# Overview

This is an Attestation Store application built with Flask that provides a secure system for storing, managing, and retrieving attestation evidence. The system supports multiple storage backends, RFC 5424 compliant logging, and provides both REST API endpoints and a web interface for managing attestations and system logs.

# User Preferences

Preferred communication style: Simple, everyday language.

# System Architecture

## Backend Framework
- **Flask** as the core web framework with SQLAlchemy for database operations
- **Flask-JWT-Extended** for API authentication and authorization
- **Werkzeug** for password hashing and security utilities

## Database Design
- Uses SQLAlchemy ORM with a declarative base model approach
- Core entities:
  - **Users**: Authentication and user management
  - **Attestations**: Storage metadata for evidence files with deduplication support
  - **SystemLog**: RFC 5424 compliant logging entries
  - **UploadSession**: Temporary upload session tracking
- Supports both SQLite (development) and PostgreSQL (production) through configurable DATABASE_URL

## Authentication & Authorization
- JWT-based authentication for API endpoints
- Session-based authentication for web interface
- Custom decorators (`jwt_required_with_logging`, `optional_jwt_with_logging`) that combine authentication with automatic audit logging
- Default admin user creation on first run

## Storage Architecture
- **Pluggable storage backends** through abstract `StorageBackend` interface
- **File Storage Backend**: Local filesystem storage with direct file serving
- **Cloud Storage Support**: Designed for AWS S3 and MinIO integration
- **Presigned URLs**: For secure direct uploads and downloads
- **Upload Session Management**: Temporary sessions for handling multi-part uploads

## Logging System
- **RFC 5424 compliant** structured logging
- Centralized logging through `logging_utils.py`
- Database storage of all system events
- Severity-based filtering (Emergency to Debug levels)
- Automatic user activity tracking and audit trails

## API Structure
- **RESTful API design** with blueprint-based organization
- **Evidence API** (`/api/evidence`): Upload, retrieve, and manage attestations
- **Authentication API** (`/api/login`): User authentication endpoints  
- **Syslog API** (`/api/syslog`): RFC 5424 log ingestion endpoint
- **Consistent error handling** with structured JSON responses

## Web Interface
- **Bootstrap-based responsive design** with dark theme support
- **Template inheritance** using Jinja2
- **Dashboard views** for attestations, logs, and system status
- **Real-time filtering and search** capabilities
- **File upload interface** with progress tracking

## Configuration Management
- **Environment-based configuration** through the `Config` class
- **Storage backend selection** via STORAGE_TYPE environment variable
- **Flexible deployment options** supporting both development and production environments
- **Default credential setup** for initial deployment

# External Dependencies

## Core Framework Dependencies
- **Flask**: Web framework and request handling
- **SQLAlchemy**: Database ORM and migrations
- **Flask-JWT-Extended**: JWT token management
- **Werkzeug**: WSGI utilities and security functions

## Storage Integration
- **boto3**: AWS S3 integration for cloud storage
- **minio**: MinIO client for self-hosted object storage
- **Local filesystem**: Default file storage backend

## Frontend Libraries
- **Bootstrap 5**: UI components and responsive design
- **Feather Icons**: Icon library for consistent UI elements
- **Axios**: HTTP client for API communication

## Database Support
- **SQLite**: Development and lightweight deployments
- **PostgreSQL**: Production database backend (configurable)

## Development Tools
- **Python logging**: Built-in logging with custom RFC 5424 formatting
- **Flask development server**: Built-in development environment