# Product

Iron is a self-hosted personal cloud drive gateway. The product goal is to give
one person a familiar browser drive experience while keeping storage placement,
repair, and metadata ownership under their control.

## Current Stage

Iron is a **Product MVP Candidate**.

Implemented:

- local authentication and browser login
- file browser with folders, search, sort, pagination, and an inspector panel
- create folder, upload, rename, move, delete, restore, download, and image preview
- uploads, recycle bin, storage, and jobs pages
- backend config edit, enable, disable, and health check actions
- guarded backend delete workflow and batch health checks
- placement policy editing and decision preview
- file replica visibility and manual reconcile from the inspector
- automatic full reconcile enqueue after policy changes
- local directory backend persistence
- S3 runtime replication and remote fallback reads
- OpenList/WebDAV backend configuration, dedicated remote root path, upload,
  download, and health-check path
- placement policies and reconcile jobs
- metadata export, validate, integrity, restore-plan, and guarded import
- Python Playwright E2E coverage for the core browser flow

Still needs hardening before a polished release:

- better browser session and bootstrap credential UX
- deeper PDF/video preview coverage
- richer preview derivative generation
- stronger post-restore and repair visibility
- mobile and narrow-screen refinement

## MVP Cutline

A first usable MVP should let one person:

- deploy a single gateway node
- log in from a browser
- browse, upload, preview, download, rename, move, delete, and restore files
- use local storage and at least one remote backend
- inspect backend health and failed work
- export and validate metadata for recovery

Not required for the first MVP:

- desktop sync client
- mobile native app
- public share links
- full-text search
- cross-file deduplication
- erasure coding
- advanced media indexing

## Roadmap

Near-term:

- harden Web UI flows with Playwright-backed regression
- improve session management and onboarding
- expand PDF/video preview tests
- improve upload targeting and progress feedback
- refine storage and jobs pages around real user tasks

Later:

- Baidu adapter
- richer cache policy
- share links
- desktop and mobile clients
- stronger media workflows
- advanced repair orchestration