2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
#!/usr/bin/env bash
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
# box — trust-less, isolated Incus VMs with Claude Code, creds-free.
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
# The command surface is the CMDS table below: it is the single source of truth
# for what exists, what it looks like, what the help says, and what runs. The
# help cannot drift from the code, because it is rendered from the same rows.
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
set -euo pipefail
root="$(cd "$(dirname "$(readlink -f "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")")/.." && pwd)"
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
remote=""; mode="auto"; name=""; from=""; template=""; force=0; json=0; want_help=0
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
cpu=""; memory=""; disk=""; instance_only=0
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
inst="" # the resolved Incus instance, set by the 'box' precondition
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
die() { echo "box: $*" >&2; exit 1; } # 1 = it went wrong
usage_error() { echo "box: $*" >&2; echo "try 'box help'." >&2; exit 2; } # 2 = you asked wrong
version() { echo "box $(cat "$root/VERSION" 2>/dev/null || echo unknown) ($root)"; }
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
feat: the restricted tier — box grant/revoke converge users onto the hardened boxnet (#74)
incus-user confines an incus-group user to their own project, but its
defaults miss box's contract three measured ways (Debian 13 / Incus 6.0.4):
a private UNHARDENED NAT bridge per user (ipv6.nat=true, no ACL, no DNS
isolation), snapshots blocked, and the box-net profile invisible to their
project. So the tier is an admin-run idempotent convergence:
box grant <user> # incus group; touch incus-user (the project is lazy);
# drop the private-bridge eth0 from their default
# profile; restricted.networks.access=boxnet — and ONLY
# boxnet, or the unhardened bridge stays one --network
# flag away; restricted.snapshots=allow; install the
# shipped box-net profile into their project
box revoke <user> # group removal closes the socket, boxes keep running
--purge # ...or delete their world, and assert the absence
box_tier() (live credentials, argless id -nG; byte-identical copy in
setup-host.sh) drives the tier-aware surface: new pre-flights the profile
and names the right fix per tier, expose refuses before any daemon call
(without the guard the failure is a lie — restricted certs cannot read
boxnet's redacted config, so box_net_ip claims a running box has no
address), setup-host exits 0 with the honest note, doctor judges only what
the caller can see.
Also fixed while the rehearsal exercised the lifecycle: box restore
dispatched 'incus restore', which does not exist in Incus 6 (it is
'incus snapshot restore') — the verb had never worked. Fixed for every tier.
Convergence survives incus-user restarts by that tool's own design (it
configures a project only at creation) — read in its source, then measured.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 04:09:13 +00:00
# Which tier is THIS PROCESS? Decided from live credentials (argless 'id -nG':
# what the kernel will present when incus opens the socket), never from the
# group database — the two disagree for exactly as long as a re-login is
# pending, and that window is where every wrong answer lives.
# UID 0 / incus-admin -> admin (the full daemon socket)
# incus (only) -> restricted (incus-user: your own project, nothing else)
# neither -> none (no socket at all)
# host/setup-host.sh carries a byte-identical copy (it runs before any install
# tree exists); test/cli.sh diffs the two so they cannot drift.
box_tier() {
[ "$(id -u)" -eq 0 ] && { printf 'admin\n'; return; }
local groups; groups="$(id -nG 2>/dev/null | tr ' ' '\n')"
if printf '%s\n' "$groups" | grep -qx incus-admin; then printf 'admin\n'
elif printf '%s\n' "$groups" | grep -qx incus; then printf 'restricted\n'
else printf 'none\n'
fi
}
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# The command table.
#
# verb ^ synopsis args ^ preconditions ^ one-line summary ^ action ^ ok message
#
# Fields are ^-separated because a synopsis may contain '|' ([--vm|--container]).
#
# preconditions (comma-separated):
# box first positional is a box: resolve it, and REFUSE if the instance
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
# isn't tagged user.box=1 (or the legacy user.claudebox=1) — the boundary, enforced, not assumed
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
# arg2 a second positional is required
# stopped the box must not be running
# confirm destructive: prompt unless --force
#
# action:
# incus:<subcommand> run `incus <subcommand> <instance> [rest...]`
# fn:<function> call a shell function (it has real work to do)
#
# ok message: printed on success; {} = the box, {1} = the second positional.
#
# Adding a thin verb is one row. If a request can't be expressed as a row and
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
# doesn't enforce a box invariant, it is incus's job, not ours — that is
# what `box incus` is for.
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
CMDS=(
feat(new): inline resource overrides — --cpu, --memory, --disk (#57)
Resolution is most-specific-first: flag > BOX_* env (kept — it is the
scripting form and how the drill shrinks boxes on small hosts) > the
template's box.env > defaults. Values pass to Incus verbatim (limits.cpu,
limits.memory, root size=) — its units, its validation; box adds no
parser. Resources are all a flag can touch: there is still no flag for a
network or a security.* key, on purpose.
Flags shape a fresh mint only — --from refuses them, a clone carries its
source's resources. An explicit --disk on a container mint gets a note
instead of a silent drop (a container's root rides the pool).
The drill's blank mint now carries --cpu 1 --memory 1GiB and asserts the
limits landed — which is also the precedence proof, since the drill
exports BOX_CPU/BOX_MEMORY on small hosts — plus a negative check that
--from refuses resource flags.
Verified live (container mint, image cached): BOX_CPU=3 + --cpu 1
--memory 1GiB → limits.cpu=1, limits.memory=1GiB; --from + --cpu exits 2
before touching anything; container --disk prints the note.
Closes #57
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-15 00:17:33 +00:00
"new^--name <box> [--template <t>] [--from <src>[/<snap>]] [--cpu <n>] [--memory <size>] [--disk <size>] [--vm|--container]^^Mint a box from a template (default: blank), or --from an existing box/snapshot^fn:cmd_new^"
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
"templates^^^List the templates this install can mint^fn:cmd_templates^"
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
"list^[--json]^^List your boxes^fn:cmd_list^"
"info^<box> [--json]^box^One box: state, type, IP, and its snapshot labels^fn:cmd_info^"
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
"shell^<box>^box^Open a shell in a box, as its template's user^fn:cmd_shell^"
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
"exec^<box> -- <cmd...>^box^Run a command inside a box^fn:cmd_exec^"
2026-07-14 13:10:59 +00:00
"tmux^<box> [<session>]^box^Attach or create a tmux session in a box — survives disconnects^fn:cmd_tmux^"
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
"snapshot^<box> [<label>]^box^Checkpoint a box (label defaults to manual-<epoch>)^fn:cmd_snapshot^"
feat: the restricted tier — box grant/revoke converge users onto the hardened boxnet (#74)
incus-user confines an incus-group user to their own project, but its
defaults miss box's contract three measured ways (Debian 13 / Incus 6.0.4):
a private UNHARDENED NAT bridge per user (ipv6.nat=true, no ACL, no DNS
isolation), snapshots blocked, and the box-net profile invisible to their
project. So the tier is an admin-run idempotent convergence:
box grant <user> # incus group; touch incus-user (the project is lazy);
# drop the private-bridge eth0 from their default
# profile; restricted.networks.access=boxnet — and ONLY
# boxnet, or the unhardened bridge stays one --network
# flag away; restricted.snapshots=allow; install the
# shipped box-net profile into their project
box revoke <user> # group removal closes the socket, boxes keep running
--purge # ...or delete their world, and assert the absence
box_tier() (live credentials, argless id -nG; byte-identical copy in
setup-host.sh) drives the tier-aware surface: new pre-flights the profile
and names the right fix per tier, expose refuses before any daemon call
(without the guard the failure is a lie — restricted certs cannot read
boxnet's redacted config, so box_net_ip claims a running box has no
address), setup-host exits 0 with the honest note, doctor judges only what
the caller can see.
Also fixed while the rehearsal exercised the lifecycle: box restore
dispatched 'incus restore', which does not exist in Incus 6 (it is
'incus snapshot restore') — the verb had never worked. Fixed for every tier.
Convergence survives incus-user restarts by that tool's own design (it
configures a project only at creation) — read in its source, then measured.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 04:09:13 +00:00
"restore^<box> <snapshot>^box,arg2^Roll a box back to one of its snapshots^incus:snapshot restore^restored {} to {1}"
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
"export^<box> [<file>] [--instance-only]^box^Export a stopped box to one portable file — it survives 'box rm' and this host^fn:cmd_export^"
"import^<file> [--name <box>]^^Mint a box from an exported file, re-stamped onto this host's stack^fn:cmd_import^"
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
"rename^<box> <new-name>^box,arg2,stopped^Rename a box (it must be stopped first)^incus:rename^renamed {} to {1}"
"down^<box>^box^Stop a box, keeping its state ('start' resumes it)^incus:stop^stopped {}"
"start^<box>^box^Start a stopped box^incus:start^started {}"
"rm^<box> [--force]^box,confirm^Delete a box and its snapshots — irreversible, and it asks first^incus:delete -f^removed {}"
feat: 'box expose <box> <port>' — a deliberate, loopback-only door to a dev server
The 'no inbound path' contract is one notch too absolute for the tool's
own flagship workflow: coding in a box, a dev server on :3000, and no
way to open it in your browser. expose is the deliberate un-screwing.
- Loopback only, always: the host side listens on 127.0.0.1, never
0.0.0.0 — no other machine can reach the box; only this host gets a
door. No flag widens it (that is the escape hatch's job).
- A verb, per-port, reversible, visible: each exposure is a named proxy
device (expose-<port>); --list and box info show it, --remove undoes
it. A box with a hole says so.
- Mechanism (VMs): an Incus proxy device forwards host loopback to the
box's ip:port, plus a SCOPED ingress ACL allow (this box's ip + this
port only) so the forkproxy's connection survives the default drop —
the drill decides whether that allow is needed or redundant. The
in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (a VM's forwarder reaches it over
the network); inside an isolated box that is safe.
Drill phase E: start a detached listener in a box, expose it, prove the
HOST loopback reaches it, prove a NON-exposed port is still dropped (A7
survives), prove --remove shuts the door.
Closes #55
2026-07-14 16:07:17 +00:00
"expose^<box> <port> [<host-port>] | --list | --remove <port>^box^Forward a box port to the host's loopback — see a dev server^fn:cmd_expose^"
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
"incus^<box> -- <args...>^box^Escape hatch: run any incus command against a box^fn:cmd_incus^"
2026-07-14 13:13:18 +00:00
"doctor^[--fix | --pin-dns]^^Is this host fit to mint boxes? Diagnose the daemon, network, DNS, isolation^fn:cmd_doctor^"
2026-07-14 18:01:34 +00:00
"setup-host^^^One-time host setup: Incus, the boxnet stack, the profile, the firewall^fn:cmd_setup_host^"
feat: the restricted tier — box grant/revoke converge users onto the hardened boxnet (#74)
incus-user confines an incus-group user to their own project, but its
defaults miss box's contract three measured ways (Debian 13 / Incus 6.0.4):
a private UNHARDENED NAT bridge per user (ipv6.nat=true, no ACL, no DNS
isolation), snapshots blocked, and the box-net profile invisible to their
project. So the tier is an admin-run idempotent convergence:
box grant <user> # incus group; touch incus-user (the project is lazy);
# drop the private-bridge eth0 from their default
# profile; restricted.networks.access=boxnet — and ONLY
# boxnet, or the unhardened bridge stays one --network
# flag away; restricted.snapshots=allow; install the
# shipped box-net profile into their project
box revoke <user> # group removal closes the socket, boxes keep running
--purge # ...or delete their world, and assert the absence
box_tier() (live credentials, argless id -nG; byte-identical copy in
setup-host.sh) drives the tier-aware surface: new pre-flights the profile
and names the right fix per tier, expose refuses before any daemon call
(without the guard the failure is a lie — restricted certs cannot read
boxnet's redacted config, so box_net_ip claims a running box has no
address), setup-host exits 0 with the honest note, doctor judges only what
the caller can see.
Also fixed while the rehearsal exercised the lifecycle: box restore
dispatched 'incus restore', which does not exist in Incus 6 (it is
'incus snapshot restore') — the verb had never worked. Fixed for every tier.
Convergence survives incus-user restarts by that tool's own design (it
configures a project only at creation) — read in its source, then measured.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 04:09:13 +00:00
"grant^<user>^^Admin: give a host user the restricted tier — their own boxes, on the hardened boxnet^fn:cmd_grant^"
"revoke^<user> [--purge]^^Admin: take the restricted tier back (--purge also deletes their boxes)^fn:cmd_revoke^"
2026-07-14 18:01:34 +00:00
"teardown-host^[--purge-incus]^^Remove the box host stack (both name generations)^fn:cmd_teardown_host^"
"migrate-host^--box <n> | --all-boxes | --retire-legacy^^Move a host from the pre-0.4.0 stack onto box^fn:cmd_migrate_host^"
2026-07-18 16:01:57 +00:00
"versions^^^List the installed box versions — the current default and the running one^fn:cmd_versions^"
"use^<version>^^Switch the default box version (refuses while boxes exist)^fn:cmd_use^"
"uninstall^[<version>] [--all] [--purge-host]^^Remove one installed version, or the whole install — asks first, asserts the absence^fn:cmd_uninstall^"
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
"status^^^Deprecated alias for 'list'^fn:cmd_status^"
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
"help^[<command>]^^This help, or 'box help <command>' for one command^fn:cmd_help^"
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
)
cmd_row() { local r; for r in "${CMDS[@]}"; do case "$r" in "$1^"*) echo "$r"; return 0 ;; esac; done; return 1; }
verbs() { local r; for r in "${CMDS[@]}"; do echo "${r%%^*}"; done; }
is_command() { cmd_row "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1; }
# locals matter here: dispatch holds $pre/$action/$ok, and field() is called from
# error paths inside it — a global read would clobber the row being dispatched.
field() {
local r f_syn f_pre f_sum f_act f_ok
r="$(cmd_row "$1")" || return 1
IFS='^' read -r _ f_syn f_pre f_sum f_act f_ok <<<"$r"
case "$2" in
syn) echo "$f_syn" ;; pre) echo "$f_pre" ;; sum) echo "$f_sum" ;;
act) echo "$f_act" ;; ok) echo "$f_ok" ;;
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
esac
}
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
synopsis_of() { local s; s="$(field "$1" syn)"; echo "box $1${s:+ $s}"; }
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
# Nearest command by edit distance — a typo should point somewhere, not just fail.
suggest() {
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
verbs | awk -v w="$(printf '%s' "$1" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')" '
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
function dist(a, b, la, lb, i, j, c, prev, cur) {
la = length(a); lb = length(b)
for (j = 0; j <= lb; j++) prev[j] = j
for (i = 1; i <= la; i++) {
cur[0] = i
for (j = 1; j <= lb; j++) {
c = (substr(a, i, 1) == substr(b, j, 1)) ? 0 : 1
cur[j] = prev[j] + 1
if (cur[j - 1] + 1 < cur[j]) cur[j] = cur[j - 1] + 1
if (prev[j - 1] + c < cur[j]) cur[j] = prev[j - 1] + c
}
for (j = 0; j <= lb; j++) prev[j] = cur[j]
}
return prev[lb]
}
BEGIN { best = 99 }
{ d = dist(w, $0); if (d < best) { best = d; hit = $0 } }
END { if (best <= 2) print hit }'
}
unknown_command() {
local hint; hint="$(suggest "$1")"
if [ -n "$hint" ]; then
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: unknown command: $1 — did you mean '$hint'?" >&2
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
else
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: unknown command: $1" >&2
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
fi
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "try 'box help' for the command list." >&2
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
exit 2
}
usage() {
cat <<'EOF'
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box — trust-less, network-isolated Incus VMs with Claude Code, creds-free.
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
USAGE
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box <command> [<args>] [options]
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
COMMANDS
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
EOF
local r v sum
for r in "${CMDS[@]}"; do
IFS='^' read -r v _ _ sum _ _ <<<"$r"
2026-07-14 18:01:34 +00:00
printf ' %-13s %s\n' "$v" "$sum"
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
done
cat <<'EOF'
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
OPTIONS
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
--name <box> Name for the new box (new, import)
feat!: rename the host stack too, default to blank, drill the templates, add wipe
Follow-up to the rename, per operator direction — the divergence is
reversed and the cut is complete:
- Host stack: boxnet (10.88.0.0/24 — a pre-rename host may still carry
claudenet on 10.87, two bridges must not claim one subnet),
box-isolate, nft tables 'inet box'/'bridge box', box-firewall.{sh,
service}. teardown-host now strips BOTH name generations, so one
script uninstalls a host of any age.
- Default template is blank: 'box new --name x' mints bare Debian;
the claude box is '--template claude'. The login hint follows the
EFFECTIVE template read off the instance, so clones of claude boxes
still get it and blank boxes are not told to run a binary they lack.
- The drill validates templates: listing, unknown-template refusal,
the allowlist rejecting BOX_NETWORK by name, and a full blank mint —
default resolves to blank, metadata stamped, box-net placement, exec
lands in 'dev', no claude binary, and isolation parity (egress +
pinned DNS) on the same contract as every template.
- drill/wipe.sh: scorched earth for drill hosts. Both tag generations,
every drill-named instance, networks/ACLs/profiles/firewall of both
generations, cached images, and (--purge-storage) the default pool.
Ends by asserting the ABSENCE of every artifact rather than trusting
the removals' exit codes.
2026-07-14 14:36:39 +00:00
--template <t> Template to mint from (default: blank) (new)
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
--from <src>[/<snap>] Clone from box <src>, or from its snapshot (new)
--vm Force VM mode: the trust-less target (new)
--container Force container mode: weaker isolation, (new)
dev/test only. Default where /dev/kvm is absent.
--json Emit Incus JSON instead of a table (list, info)
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
--instance-only Export the live state only, no snapshots (export)
2026-07-18 18:13:01 +00:00
--force, -f Delete without asking (rm); overwrite the file (export)
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
--remote <r> Act on Incus remote <r> (any)
--help, -h Help; after a command, help for that command
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
--version, -V Print the box version
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
Options come after the command: 'box list --json', not 'box --json list'.
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
EXAMPLES
feat!: rename the host stack too, default to blank, drill the templates, add wipe
Follow-up to the rename, per operator direction — the divergence is
reversed and the cut is complete:
- Host stack: boxnet (10.88.0.0/24 — a pre-rename host may still carry
claudenet on 10.87, two bridges must not claim one subnet),
box-isolate, nft tables 'inet box'/'bridge box', box-firewall.{sh,
service}. teardown-host now strips BOTH name generations, so one
script uninstalls a host of any age.
- Default template is blank: 'box new --name x' mints bare Debian;
the claude box is '--template claude'. The login hint follows the
EFFECTIVE template read off the instance, so clones of claude boxes
still get it and blank boxes are not told to run a binary they lack.
- The drill validates templates: listing, unknown-template refusal,
the allowlist rejecting BOX_NETWORK by name, and a full blank mint —
default resolves to blank, metadata stamped, box-net placement, exec
lands in 'dev', no claude binary, and isolation parity (egress +
pinned DNS) on the same contract as every template.
- drill/wipe.sh: scorched earth for drill hosts. Both tag generations,
every drill-named instance, networks/ACLs/profiles/firewall of both
generations, cached images, and (--purge-storage) the default pool.
Ends by asserting the ABSENCE of every artifact rather than trusting
the removals' exit codes.
2026-07-14 14:36:39 +00:00
# mint a claude box and log in inside it — the tool never handles your token
box new --name work --template claude
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box shell work # then: run 'claude', then /login
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
# log in once, reuse forever: checkpoint the authed box, clone from it
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box snapshot work authed
box new --name feature --from work/authed
feat!: rename the host stack too, default to blank, drill the templates, add wipe
Follow-up to the rename, per operator direction — the divergence is
reversed and the cut is complete:
- Host stack: boxnet (10.88.0.0/24 — a pre-rename host may still carry
claudenet on 10.87, two bridges must not claim one subnet),
box-isolate, nft tables 'inet box'/'bridge box', box-firewall.{sh,
service}. teardown-host now strips BOTH name generations, so one
script uninstalls a host of any age.
- Default template is blank: 'box new --name x' mints bare Debian;
the claude box is '--template claude'. The login hint follows the
EFFECTIVE template read off the instance, so clones of claude boxes
still get it and blank boxes are not told to run a binary they lack.
- The drill validates templates: listing, unknown-template refusal,
the allowlist rejecting BOX_NETWORK by name, and a full blank mint —
default resolves to blank, metadata stamped, box-net placement, exec
lands in 'dev', no claude binary, and isolation parity (egress +
pinned DNS) on the same contract as every template.
- drill/wipe.sh: scorched earth for drill hosts. Both tag generations,
every drill-named instance, networks/ACLs/profiles/firewall of both
generations, cached images, and (--purge-storage) the default pool.
Ends by asserting the ABSENCE of every artifact rather than trusting
the removals' exit codes.
