feat: deliver v1.5.0 early-product hardening

Author: eblackrps

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -4,6 +4,20 @@ All notable changes to Viaduct should be documented in this file.
 
 This changelog tracks published releases and the major implementation milestones that shaped the current repository state.
 
+## [1.5.0] - 2026-04-08
+
+### Early Product Hardening
+- narrowed the public product story around the VMware-exit assessment-to-pilot wedge with explicit beachhead, v1 scope, reliability-path, trust-control, observability, validation, demo, and commercialization artifacts
+- aligned repo entrypoint docs so the current product direction, support boundary, and operator guidance are easier to evaluate from the packaged and source workflows
+
+### API And Dashboard Trust Surfaces
+- hardened the API contract with structured JSON error responses, stabilized migration command acknowledgements, and updated OpenAPI coverage for the operator-facing routes
+- improved dashboard-side error handling so settings and report workflows preserve request correlation and support-grade failure detail instead of flattening backend errors into generic strings
+
+### Documentation And Operator Readiness
+- added presenter-ready demo assets, real-user validation templates, and commercialization decision guidance to support design-partner conversations and pilot packaging
+- refreshed quickstart, configuration, troubleshooting, and multi-tenancy guidance so service accounts, trust controls, and the supported pilot workflow are documented more consistently
+
 ## [1.4.2] - 2026-04-08
 
 ### Release Reliability

QUICKSTART.md

@@ -48,7 +48,15 @@ npm run dev
 
 The dashboard expects the API at `/api` and can use `VITE_VIADUCT_API_KEY` from [web/.env.example](web/.env.example) when tenant-scoped access is enabled.
 
