalates for privileged workflows; fleet-role user accounts get no standing sudo in 1.0)

Credentials can be shared across many systems. See Credentials & Vault for managed vs linked credentials and rotation.

Next steps