update: wpb-22590 documentation for Fake AWS (SNS/SQS) for websocket by mohitrajain · Pull Request #98 · wireapp/wire-docs

mohitrajain · 2026-02-20T14:25:43Z

Update documentation for Fake AWS (SNS/SQS) for websocket only notifications (no FCM/APNS)

Change type

Documentation change
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Submodule update
Deployment change

Basic information

THIS CHANGE REQUIRES A WIRE-DOCS RELEASE NOW

Testing

I ran/applied the changes myself, in a test environment.

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I mentioned this PR in Jira, OR I mentioned the Jira ticket in this PR.
I mentioned this PR in one of the issues attached to one of our repositories.

…only notifications (no FCM/APNS)

sghosh23

Overall good, may be you can mention for on-prem this chart might be present in the cluster if they installed the wrapper chart fake-aws, in this case for any existing system they just need to expose the sns/sqs Endpoint to the gundeck config to satisfy the gundeck service.

sghosh23 · 2026-02-20T14:29:44Z

src/how-to/install/helm-prod.md

 If you use the fake-aws version, clients will use the websocket method to receive notifications, which keeps connections to the servers open, draining battery.

-Open a terminal and run:
+To enable **websocket-only notifications** (no FCM/APNS), you must:


May be its a good idea to put some context why must and what does the fakeAWS do here? (i.e, for initialization of the gundeck service by design)

I have added 2 more sections:
What is the fake-aws Helm chart?
Why are these Helm charts required when not using APNS/FCM?

you should make clear that websocket only notifications are only available for the android client

sghosh23 · 2026-02-23T10:07:18Z

src/how-to/install/helm-prod.md

+      account: "123456789012"
+      region: "eu-west-1"
+      arnEnv: integration
+      queueName: integration-gundeck-events


account, arnEnv, region, queueName can be any string value i guess

These should follow AWS expected values https://hackage.haskell.org/package/amazonka-1.4.5/docs/Network-AWS.html#t:Credentials, having default should be good.

sghosh23

@mohitrajain good work, added two more comments, please take a look. Let me know if you have any open questions regarding the comment.

sghosh23 · 2026-03-03T09:26:03Z

src/how-to/install/helm-prod.md

+
+### Why are these Helm charts required when not using APNS/FCM?
+
+Even when APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) or FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging) are not used, the `wire-server` component **gundeck** still depends on SNS and SQS APIs for handling notifications and user device events.


for handling notifications and user device events is a bit of misleading because I read it like it implies SNS/SQS play an active role at runtime even without FCM/APNS but they don't.

SNS and SQS are exclusively for native push (FCM/APNS delivery feedback — cleaning up stale tokens). They have zero involvement in websocket-based notification delivery

The truth based on the evidence is: Gundeck unconditionally requires SNS and SQS endpoints to be reachable at startup — even when FCM/APNS are not used because these are hardcoded non-optional config fields with no feature flag to disable them

I would suggest to change the statement or remove it

Confirming with backend team on this behaviour

sghosh23 · 2026-03-03T09:33:53Z

src/how-to/install/helm-prod.md

+
+Even when APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) or FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging) are not used, the `wire-server` component **gundeck** still depends on SNS and SQS APIs for handling notifications and user device events.
+
+When running in websocket-only mode, `gundeck` must still interact with SNS and SQS endpoints. Therefore, these APIs need to be mocked privately inside the Kubernetes cluster. The `fake-aws` Helm chart provides these mocked services so that `gundeck` can function correctly without connecting to real AWS infrastructure.


fake-aws is a group of charts not a single chart. If you want to be more specific
fake-aws-sqs (ElasticMQ) — mocks the SQS API
fake-aws-sns (Localstack) — mocks the SNS API

I have added the links to the chart above and added definitions as well on line 132

fake-aws-sns – a dummy, ephemeral SNS service based on LocalStack. LocalStack allows you to use the SNS APIs in your local environment to coordinate the delivery of messages to subscribing endpoints or clients.

fake-aws-sqs – a dummy, ephemeral SQS service that mocks the Amazon SQS API.

mastaab · 2026-03-06T11:50:17Z

src/how-to/install/helm-prod.md

 If you use the fake-aws version, clients will use the websocket method to receive notifications, which keeps connections to the servers open, draining battery.

-Open a terminal and run:
+To enable **websocket-only notifications** (no FCM/APNS), you must:


you should make clear that websocket only notifications are only available for the android client

mastaab · 2026-03-06T11:52:03Z

src/how-to/install/helm-prod.md

+- **fake-aws-sns** – a dummy, ephemeral SNS service based on LocalStack. LocalStack allows you to use the SNS APIs in your local environment to coordinate the delivery of messages to subscribing endpoints or clients.
+- **fake-aws-sqs** – a dummy, ephemeral SQS service that mocks the Amazon SQS API.
+
+Both services include lightweight custom initialization logic required for Wire’s internal service-to-service communication. They are not intended to replace real AWS in production with native push, but to provide compatible SNS/SQS APIs inside the cluster for websocket-only setups.


only SQS is relevant for inter-service-communication.
SNS is just a mock so the gundeck service has an endpoint to use

update: wpb-22590 documentation for Fake AWS (SNS/SQS) for websocket-…

bc7929f

…only notifications (no FCM/APNS)

mohitrajain requested review from a team as code owners February 20, 2026 14:25

mohitrajain changed the title ~~update: wpb-22590 documentation for Fake AWS (SNS/SQS) for websocket-…~~ update: wpb-22590 documentation for Fake AWS (SNS/SQS) for websocket Feb 20, 2026

sghosh23 reviewed Feb 23, 2026

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document fake-aws Helm chart usage and configuration

02e9a87

sghosh23 reviewed Mar 3, 2026

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edit the document on SQS API usage

651e190

mastaab requested changes Mar 6, 2026

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Enhance documentation for fake-aws Helm chart usage

7c5c329

mastaab approved these changes Mar 9, 2026

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mohitrajain merged commit 904cb77 into main Mar 9, 2026
3 checks passed


		### Why are these Helm charts required when not using APNS/FCM?

		Even when APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) or FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging) are not used, the `wire-server` component gundeck still depends on SNS and SQS APIs for handling notifications and user device events.


		Even when APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) or FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging) are not used, the `wire-server` component gundeck still depends on SNS and SQS APIs for handling notifications and user device events.

		When running in websocket-only mode, `gundeck` must still interact with SNS and SQS endpoints. Therefore, these APIs need to be mocked privately inside the Kubernetes cluster. The `fake-aws` Helm chart provides these mocked services so that `gundeck` can function correctly without connecting to real AWS infrastructure.

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mohitrajain commented Feb 20, 2026 •

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mohitrajain Feb 23, 2026 •

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