-If you create additional tenants or service accounts, use:
+For normal dashboard and pilot use, prefer `VITE_VIADUCT_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY`. Keep `VITE_VIADUCT_API_KEY` for tenant bootstrap or break-glass admin access.
+
+If you create additional tenants or service accounts, verify the active identity with:
+
+```bash
+curl -H "X-Service-Account-Key: <service-account-key>" http://localhost:8080/api/v1/tenants/current
+```
+
+Use the tenant key only when you are bootstrapping the tenant or intentionally using tenant-admin access:
 
 ```bash
 curl -H "X-API-Key: <tenant-key>" http://localhost:8080/api/v1/tenants/current
@@ -58,5 +66,6 @@ curl -H "X-API-Key: <tenant-key>" http://localhost:8080/api/v1/tenants/current
 - Review [docs/operations/migration-operations.md](docs/operations/migration-operations.md) for execution and rollback workflows.
 - Review [docs/operations/backup-portability.md](docs/operations/backup-portability.md) for Veeam portability guidance.
 - Review [docs/operations/multi-tenancy.md](docs/operations/multi-tenancy.md) before enabling shared-tenant operation.
+- Review [docs/operations/auth-role-audit-model.md](docs/operations/auth-role-audit-model.md) for the early-product trust model and attribution boundaries.
 - Review [examples/deploy/README.md](examples/deploy/README.md) if you want to move from local evaluation into a packaged pilot environment.
 - Review [examples/plugin-example/README.md](examples/plugin-example/README.md) if you want to validate plugin-backed connector loading.

README.md

@@ -10,7 +10,9 @@ Viaduct is an open source control plane for discovering, migrating, and operatin
 Broadcom's VMware licensing changes forced many teams into urgent platform decisions, but most migration tooling still assumes a one-time move into a single destination. Viaduct is built for operators who need a durable mixed-platform operating model: discover what exists, understand the blast radius, move workloads safely, preserve backup coverage, and keep managing cost, policy, and drift after cutover.
 
 ## Project Status
-Viaduct is ready for broad evaluation, operator pilots, and community contribution. The repository includes multi-platform discovery, dependency graphing, declarative migration orchestration, warm-migration primitives, lifecycle remediation, backup portability, multi-tenancy with service accounts and quota controls, plugin hosting, a web dashboard, a standalone public site, reproducible release packaging, and a shared release gate for CI and local verification.
+Viaduct is ready for broad evaluation, design-partner pilots, and community contribution. The repository includes multi-platform discovery, dependency graphing, declarative migration orchestration, warm-migration primitives, lifecycle remediation, backup portability, multi-tenancy with service accounts and quota controls, plugin hosting, a web dashboard, a standalone public site, reproducible release packaging, and a shared release gate for CI and local verification.
+
+The current early-product wedge is VMware-exit mixed-estate discovery and migration readiness assessment with approval-ready pilot planning. Discovery, planning, operator visibility, and packaged evaluation are the strongest current surfaces. Live execution paths should still be validated in a lab or pilot environment before they are treated as routine production automation.
 
 ## Supported Capabilities
 - Discovery engine: Collects normalized inventory from VMware, Proxmox, Hyper-V, KVM, Nutanix, and Veeam-related backup systems into a universal schema.
@@ -83,6 +85,10 @@ make release-gate
 - Release process: [RELEASE.md](RELEASE.md)
 - Configuration reference: [docs/reference/configuration.md](docs/reference/configuration.md)
 - Migration operations: [docs/operations/migration-operations.md](docs/operations/migration-operations.md)
+- Auth, role, and auditability model: [docs/operations/auth-role-audit-model.md](docs/operations/auth-role-audit-model.md)
+- Demo runbook: [docs/operations/demo-runbook.md](docs/operations/demo-runbook.md)
+- Observability requirements: [docs/operations/observability-requirements.md](docs/operations/observability-requirements.md)
+- Real user validation plan: [docs/operations/real-user-validation-plan.md](docs/operations/real-user-validation-plan.md)
 - Backup portability: [docs/operations/backup-portability.md](docs/operations/backup-portability.md)
 - Multi-tenancy: [docs/operations/multi-tenancy.md](docs/operations/multi-tenancy.md)
 - Troubleshooting: [docs/reference/troubleshooting.md](docs/reference/troubleshooting.md)
@@ -91,6 +97,16 @@ make release-gate
 
 ## Documentation Index
 - Repository docs index: [docs/README.md](docs/README.md)
+- Commercialization options: [docs/commercialization-options.md](docs/commercialization-options.md)
+- Early product focus: [docs/early-product-focus.md](docs/early-product-focus.md)
+- Beachhead use case analysis: [docs/beachhead-use-case.md](docs/beachhead-use-case.md)
+- V1 scope definition: [docs/v1-scope.md](docs/v1-scope.md)
+- Backend contract hardening: [docs/backend-contract-hardening.md](docs/backend-contract-hardening.md)
+- Auth, role, and auditability model: [docs/operations/auth-role-audit-model.md](docs/operations/auth-role-audit-model.md)
+- Demo runbook: [docs/operations/demo-runbook.md](docs/operations/demo-runbook.md)
+- Observability requirements: [docs/operations/observability-requirements.md](docs/operations/observability-requirements.md)
+- Primary reliability path: [docs/operations/primary-reliability-path.md](docs/operations/primary-reliability-path.md)
+- Real user validation plan: [docs/operations/real-user-validation-plan.md](docs/operations/real-user-validation-plan.md)
 - Public site source: [site/README.md](site/README.md)
 - Architecture overview: [docs/architecture.md](docs/architecture.md)
 - Support matrix: [docs/reference/support-matrix.md](docs/reference/support-matrix.md)
@@ -113,9 +129,9 @@ make release-gate
 - Phase 2: Cold migration, dashboard, and Veeam integration completed.
 - Phase 3: Warm migration, lifecycle management, and multi-tenancy completed.
