Make Clyde ready to be deployed by anyone

[max-tet]

Anyone should be able to deploy their own instance of Clayde. That means that the code needs to be cleaned from things that point directly to me or to this single Clayde instance. I am thinking about hardcoded names or email addresses, all stuff like that. This should all be able to be configured using the settings. The task is to go through the code and all other files of the project and make sure that everything is generic and configurable and ready to be deployed by other people.

Also, the readme should be updated if needed. In particular, it is important that when someone else deploys Clade, they create a new GitHub user to impersonate it. So the creation of that user, the creation of a token with the needed permissions and the configuration of that token in the settings should all be part of the readme.

When deploying this change there will probably be some migration required, at least to modify the configuration files, but perhaps more. The output of this task should also contain a prompt that can be used on the VM where Clayde is installed to perform that migration.

[ClaydeCode]

Preliminary Plan

The goal is to make Clayde deployable by anyone by removing instance-specific hardcoded values and making them configurable.

Key findings

Must fix (hardcoded, not configurable):

• Dockerfile: git config user.name "Clayde" and user.email "clayde@vtettenborn.net" — needs new env vars CLAYDE_GIT_NAME (defaults to CLAYDE_GITHUB_USERNAME) and CLAYDE_GIT_EMAIL
• config.py: default values github_username = "ClaydeCode" and whitelisted_users = "max-tet,ClaydeCode" — should have no defaults or generic placeholders
• CLAUDE.md / gh-issue.md: hardcoded ntfy URL ntfy://7yuau0vyes — remove entirely (feature is unused)
• config.env.template: instance-specific example values

Also needed:

• README update covering: creating a GitHub bot user, generating a classic PAT (starts with ghp_) with required scopes, all required config.env settings
• Migration prompt for the existing VM

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This looks like a large issue. React with 👍 to approve this preliminary plan and proceed to a thorough implementation plan.

[max-tet]

Remarks:

• The image in docker-compose should stay as it is. People are supposed to use that image. Why do you think it should be a variable?
• The ntfy feature is never used I believe. You can just remove it.
• I believe a classic PAT is used for GitHub access, not fine-grained. It starts with ghp_.
• Defaulting CLAYDE_GIT_NAME is a good idea.

[ClaydeCode]

Plan updated. Incorporated @max-tet's feedback: (1) removed docker-compose image from the 'must fix' list — it stays as-is since users are expected to use that image; (2) ntfy notification URL will be removed entirely rather than made configurable, since the feature is unused; (3) corrected README guidance to use a classic PAT (ghp_) not a fine-grained token; (4) confirmed CLAYDE_GIT_NAME will default to CLAYDE_GITHUB_USERNAME.

[ClaydeCode]

Implementation Plan

Implementation Plan: Make Clayde Deployable by Anyone

Summary

Several files contain hardcoded values tied to a single Clayde instance (name, email, GitHub username, whitelisted users, ntfy URL). The goal is to make all instance-specific values configurable via environment variables, remove unused features, and update documentation so a new user can deploy their own instance from scratch.

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Changes by File

config.py

• Add two new settings: CLAYDE_GIT_NAME (defaults to the value of CLAYDE_GITHUB_USERNAME) and CLAYDE_GIT_EMAIL (required, no default).
• Remove the default value "ClaydeCode" from github_username — leave it empty or require it.
• Remove the default value "max-tet,ClaydeCode" from whitelisted_users — leave it empty.

Dockerfile

• Replace the hardcoded git config --global user.name "Clayde" and user.email "clayde@vtettenborn.net" lines with a small entrypoint script (or ENV-based approach) that reads CLAYDE_GIT_NAME and CLAYDE_GIT_EMAIL at container start and applies them.

config.env.template

• Replace ClaydeCode and max-tet,ClaydeCode example values with generic placeholders (e.g. your-bot-username).
• Add CLAYDE_GIT_NAME= and CLAYDE_GIT_EMAIL= entries with comments explaining what they are.

CLAUDE.md

• Update the identity section (Name, Email, GitHub, VM path) to use generic placeholders or remove instance-specific values.
• Remove the ntfy URL (ntfy://7yuau0vyes) and all apprise references — the feature is unused.
• Update the configuration table to reflect the new CLAYDE_GIT_NAME and CLAYDE_GIT_EMAIL keys.

gh-issue.md (if present)

• Remove the apprise ntfy://... command and the Bash(apprise:*) tool permission.

README.md

• Add a "Deploying Your Own Instance" section covering:
  1. Creating a dedicated GitHub bot account.
  2. Generating a classic PAT (ghp_…) with the required scopes (repo, issues, pull requests).
  3. All required config.env settings with descriptions.
  4. How to start the container with docker-compose up -d.

Migration prompt (delivered as part of the PR/issue comment)

• Provide a short shell prompt the VM operator can run to add the two new required env vars (CLAYDE_GIT_NAME, CLAYDE_GIT_EMAIL) to the existing data/config.env, then restart the container.

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Design Decisions

• CLAYDE_GIT_NAME defaults to CLAYDE_GITHUB_USERNAME so existing users only need to add CLAYDE_GIT_EMAIL.
• github_username and whitelisted_users lose their defaults so a misconfigured deployment fails loudly rather than silently acting as the original instance.
• The docker-compose image reference stays unchanged — deployers use the published image.

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Edge Cases and Risks

• Existing deployment will break if CLAYDE_GIT_EMAIL is not set before restarting — the migration prompt must be clear.
• If whitelisted_users is empty, all issues will be skipped (no visible content). The README must make this a required field.

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Verification

• All tests pass (uv run pytest).
• grep -r 'vtettenborn\|max-tet\|7yuau0vyes' . returns no results outside of git history.
• A fresh config.env created from the template, with only the new fields filled in, starts the container without errors.

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React with 👍 to approve this plan and start implementation.

[ClaydeCode]

Implementation complete — PR opened: #50

[ClaydeCode]

Review addressed. Fixed 4 review comments: (1) CLAUDE.md line 98: changed 'Fine-grained PAT' to 'Classic PAT with full repo scope'; (2) CLAUDE.md line 291-297: removed the entire 'Interactive Issue Work (gh-issue.md)' section; (3) README.md line 168: changed 'fine-grained PAT' to 'classic personal access token with full repo scope'; (4) README.md line 202: removed the migration note — a migration prompt will be posted as a separate PR comment instead. Migration prompt for the VM: run claude and ask it to update data/config.env to set CLAYDE_GITHUB_USERNAME=ClaydeCode, CLAYDE_GIT_EMAIL=clayde@vtettenborn.net, CLAYDE_WHITELISTED_USERS=max-tet,ClaydeCode, remove any hardcoded values from source files, and restart the Docker container with docker compose restart.