Specs: a migration tool, with rollback as a path rather than an appendix

INBUXA's cutover is the first run of something other operators will want:
an existing Stalwart server becoming an INBUXA one with nothing re-entered
and nothing re-issued. Accounts, passwords, app passwords, OAuth sessions,
aliases, tenants, DNS records and provider settings, certificates and ACME
state, Sieve scripts, the queue and the mail all live in the store, so a
migration that copies the store carries them.

Offered beside the fresh-install workflow, which has different questions to
ask, so §6.1 now names both.

It rolls back, which is where it parts company with stalwart-migrator:
that one upgrades in place and says outright it cannot undo a migration.
This one never writes to what it migrates from, so going back is stopping
one service and starting another. Rollback is automatic when verification
fails, available on demand while the old install stands, honest about the
mail that stays behind, and never points the old server at the store the
fork has written.

Every phase is timed, and the number to advertise is the downtime, phases
2 to 7, not the total that preflight and the copy dominate. The report
writes both as JSON so a release note quotes something measured.
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# Migrating a Stalwart install to INBUXA
Status: draft, 2026-09-19. Decided in outline (John, 2026-09-19); nothing
built.
Two ways in, and they are different workflows:
- **Fresh installation.** ihasmail-oneshot's `deploy`: a new stack, new
domain, nothing to preserve (SPEC.md §6.1).
- **Migration.** An existing Stalwart server becomes an INBUXA one, keeping
everything. This page is that one.
INBUXA's own cutover is the first run of it (`cutover.md`). The tool is what
that run leaves behind, so the second operator doesn't repeat it by hand.
## What "transparent" means here
Everything that defines the server lives in its data store, so a migration
that copies the store carries it all: accounts and their passwords, app
passwords, OAuth clients and live sessions, aliases and mailing lists,
tenants, domains, DNS records and the DNS provider settings, certificates
and ACME state, Sieve scripts, the queue, and the mail itself.
Nothing is re-entered and nothing is re-issued. Users are not asked to
change a password, re-authorize a client, or re-point a DNS record. That is
the promise the tool makes, and the verification below is what checks it
rather than assuming it.
The store format is upstream's and unchanged (SPEC.md §2.6), which is what
makes this a copy rather than a conversion. A migration that also crosses an
upstream version is that upgrade first, then this.
## Shape
Side by side. The existing install is stopped but left standing, the fork
goes in at its own path with a copy of the data, and the old install is what
a rollback returns to. `stalwart-migrator` upgrades in place and says
plainly that it cannot undo one; this tool can, because it never writes to
what it migrates from.
It reads the source install and writes only to the new one. The source's
store is copied, never moved, never opened for writing.
## Phases, each timed
1. **Preflight**, with nothing stopped yet: the source's version and store
backend, disk for a second copy of the store, the target path empty, the
ports the fork will want, the front ends' plan, and a snapshot the
operator confirms exists. Anything wrong here costs no downtime.
2. **Stop**: the mail server, then the webmail container. The unit is
disabled as well as stopped, so a reboot can't put two servers on one set
of ports with two diverging stores.
3. **Copy** the store to the fork's path.
4. **Configure**: the fork's config and unit, pointing at the copy.
5. **Start** the fork, and wait for it to answer.
6. **Front ends**: INBUXA Admin and the webmail, against the same store's
OAuth clients.
7. **Verify** (below). This is the gate, not a formality.
8. **Report**.
**Downtime is phases 2 to 7**, and it is the number worth advertising — not
the total, which preflight and the copy dominate and which nobody
experiences. The report gives both, per phase, and writes them as JSON
beside the human-readable summary so a release note can quote them
honestly. A migration of a small server should be minutes; the number that
gets published should be one this tool measured, on a stated store size and
account count, not an estimate.
## Verification, before mail flows again
The same checks as `cutover.md`, run by the tool rather than by hand:
- the fork answers on every listener the source had, with the certificate
the source was serving;
- an account signs in over IMAP, JMAP and both front ends, with the
credential it already had;
- a message arrives from outside and one leaves;
- aliases still receive; a tenant administrator sees its own accounts and
domains and no others;
- the queue drains and the task queue gains no permanent failures;
- nothing but the fork is listening on those ports.
A failed check is a failed migration, and the tool rolls back rather than
leaving a half-migrated server for the operator to reason about at 2am.
## Rollback
A first-class path, not an appendix.
- **Automatic** when verification fails, unless the operator asked for the
tool to stop and wait instead. A server that half-works is worse than one
that is back where it started.
- **On demand** afterwards, for as long as the old install is still there:
`rollback` stops the fork, re-enables and starts the original unit, and
brings the old webmail container back.
- **What it costs**: everything the fork accepted while it served. The two
stores diverge from the moment the fork starts, so a rollback after mail
has flowed leaves that mail in the fork's store. The tool says how many
messages that is rather than letting the operator find out.
- **What it never does**: point the old server at the store the fork has
been writing. That has never been tested and is not a recovery path
(`cutover.md`).
- The old install is kept until the operator retires it deliberately. The
tool does not delete the thing its rollback depends on.
## Rehearsal
`--dry-run` does everything but the stop: copies the store to a scratch
path, brings the fork up against it on alternate ports, runs what it can of
the verification, reports the timings, and removes the copy. It answers "how
long will this take, and will it work" without touching the running server,
and it is what the operator should run first.
## Open
- Where it lives: a command in ihasmail-oneshot, a sibling to
`stalwart-migrator`, or the fork's own binary (SPEC.md §8's open question
about the installer's repository).
- Whether it handles container installs as well as native ones, which
changes "stop the unit" into "stop the stack".
- Whether it migrates a Community-edition install too. Nothing about the
copy is Enterprise-specific, and a Community server has fewer objects
rather than different ones, so this is likely a documentation question
rather than a code one.
- What it does when the source is mid-upgrade, or its store format is older
than the fork's base.