2026-07-14 14:36:39 +00:00
# the default: a blank box — same isolation, nobody home
box new --name scratch
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box templates
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
# what have I got, and what can I clone?
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box list
box info work
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
# a box that outlives this host: one portable file, credentials inside
box down work
box export work # → work-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz — guard it like a credential
box import work-<stamp>.tar.gz --name work2
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
# run something without opening a shell
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box exec work -- git -C project pull
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
# anything box doesn't wrap: boxes are plain Incus instances
box incus work -- config show
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
EXIT STATUS
0 ok
1 it went wrong (Incus failed, no such box, aborted at a prompt)
2 you asked wrong (unknown command, bad flag, destructive act without --force)
THE MODEL
A box carries NO credentials. You authenticate interactively inside it
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
('claude' then /login; 'gh auth login'); box never stores or injects a
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
secret. A box reaches the public internet and nothing else — there is no
inbound path. Destroying a box loses nothing you didn't push.
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box owns a command when it must enforce something Incus cannot see: the
user.box=1 boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot
workflow. Everything else is Incus's job — and 'box incus' is the door.
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
feat: the restricted tier — box grant/revoke converge users onto the hardened boxnet (#74)
incus-user confines an incus-group user to their own project, but its
defaults miss box's contract three measured ways (Debian 13 / Incus 6.0.4):
a private UNHARDENED NAT bridge per user (ipv6.nat=true, no ACL, no DNS
isolation), snapshots blocked, and the box-net profile invisible to their
project. So the tier is an admin-run idempotent convergence:
box grant <user> # incus group; touch incus-user (the project is lazy);
# drop the private-bridge eth0 from their default
# profile; restricted.networks.access=boxnet — and ONLY
# boxnet, or the unhardened bridge stays one --network
# flag away; restricted.snapshots=allow; install the
# shipped box-net profile into their project
box revoke <user> # group removal closes the socket, boxes keep running
--purge # ...or delete their world, and assert the absence
box_tier() (live credentials, argless id -nG; byte-identical copy in
setup-host.sh) drives the tier-aware surface: new pre-flights the profile
and names the right fix per tier, expose refuses before any daemon call
(without the guard the failure is a lie — restricted certs cannot read
boxnet's redacted config, so box_net_ip claims a running box has no
address), setup-host exits 0 with the honest note, doctor judges only what
the caller can see.
Also fixed while the rehearsal exercised the lifecycle: box restore
dispatched 'incus restore', which does not exist in Incus 6 (it is
'incus snapshot restore') — the verb had never worked. Fixed for every tier.
Convergence survives incus-user restarts by that tool's own design (it
configures a project only at creation) — read in its source, then measured.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 04:09:13 +00:00
On a shared host, an admin hands out the restricted tier per user
('box grant <user>'): their own boxes, the same hardened network, and
no view of anyone else's. 'box help grant' has the contract.
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
Docs: https://github.com/heavy-duty/box
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
EOF
}
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
# The synopsis and the summary come from the table; only prose lives here, and
# only where a command has something to say beyond its summary.
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
help_cmd() {
echo "usage: $(synopsis_of "$1")"
echo
case "$1" in
new) cat <<'EOF'
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
Mint a box. Without --from, launches a fresh box from a template (default:
feat!: rename the host stack too, default to blank, drill the templates, add wipe
Follow-up to the rename, per operator direction — the divergence is
reversed and the cut is complete:
- Host stack: boxnet (10.88.0.0/24 — a pre-rename host may still carry
claudenet on 10.87, two bridges must not claim one subnet),
box-isolate, nft tables 'inet box'/'bridge box', box-firewall.{sh,
service}. teardown-host now strips BOTH name generations, so one
script uninstalls a host of any age.
- Default template is blank: 'box new --name x' mints bare Debian;
the claude box is '--template claude'. The login hint follows the
EFFECTIVE template read off the instance, so clones of claude boxes
still get it and blank boxes are not told to run a binary they lack.
- The drill validates templates: listing, unknown-template refusal,
the allowlist rejecting BOX_NETWORK by name, and a full blank mint —
default resolves to blank, metadata stamped, box-net placement, exec
lands in 'dev', no claude binary, and isolation parity (egress +
pinned DNS) on the same contract as every template.
- drill/wipe.sh: scorched earth for drill hosts. Both tag generations,
every drill-named instance, networks/ACLs/profiles/firewall of both
generations, cached images, and (--purge-storage) the default pool.
Ends by asserting the ABSENCE of every artifact rather than trusting
the removals' exit codes.
2026-07-14 14:36:39 +00:00
blank — bare Debian 13, nobody home; --template claude gets Claude Code
installed, creds-free, ~10 min cold). With --from, clones an existing box or
one of its snapshots — login state, git creds and clones carry over,
isolation is preserved, and the clone knows its template's user without
being told.
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
--name <box> Required. The box's name.
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
--template <t> Template to mint from; 'box templates' lists them.
2026-07-17 15:52:16 +00:00
A template sets image, user, resources and boot
2026-07-18 18:05:49 +00:00
demands (independently: BOX_REQUIRE_VM insists on
VM mode, BOX_AUTOSTART survives host reboots) —
never the network: every template gets the same
isolation.
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
--from <src>[/<snap>] Clone src's live state, or its snapshot <snap>.
feat(new): inline resource overrides — --cpu, --memory, --disk (#57)
Resolution is most-specific-first: flag > BOX_* env (kept — it is the
scripting form and how the drill shrinks boxes on small hosts) > the
template's box.env > defaults. Values pass to Incus verbatim (limits.cpu,
limits.memory, root size=) — its units, its validation; box adds no
parser. Resources are all a flag can touch: there is still no flag for a
network or a security.* key, on purpose.
Flags shape a fresh mint only — --from refuses them, a clone carries its
source's resources. An explicit --disk on a container mint gets a note
instead of a silent drop (a container's root rides the pool).
The drill's blank mint now carries --cpu 1 --memory 1GiB and asserts the
limits landed — which is also the precedence proof, since the drill
exports BOX_CPU/BOX_MEMORY on small hosts — plus a negative check that
--from refuses resource flags.
Verified live (container mint, image cached): BOX_CPU=3 + --cpu 1
--memory 1GiB → limits.cpu=1, limits.memory=1GiB; --from + --cpu exits 2
before touching anything; container --disk prints the note.
Closes #57
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-15 00:17:33 +00:00
--cpu <n> CPUs for this mint (limits.cpu, verbatim to Incus).
--memory <size> RAM for this mint, e.g. 3GiB (limits.memory).
--disk <size> Root disk size, e.g. 20GiB. VM mode only — a
container's root rides the storage pool.
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
--vm | --container Force the mode. VM is the trust boundary and the
default wherever /dev/kvm exists; container mode
(security.nesting=true) is the fallback for hosts
without nested virt — weaker isolation, dev/test only.
2026-07-17 15:52:16 +00:00
A template that requires VM mode refuses both the
fallback and --container.
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
feat(new): inline resource overrides — --cpu, --memory, --disk (#57)
Resolution is most-specific-first: flag > BOX_* env (kept — it is the
scripting form and how the drill shrinks boxes on small hosts) > the
template's box.env > defaults. Values pass to Incus verbatim (limits.cpu,
limits.memory, root size=) — its units, its validation; box adds no
parser. Resources are all a flag can touch: there is still no flag for a
network or a security.* key, on purpose.
Flags shape a fresh mint only — --from refuses them, a clone carries its
source's resources. An explicit --disk on a container mint gets a note
instead of a silent drop (a container's root rides the pool).
The drill's blank mint now carries --cpu 1 --memory 1GiB and asserts the
limits landed — which is also the precedence proof, since the drill
exports BOX_CPU/BOX_MEMORY on small hosts — plus a negative check that
--from refuses resource flags.
Verified live (container mint, image cached): BOX_CPU=3 + --cpu 1
--memory 1GiB → limits.cpu=1, limits.memory=1GiB; --from + --cpu exits 2
before touching anything; container --disk prints the note.
Closes #57
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-15 00:17:33 +00:00
Resources resolve most-specific-first: these flags, then BOX_CPU /
BOX_MEMORY / BOX_DISK environment variables (the scripting form), then the
template's box.env, then defaults. Flags shape a fresh mint only — a --from
clone carries its source's resources. Resources are all a flag can touch:
there is no flag for a network or a security key, on purpose.
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
feat!: rename the host stack too, default to blank, drill the templates, add wipe
Follow-up to the rename, per operator direction — the divergence is
reversed and the cut is complete:
- Host stack: boxnet (10.88.0.0/24 — a pre-rename host may still carry
claudenet on 10.87, two bridges must not claim one subnet),
box-isolate, nft tables 'inet box'/'bridge box', box-firewall.{sh,
service}. teardown-host now strips BOTH name generations, so one
script uninstalls a host of any age.
- Default template is blank: 'box new --name x' mints bare Debian;
the claude box is '--template claude'. The login hint follows the
EFFECTIVE template read off the instance, so clones of claude boxes
still get it and blank boxes are not told to run a binary they lack.
- The drill validates templates: listing, unknown-template refusal,
the allowlist rejecting BOX_NETWORK by name, and a full blank mint —
default resolves to blank, metadata stamped, box-net placement, exec
lands in 'dev', no claude binary, and isolation parity (egress +
pinned DNS) on the same contract as every template.
- drill/wipe.sh: scorched earth for drill hosts. Both tag generations,
every drill-named instance, networks/ACLs/profiles/firewall of both
generations, cached images, and (--purge-storage) the default pool.
Ends by asserting the ABSENCE of every artifact rather than trusting
the removals' exit codes.
2026-07-14 14:36:39 +00:00
box new --name scratch # blank, the default
box new --name work --template claude
feat(new): inline resource overrides — --cpu, --memory, --disk (#57)
Resolution is most-specific-first: flag > BOX_* env (kept — it is the
scripting form and how the drill shrinks boxes on small hosts) > the
template's box.env > defaults. Values pass to Incus verbatim (limits.cpu,
limits.memory, root size=) — its units, its validation; box adds no
parser. Resources are all a flag can touch: there is still no flag for a
network or a security.* key, on purpose.
Flags shape a fresh mint only — --from refuses them, a clone carries its
source's resources. An explicit --disk on a container mint gets a note
instead of a silent drop (a container's root rides the pool).
The drill's blank mint now carries --cpu 1 --memory 1GiB and asserts the
limits landed — which is also the precedence proof, since the drill
exports BOX_CPU/BOX_MEMORY on small hosts — plus a negative check that
--from refuses resource flags.
Verified live (container mint, image cached): BOX_CPU=3 + --cpu 1
--memory 1GiB → limits.cpu=1, limits.memory=1GiB; --from + --cpu exits 2
before touching anything; container --disk prints the note.
Closes #57
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-15 00:17:33 +00:00
box new --name lean --template claude --cpu 2 --memory 3GiB
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box new --name feature --from work/authed
EOF
;;
templates) cat <<'EOF'
List the templates this install can mint, with their descriptions. A template
2026-07-17 15:52:16 +00:00
is a directory under templates/: a box.env (image, user, resources, boot
demands — parsed against an allowlist, never sourced) and a user-data.yaml
(cloud-init, passed to Incus verbatim). Templates cannot touch the network
or security flags — the shared box-net profile is the placement contract, so
every template gets the same isolation.
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box templates
box new --name scratch --template blank
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
EOF
;;
list) cat <<'EOF'
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
List the boxes box minted on this host: name, state, type, snapshot count.
Takes no box — for one box, that's 'box info <box>'.
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
--json Incus's JSON, straight through, for scripting.
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box list
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
EOF
;;
info) cat <<'EOF'
Show one box: state, type, IP address, and — the reason this exists — the
labels of its snapshots, with the --from line to clone one.
--json Incus's JSON, straight through, for scripting.
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box info work
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
EOF
;;
shell) cat <<'EOF'
Open an interactive shell in a running box as the 'claude' user. This is the
only entry path — there is no SSH and no inbound route to a box.
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box shell work
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
EOF
;;
exec) cat <<'EOF'
Run a command inside a box as the 'claude' user. Everything after -- is passed
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
through untouched; the -- is required, or box will read your command's
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
flags as its own.
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box exec work -- git -C project pull
box exec work -- claude --version
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
EOF
2026-07-14 13:10:59 +00:00
;;
tmux) cat <<'EOF'
A shell that survives you. 'shell' is a child of the exec connection — if your
terminal or SSH session drops, everything running in it is SIGHUP'd, and a
long Claude run dies with it. This attaches a tmux session instead
(new-session -A): created if new, reattached if it exists — so starting work
and resuming after a disconnect are the same command, with no state to
remember.
The session name (default: main) buys parallel streams in one box:
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box tmux work # attach or create 'main'
box tmux work run-1 # a second, independent stream, same box
2026-07-14 13:10:59 +00:00
Detach with Ctrl-b d; 'exit' ends the session. For a plain shell with none of
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
tmux's semantics, 'box shell' is unchanged.
2026-07-14 13:10:59 +00:00
EOF
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
;;
snapshot) cat <<'EOF'
Checkpoint a box. Snapshots are how an authenticated box is reused: log in
once, snapshot, then 'new --from <box>/<label>' as often as you like. The
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
label defaults to manual-<epoch>; 'box info <box>' shows the labels you
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
have.
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box snapshot work authed
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
EOF
;;
restore) cat <<'EOF'
Roll a box back to one of its snapshots, in place. Anything in the box since
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
that snapshot is lost. 'box info <box>' lists the labels.
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box restore work authed
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
EOF
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
;;
export) cat <<'EOF'
One portable file that outlives the box AND the host. 'box rm' deletes a box
and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones, but the clone still lives
on the same host. Export is the way out (#70): it wraps 'incus export' into a
backup tarball of the whole instance — snapshots included by default, because
the reuse workflow (log in once, snapshot, clone forever) lives in them.
box export <box> [<file>] # default file: <box>-<UTC timestamp>.tar.gz
--instance-only # live state only, leave the snapshots behind
2026-07-18 18:13:01 +00:00
--force # overwrite an existing <file> (refused otherwise)
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
The box must be stopped first ('box down <box>'). Incus can back up a running
instance, but a live root disk is a moving target — and this artifact's whole
job is to be trusted later, on a host that no longer has the box.
THE FILE IS A CREDENTIAL. A box's disk carries everything inside it — agent
logins, git PATs, SSH keys, shell history. Export scrubs nothing (a
"scrubbed" disk image is a promise tarball surgery cannot keep) and says so
loudly instead. Store and move the file like the secret it is.
The upgrade flow this unblocks (#66):
box down work && box export work # one file per box
box rm work # nothing is lost anymore
# ...upgrade box / rebuild the host / move machines...
box import work-<stamp>.tar.gz # the box is back, snapshots and all
EOF
;;
import) cat <<'EOF'
Mint a box from a 'box export' file — on this host or any other that has the
box stack ('box setup-host' builds it). The name inside the tarball is used
unless --name picks another; either way the name must be free: import will
not occupy a name ANY existing instance holds, box or not.
Everything 'incus import' restores is the artifact's truth (disk, config,
snapshots). What box then re-stamps is THIS host's truth:
· the user.box=1 boundary tag (a legacy user.claudebox=1 stays honored)
· the box-net placement — re-assigned if the artifact's profile list
differs, the same move migrate-host makes re-homing a legacy box
· a fresh machine identity (reset_identity, exactly like a clone), so its
DHCP lease can never collide with the box it was exported from
Auth state rides along by design — the artifact carries the box's whole disk,
logins included. That is the point (log in once, keep the file), and the same
trust boundary as cloning an authed snapshot.
box import work-20260718T120000Z.tar.gz
box import work-20260718T120000Z.tar.gz --name work2
EOF
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
;;
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
rename) cat <<'EOF'
Rename a box. Incus cannot rename a running instance, so stop it first:
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box down work
box rename work archive
box start archive
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
Snapshots and Claude auth follow the box; anything referring to the old name by
hand (a --from line, a script) does not.
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
EOF
;;
rm) cat <<'EOF'
Delete a box and every snapshot it has. This cannot be undone, so it asks for
confirmation first; --force (-f) skips the prompt. With no TTY to confirm on
(a script, a pipe), it refuses unless --force is given.
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box rm work
box rm work --force
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
EOF
feat: 'box expose <box> <port>' — a deliberate, loopback-only door to a dev server
The 'no inbound path' contract is one notch too absolute for the tool's
own flagship workflow: coding in a box, a dev server on :3000, and no
way to open it in your browser. expose is the deliberate un-screwing.
- Loopback only, always: the host side listens on 127.0.0.1, never
0.0.0.0 — no other machine can reach the box; only this host gets a
door. No flag widens it (that is the escape hatch's job).
- A verb, per-port, reversible, visible: each exposure is a named proxy
device (expose-<port>); --list and box info show it, --remove undoes
it. A box with a hole says so.
- Mechanism (VMs): an Incus proxy device forwards host loopback to the
box's ip:port, plus a SCOPED ingress ACL allow (this box's ip + this
port only) so the forkproxy's connection survives the default drop —
the drill decides whether that allow is needed or redundant. The
in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (a VM's forwarder reaches it over
the network); inside an isolated box that is safe.
Drill phase E: start a detached listener in a box, expose it, prove the
HOST loopback reaches it, prove a NON-exposed port is still dropped (A7
survives), prove --remove shuts the door.
Closes #55
2026-07-14 16:07:17 +00:00
;;
expose) cat <<'EOF'
Open a deliberate, loopback-only door to a port inside a box — for when you
are coding in a box and want to see its dev server in your browser.
box expose <box> <port> [<host-port>] # forward 127.0.0.1:<host-port> → box:<port>
box expose <box> --list # what doors are open
box expose <box> --remove <port> # close one
The host side ALWAYS listens on 127.0.0.1 — no other machine can reach the
box, only this host's loopback. There is no flag to widen that; if you need
LAN exposure you are leaving the tool's threat model, and 'box incus' is the
door (with its warning).
The in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0:<port>, not only its own loopback —
a VM's forwarder connects to the box over the network. Inside an isolated box
that is safe: nothing but this proxy can reach the port.
box new --name web --template claude
box shell web # inside: run a dev server on 0.0.0.0:3000
box expose web 3000 # then open http://127.0.0.1:3000 in your browser
EOF
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
;;
incus) cat <<'EOF'
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
The door out. box wraps the box lifecycle and the isolation model, not
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
all of Incus — so when you need something it doesn't wrap, run Incus through
here and keep the safety rail that matters: the box name is resolved and
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
checked against the user.box=1 tag (or its legacy spelling), so you cannot aim it at an instance
box didn't mint.
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
Everything after -- is passed to incus verbatim. A literal {} is replaced with
the resolved instance name; with no {}, the instance is appended at the end.
The command that will run is echoed before it runs.
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box incus work -- config show
box incus work -- config device add {} extra disk source=/data path=/data
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
Changing the profile, the network, a device or a security.* key can take a box
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
outside the isolation stack. box warns and then does as you asked — from
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
there, the trust boundary is yours to keep.
EOF
2026-07-14 13:13:18 +00:00
;;
doctor) cat <<'EOF'
Answer "is this host fit to mint boxes?" from ground truth, not config claims:
feat!: rename the host stack too, default to blank, drill the templates, add wipe
Follow-up to the rename, per operator direction — the divergence is
reversed and the cut is complete:
- Host stack: boxnet (10.88.0.0/24 — a pre-rename host may still carry
claudenet on 10.87, two bridges must not claim one subnet),
box-isolate, nft tables 'inet box'/'bridge box', box-firewall.{sh,
service}. teardown-host now strips BOTH name generations, so one
script uninstalls a host of any age.
- Default template is blank: 'box new --name x' mints bare Debian;
the claude box is '--template claude'. The login hint follows the
EFFECTIVE template read off the instance, so clones of claude boxes
still get it and blank boxes are not told to run a binary they lack.
- The drill validates templates: listing, unknown-template refusal,
the allowlist rejecting BOX_NETWORK by name, and a full blank mint —
default resolves to blank, metadata stamped, box-net placement, exec
lands in 'dev', no claude binary, and isolation parity (egress +
pinned DNS) on the same contract as every template.
- drill/wipe.sh: scorched earth for drill hosts. Both tag generations,
every drill-named instance, networks/ACLs/profiles/firewall of both
generations, cached images, and (--purge-storage) the default pool.
Ends by asserting the ABSENCE of every artifact rather than trusting
the removals' exit codes.
2026-07-14 14:36:39 +00:00
is the Incus daemon answering, is a dnsmasq actually serving boxnet, does
2026-07-14 13:13:18 +00:00
the kernel's bridge port say 'isolated on', is the resolver pinned or is a
host VPN's DNS leaking into boxes, can a box actually resolve names. Every
check exists because its fault has happened — most kill a cold mint with a
cloud-init error that names none of them.
--fix also revert what a drill run may have left behind
feat!: rename the host stack too, default to blank, drill the templates, add wipe
Follow-up to the rename, per operator direction — the divergence is
reversed and the cut is complete:
- Host stack: boxnet (10.88.0.0/24 — a pre-rename host may still carry
claudenet on 10.87, two bridges must not claim one subnet),
box-isolate, nft tables 'inet box'/'bridge box', box-firewall.{sh,
service}. teardown-host now strips BOTH name generations, so one
script uninstalls a host of any age.
