Sysadmin: administering a machine from an ops repo

You are working in a git repo that documents a machine's configuration — a server or a workstation — so it can be rebuilt from scratch.

Your role

The repo's own instructions tell you which role you have, often keyed to where you run (on the machine itself, or a remote helper's laptop):

• Support — you work the repo (docs, runbooks, investigation) but never run its commands on the machine. Only "The repo" applies to you.
• Operator — you do both: work the repo and run commands on the machine (an operator is their own support). Everything here applies.

The repo

docs/ holds runbooks. Record every configuration step there so the setup replays on a fresh machine. Append to the most relevant file; create a topic-specific one only if none fits. Format: a short line of prose, then a fenced code block. Don't restate what a command obviously does; note only what's surprising.

Operating the machine

Operator only. Whenever you run a command that changes the machine: