An AI/SRE agent proposes restoring a Deployment container to a prior permitted image. The agent does not receive broad cluster write credentials. Nikxius checks an exact rollback contract; Kubernetes remains authoritative for the conditional mutation and native state.
Bind the relationship
kubernetes.deployment.rollback_image.v1 requires an explicitly authorized immutable image and compensatesOperationId. The earlier operation must be committed in the same tenant, for the same native target/UID, with the appropriate reversed before/after images. An arbitrary old registry digest is not sufficient.
The contract binds the registered cluster, namespace, Deployment, container, native UID/version, image, earlier operation, grant, review policy and stable idempotency key. Customer enrollment must permit the relationship. Use actual observed values; the following is a shape, not an executable grant:
{
"operation": "kubernetes.deployment.rollback_image.v1",
"target": {
"cluster": "evaluation",
"namespace": "evaluation",
"deployment": "sample-api",
"container": "api"
},
"input": {
"image": "registry.example.com/sample@sha256:<prior-digest>",
"compensatesOperationId": "<earlier-committed-operation>"
},
"grantRef": "<sponsor-issued-grant>",
"idempotencyKey": "<stable-task-specific-key>"
}Illustrative tokens above must be replaced from the local runner’s actual record. The customer receives a runnable generated example, not these placeholders as an install step.
Review, execute, recover
The Runtime independently reads current state and freezes the exact command. Required approval binds current hashes/version, not “allow a rollback sometime.” Before dispatch it revalidates authority and state, persists attempt identity and constructs a conditional patch.
If the native response establishes the intended mutation, record committed. Observe rollout separately. If the response is lost, retain UNKNOWN and the reservation; read-only reconciliation must establish the original causal transition. A current matching image or inherited annotation alone cannot establish attribution.
Failure cases to see in the evaluation
| Case | Expected boundary |
|---|---|
| Different target/image/earlier operation | Old grant cannot authorize it. |
| Resource recreated or concurrently edited | Frozen UID/version cannot silently rebase. |
| Permission expired/revoked before dispatch claim | New dispatch refused; already accepted writes are not recalled. |
| Same key, same immutable request | Same operation identity; changed payload conflicts. |
| Lost response or interrupted worker | Preserve attempt and uncertainty; do not blindly patch again. |
| Accepted mutation, unhealthy application | Commit remains committed; health and further corrective action require separate assessment. |
A rollback may itself fail or remain UNKNOWN. If GitOps owns the image field, use its approved write path or select another valid evaluation target. Source: docs/runtime/OPERATIONS.md, API.md, RECOVERY.md and the acceptance runner supplied with the source checkout.