`kars up` fails on Azure: ACR `trustPolicy` is hardcoded to `enabled`, which Azure now rejects

[appliedi]

Summary

kars up cannot complete on Azure. The ARM deployment fails because modules/acr.bicep sets the ACR Content Trust policy unconditionally, and Azure now rejects that value.

Version

• @kars-runtime/cli@0.1.26 (latest published at time of writing)
• --release v0.1.26
• Azure CLI 2.85.0

Error

ContentTrustUnsupported: The value 'enabled' for property 'status' in 'trustPolicy'
is not supported. Content Trust is being deprecated and will be completely removed
on March 31, 2028. Refer to https://aka.ms/acr/dctdeprecation

Surfaced as a nested failure under the <baseName>-acr deployment.

Root cause

dist/deploy/bicep/modules/acr.bicep:

policies: {
  trustPolicy: {
    type: 'Notary'
    status: 'enabled'
  }
}

This is unconditional. It is also baked into the compiled main.json. There is no CLI flag or Bicep parameter that disables it, so no supported configuration avoids the failure.

Reproduction

npx @kars-runtime/cli@0.1.26 up \
  --region <region> \
  --resource-group <rg> \
  --cluster-name <name> \
  --release v0.1.26 \
  --yes

Fails during az deployment group create.

Impact

Blocks first deployment entirely. Because v0.1.26 is the latest published release, there is no newer artifact to move to.

Note that the deployment fails after ACR, Log Analytics, Application Insights and an Azure OpenAI account have already been created, and these are not rolled back (filed separately).

Suggested fix

Remove the trustPolicy block. Content Trust / Notary v1 is deprecated; the modern equivalent is Notation + cosign-style artifact signing verified at admission, which is orthogonal to the registry policy.

Removing the block locally was sufficient to get past this error.

[pallakatos]

Thanks Jess (@appliedi) for the clear reproduction. We have confirmed that the current public main still emits the deprecated Notary v1 trustPolicy in the ACR template, and current Azure rejects it. We are treating this together with #516, #517, and #518 as one kars up deployment-safety workstream. The fix will remove the obsolete ACR setting from both source and packaged deployment assets without weakening Kars image-signing or admission verification. We will post the validation evidence here before closing.

[pallakatos]

Jess (@appliedi), the proposed fix is now available in draft #531 and its full CI/security matrix is green. When you have bandwidth, could you retry the original fresh-deployment path using the branch instructions posted on #531?

The specific acceptance check for this issue is that deployment proceeds past ACR creation without emitting or submitting the deprecated Notary v1 trustPolicy. Please use disposable non-production resources and post any remaining failure, with sensitive identifiers redacted, on #531 so we can address it before merge. Thank you again for offering to test the patch.

[pallakatos]

The draft fix is now available in #531 and the complete CI matrix is green. This removes the deprecated Notary v1 trustPolicy from both source and packaged deployment assets.

Jess (@appliedi), if you have time to rerun your original kars up path from the draft branch, confirmation that ACR provisioning now passes would be very helpful. The PR remains draft while we collect deployment feedback.