- Default template is blank: 'box new --name x' mints bare Debian;
the claude box is '--template claude'. The login hint follows the
EFFECTIVE template read off the instance, so clones of claude boxes
still get it and blank boxes are not told to run a binary they lack.
- The drill validates templates: listing, unknown-template refusal,
the allowlist rejecting BOX_NETWORK by name, and a full blank mint —
default resolves to blank, metadata stamped, box-net placement, exec
lands in 'dev', no claude binary, and isolation parity (egress +
pinned DNS) on the same contract as every template.
- drill/wipe.sh: scorched earth for drill hosts. Both tag generations,
every drill-named instance, networks/ACLs/profiles/firewall of both
generations, cached images, and (--purge-storage) the default pool.
Ends by asserting the ABSENCE of every artifact rather than trusting
the removals' exit codes.
2026-07-14 14:36:39 +00:00
--pin-dns pin boxnet's resolver to public upstreams and re-test
2026-07-14 13:13:18 +00:00
(setup-host.sh now pins by default; this is the quick test)
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box doctor
box doctor --fix
2026-07-14 13:13:18 +00:00
Exit 0 = clean; 1 = problems found (each printed with its fix). Read-only
unless --fix or --pin-dns is given.
EOF
2026-07-14 18:01:34 +00:00
;;
setup-host) cat <<'EOF'
Prepare this host to mint boxes — one time. Installs Incus and builds the
isolation stack: the boxnet NAT bridge (resolver pinned), the box-isolate
ACL, the box-net profile, and the firewall rules, all re-applied at boot.
Make host setup complete in one run, and let the installer run it
box setup-host stopped halfway when it had to add you to incus-admin: it
usermod'd, printed a NOTE telling you to re-login and re-run, and exited 0 —
a success-shaped no-op with no boxnet, no ACL, no box-net profile and no
firewall behind it. It now re-execs itself under 'sg incus-admin' and
finishes in that same invocation.
The membership check was also asking the wrong question. 'id -nG "$USER"'
names a user, so it reads the group database — which lists incus-admin the
instant usermod returns, while the shell's own credentials still lack it
(supplementary groups are fixed at login). A same-session re-run therefore
passed the check and died further down on a bare permission error from incus
that mentioned neither the group nor the re-login. Argless 'id -nG' asks the
process what it actually holds, which is what incus checks when it opens
/var/lib/incus/unix.socket.
With one run now sufficient, install.sh runs the setup itself instead of
printing a warning and leaving the user a command: the install reported
success and 'box new' then failed on a host with no Incus. setup-host is
idempotent, so doing this on every install is also how an upgraded host picks
up stack changes. BOX_SKIP_SETUP_HOST=1 opts out, and a failed setup leaves
the install standing and says what to re-run.
Fixes #63
Fixes #64
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 12:52:50 +00:00
Idempotent — safe to re-run after a box upgrade to pick up stack changes;
install.sh runs it for you, so this is for re-applying by hand.
2026-07-14 18:01:34 +00:00
Make host setup complete in one run, and let the installer run it
box setup-host stopped halfway when it had to add you to incus-admin: it
usermod'd, printed a NOTE telling you to re-login and re-run, and exited 0 —
a success-shaped no-op with no boxnet, no ACL, no box-net profile and no
firewall behind it. It now re-execs itself under 'sg incus-admin' and
finishes in that same invocation.
The membership check was also asking the wrong question. 'id -nG "$USER"'
names a user, so it reads the group database — which lists incus-admin the
instant usermod returns, while the shell's own credentials still lack it
(supplementary groups are fixed at login). A same-session re-run therefore
passed the check and died further down on a bare permission error from incus
that mentioned neither the group nor the re-login. Argless 'id -nG' asks the
process what it actually holds, which is what incus checks when it opens
/var/lib/incus/unix.socket.
With one run now sufficient, install.sh runs the setup itself instead of
printing a warning and leaving the user a command: the install reported
success and 'box new' then failed on a host with no Incus. setup-host is
idempotent, so doing this on every install is also how an upgraded host picks
up stack changes. BOX_SKIP_SETUP_HOST=1 opts out, and a failed setup leaves
the install standing and says what to re-run.
Fixes #63
Fixes #64
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-17 12:52:50 +00:00
One run is enough. If it has to add you to the incus-admin group it re-runs
itself under that group — no re-login, no second invocation.
2026-07-14 18:01:34 +00:00
box setup-host
feat: the restricted tier — box grant/revoke converge users onto the hardened boxnet (#74)
incus-user confines an incus-group user to their own project, but its
defaults miss box's contract three measured ways (Debian 13 / Incus 6.0.4):
a private UNHARDENED NAT bridge per user (ipv6.nat=true, no ACL, no DNS
isolation), snapshots blocked, and the box-net profile invisible to their
project. So the tier is an admin-run idempotent convergence:
box grant <user> # incus group; touch incus-user (the project is lazy);
# drop the private-bridge eth0 from their default
# profile; restricted.networks.access=boxnet — and ONLY
# boxnet, or the unhardened bridge stays one --network
# flag away; restricted.snapshots=allow; install the
# shipped box-net profile into their project
box revoke <user> # group removal closes the socket, boxes keep running
--purge # ...or delete their world, and assert the absence
box_tier() (live credentials, argless id -nG; byte-identical copy in
setup-host.sh) drives the tier-aware surface: new pre-flights the profile
and names the right fix per tier, expose refuses before any daemon call
(without the guard the failure is a lie — restricted certs cannot read
boxnet's redacted config, so box_net_ip claims a running box has no
address), setup-host exits 0 with the honest note, doctor judges only what
the caller can see.
Also fixed while the rehearsal exercised the lifecycle: box restore
dispatched 'incus restore', which does not exist in Incus 6 (it is
'incus snapshot restore') — the verb had never worked. Fixed for every tier.
Convergence survives incus-user restarts by that tool's own design (it
configures a project only at creation) — read in its source, then measured.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 04:09:13 +00:00
Multi-user hosts: setup-host builds the stack once, for everyone. An admin
then hands individual users the restricted tier with 'box grant <user>' —
their own boxes, on this same hardened network, seeing nobody else's.
EOF
;;
grant) cat <<'EOF'
Give a host user the restricted tier. They get their own Incus project (via
incus-user), and every box they mint lands on the SAME hardened boxnet as an
admin's — the full isolation contract (ACL, DNS isolation, resolver pin,
port isolation, the box-to-box drop), with no view of anyone else's boxes.
What it converges, idempotently (safe to re-run, and re-run after upgrades):
· puts the user in the 'incus' group (not incus-admin — that is the point)
· creates their user-<uid> project by touching incus-user for them
· points the project at boxnet and ONLY boxnet — the private incusbr-<uid>
bridge incus-user auto-creates carries none of box's hardening, so it is
unreferenced and unreachable, not just unused
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
· allows snapshots and backups (incus-user blocks both; the clone workflow
rides snapshots, 'box export' rides backups — #70)
feat: the restricted tier — box grant/revoke converge users onto the hardened boxnet (#74)
incus-user confines an incus-group user to their own project, but its
defaults miss box's contract three measured ways (Debian 13 / Incus 6.0.4):
a private UNHARDENED NAT bridge per user (ipv6.nat=true, no ACL, no DNS
isolation), snapshots blocked, and the box-net profile invisible to their
project. So the tier is an admin-run idempotent convergence:
box grant <user> # incus group; touch incus-user (the project is lazy);
# drop the private-bridge eth0 from their default
# profile; restricted.networks.access=boxnet — and ONLY
# boxnet, or the unhardened bridge stays one --network
# flag away; restricted.snapshots=allow; install the
# shipped box-net profile into their project
box revoke <user> # group removal closes the socket, boxes keep running
--purge # ...or delete their world, and assert the absence
box_tier() (live credentials, argless id -nG; byte-identical copy in
setup-host.sh) drives the tier-aware surface: new pre-flights the profile
and names the right fix per tier, expose refuses before any daemon call
(without the guard the failure is a lie — restricted certs cannot read
boxnet's redacted config, so box_net_ip claims a running box has no
address), setup-host exits 0 with the honest note, doctor judges only what
the caller can see.
Also fixed while the rehearsal exercised the lifecycle: box restore
dispatched 'incus restore', which does not exist in Incus 6 (it is
'incus snapshot restore') — the verb had never worked. Fixed for every tier.
Convergence survives incus-user restarts by that tool's own design (it
configures a project only at creation) — read in its source, then measured.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 04:09:13 +00:00
· installs the box-net profile into their project
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
The user's surface: new/list/info/shell/exec/tmux/snapshot/restore/export/
import/rm on their own boxes. Not theirs: expose (edits daemon-global
state), setup-host, grant. Admin boxes and other users' boxes are invisible to them, and the
feat: the restricted tier — box grant/revoke converge users onto the hardened boxnet (#74)
incus-user confines an incus-group user to their own project, but its
defaults miss box's contract three measured ways (Debian 13 / Incus 6.0.4):
a private UNHARDENED NAT bridge per user (ipv6.nat=true, no ACL, no DNS
isolation), snapshots blocked, and the box-net profile invisible to their
project. So the tier is an admin-run idempotent convergence:
box grant <user> # incus group; touch incus-user (the project is lazy);
# drop the private-bridge eth0 from their default
# profile; restricted.networks.access=boxnet — and ONLY
# boxnet, or the unhardened bridge stays one --network
# flag away; restricted.snapshots=allow; install the
# shipped box-net profile into their project
box revoke <user> # group removal closes the socket, boxes keep running
--purge # ...or delete their world, and assert the absence
box_tier() (live credentials, argless id -nG; byte-identical copy in
setup-host.sh) drives the tier-aware surface: new pre-flights the profile
and names the right fix per tier, expose refuses before any daemon call
(without the guard the failure is a lie — restricted certs cannot read
boxnet's redacted config, so box_net_ip claims a running box has no
address), setup-host exits 0 with the honest note, doctor judges only what
the caller can see.
Also fixed while the rehearsal exercised the lifecycle: box restore
dispatched 'incus restore', which does not exist in Incus 6 (it is
'incus snapshot restore') — the verb had never worked. Fixed for every tier.
Convergence survives incus-user restarts by that tool's own design (it
configures a project only at creation) — read in its source, then measured.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 04:09:13 +00:00
existing box-to-box drop means even their instances cannot reach a sibling.
box grant dev1
EOF
;;
revoke) cat <<'EOF'
revoke/grant: survive the live-session case — the review's one real hole (#74)
Supplementary groups are read at LOGIN, so 'gpasswd -d' does nothing to a
session the user already holds — and after --purge, a stale-group process
could touch incus-user and lazily RECREATE the project with stock defaults:
the unhardened NAT bridge, un-narrowed, strictly worse than the granted
state. Adversarial review caught it; verified live, then closed:
- revoke --purge terminates the user's sessions first (loginctl, then
pkill), and refuses to purge under processes it cannot kill
- bare revoke says out loud that held sessions keep the socket until they
end, and names the loginctl command — instead of claiming a lockout it
did not deliver (help/README/design doc reworded to match)
- a failed grant backs out its own group-add on exit (trap, disarmed on
success): no half-granted user holding an un-narrowed socket while the
admin reads the error. Verified by injecting a bad profile YAML
- the rehearsal now holds a session open across the purge and demands it
dies with the tier (criterion l, 42nd check)
Smaller review findings, same pass: the escape-hatch probes assert the
refusal's REASON instead of any nonzero exit (an image hiccup must not read
as 'the escape is closed'); probe_from maps an outer-timeout kill to
dropped, not reachable; the rehearsal cleanup keeps the account when a purge
fails so doctor can name the leftovers; the purge asserts the trust
certificate's absence; cmd_new distinguishes a dead daemon from a missing
stack before prescribing setup-host; grant's success message names the
user-<uid> bridge variant correctly on big-uid hosts.
Rehearsal after: 42/42 (containers). test/cli.sh: 76 checks.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 05:11:20 +00:00
Take the restricted tier back from a user. Without --purge, this removes
them from the 'incus' group: their project and boxes stay (still running!)
and 'box grant' restores access untouched. Group membership is read at
LOGIN, so a session they already hold keeps the socket until it ends —
revoke says so and names the loginctl command when it happens. With
--purge, their sessions are terminated first (a stale session could quietly
recreate the project, unhardened, afterwards — measured, not theoretical),
then their boxes, images, project, private bridge and trust-store
certificate are removed — irreversible, so it asks first.
box revoke dev1 # take the tier; their boxes keep running
box revoke dev1 --purge # ...or end their sessions and delete everything
2026-07-14 18:01:34 +00:00
EOF
;;
teardown-host) cat <<'EOF'
Remove the box host stack — all boxes, the boxnet/claudenet networks, the
ACLs, the profiles, and the firewall rules of BOTH name generations (current
and pre-0.4.0). Asks first.
box teardown-host # the stack; leaves Incus installed
box teardown-host --purge-incus # ...and uninstall Incus too
EOF
;;
migrate-host) cat <<'EOF'
Move a host from the pre-0.4.0 'claudebox' stack onto 'box'. Re-homing
preserves a box's authed state (no re-login) — it only re-tags and reassigns
the profile, then verifies the box works on its new network leg.
box migrate-host --box <name> # re-home one legacy box
box migrate-host --all-boxes # re-home every legacy box
box migrate-host --retire-legacy # remove the old stack (once no legacy box remains)
EOF
2026-07-18 16:01:57 +00:00
;;
versions) cat <<'EOF'
List the versions installed under this install root — install.sh lands each
one side by side at <root>/versions/<v>, and a 'current' symlink tracks the
default (what the box on your PATH runs). The default is marked (current);
the tree answering THIS command is marked (running) — they differ when your
PATH resolves a different install (say, a global /opt/box shadowing yours).
box versions
box use <version> # switch the default
# install another version side by side: re-run install.sh
EOF
;;
use) cat <<'EOF'
Switch the default box version — repoint the 'current' symlink (and the PATH
symlink riding it) at an installed version. Refuses while ANY box exists:
never change versions under a user's boxes (#66) — 'box down' what you keep,
2026-07-18 18:55:51 +00:00
'box export' what you keep (one
portable file per box, #70), 'box rm' each box, then switch. The flip is asserted afterwards:
2026-07-18 16:01:57 +00:00
current must resolve to the version you asked for, and the chain's
'box --version' must answer it.
box versions # what is installed
box use 0.6.0
EOF
;;
uninstall) cat <<'EOF'
Remove one installed version, or the whole install — the real uninstall,
replacing the old "rm -rf two paths by hand" instructions.
box uninstall <version> one NON-current version ('box use' another
first if you are on it)
box uninstall everything: every version, the current and
box uninstall --all PATH symlinks, and any legacy claudebox crumbs
box uninstall --purge-host run teardown-host first (all boxes, the boxnet
stack, the firewall — its own confirmation),
then remove the install
The full uninstall runs in the safe order: boxes first — it refuses while
any exist (and names them) unless --purge-host tears them down; then the
trees and symlinks; and it ENDS with an absence assert — every removed path
is re-checked, and anything still present makes it exit 1 naming the
leftovers instead of reporting a clean uninstall that wasn't (the same
discipline as 'box revoke --purge'). Asks before removing; --force or
BOX_YES=1 skips the prompt. On a multi-user host, revoke granted users
first: 'box revoke <user> --purge'.
box uninstall 0.5.0
box uninstall --all --purge-host
EOF
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
;;
status) cat <<'EOF'
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
Deprecated alias for 'box list'. It ignored the <box> argument it
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
advertised, so it was split into 'list' (all boxes) and 'info <box>' (one). It
still works, and forwards to 'list'.
EOF
;;
help) cat <<'EOF'
Print the general help, or the help for one command.
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
box help
box help rename
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
EOF
;;
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
*) field "$1" sum ;; # no prose: the table's summary is the help
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
esac
}
show_help() { # "" → general help
case "${1:-}" in
""|help) usage ;;
*) is_command "$1" || unknown_command "$1"; help_cmd "$1" ;;
esac
}
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
cmd="${1:-help}"; shift || true
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
case "$cmd" in
-h|--help) usage; exit 0 ;;
-V|--version) version; exit 0 ;;
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
-*) usage_error "options come after the command — try 'box <command> $cmd ...'" ;;
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
esac
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
args=()
while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
case "$1" in
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
--name) [ $# -ge 2 ] || usage_error "--name needs a value"; name="$2"; shift 2 ;;
--from) [ $# -ge 2 ] || usage_error "--from needs a value"; from="$2"; shift 2 ;;
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
--template) [ $# -ge 2 ] || usage_error "--template needs a value"; template="$2"; shift 2 ;;
feat(new): inline resource overrides — --cpu, --memory, --disk (#57)
Resolution is most-specific-first: flag > BOX_* env (kept — it is the
scripting form and how the drill shrinks boxes on small hosts) > the
template's box.env > defaults. Values pass to Incus verbatim (limits.cpu,
limits.memory, root size=) — its units, its validation; box adds no
parser. Resources are all a flag can touch: there is still no flag for a
network or a security.* key, on purpose.
Flags shape a fresh mint only — --from refuses them, a clone carries its
source's resources. An explicit --disk on a container mint gets a note
instead of a silent drop (a container's root rides the pool).
The drill's blank mint now carries --cpu 1 --memory 1GiB and asserts the
limits landed — which is also the precedence proof, since the drill
exports BOX_CPU/BOX_MEMORY on small hosts — plus a negative check that
--from refuses resource flags.
Verified live (container mint, image cached): BOX_CPU=3 + --cpu 1
--memory 1GiB → limits.cpu=1, limits.memory=1GiB; --from + --cpu exits 2
before touching anything; container --disk prints the note.
Closes #57
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-15 00:17:33 +00:00
--cpu) [ $# -ge 2 ] || usage_error "--cpu needs a value"; cpu="$2"; shift 2 ;;
--memory) [ $# -ge 2 ] || usage_error "--memory needs a value"; memory="$2"; shift 2 ;;
--disk) [ $# -ge 2 ] || usage_error "--disk needs a value"; disk="$2"; shift 2 ;;
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
--remote) [ $# -ge 2 ] || usage_error "--remote needs a value"; remote="$2:"; shift 2 ;;
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
--vm) mode=vm; shift ;;
--container) mode=container; shift ;;
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
--instance-only) instance_only=1; shift ;;
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
--force|-f) force=1; shift ;;
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
--json) json=1; shift ;;
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
--help|-h) want_help=1; shift ;;
--version|-V) version; exit 0 ;;
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
--) shift; args+=("$@"); break ;;
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
# An unrecognized flag used to be swallowed as a positional — so a typo'd
# --labl silently became a snapshot's label. Say so instead.
-*)
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
# doctor's flags belong to the doctor script, not to box
2026-07-14 13:13:18 +00:00
if [ "$cmd" = doctor ]; then args+=("$1"); shift; continue; fi
feat: 'box expose <box> <port>' — a deliberate, loopback-only door to a dev server
The 'no inbound path' contract is one notch too absolute for the tool's
own flagship workflow: coding in a box, a dev server on :3000, and no
way to open it in your browser. expose is the deliberate un-screwing.
- Loopback only, always: the host side listens on 127.0.0.1, never
0.0.0.0 — no other machine can reach the box; only this host gets a
door. No flag widens it (that is the escape hatch's job).
- A verb, per-port, reversible, visible: each exposure is a named proxy
device (expose-<port>); --list and box info show it, --remove undoes
it. A box with a hole says so.
- Mechanism (VMs): an Incus proxy device forwards host loopback to the
box's ip:port, plus a SCOPED ingress ACL allow (this box's ip + this
port only) so the forkproxy's connection survives the default drop —
the drill decides whether that allow is needed or redundant. The
in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (a VM's forwarder reaches it over
the network); inside an isolated box that is safe.
Drill phase E: start a detached listener in a box, expose it, prove the
HOST loopback reaches it, prove a NON-exposed port is still dropped (A7
survives), prove --remove shuts the door.
