The Workstation Blog
DevOps
Posts tagged DevOps.
One Sign-In for Every App, Run on Our Own Cluster
Five demo apps in five languages never see a password and never talk to Google: they send users to a self-hosted OpsAPI, which signs them in and hands back a token the app checks with one API call. What it costs to add an app, why admin dashboards belong behind a VPN or zero-trust broker, and the honest limits.
Balinder WaliaRead 
Keep Your Test Sites Private: VPN at the Edge, One Sign-In for Every App
Staging and test sites hold real-looking data, yet they're often protected by an IP allowlist alone. Here's how two layers keep them private: a VPN checked at the edge proves where a request came from, and one OpsAPI sign-in with MFA proves who sent it, across every app.
Balinder WaliaRead 
Put Internal Apps Behind Your VPN, Without Rebuilding Them
Staging sites and admin panels are often 'private' because of an IP allowlist. Put them behind the wslvpn Zero Trust VPN, enforced at the WSLProxy edge: check the tunnel and the person, fail closed, and see why someone was blocked. One field per domain, no app changes, no reload.
Balinder WaliaRead 
Gemini 4 Argon: What It Means for Your Team, and Where to Use It First
Gemini 4 Argon is built to work for hours on one measurable problem. Here is what shipped, the real costs, and how to pilot it safely on your own backlog.
Balinder WaliaRead 
Observability Is Not Optional: Make It a Business Standard
Why fragmented monitoring creates blind spots, duplicate spend, and slow incidents — and how to make centralised observability a non-negotiable company standard.
Balinder WaliaRead 
WSL Vault for Compliance: One Tenant Never Opens Another’s Secrets
How WSL Vault keeps app, team, and environment tenants cryptographically isolated — so a stolen root-style token cannot empty the estate — and why dual-tenant control beats secrets sprawl.
Balinder WaliaRead 
Workstation AI Shop: Promoting the AI Sales Storefront Through int → test → acc → prod
Workstation AI Shop sells GPU machines with a fully autonomous AI Sales Agent that configures the basket. See how Ring Promoter moves each build through int → test → acc → prod — with Orbit screenshots release engineers and stakeholders share.
Balinder WaliaRead 
Ring Promoter vs Argo CD, Kargo and CI: Which Tool Answers Which Release Question
Argo CD syncs, CI builds, Ring Promoter promotes. A fact-checked look at the comparison, its honest limits, which tool fits, and how to record the choice as an ADR.
Balinder WaliaRead 
Stop paying for idle CI: GitLab Runners on Kubernetes
Most teams pay for CI as if every night were still Monday morning. GitLab Runners on Kubernetes flip that: ephemeral job pods, scale up under load, scale down when quiet.
Balinder WaliaRead 
How We Protected the Payments Secure FinTech App with WSLProxy Edge, an Open-Source API Gateway
How we put WSLProxy Edge, our open-source API gateway, in front of Payments Secure (payments-secure.fictionally.org): real-IP checks, scanner detection, login throttling and audit logs, rolled out safely in audit mode.
Balinder WaliaRead