project-black-tape

Project Black-Tape Overhaul

This repo is the overhaul workspace for the next version of Black-Tape.

It is intentionally separate from Project-Blacktape-Main. The goal here is to split the system into two clearer parts:

• black_tape_engine: the Python ingestion/search tool
• black_tape_web: the hosted web application that calls into the engine

Why this structure

The current Main repo mixes ingestion logic, cache handling, routes, templates, and UI concerns in one place. This overhaul creates a boundary so the Python tool can run as a web-hosted service instead of the web app and engine being tightly interwoven.

Layout

src/
  black_tape_engine/
    engine.py
    legacy_core/
    legacy_ingesters/
    legacy_scanners/
    legacy_processors/
    legacy_exporters/
    legacy_display/
  black_tape_web/
    __init__.py
    blueprints/
    services/
    templates/
    static/
run.py
pyproject.toml

Current state

• The legacy processing code has been copied in as a migration base.
• The new Flask app uses an app factory plus blueprints.
• The web layer talks to the engine through a VaultService.
• Existing frontend routes were preserved where practical so the current UI can keep functioning while the overhaul proceeds.

Run locally

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python run.py

The app will start on http://127.0.0.1:5000.

Deploy on Render

This repo is ready for Render with the included render.yaml.

Minimum environment variables:

SECRET_KEY=<long-random-secret>
SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE=1

Optional:

BLACKTAPE_PASSWORD=<deployment-password>

Leave BLACKTAPE_PASSWORD unset if you want the app to be openly accessible without a login wall.

Recommended privacy setting:

BLACKTAPE_CACHE_TTL=900

That keeps uploaded vault data for 15 minutes before it is expired and actively cleaned from the server cache.

Render will run the app with:

gunicorn -c gunicorn.conf.py run:app

Runtime notes:

• uploads and cache data are written to /tmp/black-tape-instance by default on Render
• the filesystem is ephemeral, so uploaded vault data will not persist across redeploys or restarts
• uploaded files are deleted immediately after ingestion, and parsed vault data expires automatically after BLACKTAPE_CACHE_TTL seconds
• if you need persistence later, move cache/upload storage to a persistent disk or external store

Privacy

• this repo should not contain real account exports, screenshots, or raw archive files
• tests use synthetic in-memory fixtures rather than committed personal datasets
• local secrets and raw exports are excluded with .gitignore