Closes #55
2026-07-14 16:07:17 +00:00
# expose's own flags (--list, --remove) are positional to it, not box's
if [ "$cmd" = expose ]; then args+=("$1"); shift; continue; fi
2026-07-18 16:01:57 +00:00
# the host verbs delegate their flags to the scripts they wrap;
# uninstall parses its own (--all, --purge-host) the same way
case "$cmd" in setup-host|teardown-host|migrate-host|grant|revoke|uninstall) args+=("$1"); shift; continue ;; esac
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
if [ "$cmd" = exec ] || [ "$cmd" = incus ]; then
usage_error "unknown option: $1 — a command's own flags go after --, as in '$(synopsis_of "$cmd")'"
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
fi
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
usage_error "unknown option: $1 (see 'box help $cmd')" ;;
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
*) args+=("$1"); shift ;;
esac
done
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
if [ "$want_help" -eq 1 ]; then show_help "$cmd"; exit 0; fi
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
# --- preconditions ---------------------------------------------------------
iname_of() { echo "$remote$1"; } # instance name = box name
# The boundary, enforced: a box is an Incus instance WE tagged. Anything else is
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
# somebody's VM, and box will not stop, rename or delete it by accident.
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
resolve_box() {
local box="$1" i tag
i="$(iname_of "$box")"
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
tag="$(incus config get "$i" user.box 2>/dev/null || true)"
# A pre-rename box carries user.claudebox=1 and nothing else. Snapshots of
# old boxes outlive the release that minted them — the legacy tag is honored
# forever, or an old box stops being a box at all.
[ "$tag" = "1" ] || tag="$(incus config get "$i" user.claudebox 2>/dev/null || true)"
[ "$tag" = "1" ] || die "no such box: $box (see 'box list')"
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
echo "$i"
}
box_state() { incus list "$1" --format csv --columns s 2>/dev/null | head -n1; }
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
# $3, when given, replaces the default "why" — the table's 'stopped' rows are
# stopped because INCUS insists (rename), but export is stopped by OUR
# decision (a consistent artifact), and the refusal should say the true reason.
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
require_stopped() {
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
local i="$1" box="$2" why="${3:-Incus needs it stopped for this}" st; st="$(box_state "$i")"
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
case "$st" in
STOPPED|Stopped|stopped) return 0 ;;
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
*) die "box '$box' is ${st:-not stopped} — $why. Stop it: box down $box" ;;
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
esac
}
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
# The placement contract must exist before a mint OR an import lands — in the
# DEFAULT project for an admin (setup-host builds it), in YOUR project for a
# restricted user (box grant converges it). Its absence has a different fix
# per tier, and incus's own "Profile not found" at launch time names neither.
require_stack() {
if [ -z "$remote" ] && ! timeout 10 incus profile show box-net >/dev/null 2>&1 </dev/null; then
# A missing profile and a daemon that is not answering are different
# faults with different fixes — "run setup-host" at a wedged daemon
# (the #26 shape) is wrong advice. Separate them before diagnosing.
timeout 10 incus list >/dev/null 2>&1 </dev/null \
|| die "the incus daemon is not answering — diagnose it: box doctor"
if [ "$(box_tier)" = restricted ]; then
die "your project has no box-net profile — the restricted tier is granted per user, by an admin: box grant $(id -un)"
fi
die "no box-net profile — the host stack is missing. Build it: box setup-host"
fi
}
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
need_name() {
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
if [ "${#args[@]}" -lt 1 ] || [ -z "${args[0]}" ]; then
usage_error "usage: $(synopsis_of "$cmd")"
fi
}
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
need_arg2() {
if [ "${#args[@]}" -lt 2 ] || [ -z "${args[1]}" ]; then
usage_error "usage: $(synopsis_of "$cmd")"
fi
}
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
confirm() { # $1 = prompt. --force, or a TTY to ask on, or we refuse.
if [ "$force" -eq 1 ]; then return 0; fi
[ -t 0 ] || usage_error "refusing to $1 without --force (no terminal to confirm on)"
local reply
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
printf 'box: %s? this cannot be undone. [y/N] ' "$1"
fix: standard help, honest flags, and an `rm` that asks first
The help was `sed -n '2,9p' "$0"` — the script scraping its own header comment
by line number — with no sections, no per-command help, no `-h`, and no
`--version`. Worse, parts of the interface it described weren't real: `--force`
was parsed and never read, so `claudebox rm work` force-deleted a running box
with no confirmation while advertising a flag that implied the bare form was
the careful one.
- usage()/help_cmd(): NAME/USAGE/COMMANDS/OPTIONS/EXAMPLES/EXIT STATUS, plus a
page per command. `claudebox help <cmd>` and `claudebox <cmd> --help`.
- `-h`/`--help` anywhere; `--version`/`-V` (VERSION file).
- Unknown command → stderr, exit 2, and a did-you-mean by edit distance.
- Unknown options are rejected, not swallowed as positionals: `snapshot work
--labl x` no longer names the snapshot "--labl". `--` still passes everything
through for exec.
- `--force` is real: `rm` confirms on a TTY, refuses without one unless forced.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE — a scripted `claudebox rm` now needs `--force`.
- Exit 2 for usage errors, 1 for runtime failures; accurate per-command usage
strings (`exec` no longer omits `-- <cmd...>`).
- shellcheck is clean: SC2034 (dead `force`) and SC2015 both gone.
Closes #8
2026-07-13 20:31:01 +00:00
read -r reply
case "$reply" in y|Y|yes|YES|Yes) return 0 ;; *) die "aborted." ;; esac
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
}
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
# --- commands with real work -----------------------------------------------
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
pick_mode() {
if [ "$mode" != auto ]; then echo "$mode"; return; fi
if [ -n "$remote" ] || [ -e /dev/kvm ]; then echo vm; else
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: no /dev/kvm — using container mode (weaker isolation, dev/test only)" >&2
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
echo container
fi
}
2026-07-14 15:28:25 +00:00
# Five minutes, not three: the first VM launch on a fresh pool unpacks the
# image into a pool volume and takes the coldest possible boot — measured
# live, an agent can need past the 3-minute mark exactly once per pool while
# every later boot answers in seconds. And when it still fails, ship the
# forensics: the VM's console says why, and the box is torn down by whoever
# called us before anyone can read it.
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
wait_agent() {
2026-07-14 16:38:54 +00:00
local n="$1" i clog
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: waiting for instance agent..."
2026-07-14 15:28:25 +00:00
for i in $(seq 1 150); do
2026-07-14 15:07:01 +00:00
if incus exec "$n" -- true </dev/null >/dev/null 2>&1; then return; fi
2026-07-14 15:28:25 +00:00
if [ "$i" -eq 150 ]; then
2026-07-14 16:38:54 +00:00
# The console log is FULL of terminal escape sequences (boot messages,
# a firmware menu). Dumping it raw scrambles the operator's terminal —
# and doubly so when it lands in a log someone is tail -f'ing. Capture
# it to a file, STRIP everything but printable ASCII + tab/newline, and
# print only a short sanitized tail. Nothing raw ever reaches a terminal.
clog="/tmp/box-console-$n.log"
timeout -k 5 15 incus console "$n" --show-log </dev/null >"$clog.raw" 2>/dev/null || true
2026-07-14 16:56:52 +00:00
# Strip whole escape sequences FIRST (while the ESC byte is present), then
# drop any residual control bytes — otherwise 'tr' alone leaves the visible
# '[1m[37m' halves behind. Result is clean, readable text.
sed -E $'s/\x1b\\[[0-9;:?]*[ -/]*[@-~]//g; s/\x1b[()#][0-9A-Za-z]//g; s/\x1b[=>PX^_].*?(\x1b\\\\|\x07)//g; s/\x1b.//g' \
"$clog.raw" 2>/dev/null | tr -cd '\11\12\40-\176' >"$clog"
rm -f "$clog.raw"
2026-07-14 16:38:54 +00:00
echo "box: instance agent never came up after 5 minutes." >&2
2026-07-14 16:56:52 +00:00
echo "box: sanitized console log → $clog (last non-blank lines:)" >&2
grep -v '^[[:space:]]*$' "$clog" 2>/dev/null | tail -6 | sed 's/^/ /' >&2
2026-07-14 19:31:41 +00:00
# A box that never boots is NOT a slow box, and the console says which
# failure it is. Each of these cost hours to diagnose by hand once; the
# box that hits them next should be told the answer, not the symptom.
if grep -qiE 'Failed to decompress kernel|efi_stub_entry\(\) failed' "$clog" 2>/dev/null; then
echo "box: THE KERNEL WOULD NOT DECOMPRESS — the cached image is corrupt." >&2
echo "box: (a truncated/bad image download does exactly this). Re-pull it:" >&2
echo "box: incus image list # find the fingerprint" >&2
echo "box: incus image delete <fingerprint> # the next mint re-downloads" >&2
elif grep -qiE 'bad shim signature|prohibited by secure boot' "$clog" 2>/dev/null; then
echo "box: SECURE BOOT rejected the kernel — but box mints VMs with" >&2
echo "box: security.secureboot=false, so this box predates that fix or was" >&2
echo "box: created by hand. Re-mint it with a current box." >&2
elif grep -qiE 'GNU GRUB|Press enter to boot|UEFI Firmware Settings' "$clog" 2>/dev/null; then
echo "box: the VM is stuck at the GRUB/firmware menu — it never booted." >&2
echo "box: this is the IMAGE, not box. Re-pull it (incus image delete …)," >&2
echo "box: or pin a known-good build in the template's BOX_IMAGE." >&2
2026-07-14 16:56:52 +00:00
fi
2026-07-14 16:38:54 +00:00
die "agent unreachable (inspect live: incus console $n)"
2026-07-14 15:28:25 +00:00
fi
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
sleep 2
done
}
fix: a clone must not inherit its source's identity
Two boxes cloned from one snapshot came up holding the SAME IP address —
10.87.0.128, on the same dnsmasq lease, matching to the second on the
lease timer. Incus does regenerate the MAC (they differed), but
/etc/machine-id rides along inside the disk image, and systemd derives
its DHCP client identifier from it. Same client-id, same lease.
This breaks the workflow claudebox exists for: log in once, snapshot,
clone forever. Every clone of a snapshot is, to the network, the same
machine as its source and as its siblings.
Truncating /etc/machine-id makes systemd mint a fresh one at next boot,
so the clone path now resets it and restarts before handing the box
over. Costs one reboot; the alternative is colliding boxes.
Found by the drill on a live host (#26) — and it also explains why the
sibling-isolation probe (#15 A3) could never work: it was aiming box A
at box A's own address.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 23:31:32 +00:00
# A clone must not BE its source. Incus regenerates the MAC, but /etc/machine-id
# rides along inside the disk — and systemd derives its DHCP client identifier
# (DUID) from it. Same client-id, same dnsmasq lease: two boxes, one IP address,
# to the second on the lease timer. Every box cloned from one snapshot collided
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
# on the network, which is exactly the workflow box exists for (log in
fix: a clone must not inherit its source's identity
Two boxes cloned from one snapshot came up holding the SAME IP address —
10.87.0.128, on the same dnsmasq lease, matching to the second on the
lease timer. Incus does regenerate the MAC (they differed), but
/etc/machine-id rides along inside the disk image, and systemd derives
its DHCP client identifier from it. Same client-id, same lease.
This breaks the workflow claudebox exists for: log in once, snapshot,
clone forever. Every clone of a snapshot is, to the network, the same
machine as its source and as its siblings.
Truncating /etc/machine-id makes systemd mint a fresh one at next boot,
so the clone path now resets it and restarts before handing the box
over. Costs one reboot; the alternative is colliding boxes.
Found by the drill on a live host (#26) — and it also explains why the
sibling-isolation probe (#15 A3) could never work: it was aiming box A
at box A's own address.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 23:31:32 +00:00
# once, snapshot, clone forever).
#
# Truncating /etc/machine-id makes systemd mint a fresh one on the next boot, so
# the reset costs one reboot. Do it before handing the box over, never after.
reset_identity() {
local i="$1"
2026-07-18 18:13:01 +00:00
echo "box: giving the instance its own identity (machine-id, DHCP lease)..."
fix: the clone identity reset could never reboot, so it never took effect
The reset truncated /etc/machine-id and called 'incus restart'. But
systemd needs a VALID machine-id to shut down cleanly — so the graceful
stop hung, incus timed out ("Failed shutting down instance, status is
Running: context deadline exceeded"), and the reboot never happened. The
clone kept its source's machine-id, hence its DUID, hence its DHCP
lease: two boxes on one address, which is the exact bug the reset exists
to prevent. Worse, the duplicate address then broke the box's networking
outright ("box cannot reach the internet"), and poisoned the isolation
run downstream.
Write a fresh VALID id with systemd-machine-id-setup instead of emptying
the file — in a VM it derives from the DMI product UUID, which Incus
makes unique per instance. Then restart with a real timeout and a forced
fallback: a clone that keeps its source's lease is worse than an unclean
stop of a box that booted thirty seconds ago.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-14 00:03:21 +00:00
# Do NOT truncate machine-id and reboot: systemd needs a valid one to shut
# down cleanly, so the graceful stop hangs and the reboot never happens —
# leaving the clone on its source's identity, which is the bug we are here to
# fix. 'systemd-machine-id-setup' writes a fresh VALID id instead; in a VM it
# derives from the DMI product UUID, which Incus makes unique per instance.
fix: a clone must not inherit its source's identity
Two boxes cloned from one snapshot came up holding the SAME IP address —
10.87.0.128, on the same dnsmasq lease, matching to the second on the
lease timer. Incus does regenerate the MAC (they differed), but
/etc/machine-id rides along inside the disk image, and systemd derives
its DHCP client identifier from it. Same client-id, same lease.
This breaks the workflow claudebox exists for: log in once, snapshot,
clone forever. Every clone of a snapshot is, to the network, the same
machine as its source and as its siblings.
Truncating /etc/machine-id makes systemd mint a fresh one at next boot,
so the clone path now resets it and restarts before handing the box
over. Costs one reboot; the alternative is colliding boxes.
Found by the drill on a live host (#26) — and it also explains why the
sibling-isolation probe (#15 A3) could never work: it was aiming box A
at box A's own address.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 23:31:32 +00:00
incus exec "$i" -- sh -c '
fix: the clone identity reset could never reboot, so it never took effect
The reset truncated /etc/machine-id and called 'incus restart'. But
systemd needs a VALID machine-id to shut down cleanly — so the graceful
stop hung, incus timed out ("Failed shutting down instance, status is
Running: context deadline exceeded"), and the reboot never happened. The
clone kept its source's machine-id, hence its DUID, hence its DHCP
lease: two boxes on one address, which is the exact bug the reset exists
to prevent. Worse, the duplicate address then broke the box's networking
outright ("box cannot reach the internet"), and poisoned the isolation
run downstream.
Write a fresh VALID id with systemd-machine-id-setup instead of emptying
the file — in a VM it derives from the DMI product UUID, which Incus
makes unique per instance. Then restart with a real timeout and a forced
fallback: a clone that keeps its source's lease is worse than an unclean
stop of a box that booted thirty seconds ago.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-14 00:03:21 +00:00
rm -f /etc/machine-id /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
systemd-machine-id-setup >/dev/null 2>&1 || dbus-uuidgen > /etc/machine-id
fix: a clone must not inherit its source's identity
Two boxes cloned from one snapshot came up holding the SAME IP address —
10.87.0.128, on the same dnsmasq lease, matching to the second on the
lease timer. Incus does regenerate the MAC (they differed), but
/etc/machine-id rides along inside the disk image, and systemd derives
its DHCP client identifier from it. Same client-id, same lease.
This breaks the workflow claudebox exists for: log in once, snapshot,
clone forever. Every clone of a snapshot is, to the network, the same
machine as its source and as its siblings.
Truncating /etc/machine-id makes systemd mint a fresh one at next boot,
so the clone path now resets it and restarts before handing the box
over. Costs one reboot; the alternative is colliding boxes.
Found by the drill on a live host (#26) — and it also explains why the
sibling-isolation probe (#15 A3) could never work: it was aiming box A
at box A's own address.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 23:31:32 +00:00
ln -sf /etc/machine-id /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
fix: the clone identity reset could never reboot, so it never took effect
The reset truncated /etc/machine-id and called 'incus restart'. But
systemd needs a VALID machine-id to shut down cleanly — so the graceful
stop hung, incus timed out ("Failed shutting down instance, status is
Running: context deadline exceeded"), and the reboot never happened. The
clone kept its source's machine-id, hence its DUID, hence its DHCP
lease: two boxes on one address, which is the exact bug the reset exists
to prevent. Worse, the duplicate address then broke the box's networking
outright ("box cannot reach the internet"), and poisoned the isolation
run downstream.
Write a fresh VALID id with systemd-machine-id-setup instead of emptying
the file — in a VM it derives from the DMI product UUID, which Incus
makes unique per instance. Then restart with a real timeout and a forced
fallback: a clone that keeps its source's lease is worse than an unclean
stop of a box that booted thirty seconds ago.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-14 00:03:21 +00:00
test -s /etc/machine-id
2026-07-14 15:07:01 +00:00
' </dev/null || die "could not reset the clone's machine-id"
fix: the clone identity reset could never reboot, so it never took effect
The reset truncated /etc/machine-id and called 'incus restart'. But
systemd needs a VALID machine-id to shut down cleanly — so the graceful
stop hung, incus timed out ("Failed shutting down instance, status is
Running: context deadline exceeded"), and the reboot never happened. The
clone kept its source's machine-id, hence its DUID, hence its DHCP
lease: two boxes on one address, which is the exact bug the reset exists
to prevent. Worse, the duplicate address then broke the box's networking
outright ("box cannot reach the internet"), and poisoned the isolation
run downstream.
Write a fresh VALID id with systemd-machine-id-setup instead of emptying
the file — in a VM it derives from the DMI product UUID, which Incus
makes unique per instance. Then restart with a real timeout and a forced
fallback: a clone that keeps its source's lease is worse than an unclean
stop of a box that booted thirty seconds ago.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-14 00:03:21 +00:00
# The new id only takes effect at boot. Ask nicely, then insist — a clone that
# keeps its source's DHCP lease is worse than an unclean stop of a box that
# booted 30 seconds ago.
incus restart --timeout 60 "$i" >/dev/null 2>&1 || incus restart -f "$i"
fix: a clone must not inherit its source's identity
Two boxes cloned from one snapshot came up holding the SAME IP address —
10.87.0.128, on the same dnsmasq lease, matching to the second on the
lease timer. Incus does regenerate the MAC (they differed), but
/etc/machine-id rides along inside the disk image, and systemd derives
its DHCP client identifier from it. Same client-id, same lease.
This breaks the workflow claudebox exists for: log in once, snapshot,
clone forever. Every clone of a snapshot is, to the network, the same
machine as its source and as its siblings.
Truncating /etc/machine-id makes systemd mint a fresh one at next boot,
so the clone path now resets it and restarts before handing the box
over. Costs one reboot; the alternative is colliding boxes.
Found by the drill on a live host (#26) — and it also explains why the
sibling-isolation probe (#15 A3) could never work: it was aiming box A
at box A's own address.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 23:31:32 +00:00
wait_agent "$i"
}
2026-07-17 15:52:16 +00:00
# Templates set image, user, resources, boot demands and cloud-init — NOTHING
# else. The box.env file is parsed against this allowlist, never sourced:
# sourcing would hand every template arbitrary bash execution on the HOST at
# mint time. And there is deliberately no key for a network or a security flag
# — the shared box-net profile is the placement contract, so no template can
# weaken isolation. 'blank' is a box with nobody home, not a box with the
# safety off. The two boot demands are for server-class templates (#68):
# BOX_REQUIRE_VM=1 refuses the container fallback (the VM is the trust
# boundary, and a server-class guest runs docker), and BOX_AUTOSTART=1 stamps
# boot.autostart so the box survives a host reboot without an operator.
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
load_template() {
local t="$1" dir line key val
dir="$root/templates/$t"
[ -d "$dir" ] || die "no such template: $t (see 'box templates')"
[ -f "$dir/box.env" ] || die "template '$t' has no box.env"
T_DESC=""; T_IMAGE=""; T_USER=""; T_CPU=""; T_MEMORY=""; T_DISK=""
2026-07-17 15:52:16 +00:00
T_REQUIRE_VM=""; T_AUTOSTART=""
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
while IFS= read -r line || [ -n "$line" ]; do
case "$line" in ''|\#*) continue ;; esac
case "$line" in
*=*) key="${line%%=*}"; val="${line#*=}" ;;
*) die "template '$t': not a KEY=\"value\" line: $line" ;;
esac
val="${val#\"}"; val="${val%\"}"
2026-07-18 00:01:15 +00:00
# T_DESC is parsed for symmetry with the other BOX_* keys, but cmd_templates
# re-reads BOX_DESCRIPTION straight from the file (a box is listed without
# ever loading its template), so the parsed value here is never read. Keep the
# row — deleting it would turn box.env's own key into an "unknown key" error at
# mint time. (SC2034 disabled for the branch below; the directive must sit on
# the whole case, not an individual arm.)
# shellcheck disable=SC2034
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
case "$key" in
BOX_DESCRIPTION) T_DESC="$val" ;;
BOX_IMAGE) T_IMAGE="$val" ;;
BOX_USER) T_USER="$val" ;;
BOX_CPU) T_CPU="$val" ;;
BOX_MEMORY) T_MEMORY="$val" ;;
BOX_DISK) T_DISK="$val" ;;
2026-07-17 15:52:16 +00:00
BOX_REQUIRE_VM) T_REQUIRE_VM="$val" ;;
BOX_AUTOSTART) T_AUTOSTART="$val" ;;
*) die "template '$t': unknown key '$key' — a template sets image, user, resources and boot demands, nothing else (there is no key for a network, on purpose)" ;;
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
esac
done <"$dir/box.env"
2026-07-18 00:01:15 +00:00
# Not 'A && B || die': if T_IMAGE is set but T_USER is not, that idiom still
# dies (which is what we want) — but it reads as an if-then-else it is not, so
# spell the guard out (SC2015).
if [ -z "$T_IMAGE" ] || [ -z "$T_USER" ]; then
die "template '$t': BOX_IMAGE and BOX_USER are required"
fi
feat(new): inline resource overrides — --cpu, --memory, --disk (#57)
Resolution is most-specific-first: flag > BOX_* env (kept — it is the
scripting form and how the drill shrinks boxes on small hosts) > the
template's box.env > defaults. Values pass to Incus verbatim (limits.cpu,
limits.memory, root size=) — its units, its validation; box adds no
parser. Resources are all a flag can touch: there is still no flag for a
network or a security.* key, on purpose.
