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Security Model

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Security Model

An overview of how RocketRide handles credentials, network exposure, and authentication across its components.

Credential isolation​

API keys are configured per node inside the pipeline definition. Each node holds only its own credentials — there are no shared global secrets, no credential store, and no key that grants access to more than one provider.

{
  "id": "llm_1",
  "provider": "llm_openai",
  "config": { "apikey": "${OPENAI_API_KEY}" }
}

Nodes use ${ENV_VAR} substitution so the key itself never has to appear in the .pipe file. See Best Practices: Credential management for how to keep keys out of version control.

Network exposure​

The engine binds to localhost by default:

  • Port 5565 — WebSocket API (SDK / CLI connections).
  • Port 5567 — HTTP endpoint for source nodes (Webhook, Chat, Dropper).

Only port 5567 needs to be accessible to external callers when you're using a webhook-based source. Port 5565 is a management interface; expose it only to trusted clients on a private network or behind a VPN.

For production deployments, put the engine behind a reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy, AWS ALB) that terminates TLS and enforces rate limiting before traffic reaches the engine.

Endpoint authentication​

When a Webhook, Chat, or Dropper source node starts, the engine generates two credentials and writes them to the Project Log:

  • Public authorization key - presented by external callers in the Authorization: Bearer <key> header. Safe to share with trusted API clients.
  • Private token - the internal credential for the endpoint. Used by the SDK to connect to a running task via --token. Do not share this publicly.

The Project Log is local to the operator who started the pipeline (it is not a shared or exportable log), so the private token is only visible to that operator. Retrieve it from your own Project Log when you need to connect a client with --token.

Both are generated fresh each time the pipeline starts. There is no persistent credential to rotate — stopping and restarting the pipeline issues new credentials automatically.

MCP authentication​

The MCP server authenticates callers in two ways:

  • ROCKETRIDE_AUTH / ROCKETRIDE_APIKEY — the API key used to connect the MCP server to the RocketRide engine. Required; set in the environment.
  • MCP_API_KEY — a Bearer token that clients must present to the MCP server when it is running in SSE (HTTP) mode. Optional for stdio mode, required for any network-exposed SSE deployment.

Pipeline file security​

A .pipe file is plain JSON. When you use ${ENV_VAR} substitution, the key stays in the environment and never touches disk in the pipeline file. When you embed a key directly (for quick local testing), it is stored in plain text — treat the file as a secret.

Do not commit .pipe files containing embedded credentials to version control. Add them to .gitignore:

*.pipe

In CI/CD, pass the pipeline file through a secrets-expansion step before passing it to rocketride start, or inject keys via environment variables and use ${...} references.

Dependency scanning​

The RocketRide codebase runs automated dependency scanning (CodeQL, Trivy, OpenSSF Scorecard) on every commit. See Security for the vulnerability reporting process and SLA.