No snaps installed on a new ubuntu core port (kernel, gadget)

the mainline kernel does not have all the required security patches (apparmor mainly) and will not have the correct config options set, you should start from an ubuntu kernel git tree instead …

along with that you will need to use a kernel plugin, not the nil plugin, to make sure the snap has everything as needed in the right places …

Should the pc-kernel key be in the assertion model even if we build one kenel snap that is custom ?

There needs to be a kernel entry defined in the model and the name needs to match the snap name.