Flags shape a fresh mint only — --from refuses them, a clone carries its
source's resources. An explicit --disk on a container mint gets a note
instead of a silent drop (a container's root rides the pool).
The drill's blank mint now carries --cpu 1 --memory 1GiB and asserts the
limits landed — which is also the precedence proof, since the drill
exports BOX_CPU/BOX_MEMORY on small hosts — plus a negative check that
--from refuses resource flags.
Verified live (container mint, image cached): BOX_CPU=3 + --cpu 1
--memory 1GiB → limits.cpu=1, limits.memory=1GiB; --from + --cpu exits 2
before touching anything; container --disk prints the note.
Closes #57
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-15 00:17:33 +00:00
# Resolution, most specific wins: inline flag (--cpu/--memory/--disk, #57)
# > BOX_* environment (how a small host or the drill shrinks every box it
# mints) > the template's file > defaults. Values pass to Incus verbatim —
# its units, its validation; box adds no parser of its own. Resources only:
# there is still no flag for a network or a security.* key, on purpose.
T_CPU="${cpu:-${BOX_CPU:-${T_CPU:-4}}}"
T_MEMORY="${memory:-${BOX_MEMORY:-${T_MEMORY:-8GiB}}}"
T_DISK="${disk:-${BOX_DISK:-${T_DISK:-60GiB}}}"
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
}
cmd_templates() {
local d t desc
echo "TEMPLATES"
for d in "$root/templates"/*/; do
t="$(basename "$d")"
desc="$(grep -m1 '^BOX_DESCRIPTION=' "$d/box.env" 2>/dev/null | cut -d= -f2- | tr -d '"')"
printf ' %-10s %s\n' "$t" "$desc"
done
echo
echo "mint one: box new --name <box> --template <template>"
}
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
cmd_new() {
[ -n "$name" ] || usage_error "usage: $(synopsis_of new)"
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
require_stack
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
local instance; instance="$(iname_of "$name")"
if [ -n "$from" ]; then
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
[ -z "$template" ] || usage_error "--from clones an existing box; its template rides along (drop --template)"
feat(new): inline resource overrides — --cpu, --memory, --disk (#57)
Resolution is most-specific-first: flag > BOX_* env (kept — it is the
scripting form and how the drill shrinks boxes on small hosts) > the
template's box.env > defaults. Values pass to Incus verbatim (limits.cpu,
limits.memory, root size=) — its units, its validation; box adds no
parser. Resources are all a flag can touch: there is still no flag for a
network or a security.* key, on purpose.
Flags shape a fresh mint only — --from refuses them, a clone carries its
source's resources. An explicit --disk on a container mint gets a note
instead of a silent drop (a container's root rides the pool).
The drill's blank mint now carries --cpu 1 --memory 1GiB and asserts the
limits landed — which is also the precedence proof, since the drill
exports BOX_CPU/BOX_MEMORY on small hosts — plus a negative check that
--from refuses resource flags.
Verified live (container mint, image cached): BOX_CPU=3 + --cpu 1
--memory 1GiB → limits.cpu=1, limits.memory=1GiB; --from + --cpu exits 2
before touching anything; container --disk prints the note.
Closes #57
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-15 00:17:33 +00:00
[ -z "$cpu$memory$disk" ] || usage_error "--cpu/--memory/--disk shape a fresh mint; a clone carries its source's resources ('box incus' can change them afterwards)"
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
local src="${from%%/*}" snap="" srcref
case "$from" in */*) snap="${from#*/}" ;; esac
srcref="$(iname_of "$src")"; [ -n "$snap" ] && srcref="$srcref/$snap"
incus copy "$srcref" "$instance"
incus start "$instance"
wait_agent "$instance"
fix: a clone must not inherit its source's identity
Two boxes cloned from one snapshot came up holding the SAME IP address —
10.87.0.128, on the same dnsmasq lease, matching to the second on the
lease timer. Incus does regenerate the MAC (they differed), but
/etc/machine-id rides along inside the disk image, and systemd derives
its DHCP client identifier from it. Same client-id, same lease.
This breaks the workflow claudebox exists for: log in once, snapshot,
clone forever. Every clone of a snapshot is, to the network, the same
machine as its source and as its siblings.
Truncating /etc/machine-id makes systemd mint a fresh one at next boot,
so the clone path now resets it and restarts before handing the box
over. Costs one reboot; the alternative is colliding boxes.
Found by the drill on a live host (#26) — and it also explains why the
sibling-isolation probe (#15 A3) could never work: it was aiming box A
at box A's own address.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-13 23:31:32 +00:00
reset_identity "$instance"
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: cloned $srcref — isolation and auth state carry over from the source."
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
else
feat!: rename the host stack too, default to blank, drill the templates, add wipe
Follow-up to the rename, per operator direction — the divergence is
reversed and the cut is complete:
- Host stack: boxnet (10.88.0.0/24 — a pre-rename host may still carry
claudenet on 10.87, two bridges must not claim one subnet),
box-isolate, nft tables 'inet box'/'bridge box', box-firewall.{sh,
service}. teardown-host now strips BOTH name generations, so one
script uninstalls a host of any age.
- Default template is blank: 'box new --name x' mints bare Debian;
the claude box is '--template claude'. The login hint follows the
EFFECTIVE template read off the instance, so clones of claude boxes
still get it and blank boxes are not told to run a binary they lack.
- The drill validates templates: listing, unknown-template refusal,
the allowlist rejecting BOX_NETWORK by name, and a full blank mint —
default resolves to blank, metadata stamped, box-net placement, exec
lands in 'dev', no claude binary, and isolation parity (egress +
pinned DNS) on the same contract as every template.
- drill/wipe.sh: scorched earth for drill hosts. Both tag generations,
every drill-named instance, networks/ACLs/profiles/firewall of both
generations, cached images, and (--purge-storage) the default pool.
Ends by asserting the ABSENCE of every artifact rather than trusting
the removals' exit codes.
2026-07-14 14:36:39 +00:00
local t="${template:-blank}" m extra=()
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
load_template "$t"
m="$(pick_mode)"
2026-07-17 15:52:16 +00:00
# A server-class template (BOX_REQUIRE_VM, #68) has no weaker mode: the VM
# is its trust boundary, and its guest runs docker. Refuse the container
# fallback AND an explicit --container — never silently mint something
# lesser than what the template promises. The message holds for both
# tiers: /dev/kvm is a fact about the HOST, and an admin's default-project
# mint and a restricted user's incus-user mint go through the same daemon,
# so the fix is the same for both — a KVM-capable host, not a grant.
if [ "$T_REQUIRE_VM" = 1 ] && [ "$m" != vm ]; then
[ "$mode" != container ] || usage_error "template '$t' requires VM mode — it will not mint as a container (drop --container)"
die "template '$t' requires VM mode and this host has no /dev/kvm — mint it on a KVM-capable host (or via --remote)"
fi
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
# shellcheck disable=SC2054 # "root,size=..." is a single incus argument
2026-07-14 17:05:39 +00:00
# security.secureboot=false: Incus defaults VMs to secureboot ON, and a
# Debian cloud image whose shim is signed with a key the host's OVMF does
# not trust dies with "bad shim signature / prohibited by secure boot
# policy" and drops to the GRUB menu forever — the kernel never loads. It
# is not part of a throwaway box's threat model (the VM boundary is), and
# turning it off boots reliably across image rebuilds. Container mode has
# no firmware, so it does not apply there.
if [ "$m" = vm ]; then extra+=(--vm --device "root,size=$T_DISK" --config security.secureboot=false); else extra+=(--config security.nesting=true); fi
2026-07-17 15:52:16 +00:00
# BOX_AUTOSTART (#68): a server-class box must come back after a host
# reboot without an operator. Stamped per-instance like limits.*; a --from clone
# needs no code — 'incus copy' keeps every non-volatile config key, the
# same ride the user.* stamps take (audit B2).
[ "$T_AUTOSTART" != 1 ] || extra+=(--config boot.autostart=true)
feat(new): inline resource overrides — --cpu, --memory, --disk (#57)
Resolution is most-specific-first: flag > BOX_* env (kept — it is the
scripting form and how the drill shrinks boxes on small hosts) > the
template's box.env > defaults. Values pass to Incus verbatim (limits.cpu,
limits.memory, root size=) — its units, its validation; box adds no
parser. Resources are all a flag can touch: there is still no flag for a
network or a security.* key, on purpose.
Flags shape a fresh mint only — --from refuses them, a clone carries its
source's resources. An explicit --disk on a container mint gets a note
instead of a silent drop (a container's root rides the pool).
The drill's blank mint now carries --cpu 1 --memory 1GiB and asserts the
limits landed — which is also the precedence proof, since the drill
exports BOX_CPU/BOX_MEMORY on small hosts — plus a negative check that
--from refuses resource flags.
Verified live (container mint, image cached): BOX_CPU=3 + --cpu 1
--memory 1GiB → limits.cpu=1, limits.memory=1GiB; --from + --cpu exits 2
before touching anything; container --disk prints the note.
Closes #57
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-15 00:17:33 +00:00
# Root size is a VM launch concern; a container's root rides the pool. Say
# so instead of silently dropping an explicit --disk.
[ "$m" = vm ] || [ -z "$disk" ] || echo "box: note — --disk applies to VM mode only; this container's root rides the pool" >&2
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
# The template's identity is stamped ONTO the instance: which template,
# which user. 'incus copy' preserves user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone
# knows what it is without ever consulting the template again.
incus launch "$T_IMAGE" "$instance" --profile box-net \
--config user.box=1 \
--config user.box.template="$t" \
--config user.box.user="$T_USER" \
--config limits.cpu="$T_CPU" \
--config limits.memory="$T_MEMORY" \
--config cloud-init.user-data="$(cat "$root/templates/$t/user-data.yaml")" \
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
"${extra[@]}"
wait_agent "$instance"
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: waiting for phase-1 (cloud-init)..."
2026-07-14 15:34:08 +00:00
echo "box: (its full narration, live: incus exec $name -- tail -f /var/log/cloud-init-output.log)"
fix: a failed cold mint must say why, and the doctor must find the cause
Two cold mints in a row died with cloud-init 'status: error' on a host
the doctor had just certified clean — so the earlier "leftover mutations
poisoned the network" theory is dead, and the DNS failure is
reproducible rather than transient.
'claudebox new' printed four hundred dots and the word "error", leaving
the user with nothing to act on: the reason was in the box's own log and
nobody was told the log existed. It now prints cloud-init's status, the
fetch/resolve errors from the box's log, and how to inspect the box —
which is left running, because a box that failed to build is evidence,
not garbage. It also names the usual culprit: the host's resolver.
doctor.sh gains the diagnosis that keeps being done by hand:
· what the HOST resolves through, and whether that is a CGNAT/Tailscale
resolver the boxes inherit (issue #33);
· whether claudenet's resolver is pinned;
· and inside a box, the question that settles it — DNS is broken, but
can it still reach 1.1.1.1 BY ADDRESS? If yes, egress is fine and the
fault is purely the inherited forwarder.
· --pin-dns applies the #33 fix (raw.dnsmasq: no-resolv + public
servers) so the hypothesis can be TESTED rather than argued.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-14 00:55:39 +00:00
# A failed cloud-init used to print a screen of dots and the word "error",
# with nothing to act on — the box's own log holds the reason, and nobody
# was told it existed. Show it, and leave the box up to inspect.
2026-07-14 15:07:01 +00:00
# Every non-interactive exec pins stdin. With a TTY on stdin, 'incus exec'
# goes interactive — and when box's own output is redirected (a script, the
# drill), the session can wedge open after the remote command has exited,
# blocking forever on a websocket that will never close. Caught live: a
# mint stuck at 'status: done'. Only shell/exec/tmux may own the terminal.
2026-07-14 15:34:08 +00:00
# PYTHONUNBUFFERED: cloud-init's progress dots are block-buffered the
# moment stdout is not a tty — a redirected mint (a script, the drill)
# shows NOTHING for the whole install and then one burst at the end,
# which reads exactly like a hang. Unbuffered, the dots arrive as dots.
if ! incus exec "$instance" -- env PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 cloud-init status --wait </dev/null; then
fix: a failed cold mint must say why, and the doctor must find the cause
Two cold mints in a row died with cloud-init 'status: error' on a host
the doctor had just certified clean — so the earlier "leftover mutations
poisoned the network" theory is dead, and the DNS failure is
reproducible rather than transient.
'claudebox new' printed four hundred dots and the word "error", leaving
the user with nothing to act on: the reason was in the box's own log and
nobody was told the log existed. It now prints cloud-init's status, the
fetch/resolve errors from the box's log, and how to inspect the box —
which is left running, because a box that failed to build is evidence,
not garbage. It also names the usual culprit: the host's resolver.
doctor.sh gains the diagnosis that keeps being done by hand:
· what the HOST resolves through, and whether that is a CGNAT/Tailscale
resolver the boxes inherit (issue #33);
· whether claudenet's resolver is pinned;
· and inside a box, the question that settles it — DNS is broken, but
can it still reach 1.1.1.1 BY ADDRESS? If yes, egress is fine and the
fault is purely the inherited forwarder.
· --pin-dns applies the #33 fix (raw.dnsmasq: no-resolv + public
servers) so the hypothesis can be TESTED rather than argued.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-14 00:55:39 +00:00
echo >&2
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: cloud-init FAILED in $name. What it says:" >&2
2026-07-14 15:07:01 +00:00
incus exec "$instance" -- cloud-init status --long </dev/null 2>&1 | sed 's/^/ /' >&2
fix: a failed cold mint must say why, and the doctor must find the cause
Two cold mints in a row died with cloud-init 'status: error' on a host
the doctor had just certified clean — so the earlier "leftover mutations
poisoned the network" theory is dead, and the DNS failure is
reproducible rather than transient.
'claudebox new' printed four hundred dots and the word "error", leaving
the user with nothing to act on: the reason was in the box's own log and
nobody was told the log existed. It now prints cloud-init's status, the
fetch/resolve errors from the box's log, and how to inspect the box —
which is left running, because a box that failed to build is evidence,
not garbage. It also names the usual culprit: the host's resolver.
doctor.sh gains the diagnosis that keeps being done by hand:
· what the HOST resolves through, and whether that is a CGNAT/Tailscale
resolver the boxes inherit (issue #33);
· whether claudenet's resolver is pinned;
· and inside a box, the question that settles it — DNS is broken, but
can it still reach 1.1.1.1 BY ADDRESS? If yes, egress is fine and the
fault is purely the inherited forwarder.
· --pin-dns applies the #33 fix (raw.dnsmasq: no-resolv + public
servers) so the hypothesis can be TESTED rather than argued.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-14 00:55:39 +00:00
echo >&2
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: the errors, from the box's log:" >&2
fix: a failed cold mint must say why, and the doctor must find the cause
Two cold mints in a row died with cloud-init 'status: error' on a host
the doctor had just certified clean — so the earlier "leftover mutations
poisoned the network" theory is dead, and the DNS failure is
reproducible rather than transient.
'claudebox new' printed four hundred dots and the word "error", leaving
the user with nothing to act on: the reason was in the box's own log and
nobody was told the log existed. It now prints cloud-init's status, the
fetch/resolve errors from the box's log, and how to inspect the box —
which is left running, because a box that failed to build is evidence,
not garbage. It also names the usual culprit: the host's resolver.
doctor.sh gains the diagnosis that keeps being done by hand:
· what the HOST resolves through, and whether that is a CGNAT/Tailscale
resolver the boxes inherit (issue #33);
· whether claudenet's resolver is pinned;
· and inside a box, the question that settles it — DNS is broken, but
can it still reach 1.1.1.1 BY ADDRESS? If yes, egress is fine and the
fault is purely the inherited forwarder.
· --pin-dns applies the #33 fix (raw.dnsmasq: no-resolv + public
servers) so the hypothesis can be TESTED rather than argued.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-14 00:55:39 +00:00
incus exec "$instance" -- sh -c \
"grep -iE '^(E:|Err:)|Temporary failure|Could not resolve|Unable to fetch' /var/log/cloud-init-output.log | tail -8" \
2026-07-14 15:07:01 +00:00
</dev/null 2>/dev/null | sed 's/^/ /' >&2
fix: a failed cold mint must say why, and the doctor must find the cause
Two cold mints in a row died with cloud-init 'status: error' on a host
the doctor had just certified clean — so the earlier "leftover mutations
poisoned the network" theory is dead, and the DNS failure is
reproducible rather than transient.
'claudebox new' printed four hundred dots and the word "error", leaving
the user with nothing to act on: the reason was in the box's own log and
nobody was told the log existed. It now prints cloud-init's status, the
fetch/resolve errors from the box's log, and how to inspect the box —
which is left running, because a box that failed to build is evidence,
not garbage. It also names the usual culprit: the host's resolver.
doctor.sh gains the diagnosis that keeps being done by hand:
· what the HOST resolves through, and whether that is a CGNAT/Tailscale
resolver the boxes inherit (issue #33);
· whether claudenet's resolver is pinned;
· and inside a box, the question that settles it — DNS is broken, but
can it still reach 1.1.1.1 BY ADDRESS? If yes, egress is fine and the
fault is purely the inherited forwarder.
· --pin-dns applies the #33 fix (raw.dnsmasq: no-resolv + public
servers) so the hypothesis can be TESTED rather than argued.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-14 00:55:39 +00:00
echo >&2
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: '$name' is still up — inspect it, then delete it:" >&2
echo " box incus $name -- exec {} -- tail -50 /var/log/cloud-init-output.log" >&2
echo " box rm $name" >&2
echo "box: a failed mint is usually the HOST's fault (a wedged daemon, a dnsmasq" >&2
echo " not serving, a VPN resolver the box inherits). Diagnose it: box doctor" >&2
fix: a failed cold mint must say why, and the doctor must find the cause
Two cold mints in a row died with cloud-init 'status: error' on a host
the doctor had just certified clean — so the earlier "leftover mutations
poisoned the network" theory is dead, and the DNS failure is
reproducible rather than transient.
'claudebox new' printed four hundred dots and the word "error", leaving
the user with nothing to act on: the reason was in the box's own log and
nobody was told the log existed. It now prints cloud-init's status, the
fetch/resolve errors from the box's log, and how to inspect the box —
which is left running, because a box that failed to build is evidence,
not garbage. It also names the usual culprit: the host's resolver.
doctor.sh gains the diagnosis that keeps being done by hand:
· what the HOST resolves through, and whether that is a CGNAT/Tailscale
resolver the boxes inherit (issue #33);
· whether claudenet's resolver is pinned;
· and inside a box, the question that settles it — DNS is broken, but
can it still reach 1.1.1.1 BY ADDRESS? If yes, egress is fine and the
fault is purely the inherited forwarder.
· --pin-dns applies the #33 fix (raw.dnsmasq: no-resolv + public
servers) so the hypothesis can be TESTED rather than argued.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-14 00:55:39 +00:00
die "cloud-init failed — the box is incomplete, so refusing to hand it over"
fi
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
fi
feat!: rename the host stack too, default to blank, drill the templates, add wipe
Follow-up to the rename, per operator direction — the divergence is
reversed and the cut is complete:
- Host stack: boxnet (10.88.0.0/24 — a pre-rename host may still carry
claudenet on 10.87, two bridges must not claim one subnet),
box-isolate, nft tables 'inet box'/'bridge box', box-firewall.{sh,
service}. teardown-host now strips BOTH name generations, so one
script uninstalls a host of any age.
- Default template is blank: 'box new --name x' mints bare Debian;
the claude box is '--template claude'. The login hint follows the
EFFECTIVE template read off the instance, so clones of claude boxes
still get it and blank boxes are not told to run a binary they lack.
- The drill validates templates: listing, unknown-template refusal,
the allowlist rejecting BOX_NETWORK by name, and a full blank mint —
default resolves to blank, metadata stamped, box-net placement, exec
lands in 'dev', no claude binary, and isolation parity (egress +
pinned DNS) on the same contract as every template.