 - Phase 4: Scale, extensibility, and automation foundation completed.
-- Release and ecosystem launch: packaging, installability, operator runbooks, ecosystem guidance, and adoption readiness continue as the current refinement track after the first tagged release.
+- Release and ecosystem launch: packaging, installability, operator runbooks, ecosystem guidance, adoption readiness, and early-product hardening continue as the current refinement track after the first tagged release.
 
-See [ROADMAP.md](ROADMAP.md) for the public roadmap and [docs/roadmaps/README.md](docs/roadmaps/README.md) for the archived phase documents.
+See [ROADMAP.md](ROADMAP.md) for the public roadmap, [docs/early-product-focus.md](docs/early-product-focus.md) for the current product wedge and trust boundaries, [docs/beachhead-use-case.md](docs/beachhead-use-case.md) for the wedge decision behind that framing, [docs/v1-scope.md](docs/v1-scope.md) for the frozen first-release support promise, [docs/backend-contract-hardening.md](docs/backend-contract-hardening.md) for the contract-stabilization work needed to support that promise, and [docs/roadmaps/README.md](docs/roadmaps/README.md) for the archived phase documents.
 
 ## Contributing
 Contributions are welcome. See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for development setup, compatibility expectations, testing, documentation expectations, and release-gate workflow guidance.

ROADMAP.md

@@ -4,10 +4,11 @@ Viaduct has completed its first four implementation phases and is now in the rel
 
 ## Current Status
 - Phase 0 through Phase 4 are complete in the repository.
-- The current focus is production packaging, operator experience, ecosystem adoption, release verification, and supportability.
-- Short-term work should favor compatibility, connector depth, installability, observability, certification, and contributor leverage over speculative rewrites.
+- The current focus is early-product hardening: packaging, operator experience, release verification, supportability, and design-partner readiness.
+- Short-term work should favor compatibility, contract clarity, observability, certification, installability, and contributor leverage over speculative rewrites or broad new surface area.
 
 ## Current Priorities
+- narrow the public product story around assessment, planning, and supervised pilot workflows
 - deepen operational confidence with live-environment certification, soak validation, and reproducible release gating
 - strengthen install, upgrade, deployment, and rollback guidance so packaged adoption is low-friction
 - improve observability, API-contract discipline, and operator diagnostics without breaking current workflows
@@ -72,13 +73,15 @@ Detail: [Phase 4 Archive](docs/roadmaps/phase-4.md)
 
 ## Release And Ecosystem Launch
 Current focus:
+- a clearer early-product wedge with explicit trust boundaries
 - polished release bundles and install paths
 - upgrade and rollback guidance
 - operator runbooks and reference environments
 - plugin author onboarding and validation guidance
 - clearer support and compatibility expectations
 
 Expected outcomes:
+- a credible early product centered on assessment, planning, and supervised pilot use
 - a clean stable release flow that is easy to evaluate from source or packaged artifacts
 - documentation that matches the current architecture, API surface, and workflows
 - contributor guidance that reinforces release-gate discipline and compatibility rules

SUPPORT.md

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ Viaduct is maintained as an open source project with best-effort community suppo
 - Use [INSTALL.md](INSTALL.md) and [QUICKSTART.md](QUICKSTART.md) for first-run setup.
 - Use [docs/README.md](docs/README.md) for the full documentation map.
 - Use [docs/reference/troubleshooting.md](docs/reference/troubleshooting.md) for common failure modes and recovery steps.
+- Use [docs/operations/observability-requirements.md](docs/operations/observability-requirements.md) for the current request-correlation, execution-history, and support-debugging model.
 
 ## How To Get Help
 - Installation, usage, or evaluation questions: open a GitHub issue and describe what you are trying to do, what environment you are using, and where you got blocked.
@@ -15,6 +16,8 @@ Viaduct is maintained as an open source project with best-effort community suppo
 
 ## What To Include
 - Viaduct version or commit SHA from `viaduct version`
+- `request_id` from the UI or API response when available
+- `migration_id` or `snapshot_id` when the issue involves execution or discovery history
 - OS and architecture
 - Go and Node versions if building from source
 - connector or platform involved

docs/README.md

@@ -7,6 +7,13 @@ This directory contains the detailed Viaduct documentation set. The repo-root do
 - [Quickstart](getting-started/quickstart.md)
 
 ## Operations
+- [Auth, Role, And Auditability Model](operations/auth-role-audit-model.md)
+- [Demo Runbook](operations/demo-runbook.md)
+- [Demo Presenter Kit](operations/demo/README.md)
+- [Observability Requirements](operations/observability-requirements.md)
+- [Primary Reliability Path](operations/primary-reliability-path.md)
+- [Real User Validation Plan](operations/real-user-validation-plan.md)
+- [Validation Kit Templates](operations/validation/README.md)
 - [Migration Operations](operations/migration-operations.md)
 - [Backup Portability](operations/backup-portability.md)
 - [Multi-Tenancy](operations/multi-tenancy.md)
@@ -15,6 +22,11 @@ This directory contains the detailed Viaduct documentation set. The repo-root do
 
 ## Reference
 - [Architecture Overview](architecture.md)
+- [Commercialization Options](commercialization-options.md)
+- [Early Product Focus](early-product-focus.md)
+- [Beachhead Use Case Analysis](beachhead-use-case.md)
+- [V1 Scope Definition](v1-scope.md)
+- [Backend Contract Hardening](backend-contract-hardening.md)
 - [Configuration Reference](reference/configuration.md)
 - [Support Matrix](reference/support-matrix.md)
 - [Troubleshooting](reference/troubleshooting.md)