ACME SSL automation for Alibaba Cloud ESA DNS

Automatically issue/renew HTTPS certificates using Alibaba Cloud ESA DNS + acme.sh (including wildcard *.example.com + example.com), with optional installation to Nginx. Trigger this skill when the user mentions ESA, ATrustDNS, _acme-challenge, acme.sh, Let's Encrypt, No TXT record found, InvalidRecordNameSuffix, wildcard certificate, or Nginx certificate configuration.

ESA DNS + ACME Certificate Automation

Design Decision (Important)

This skill combines acme.sh + ESA DNS into a single integrated flow, not split into two skills.

Reasons:

1. The two steps are tightly coupled: ACME challenge tokens must be written to ESA DNS immediately.
2. The most common user errors are "validation failed / record written to the wrong panel" — an integrated flow minimizes mistakes.
3. Wildcard scenarios often produce multiple TXT values for the same FQDN; splitting would increase manual synchronization cost.

If there is significant demand for "DNS-only operations" in the future, a separate esa-dns-records helper skill can be extracted.

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When to Trigger

Trigger when any of the following apply:

• Domain NS records are on *.atrustdns.com (ESA-hosted DNS)
• User says "issue certificate with acme.sh", "Let's Encrypt", "DNS-01"
• Error: No TXT record found at _acme-challenge...
• Need to issue example.com + *.example.com together
• Need to auto-write ESA DNS records and install to Nginx

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Supported Environment

• Linux hosts (recommended: Ubuntu tested)
• System-level Nginx (LNMP tested)
• Docker/containerized environments are not supported
• Not tested on Windows/macOS

Prerequisites

Install acme.sh from the official project before using this skill, and review the installation method you choose instead of piping remote scripts directly to a shell:

• https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh

This skill expects acme.sh to be available on PATH. The script also falls back to ~/.acme.sh/acme.sh if present.

Requirements:

• Credentials via ALIYUN_AK / ALIYUN_SK or ALIBABACLOUD_ACCESS_KEY_ID / ALIBABACLOUD_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET
• Optional ESA region hint via ALIYUN_ESA_REGION / ALIBABACLOUD_ESA_REGION / ESA_REGION or --region
• STS token is supported via ALIYUN_SECURITY_TOKEN, ALIBABACLOUD_SECURITY_TOKEN, or --sts-token
• If the user provides credentials directly in OpenClaw chat/TUI as plain id / secret / token values without env names, treat them as generic Alibaba Cloud AccessKeyId / AccessKeySecret / SecurityToken and pass them to --ak / --sk / --sts-token. Do not block on whether the user said Aliyun or Alibaba Cloud; let the script auto-detect the ESA region/site.

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Running the Script

Script path: scripts/esa_acme_issue.py

Default behavior (optimized):

• Certificate installation to Nginx is disabled by default; opt in with --install-cert
• --dns-timeout defaults to 600 seconds
• Region auto-discovery is best-effort; if ESA does not expose DescribeRegions, pass --region to seed site discovery and the script will probe a fallback region list
• Optional IPv4/IPv6 record management: --ensure-a-record host=ip (with authoritative NS propagation check)
• Overwrite protection: existing A value is NOT overwritten unless --confirm-overwrite is passed
• --lang selects output language (default: en; available languages auto-discovered from scripts/i18n/)
• If --install-cert is used, run on a controlled Linux host with permission to write the target cert paths and reload Nginx

Installing automatic renewal cron

Use scripts/install_cron.sh when the user wants this workflow to keep renewing automatically on the host.

What it installs:

• a root-owned env file containing AK/SK (and optional STS token / region hint)
• a wrapper script under /usr/local/sbin/
• a cron entry that runs the wrapper on the requested schedule and logs to /var/log/

Example:

bash

sudo bash scripts/install_cron.sh \
  --wrapper-name dogeow \
  --domains "dogeow.com,*.dogeow.com" \
  --ak YOUR_AK \
  --sk YOUR_SK \
  --region cn-hangzhou \
  --with-nginx-reload

Important:

• This is the recommended way to automate renewal for ESA zones, because default acme.sh --cron does not know how to create ESA DNS TXT records by itself.
• If the user wants installed nginx cert paths, also pass --cert-path / --key-path and optionally --reload-cmd.

Single domain

bash

export ALIYUN_AK='YOUR_AK'
export ALIYUN_SK='YOUR_SK'
export ALIYUN_SECURITY_TOKEN='YOUR_STS_TOKEN'   # optional but recommended
python3 scripts/esa_acme_issue.py \
  -d test.example.com

Equivalent Alibaba Cloud env names are also accepted:

bash

export ALIBABACLOUD_ACCESS_KEY_ID='YOUR_AK'
export ALIBABACLOUD_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET='YOUR_SK'
export ALIBABACLOUD_SECURITY_TOKEN='YOUR_STS_TOKEN'   # optional

Apex + wildcard (recommended order)

bash

export ALIYUN_AK='YOUR_AK'
export ALIYUN_SK='YOUR_SK'
python3 scripts/esa_acme_issue.py \
  -d example.com \
  -d '*.example.com'

Wildcard only

bash

python3 scripts/esa_acme_issue.py \
  -d '*.example.com'

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Correct Nginx Configuration

nginx

ssl_certificate     /etc/nginx/ssl/example.com.crt;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/example.com.key;

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Completion Criteria (Anti False-Positive)

Before reporting "record created / DNS ready", both conditions must be met:

1. ListRecords returns the target RecordName + Type + Value;
2. Authoritative NS dig @ns TXT returns the expected token.

If only the CreateRecord API returned success (RequestId/RecordId only) without passing both checks above, report "request accepted", not "completed".

Troubleshooting Quick Reference

1. InvalidRecordNameSuffix

   • Domain suffix does not belong to the current ESA site (common typo).

2. No TXT record found at _acme-challenge...

   • TXT not yet propagated to all authoritative NS; increase --dns-timeout to 300–600.

3. Permission / signature errors after setting AccessKey IP whitelist

   • Check current public egress IP: curl -s ifconfig.me
   • Whitelist the actual egress NAT IP (not LAN IP)
   • If behind proxy/gateway, whitelist the proxy egress IP
   • Wait briefly after whitelist update before retrying

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Security Guidelines

Before each execution, remind the user:

1. Use a RAM sub-account with minimal permissions. Do NOT use the primary account long-term AK.
2. Prefer STS temporary credentials to reduce leak risk.
3. Enable AccessKey IP whitelist, allowing only the actual egress NAT IP.