- drill/wipe.sh: scorched earth for drill hosts. Both tag generations,
every drill-named instance, networks/ACLs/profiles/firewall of both
generations, cached images, and (--purge-storage) the default pool.
Ends by asserting the ABSENCE of every artifact rather than trusting
the removals' exit codes.
2026-07-14 14:36:39 +00:00
# The login hint belongs to the claude template — read the EFFECTIVE
# template off the instance, so a clone of a claude box gets it too and a
# blank box is not told to run a binary it doesn't have.
local eff; eff="$(incus config get "$instance" user.box.template 2>/dev/null || true)"
[ -z "$eff" ] && [ "$(incus config get "$instance" user.claudebox 2>/dev/null || true)" = 1 ] && eff=claude
if [ "$eff" = claude ]; then
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: ready — 'box shell $name'. Log into Claude inside: run 'claude' then /login."
feat!: rename the host stack too, default to blank, drill the templates, add wipe
Follow-up to the rename, per operator direction — the divergence is
reversed and the cut is complete:
- Host stack: boxnet (10.88.0.0/24 — a pre-rename host may still carry
claudenet on 10.87, two bridges must not claim one subnet),
box-isolate, nft tables 'inet box'/'bridge box', box-firewall.{sh,
service}. teardown-host now strips BOTH name generations, so one
script uninstalls a host of any age.
- Default template is blank: 'box new --name x' mints bare Debian;
the claude box is '--template claude'. The login hint follows the
EFFECTIVE template read off the instance, so clones of claude boxes
still get it and blank boxes are not told to run a binary they lack.
- The drill validates templates: listing, unknown-template refusal,
the allowlist rejecting BOX_NETWORK by name, and a full blank mint —
default resolves to blank, metadata stamped, box-net placement, exec
lands in 'dev', no claude binary, and isolation parity (egress +
pinned DNS) on the same contract as every template.
- drill/wipe.sh: scorched earth for drill hosts. Both tag generations,
every drill-named instance, networks/ACLs/profiles/firewall of both
generations, cached images, and (--purge-storage) the default pool.
Ends by asserting the ABSENCE of every artifact rather than trusting
the removals' exit codes.
2026-07-14 14:36:39 +00:00
else
echo "box: ready — 'box shell $name'."
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
fi
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
}
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
# Boxes are ordinary Incus instances tagged user.box=1 — that tag is the only
# thing that makes them ours, so every read below is filtered by it and we
# never report on (or touch) an instance box didn't mint. Pre-rename boxes
# carry user.claudebox=1 instead and are ours forever; a box can't hold both
# tags via any path we mint, but the dedupe costs nothing.
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
# Emits: name,state,type,snapshot-count — none of which can contain a comma or a
# newline, so a plain -F, split is safe. (IPv4 can: a box running docker has
# several addresses and Incus quotes them across lines. It's fetched separately.)
boxes_csv() {
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
{
incus list ${remote:+"$remote"} "user.box=1" --format csv --columns nstS
incus list ${remote:+"$remote"} "user.claudebox=1" --format csv --columns nstS
} 2>/dev/null | awk -F, '!seen[$1]++'
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
}
box_ipv4() { # first address only; strips Incus's " (iface)" suffix. "-" if none.
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
incus list "$1" --format csv --columns 4 2>/dev/null \
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
| tr -d '"' | sed 's/ (.*//' | grep -v '^[[:space:]]*$' | head -n1 \
| grep . || echo "-"
}
2026-07-14 20:45:09 +00:00
# The box's address ON BOXNET — which is NOT the same as "its first address".
# A box running docker also carries 172.17.0.1 (docker0), and Incus happily
# lists that FIRST. box_ipv4() hands you the decoy, and pointing anything at it
# is pointing at the wrong interface: 'box expose' did exactly that until Incus
# refused with `Connect IP "172.17.0.1" must be one of the instance's static
# IPv4 addresses`. The drill has known this trap since run 4; the CLI had not.
# Derive the prefix from the network rather than hardcoding it.
box_net_ip() {
local pfx
pfx="$(incus network get boxnet ipv4.address 2>/dev/null | cut -d/ -f1 | cut -d. -f1-3)"
[ -n "$pfx" ] || return 1
incus list "$1" --format csv --columns 4 2>/dev/null \
2026-07-18 00:01:15 +00:00
| tr -d '"' | tr ' ,' '\n' | grep -E "^${pfx//./\\.}\.[0-9]+$" | head -n1 | grep .
2026-07-14 20:45:09 +00:00
}
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
# VIRTUAL-MACHINE is a mouthful in a table; anything unexpected passes through.
short_type() {
case "$(printf '%s' "$1" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')" in
virtual-machine|virtualmachine) echo VM ;;
container) echo CT ;;
*) echo "$1" ;;
esac
}
list_all() {
local rows; rows="$(boxes_csv)"
if [ -z "$rows" ]; then
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: no boxes yet — create one with: box new --name work" >&2
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
return 0
fi
{
echo "NAME,STATE,TYPE,SNAPSHOTS"
while IFS=, read -r n s t snaps; do
[ -n "$n" ] || continue
echo "$n,${s:--},$(short_type "$t"),${snaps:-0}"
done <<<"$rows"
} | awk -F, '
{ for (i = 1; i <= NF; i++) { cell[NR, i] = $i; if (length($i) > w[i]) w[i] = length($i) } n = NR }
END { for (r = 1; r <= n; r++) { line = ""
for (i = 1; i <= 4; i++) line = line sprintf("%-*s ", w[i], cell[r, i])
sub(/ +$/, "", line); print line } }'
}
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
# 'list' lists them all; 'info' shows one. A box name handed to 'list' is a wrong
# guess we can answer, not a surprise: point at the command that does want one.
cmd_list() {
if [ "${#args[@]}" -ge 1 ] && [ -n "${args[0]}" ]; then
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
die "list takes no box — for one box, use: box info ${args[0]}"
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
fi
if [ "$json" -eq 1 ]; then
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
incus list ${remote:+"$remote"} "user.box=1" --format json
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
else
list_all
fi
}
cmd_info() {
local box="${args[0]}" row
if [ "$json" -eq 1 ]; then incus list "$inst" --format json; return; fi
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
row="$(boxes_csv | awk -F, -v b="$box" '$1 == b { print; exit }')"
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
[ -n "$row" ] || die "no such box: $box (see 'box list')"
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
local state type snaps
IFS=, read -r _ state type snaps <<<"$row"
printf '%-11s%s\n' NAME "$box" STATE "${state:--}" TYPE "$(short_type "$type")" \
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
IPV4 "$(box_ipv4 "$inst")"
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
2026-07-14 22:55:10 +00:00
# A box with a hole says so — an exposure visible only to --list is a hole
# info would deny. One line per open door.
local d listen
while IFS= read -r d; do
case "$d" in expose-*) : ;; *) continue ;; esac
listen="$(incus config device get "$inst" "$d" listen 2>/dev/null)"
printf '%-11s%s → port %s\n' EXPOSED "${listen#tcp:}" "${d#expose-}"
done < <(incus config device list "$inst" 2>/dev/null)
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
echo
case "${snaps:-0}" in
''|0)
echo "SNAPSHOTS (none)"
echo
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "Take one: box snapshot $box authed"
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
return 0 ;;
esac
echo "SNAPSHOTS"
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
local first="" sname taken
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
while IFS=, read -r sname taken _; do
[ -n "$sname" ] || continue
[ -n "$first" ] || first="$sname"
printf ' %-14s%s\n' "$sname" "$taken"
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
done < <(incus snapshot list "$inst" --format csv 2>/dev/null)
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
echo
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "Clone one: box new --name <new> --from $box/${first:-<snapshot>}"
}
# Which user does a shell land in? The template stamped it on the instance at
# mint time (user.box.user), and 'incus copy' carries user.* keys — so a clone
# knows without consulting the template. Two subtleties, both from the audit:
# 'incus config get' prints EMPTY + exit 0 for an unset key (B4), hence ${u:-},
# never '||'; and a pre-rename box has no metadata but is always a Claude box,
# so the legacy tag maps to 'claude'. The root fallback is effectively
# unreachable (every template sets a user) — anything that truly needs root
# goes through the 'box incus' escape hatch.
box_user() {
local u
u="$(incus config get "$1" user.box.user 2>/dev/null || true)"
if [ -z "$u" ] && [ "$(incus config get "$1" user.claudebox 2>/dev/null || true)" = 1 ]; then
u=claude
fi
echo "${u:-root}"
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
}
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
cmd_shell() { incus exec "$inst" -- sudo -u "$(box_user "$inst")" -i; }
cmd_exec() { incus exec "$inst" -- sudo -u "$(box_user "$inst")" -i "${args[@]:1}"; }
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
2026-07-14 13:10:59 +00:00
# A shell is a child of the exec connection: drop the terminal and everything
# in it is SIGHUP'd — a long Claude run dies with it. tmux 'new-session -A'
# attaches when the session exists and creates it when it doesn't, so starting
# work and reattaching after a disconnect are the same command. 'shell' stays
# bare on purpose — two verbs, two contracts.
cmd_tmux() {
local session="${args[1]:-main}"
case "$session" in
*[!A-Za-z0-9_-]*) usage_error "session names are letters, digits, '-' and '_' — got '$session'" ;;
esac
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
incus exec "$inst" -- sudo -u "$(box_user "$inst")" -i tmux new-session -A -s "$session"
2026-07-14 13:10:59 +00:00
}
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
cmd_snapshot() {
local label="${args[1]:-manual-$(date +%s)}"
incus snapshot create "$inst" "$label"
echo "$label"
2026-07-13 20:26:44 +00:00
}
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
cmd_status() {
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: 'status' is deprecated — use 'box list'." >&2
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
list_all
}
feat: box export / import — state that survives the box and the host (#70)
'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
but the clone still lives on the same host. Nothing a box held could outlive
a teardown — which made #66's upgrade refusal honest but lossy. This adds
the way out and the way back:
- box export <box> [<file>] [--instance-only]: wraps 'incus export' into one
portable backup tarball (default <box>-<UTC stamp>.tar.gz), snapshots
included by default. Requires the box stopped (require_stopped grew an
honest reason parameter: export is down by OUR decision, not incus's).
Credentials are SHOUTED, not scrubbed — the artifact carries the box's
whole disk, and scrubbing a disk image is a promise tarball surgery
cannot keep.
- box import <file> [--name <box>]: reads the artifact's name from
backup/index.yaml up front, refuses any name an existing instance holds
(the resolve_box boundary from the other side), pre-flights the stack
(require_stack, factored out of cmd_new), imports, then re-stamps the
HOST's truth onto the artifact's: user.box=1 (legacy tag honored), the
box-net placement (profile assign, the migrate-host move), fresh volatile
MACs (imports restore volatile.* verbatim — a re-import beside its
sibling collided at start with 'MAC address already defined on another
NIC', measured live on Incus 6.0.4), and reset_identity, exactly like a
clone.
- restricted tier: box grant now converges restricted.backups allow —
export rides the backup API, which incus-user's restricted projects block
by default exactly like snapshots (incus 6.0 permissions.go,
AllowBackupCreation). Import is plain instance creation and needs no key.
- tests: driven usage errors + fail-closed grep/line-order guards for every
daemon-gated invariant; CI's rehearsal job now runs a live round-trip
(mint, write, snapshot, down, export, rm, import, assert the file, the
snapshot, the tag, the agent, and the collision refusal).
The whole flow was verified against a live Incus 6.0.4 daemon: running-box
refusal, export, overwrite guard, rm, import with and without --name,
re-home onto box-net, sibling re-import with distinct MACs and machine-ids,
pre-export file and snapshot present in both.
Closes #70
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 15:10:12 +00:00
# --- export / import (#70): state that survives the box and the host --------
#
# 'box rm' deletes a box and every snapshot it has; 'box new --from' clones,
# but the clone still lives on the same host under the same stack. So until
# now, nothing a box held could outlive a host teardown — and #66's installer
# refusal ("stop, export, remove every box before you upgrade") was only
# honest advice once a real export existed. 'incus export' is the primitive:
# a backup tarball of the instance and (by default) its snapshots.
cmd_export() {
local box="${args[0]}" file="${args[1]:-}"
# Down first, by OUR decision, not incus's necessity: incus can back up a
# running instance, but a live root disk is a moving target, and this
# artifact's whole job is to be trusted later, on a host that no longer
# has the box (#70 settled on require-down over snapshot-then-export).
require_stopped "$inst" "$box" "export wants a settled disk, so the artifact can be trusted later"
# Default filename: the box's name plus a UTC stamp. Sortable, never
# colliding across repeated exports, and it answers the question you will
# actually ask the file six months from now — WHEN is this state from?
[ -n "$file" ] || file="$box-$(date -u +%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ).tar.gz"
if [ -e "$file" ] && [ "$force" -ne 1 ]; then
die "$file already exists — pick another name, or --force to overwrite"
fi
local extra=()
# Snapshots ride along by DEFAULT (#70's call): the reuse workflow lives in
# them (log in once, snapshot, clone forever), and an artifact that quietly
# dropped the authed checkpoint would defeat its own purpose. --instance-only
# is the explicit opt-out, passed through to incus verbatim.
[ "$instance_only" -eq 1 ] && extra+=(--instance-only)
echo "box: exporting $box → $file ..."
incus export "$inst" "$file" "${extra[@]}"
echo "box: exported $box → $file"
[ "$instance_only" -eq 1 ] || echo "box: (snapshots included — 'box import' brings them back too)"
# #70's credential decision: scrub or SHOUT — and box shouts. Scrubbing a
# disk image is a promise no tarball surgery can keep (dotfiles, keychains,
# tokens in shell history, deleted-but-unwiped blocks); handing someone a
# "sanitized" file that is not sanitized would be worse than the risk it
# hides. So the artifact carries everything, and box says so every time.
{
echo "box: ============================== WARNING =============================="
echo "box: this file contains the box's ENTIRE disk: agent logins (Claude,"
echo "box: Codex, Grok), git credentials, SSH keys, shell history — everything"
echo "box: that was inside the box. Nothing in it was scrubbed."
echo "box: treat the file itself as a credential: private storage, trusted"
echo "box: channels only."
echo "box: ====================================================================="
} >&2
}
# The way back in. Everything 'incus import' restores is the ARTIFACT's truth
# (disk, config, devices, snapshots); everything box then re-stamps is THIS
# host's truth (the boundary tag, the placement contract, a fresh machine
# identity). That split is the design (#70): state is portable, the trust
# boundary is not — it is re-established on the current stack, every time.
cmd_import() {
local file="${args[0]:-}"
[ -n "$file" ] || usage_error "usage: $(synopsis_of import)"
[ -f "$file" ] || die "no such file: $file"
# The artifact names its instance in backup/index.yaml — read it up front:
# the collision check and the re-stamping both need the final name BEFORE
# incus acts. GNU tar auto-detects the compression on read. '|| true'
# because pipefail would otherwise kill the script on a non-tarball with
# tar's status instead of reaching the die below that names the problem.
local embedded
embedded="$(tar -xOf "$file" backup/index.yaml 2>/dev/null | awk '$1 == "name:" { print $2; exit }' || true)"
[ -n "$embedded" ] || die "$file is not an incus/box export (no backup/index.yaml inside)"
local target="${name:-$embedded}"
# The boundary resolve_box enforces, seen from the other side: box will not
# occupy a name ANY existing instance holds — not a box's (import is not
# restore), and not an unmanaged VM's (not ours to shadow or clobber).
if incus config show "$target" >/dev/null 2>&1 </dev/null; then
die "an instance named '$target' already exists — import under another name: box import $file --name <new>"
fi
# The stack this lands on must exist first (a fresh host runs setup-host
# before it re-imports) — same pre-flight as a mint, same tier-aware fix.
require_stack
echo "box: importing $file as $target..."
if [ -n "$name" ]; then incus import "$file" "$name"; else incus import "$file"; fi
# Re-stamp the boundary tag. user.* keys ride inside the artifact, so a box
# export brings its template/user stamps back on its own, and a legacy
# user.claudebox=1 stays honored as it is everywhere else. Only an instance
# carrying NEITHER tag is stamped user.box=1 now — importing is minting,
# and a minted box is ours to manage.
local tag
tag="$(incus config get "$target" user.box 2>/dev/null || true)"
[ "$tag" = 1 ] || tag="$(incus config get "$target" user.claudebox 2>/dev/null || true)"
[ "$tag" = 1 ] || incus config set "$target" user.box=1
# Placement: the artifact carries its profile list, but the isolation
# contract is THIS host's box-net profile. A box export already says
# box-net; anything else (a pre-0.4.0 artifact, a hand-rolled export) gets
# re-assigned — the same move migrate-host makes re-homing a legacy box.
# (An artifact naming a profile this host lacks fails inside 'incus import'
# above, with incus's own error naming the profile — honest enough.)
# Two traps in reading the list: a bare name filter PREFIX-matches (asking
# for 'work' also returns 'work2'), so anchor it; and the P column joins
# multiple profiles with newlines, so join the whole (quoted, multi-line)
# cell back into one comparable token instead of trusting the first line.
local profs
profs="$(incus list "^${target}\$" --format csv --columns P 2>/dev/null | tr -d '" ' | paste -sd, -)"
if [ "$profs" != box-net ]; then
incus profile assign "$target" box-net
echo "box: re-homed onto the box-net profile (the artifact said '${profs:-none}')"
fi
# The artifact's volatile.* config comes back verbatim too — including the
# NIC's MAC address. Importing an artifact twice, or beside the box it was
# exported from, then collides at start: "MAC address already defined on
# another NIC" (measured live), and the second box is left half-imported.
# 'incus copy' regenerates the MAC on clone; import does not — so unset
# every volatile hwaddr and let incus mint fresh ones at start. Host-side
# identity, the same reasoning as the in-guest machine-id reset below.
local k
for k in $(incus config show "$target" 2>/dev/null | awk -F: '/^ *volatile\..*\.hwaddr:/ { gsub(/ /, "", $1); print $1 }'); do
incus config unset "$target" "$k"
done
incus start "$target"
wait_agent "$target"
# The same trust boundary as a clone: the artifact's machine-id rides in
# its disk, and the box it was exported from may still exist somewhere. A
# fresh identity (machine-id → DHCP client-id → lease) before handover,
# always — reset_identity's comment has the collision this prevents.
reset_identity "$target"
echo "box: imported $target — auth state (agent logins, git creds) came back with it, by design."
echo "box: ready — 'box shell $target'."
}
2026-07-14 13:13:18 +00:00
# The host-health checks live in drill/doctor.sh — grown by the drill, but
# every fault they diagnose (a wedged daemon, a dnsmasq that isn't serving,
# a VPN resolver boxes inherit, isolation off in the kernel) is a USER's
# fault first: each one has killed a cold mint or silently weakened a
# boundary. The install tree ships the whole repo, so delegate — one
# hardened script, two audiences.
cmd_doctor() {
local script="$root/drill/doctor.sh"
[ -f "$script" ] || die "doctor script not found at $script — re-run install.sh"
feat: the restricted tier — box grant/revoke converge users onto the hardened boxnet (#74)
incus-user confines an incus-group user to their own project, but its
defaults miss box's contract three measured ways (Debian 13 / Incus 6.0.4):
a private UNHARDENED NAT bridge per user (ipv6.nat=true, no ACL, no DNS
isolation), snapshots blocked, and the box-net profile invisible to their
project. So the tier is an admin-run idempotent convergence:
box grant <user> # incus group; touch incus-user (the project is lazy);
# drop the private-bridge eth0 from their default
# profile; restricted.networks.access=boxnet — and ONLY
# boxnet, or the unhardened bridge stays one --network
# flag away; restricted.snapshots=allow; install the
# shipped box-net profile into their project
box revoke <user> # group removal closes the socket, boxes keep running
--purge # ...or delete their world, and assert the absence
box_tier() (live credentials, argless id -nG; byte-identical copy in
setup-host.sh) drives the tier-aware surface: new pre-flights the profile
and names the right fix per tier, expose refuses before any daemon call
(without the guard the failure is a lie — restricted certs cannot read
boxnet's redacted config, so box_net_ip claims a running box has no
address), setup-host exits 0 with the honest note, doctor judges only what
the caller can see.
Also fixed while the rehearsal exercised the lifecycle: box restore
dispatched 'incus restore', which does not exist in Incus 6 (it is
'incus snapshot restore') — the verb had never worked. Fixed for every tier.
Convergence survives incus-user restarts by that tool's own design (it
configures a project only at creation) — read in its source, then measured.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 04:09:13 +00:00
# The doctor's verdict depends on who is asking: a restricted user cannot
# see the nft tables or the kernel's bridge state, and telling them the
# host is broken because THEY cannot read it would be a wrong diagnosis.
export BOX_TIER; BOX_TIER="$(box_tier)"
2026-07-14 13:13:18 +00:00
exec bash "$script" "${args[@]}"
}
2026-07-14 18:01:34 +00:00
# The host lifecycle scripts, as first-class verbs — nobody should have to know
# where the install tree keeps its scripts. Each execs the installed script
# with its flags passed through; the script owns its own behavior (setup-host's
# incus-admin re-login dance, teardown's confirmation, migrate's per-box work).
host_script() { # $1 = script basename under host/
local script="$root/host/$1"
[ -f "$script" ] || die "$1 not found at $script — re-run install.sh"
exec bash "$script" "${args[@]}"
}
cmd_setup_host() { host_script setup-host.sh; }
cmd_teardown_host() { host_script teardown-host.sh; }
cmd_migrate_host() { host_script migrate-host.sh; }
feat: the restricted tier — box grant/revoke converge users onto the hardened boxnet (#74)
incus-user confines an incus-group user to their own project, but its
defaults miss box's contract three measured ways (Debian 13 / Incus 6.0.4):
a private UNHARDENED NAT bridge per user (ipv6.nat=true, no ACL, no DNS
isolation), snapshots blocked, and the box-net profile invisible to their
project. So the tier is an admin-run idempotent convergence:
box grant <user> # incus group; touch incus-user (the project is lazy);
# drop the private-bridge eth0 from their default
# profile; restricted.networks.access=boxnet — and ONLY
# boxnet, or the unhardened bridge stays one --network
# flag away; restricted.snapshots=allow; install the
# shipped box-net profile into their project
box revoke <user> # group removal closes the socket, boxes keep running
--purge # ...or delete their world, and assert the absence
box_tier() (live credentials, argless id -nG; byte-identical copy in
setup-host.sh) drives the tier-aware surface: new pre-flights the profile
and names the right fix per tier, expose refuses before any daemon call
(without the guard the failure is a lie — restricted certs cannot read
boxnet's redacted config, so box_net_ip claims a running box has no
address), setup-host exits 0 with the honest note, doctor judges only what
the caller can see.
Also fixed while the rehearsal exercised the lifecycle: box restore
dispatched 'incus restore', which does not exist in Incus 6 (it is
'incus snapshot restore') — the verb had never worked. Fixed for every tier.
Convergence survives incus-user restarts by that tool's own design (it
configures a project only at creation) — read in its source, then measured.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 04:09:13 +00:00
cmd_grant() { host_script grant-user.sh; }
cmd_revoke() { host_script revoke-user.sh; }
2026-07-14 18:01:34 +00:00
2026-07-18 16:01:57 +00:00
# --- the versioned install (#66's stance, made livable in 0.7.0) ------------
# install.sh lands each version at <install-root>/versions/<v>, with a
# 'current' symlink naming the default and $BINDIR/box pointing through it.
# $root (readlink -f, line 8) already resolved the whole chain, so a versioned
# install always runs from .../versions/<v> — and a git checkout does not,
# which is how these verbs know to refuse instead of uninstalling somebody's
# working copy.
install_root() {
local vdir; vdir="$(dirname "$root")"
[ "$(basename "$vdir")" = versions ] || return 1
dirname "$vdir"
}
fix: version names die at one shared gate, and --purge-host hears --force
Round-1 convergence from all three reviewers, both findings real:
A version string used to be a path fragment: 'box uninstall
../../../.ssh' resolved below versions/ and rm -rf'd wherever it
landed, 'box use' could point current outside the root, and a hostile
flat-tree VERSION could steer the migration's mv the same way. One
strict validator now gates every caller — only [A-Za-z0-9._+-], no
leading '.' or '-' — byte-identical in install.sh and bin/box like
existing_boxes, diff-guarded in the tests, with traversal regressions
on use, uninstall and the migration (which now refuses BEFORE the tree
moves anywhere).
--force is uninstall's installer-family consent, and --purge-host now
forwards it: teardown-host.sh gets --yes under --force/BOX_YES, so the
combined non-interactive uninstall no longer dies at teardown's own
prompt. CI's drill now runs the combined verb with --force alone (no
BOX_YES, no TTY) — the exact invocation that used to abort.
Also grok's polish, taken: current flips by rename (ln to a side name,
mv -Tf over — no window with no current) in both install.sh and 'box
use'; BOX_REINSTALL swaps by two renames and deletes LAST; and the
single-version path refuses while current is dangling (readlink -f
resolves a missing last component, so the guard checks the DIRECTORY,
not just the string).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 18:11:26 +00:00
# A version is a DIRECTORY NAME under versions/ — nothing else. One strict
# gate for every caller that builds a path from one (the installer's new_ver,
# migration's flat_ver, and bin/box's 'use'/single-version uninstall): only
# [A-Za-z0-9._+-], no leading '.' or '-'. That forbids '/', '..'-escapes,
# spaces and option-lookalikes by construction — a crafted version dies HERE,
# never in an rm -rf or an ln. install.sh carries a byte-identical copy;
# test/cli.sh diffs the two so the gates cannot drift.
valid_version() {
case "$1" in
''|.*|-*) return 1 ;;
*[!A-Za-z0-9._+-]*) return 1 ;;
esac
return 0
}
2026-07-18 16:01:57 +00:00
# Which boxes exist on this host, at THIS caller's tier? Prints their names
# (both tag generations) and succeeds when at least one exists; fails when
# none are visible — including when incus is absent or not answering, because
# #66's stance protects BOXES from a version change, and a daemon that cannot
# answer has none to protect. install.sh carries a byte-identical copy (it
# runs before any install tree exists); test/cli.sh diffs the two so they
# cannot drift.
existing_boxes() {
command -v incus >/dev/null 2>&1 || return 1
{ timeout 10 incus list user.box=1 --format csv --columns n </dev/null
timeout 10 incus list user.claudebox=1 --format csv --columns n </dev/null
} 2>/dev/null | awk -F, 'NF && !seen[$1]++ { print $1 }' | grep .
}
# #66, kept at flip time: never change (or remove) the version under existing
# boxes. Names every box and the remedy, then dies — a refusal that does not
# say which boxes block it sends the operator off to rediscover 'box list'.
die_under_boxes() { # $1 = the act being refused, $2 = the retry command
local names n
names="$(existing_boxes)" || return 0
{
echo "box: this host has existing boxes:"
while IFS= read -r n; do echo "box: · $n"; done <<<"$names"
echo "box: refusing to $1 under them (#66: never change versions under a user's boxes)."
2026-07-18 18:55:51 +00:00
echo "box: preserve what you care about — 'box down <box>', 'box export <box>' (one"
echo "box: portable file per box, #70) — then 'box rm <box>' each, and re-run: $2"
2026-07-18 16:01:57 +00:00
} >&2
exit 1
}
# The PATH symlinks that could ride this install: the one this invocation came
# in on, BOX_BIN's, and the tier default's. Candidates only — every consumer
# checks where a link actually points before touching it, so a symlink that is
# somebody else's (another install root, a hand-rolled wrapper) is never moved.
bin_links() {
local c=()
[ -L "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" ] && c+=("${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")
[ -n "${BOX_BIN:-}" ] && c+=("$BOX_BIN/box")
if [ "$(id -u)" -eq 0 ]; then c+=(/usr/local/bin/box); else c+=("$HOME/.local/bin/box"); fi
printf '%s\n' "${c[@]}" | awk '!seen[$0]++'
}
converge_bin_links() { # $1 = install root: point our PATH symlinks through current
local ir="$1" p t
while IFS= read -r p; do
[ -L "$p" ] || continue
t="$(readlink -f "$p" 2>/dev/null || true)"
[ -n "$t" ] || t="$(readlink "$p" 2>/dev/null || true)"
case "$t" in
"$ir"/*) ln -sfn "$ir/current/bin/box" "$p" ;;
esac
done < <(bin_links)
}
cmd_versions() {
local ir cur d v mark
ir="$(install_root)" || die "this box runs from a working tree ($root), not a versioned install — nothing to list"
cur="$(readlink -f "$ir/current" 2>/dev/null || true)"
echo "VERSIONS ($ir)"
for d in "$ir/versions"/*/; do
[ -d "$d" ] || continue
v="$(basename "$d")"
mark=""
[ "$(readlink -f "$d")" = "$cur" ] && mark=" (current)"
[ "$(readlink -f "$d")" = "$root" ] && mark="$mark (running)"
printf ' %s%s\n' "$v" "$mark"
done
echo
echo "switch the default: box use <version>"
echo "install another: re-run install.sh (versions land side by side)"
}
cmd_use() {
local v="${args[0]:-}" ir eff expect out
[ -n "$v" ] || usage_error "usage: $(synopsis_of use)"
ir="$(install_root)" || die "this box runs from a working tree ($root), not a versioned install — nothing to switch"
fix: version names die at one shared gate, and --purge-host hears --force
Round-1 convergence from all three reviewers, both findings real:
A version string used to be a path fragment: 'box uninstall
../../../.ssh' resolved below versions/ and rm -rf'd wherever it
landed, 'box use' could point current outside the root, and a hostile
flat-tree VERSION could steer the migration's mv the same way. One
strict validator now gates every caller — only [A-Za-z0-9._+-], no
leading '.' or '-' — byte-identical in install.sh and bin/box like
existing_boxes, diff-guarded in the tests, with traversal regressions
on use, uninstall and the migration (which now refuses BEFORE the tree
moves anywhere).
--force is uninstall's installer-family consent, and --purge-host now
forwards it: teardown-host.sh gets --yes under --force/BOX_YES, so the
combined non-interactive uninstall no longer dies at teardown's own
prompt. CI's drill now runs the combined verb with --force alone (no
BOX_YES, no TTY) — the exact invocation that used to abort.
Also grok's polish, taken: current flips by rename (ln to a side name,
mv -Tf over — no window with no current) in both install.sh and 'box
use'; BOX_REINSTALL swaps by two renames and deletes LAST; and the
single-version path refuses while current is dangling (readlink -f
resolves a missing last component, so the guard checks the DIRECTORY,
not just the string).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 18:11:26 +00:00
valid_version "$v" || die "not a sane version name: '$v' (a version is a directory name under versions/ — see 'box versions')"
2026-07-18 16:01:57 +00:00
[ -d "$ir/versions/$v" ] || die "no such version: $v (see 'box versions')"
die_under_boxes "switch the default box version" "box use $v"
fix: version names die at one shared gate, and --purge-host hears --force
Round-1 convergence from all three reviewers, both findings real:
A version string used to be a path fragment: 'box uninstall
../../../.ssh' resolved below versions/ and rm -rf'd wherever it
landed, 'box use' could point current outside the root, and a hostile
flat-tree VERSION could steer the migration's mv the same way. One
strict validator now gates every caller — only [A-Za-z0-9._+-], no
leading '.' or '-' — byte-identical in install.sh and bin/box like
existing_boxes, diff-guarded in the tests, with traversal regressions
on use, uninstall and the migration (which now refuses BEFORE the tree
moves anywhere).
--force is uninstall's installer-family consent, and --purge-host now
forwards it: teardown-host.sh gets --yes under --force/BOX_YES, so the
combined non-interactive uninstall no longer dies at teardown's own
prompt. CI's drill now runs the combined verb with --force alone (no
BOX_YES, no TTY) — the exact invocation that used to abort.
Also grok's polish, taken: current flips by rename (ln to a side name,
mv -Tf over — no window with no current) in both install.sh and 'box
use'; BOX_REINSTALL swaps by two renames and deletes LAST; and the
single-version path refuses while current is dangling (readlink -f
resolves a missing last component, so the guard checks the DIRECTORY,
not just the string).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 18:11:26 +00:00
# An atomic flip, not unlink+create: ln -sfn leaves a window where current
# is missing; a rename over it does not.
ln -sfn "versions/$v" "$ir/current.new.$$" && mv -Tf "$ir/current.new.$$" "$ir/current"
2026-07-18 16:01:57 +00:00
converge_bin_links "$ir"
# Assert the EFFECTIVE result, not the intent: current must resolve to the
# version asked for, and the chain's own binary must answer that version —
# a flip that "worked" while the operator's box still runs the old tree is
# exactly the flakiness this verb exists to end.
eff="$(basename "$(readlink -f "$ir/current" 2>/dev/null || true)")"
[ "$eff" = "$v" ] || die "the flip did not take — current resolves to '${eff:-nothing}', not $v"
expect="$(cat "$ir/versions/$v/VERSION" 2>/dev/null || true)"
if [ -n "$expect" ]; then
out="$("$ir/current/bin/box" --version 2>&1 || true)"
case "$out" in
*"$expect"*) : ;;
*) die "current/bin/box answers '$out', not version $expect — the symlink chain is broken" ;;
esac
fi
echo "box: switched to $v (current -> versions/$v)"
}
# The uninstall's own confirmation. NOT confirm() above: that one is for box
# lifecycle verbs and must never auto-accept from the environment (the drill
# exports BOX_YES=1 for the installer and still expects 'box rm' to refuse
# without --force). Uninstalling is installer-family, and BOX_YES is the
# installer-family consent contract — same as install.sh and revoke --purge.
uninstall_confirm() { # $1 = question. --force, or BOX_YES=1, or a TTY.
[ "$force" -eq 1 ] && return 0
[ -n "${BOX_YES:-}" ] && return 0
[ -t 0 ] || usage_error "refusing to $1 without --force (no terminal to confirm on; BOX_YES=1 also means yes)"
local reply
printf 'box: %s? [y/N] ' "$1"
read -r reply
case "$reply" in y|Y|yes|YES|Yes) return 0 ;; *) die "aborted." ;; esac
}
# 'box uninstall' — the real uninstall #66 left as two rm -rf lines of prose.
# The full removal runs in the documented order: boxes first (refuse while
# they exist, or --purge-host tears the stack down with them), then trees and
# symlinks, and it ENDS by PROVING the absence — like revoke --purge, the
# last word is a re-check, not a hope.
cmd_uninstall() {
local ir a ver="" all=0 purge_host=0 cur p t granted leftover=""
local targets=()
for a in ${args[@]+"${args[@]}"}; do
case "$a" in
--all) all=1 ;;
--purge-host) purge_host=1 ;;
-*) usage_error "unknown option: $a (see 'box help uninstall')" ;;
*) [ -z "$ver" ] || usage_error "usage: $(synopsis_of uninstall)"; ver="$a" ;;
esac
done
ir="$(install_root)" || die "this box runs from a working tree ($root), not a versioned install — nothing to uninstall (a checkout is removed with plain rm)"
[ -w "$ir" ] || die "cannot write $ir — a global install is uninstalled as root: sudo box uninstall"
# -- one version -----------------------------------------------------------
if [ -n "$ver" ] && [ "$all" -eq 0 ]; then
[ "$purge_host" -eq 0 ] || usage_error "--purge-host goes with the full uninstall, not a single version"
fix: version names die at one shared gate, and --purge-host hears --force
Round-1 convergence from all three reviewers, both findings real:
A version string used to be a path fragment: 'box uninstall
../../../.ssh' resolved below versions/ and rm -rf'd wherever it
landed, 'box use' could point current outside the root, and a hostile
flat-tree VERSION could steer the migration's mv the same way. One
strict validator now gates every caller — only [A-Za-z0-9._+-], no
leading '.' or '-' — byte-identical in install.sh and bin/box like
existing_boxes, diff-guarded in the tests, with traversal regressions
on use, uninstall and the migration (which now refuses BEFORE the tree
moves anywhere).
--force is uninstall's installer-family consent, and --purge-host now
forwards it: teardown-host.sh gets --yes under --force/BOX_YES, so the
combined non-interactive uninstall no longer dies at teardown's own
prompt. CI's drill now runs the combined verb with --force alone (no
BOX_YES, no TTY) — the exact invocation that used to abort.
Also grok's polish, taken: current flips by rename (ln to a side name,
mv -Tf over — no window with no current) in both install.sh and 'box
use'; BOX_REINSTALL swaps by two renames and deletes LAST; and the
single-version path refuses while current is dangling (readlink -f
resolves a missing last component, so the guard checks the DIRECTORY,
not just the string).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 18:11:26 +00:00
valid_version "$ver" || die "not a sane version name: '$ver' (a version is a directory name under versions/ — see 'box versions')"
2026-07-18 16:01:57 +00:00
[ -d "$ir/versions/$ver" ] || die "no such version: $ver (see 'box versions')"
cur="$(basename "$(readlink -f "$ir/current" 2>/dev/null || true)")"
fix: version names die at one shared gate, and --purge-host hears --force
Round-1 convergence from all three reviewers, both findings real:
A version string used to be a path fragment: 'box uninstall
../../../.ssh' resolved below versions/ and rm -rf'd wherever it
landed, 'box use' could point current outside the root, and a hostile
flat-tree VERSION could steer the migration's mv the same way. One
strict validator now gates every caller — only [A-Za-z0-9._+-], no
leading '.' or '-' — byte-identical in install.sh and bin/box like
existing_boxes, diff-guarded in the tests, with traversal regressions
on use, uninstall and the migration (which now refuses BEFORE the tree
moves anywhere).
--force is uninstall's installer-family consent, and --purge-host now
forwards it: teardown-host.sh gets --yes under --force/BOX_YES, so the
combined non-interactive uninstall no longer dies at teardown's own
prompt. CI's drill now runs the combined verb with --force alone (no
BOX_YES, no TTY) — the exact invocation that used to abort.
Also grok's polish, taken: current flips by rename (ln to a side name,
mv -Tf over — no window with no current) in both install.sh and 'box
use'; BOX_REINSTALL swaps by two renames and deletes LAST; and the
single-version path refuses while current is dangling (readlink -f
resolves a missing last component, so the guard checks the DIRECTORY,
not just the string).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 18:11:26 +00:00
# A broken current makes the CURRENT guard below unfireable (cur empty
# when the link is missing; cur naming a non-directory when it dangles —
# readlink -f resolves a link whose last component does not exist). Heal
# first, then decide; never delete around a broken default.
{ [ -n "$cur" ] && [ -d "$ir/versions/$cur" ]; } \
|| die "current is dangling — 'box use <version>' to repoint the default first (refusing to remove versions while it is broken)"
2026-07-18 16:01:57 +00:00
[ "$ver" != "$cur" ] || die "$ver is the CURRENT version — 'box use <other>' first, or 'box uninstall --all' for everything"
uninstall_confirm "remove box version $ver from $ir"
# rm's exit code is not the verdict — the absence re-check below is (a
# half-removed tree must be reported as INCOMPLETE, not as a crash).
rm -rf "$ir/versions/$ver" || true
if [ -e "$ir/versions/$ver" ] || [ -L "$ir/versions/$ver" ]; then
echo "box: uninstall INCOMPLETE — still present: $ir/versions/$ver" >&2
exit 1
fi
echo "box: removed version $ver (the default stays $cur)"
return 0
fi
[ -z "$ver" ] || usage_error "usage: $(synopsis_of uninstall) — a version and --all together is ambiguous"
# -- everything ------------------------------------------------------------
if [ "$purge_host" -eq 1 ]; then
# Granted users' worlds are not ours to erase silently — name them first;
# 'box revoke <user> --purge' is the clean path (and asserts its absence).
granted="$(timeout 10 incus project list --format csv 2>/dev/null </dev/null | cut -d, -f1 | grep '^user-' | tr '\n' ' ' || true)"
[ -n "${granted% }" ] && echo "box: NOTE — granted users still have projects (${granted% }) — 'box revoke <user> --purge' removes each world cleanly first" >&2
fix: version names die at one shared gate, and --purge-host hears --force
Round-1 convergence from all three reviewers, both findings real:
A version string used to be a path fragment: 'box uninstall
../../../.ssh' resolved below versions/ and rm -rf'd wherever it
landed, 'box use' could point current outside the root, and a hostile
flat-tree VERSION could steer the migration's mv the same way. One
strict validator now gates every caller — only [A-Za-z0-9._+-], no
leading '.' or '-' — byte-identical in install.sh and bin/box like
existing_boxes, diff-guarded in the tests, with traversal regressions
on use, uninstall and the migration (which now refuses BEFORE the tree
moves anywhere).
--force is uninstall's installer-family consent, and --purge-host now
forwards it: teardown-host.sh gets --yes under --force/BOX_YES, so the
combined non-interactive uninstall no longer dies at teardown's own
prompt. CI's drill now runs the combined verb with --force alone (no
BOX_YES, no TTY) — the exact invocation that used to abort.
Also grok's polish, taken: current flips by rename (ln to a side name,
mv -Tf over — no window with no current) in both install.sh and 'box
use'; BOX_REINSTALL swaps by two renames and deletes LAST; and the
single-version path refuses while current is dangling (readlink -f
resolves a missing last component, so the guard checks the DIRECTORY,
not just the string).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 18:11:26 +00:00
# Consent forwards: --force and BOX_YES are this verb's installer-family
# yes, and teardown-host must hear it too — otherwise a non-interactive
# 'uninstall --all --purge-host --force' dies at teardown's own prompt
# (EOF on read) with the tree untouched but the promise broken.
if [ "$force" -eq 1 ] || [ -n "${BOX_YES:-}" ]; then
bash "$root/host/teardown-host.sh" --yes \
|| die "teardown-host did not complete — stopping BEFORE removing the install (the tree is untouched; fix the error and re-run)"
else
bash "$root/host/teardown-host.sh" \
|| die "teardown-host did not complete — stopping BEFORE removing the install (the tree is untouched; fix the error and re-run)"
fi
2026-07-18 16:01:57 +00:00
else
die_under_boxes "uninstall box" "box uninstall (or 'box uninstall --purge-host' to tear the host stack down with them)"
fi
uninstall_confirm "remove the ENTIRE box install at $ir (every version)"
# The removal set, gathered BEFORE anything is deleted, so the absence
# assert below re-checks exactly what was promised gone. PATH symlinks are
# removed only when they resolve into (or dangle at) THIS install root.
targets+=("$ir")
while IFS= read -r p; do
[ -L "$p" ] || continue
t="$(readlink -f "$p" 2>/dev/null || true)"
[ -n "$t" ] || t="$(readlink "$p" 2>/dev/null || true)"
case "$t" in "$ir"/*) targets+=("$p") ;; esac
done < <(bin_links)
# Legacy crumbs: the pre-0.4.0 command name and the pre-0.5.0 tree. A real
# uninstall leaves neither generation behind.
while IFS= read -r p; do
p="$(dirname "$p")/claudebox"
[ -L "$p" ] && targets+=("$p")
done < <(bin_links)
[ -d "$HOME/.local/share/claudebox" ] && targets+=("$HOME/.local/share/claudebox")
mapfile -t targets < <(printf '%s\n' "${targets[@]}" | awk '!seen[$0]++')
# rm's exit code is not the verdict — the absence assert below is (a
# half-removed tree must be reported as INCOMPLETE by name, not as a crash).
for p in "${targets[@]}"; do rm -rf "$p" || true; done
# END WITH THE ABSENCE ASSERT: every path re-checked — file, dir OR symlink.
# A leftover makes this exit 1 by name; "uninstalled" is a claim, and claims
# get verified (the revoke --purge discipline).
for p in "${targets[@]}"; do
if [ -e "$p" ] || [ -L "$p" ]; then leftover="$leftover $p"; fi
done
if [ -n "$leftover" ]; then
echo "box: uninstall INCOMPLETE — still present:$leftover" >&2
echo "box: remove them by hand, and re-check each path is really gone." >&2
exit 1
fi
echo "box: uninstalled — removed:"
for p in "${targets[@]}"; do echo "box: · $p"; done
if [ "$purge_host" -eq 0 ]; then
echo "box: note — the host stack (boxnet, firewall), if this host has one, was NOT touched:"
echo "box: run teardown-host from a checkout (host/teardown-host.sh), or use --purge-host next time."
fi
}
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
cmd_help() { show_help "${args[0]:-}"; }
# The escape hatch. The box is resolved and tag-checked; everything else is
# yours. {} is the instance name; without it, the instance goes last.
warn_isolation() {
case " $* " in
*" profile "*|*" network "*|*" device "*|*security.*|*" nic "*)
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: warning: this can move the box off the isolation stack" >&2
echo "box: (profile / network / device / security.*). The trust boundary is yours from here." >&2 ;;
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
esac
}
cmd_incus() {
local rest=("${args[@]:1}") out=() a replaced=0
[ "${#rest[@]}" -gt 0 ] || usage_error "usage: $(synopsis_of incus)"
for a in "${rest[@]}"; do
case "$a" in
*"{}"*) out+=("${a//\{\}/$inst}"); replaced=1 ;;
*) out+=("$a") ;;
esac
done
[ "$replaced" -eq 1 ] || out+=("$inst")
warn_isolation "${out[@]}"
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: incus ${out[*]}" >&2 # no magic: show what runs
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
incus "${out[@]}"
}
feat: 'box expose <box> <port>' — a deliberate, loopback-only door to a dev server
The 'no inbound path' contract is one notch too absolute for the tool's
own flagship workflow: coding in a box, a dev server on :3000, and no
way to open it in your browser. expose is the deliberate un-screwing.
- Loopback only, always: the host side listens on 127.0.0.1, never
0.0.0.0 — no other machine can reach the box; only this host gets a
door. No flag widens it (that is the escape hatch's job).
- A verb, per-port, reversible, visible: each exposure is a named proxy
device (expose-<port>); --list and box info show it, --remove undoes
it. A box with a hole says so.
- Mechanism (VMs): an Incus proxy device forwards host loopback to the
box's ip:port, plus a SCOPED ingress ACL allow (this box's ip + this
port only) so the forkproxy's connection survives the default drop —
the drill decides whether that allow is needed or redundant. The
in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (a VM's forwarder reaches it over
the network); inside an isolated box that is safe.
Drill phase E: start a detached listener in a box, expose it, prove the
HOST loopback reaches it, prove a NON-exposed port is still dropped (A7
survives), prove --remove shuts the door.
Closes #55
2026-07-14 16:07:17 +00:00
# A deliberate, loopback-only door to a box's port — for the one workflow the
# "no inbound path" contract is too absolute for: you are coding in a box and
# want to open its dev server in your browser.
#
# Two decisions, both load-bearing:
# · The listen side is ALWAYS 127.0.0.1. The network-facing contract stays
# true — no other machine can reach the box; only THIS host's loopback gets
# a door. There is no flag to widen it; that is the escape hatch's job, with
# its warning.
# · Each exposure is a named proxy device (expose-<port>), so 'box info' and
# --list can see it and --remove can undo it. A box with a hole says so.
#
2026-07-14 22:55:10 +00:00
# Mechanism (VMs): an Incus 'proxy' device in NAT mode DNATs host
# 127.0.0.1:<hostport> to the box's <ip>:<port>. The traffic rides the
# network into the guest, so the in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (not
# just its own loopback) — inside an isolated box that is safe: boxnet +
# port-isolation + the ingress drop mean only this door can reach it. Three
# pieces beside the device itself, each one a drill-found absence:
# · a SCOPED ACL allow (this box's ip + this port only) — the ingress drop
# that makes A7 true would eat the DNAT'd packet;
# · route_localnet + a loopback masquerade on the host (box-firewall.sh) —
# Incus installs only the DNAT, and a loopback-sourced packet can neither
# leave the host nor be answered without them;
# · a static ipv4.address pin on the NIC — NAT mode refuses to start
# without one (see below).
feat: 'box expose <box> <port>' — a deliberate, loopback-only door to a dev server
The 'no inbound path' contract is one notch too absolute for the tool's
own flagship workflow: coding in a box, a dev server on :3000, and no
way to open it in your browser. expose is the deliberate un-screwing.
- Loopback only, always: the host side listens on 127.0.0.1, never
0.0.0.0 — no other machine can reach the box; only this host gets a
door. No flag widens it (that is the escape hatch's job).
- A verb, per-port, reversible, visible: each exposure is a named proxy
device (expose-<port>); --list and box info show it, --remove undoes
it. A box with a hole says so.
- Mechanism (VMs): an Incus proxy device forwards host loopback to the
box's ip:port, plus a SCOPED ingress ACL allow (this box's ip + this
port only) so the forkproxy's connection survives the default drop —
the drill decides whether that allow is needed or redundant. The
in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (a VM's forwarder reaches it over
the network); inside an isolated box that is safe.
Drill phase E: start a detached listener in a box, expose it, prove the
HOST loopback reaches it, prove a NON-exposed port is still dropped (A7
survives), prove --remove shuts the door.
Closes #55
2026-07-14 16:07:17 +00:00
exposure_dev() { echo "expose-$1"; } # device name for a port
cmd_expose() {
local box="${args[0]}" a2="${args[1]:-}" a3="${args[2]:-}"
feat: the restricted tier — box grant/revoke converge users onto the hardened boxnet (#74)
incus-user confines an incus-group user to their own project, but its
defaults miss box's contract three measured ways (Debian 13 / Incus 6.0.4):
a private UNHARDENED NAT bridge per user (ipv6.nat=true, no ACL, no DNS
isolation), snapshots blocked, and the box-net profile invisible to their
project. So the tier is an admin-run idempotent convergence:
box grant <user> # incus group; touch incus-user (the project is lazy);
# drop the private-bridge eth0 from their default
# profile; restricted.networks.access=boxnet — and ONLY
# boxnet, or the unhardened bridge stays one --network
# flag away; restricted.snapshots=allow; install the
# shipped box-net profile into their project
box revoke <user> # group removal closes the socket, boxes keep running
--purge # ...or delete their world, and assert the absence
box_tier() (live credentials, argless id -nG; byte-identical copy in
setup-host.sh) drives the tier-aware surface: new pre-flights the profile
and names the right fix per tier, expose refuses before any daemon call
(without the guard the failure is a lie — restricted certs cannot read
boxnet's redacted config, so box_net_ip claims a running box has no
address), setup-host exits 0 with the honest note, doctor judges only what
the caller can see.
Also fixed while the rehearsal exercised the lifecycle: box restore
dispatched 'incus restore', which does not exist in Incus 6 (it is
'incus snapshot restore') — the verb had never worked. Fixed for every tier.
Convergence survives incus-user restarts by that tool's own design (it
configures a project only at creation) — read in its source, then measured.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-18 04:09:13 +00:00
# Before ANY incus call: the door's plumbing (the box-isolate ACL, the
# host firewall's route_localnet + masquerade) is daemon-global state a
# restricted certificate cannot touch. Without this guard the failure is
# a lie — box_net_ip cannot read boxnet's (redacted) config, so the
# restricted user is told their running box "has no boxnet address yet".
if [ "$(box_tier)" = restricted ]; then
die "box expose edits the daemon-global ACL and firewall, which the restricted tier cannot modify — ask an incus-admin. (see #74)"
fi
feat: 'box expose <box> <port>' — a deliberate, loopback-only door to a dev server
The 'no inbound path' contract is one notch too absolute for the tool's
own flagship workflow: coding in a box, a dev server on :3000, and no
way to open it in your browser. expose is the deliberate un-screwing.
- Loopback only, always: the host side listens on 127.0.0.1, never
0.0.0.0 — no other machine can reach the box; only this host gets a
door. No flag widens it (that is the escape hatch's job).
- A verb, per-port, reversible, visible: each exposure is a named proxy
device (expose-<port>); --list and box info show it, --remove undoes
it. A box with a hole says so.
- Mechanism (VMs): an Incus proxy device forwards host loopback to the
box's ip:port, plus a SCOPED ingress ACL allow (this box's ip + this
port only) so the forkproxy's connection survives the default drop —
the drill decides whether that allow is needed or redundant. The
in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (a VM's forwarder reaches it over
the network); inside an isolated box that is safe.
Drill phase E: start a detached listener in a box, expose it, prove the
HOST loopback reaches it, prove a NON-exposed port is still dropped (A7
survives), prove --remove shuts the door.
Closes #55
2026-07-14 16:07:17 +00:00
# --list
if [ "$a2" = "--list" ]; then
local found=0 d listen connect
while IFS= read -r d; do
case "$d" in expose-*) : ;; *) continue ;; esac
listen="$(incus config device get "$inst" "$d" listen 2>/dev/null)"
connect="$(incus config device get "$inst" "$d" connect 2>/dev/null)"
[ "$found" = 0 ] && echo "EXPOSURES for $box"
found=1
printf ' %-14s %s → %s\n' "${d#expose-}" "$listen" "$connect"
done < <(incus config device list "$inst" 2>/dev/null)
[ "$found" = 0 ] && echo "box: $box has no exposed ports"
return 0
fi
# --remove <port>
if [ "$a2" = "--remove" ]; then
local port="$a3"; [ -n "$port" ] || usage_error "usage: box expose $box --remove <port>"
local dev; dev="$(exposure_dev "$port")"
incus config device get "$inst" "$dev" listen >/dev/null 2>&1 \
|| die "$box has no exposure on port $port (see 'box expose $box --list')"
incus config device remove "$inst" "$dev" >/dev/null \
&& echo "box: closed the door on port $port"
# Remove the scoped ACL allow, if one was added. Best-effort: its absence
# is not an error (the drill may show the allow was never needed).
2026-07-14 20:45:09 +00:00
local ip; ip="$(box_net_ip "$inst" || true)"
[ -n "$ip" ] && incus network acl rule remove box-isolate ingress \
feat: 'box expose <box> <port>' — a deliberate, loopback-only door to a dev server
The 'no inbound path' contract is one notch too absolute for the tool's
own flagship workflow: coding in a box, a dev server on :3000, and no
way to open it in your browser. expose is the deliberate un-screwing.
- Loopback only, always: the host side listens on 127.0.0.1, never
0.0.0.0 — no other machine can reach the box; only this host gets a
door. No flag widens it (that is the escape hatch's job).
- A verb, per-port, reversible, visible: each exposure is a named proxy
device (expose-<port>); --list and box info show it, --remove undoes
it. A box with a hole says so.
- Mechanism (VMs): an Incus proxy device forwards host loopback to the
box's ip:port, plus a SCOPED ingress ACL allow (this box's ip + this
port only) so the forkproxy's connection survives the default drop —
the drill decides whether that allow is needed or redundant. The
in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (a VM's forwarder reaches it over
the network); inside an isolated box that is safe.
Drill phase E: start a detached listener in a box, expose it, prove the
HOST loopback reaches it, prove a NON-exposed port is still dropped (A7
survives), prove --remove shuts the door.
Closes #55
2026-07-14 16:07:17 +00:00
action=allow "destination=$ip/32" "destination_port=$port" protocol=tcp >/dev/null 2>&1
2026-07-14 22:31:40 +00:00
# If that was the last door, unpin the static address it required. Only
# then — other exposures still lean on the pin. Best-effort, like the ACL.
if ! incus config device list "$inst" 2>/dev/null | grep -q '^expose-'; then
incus config device unset "$inst" eth0 ipv4.address >/dev/null 2>&1
fi
feat: 'box expose <box> <port>' — a deliberate, loopback-only door to a dev server
The 'no inbound path' contract is one notch too absolute for the tool's
own flagship workflow: coding in a box, a dev server on :3000, and no
way to open it in your browser. expose is the deliberate un-screwing.
- Loopback only, always: the host side listens on 127.0.0.1, never
0.0.0.0 — no other machine can reach the box; only this host gets a
door. No flag widens it (that is the escape hatch's job).
- A verb, per-port, reversible, visible: each exposure is a named proxy
device (expose-<port>); --list and box info show it, --remove undoes
it. A box with a hole says so.
- Mechanism (VMs): an Incus proxy device forwards host loopback to the
box's ip:port, plus a SCOPED ingress ACL allow (this box's ip + this
port only) so the forkproxy's connection survives the default drop —
the drill decides whether that allow is needed or redundant. The
in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (a VM's forwarder reaches it over
the network); inside an isolated box that is safe.
Drill phase E: start a detached listener in a box, expose it, prove the
HOST loopback reaches it, prove a NON-exposed port is still dropped (A7
survives), prove --remove shuts the door.
Closes #55
2026-07-14 16:07:17 +00:00
return 0
fi
# expose <port> [<host-port>]
local port="$a2" hport="${a3:-$a2}"
[ -n "$port" ] || usage_error "usage: $(synopsis_of expose)"
case "$port$hport" in *[!0-9]*) usage_error "ports must be numbers — got port='$port' host-port='$hport'" ;; esac
2026-07-14 20:45:09 +00:00
local ip; ip="$(box_net_ip "$inst")" \
|| die "$box has no boxnet address yet — is it running? (box info $box)"
feat: 'box expose <box> <port>' — a deliberate, loopback-only door to a dev server
The 'no inbound path' contract is one notch too absolute for the tool's
own flagship workflow: coding in a box, a dev server on :3000, and no
way to open it in your browser. expose is the deliberate un-screwing.
- Loopback only, always: the host side listens on 127.0.0.1, never
0.0.0.0 — no other machine can reach the box; only this host gets a
door. No flag widens it (that is the escape hatch's job).
- A verb, per-port, reversible, visible: each exposure is a named proxy
device (expose-<port>); --list and box info show it, --remove undoes
it. A box with a hole says so.
- Mechanism (VMs): an Incus proxy device forwards host loopback to the
box's ip:port, plus a SCOPED ingress ACL allow (this box's ip + this
port only) so the forkproxy's connection survives the default drop —
the drill decides whether that allow is needed or redundant. The
in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (a VM's forwarder reaches it over
the network); inside an isolated box that is safe.
Drill phase E: start a detached listener in a box, expose it, prove the
HOST loopback reaches it, prove a NON-exposed port is still dropped (A7
survives), prove --remove shuts the door.
Closes #55
2026-07-14 16:07:17 +00:00
local dev; dev="$(exposure_dev "$port")"
if incus config device get "$inst" "$dev" listen >/dev/null 2>&1; then
die "$box already exposes port $port (change or remove it: box expose $box --remove $port)"
fi
# The scoped ACL allow FIRST, so the door is open by the time the proxy uses
# it. Scoped to this box's IP and this port — it does not widen any other box.
incus network acl rule add box-isolate ingress action=allow \
"destination=$ip/32" "destination_port=$port" protocol=tcp >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
fix: expose asks for too much, and the fake legacy box had no claude user
Run 18: 74/2. grok passes (reading the installer worked), migrate's
retire passes. Two left, both mine:
1. box expose — read the Incus proxy docs instead of guessing again.
Proxy IS supported on VMs, but NAT mode only (correct already), and
crucially it does NOT need a static address: with no static IP, Incus
reads the box's address off the bridge's neighbour table and keeps
the NAT rules in step. My first cut pinned the lease with a device
override anyway — unnecessary, and almost certainly the step that was
failing before the proxy was ever added. Dropped it. Ask for less.
The drill also stopped throwing incus's reason away: it swallowed
stderr, then RE-RAN the command and printed only the last line ('box:
expose failed') — box's own words, never incus's. It now captures the
first attempt and prints all of it.
2. 'legacy box never came up' was unfixable by any timeout. wait_box
uses 'box exec', which for a legacy-tagged box resolves the user to
'claude' — and the drill's synthetic legacy box was a BARE image with
no claude user, so sudo -u claude could never answer, on a box that
was perfectly healthy (every migration check against it passed). The
fake legacy box now creates a claude user, like a real pre-0.4.0 box
had.
2026-07-14 20:30:01 +00:00
# A VM's proxy device must be NAT mode — Incus supports proxy on containers in
# both modes, but on VMs "NAT mode only" (the userspace forkproxy is a
# container thing). NAT mode DNATs host:port → instance:port in netfilter, and
# it needs the host to be the instance's gateway, which boxnet makes true.
#
2026-07-14 22:31:40 +00:00
# And NAT mode needs a STATIC address. Incus resolves connect=0.0.0.0 to the
# NIC's ipv4.address — the device config, not the lease — and refuses when it
# is unset: `Instance has no static IPv4 address assigned to be used as the
# connect IP` (the 0.5.0 drill). The first cut pinned an address but the
# WRONG one (box_ipv4's docker0 decoy); the second cut removed the pin
# instead of correcting it. Third cut: pin the box's current BOXNET lease.
# Same address the box already holds, so nothing about its networking moves —
# the lease just becomes official. Left in place across exposures; unpinned
# when the last door closes.
fix: run 17's four real findings — migrate retire, expose proxy, wait_box, grok PATH
The first drill run where every failure was the RELEASE CODE, not the
environment. 71 passed, 5 failed; all five traced to four bugs:
1. migrate-host --retire-legacy could NEVER succeed. Re-homing ADDS
user.box=1 but never removed user.claudebox=1, and legacy_boxes()
counted the old tag — so retire saw its own freshly-migrated box as
un-migrated and refused forever ('legacy boxes still exist:
legacybox'), leaving claudenet + claude-dev behind. Now: a verified
re-home drops the legacy tag LAST (after the move is proven, so a
failure anywhere above still leaves the box valid under one tag or
the other), and legacy_boxes() ignores boxes already carrying
user.box=1.
2. box expose died with a bare 'could not add the proxy device' — it
swallowed incus's reason, exactly the sin this repo keeps punishing.
Now it prints incus's error. And the mechanism is corrected: a VM's
proxy needs NAT mode, which requires a static NIC address, so expose
pins the box's current lease first (which also fixes the restart
caveat — the exposure no longer points at a lease the box may lose).
3. wait_box's 2-minute window was too short: the legacy box was declared
dead and then every migration check against it passed. 4 minutes.
4. The grok template hunted for a regular file named exactly
'grok-build' under /home/grok and found nothing — an installer's drop
may be a SYMLINK, and its binary name is upstream's to choose. Now it
tries the plausible names and paths, falls back to any executable
grok*, links both names, and SAYS what it found — or dumps what the
installer actually left when it finds nothing. The drill likewise
dumps the on-disk evidence and the cloud-init log on a --version
failure instead of discarding the box.
2026-07-14 19:56:17 +00:00
local err; err="$(mktemp)"
2026-07-14 22:31:40 +00:00
if [ -z "$(incus config device get "$inst" eth0 ipv4.address 2>/dev/null)" ]; then
# override copies the profile NIC into the instance with the key set; if a
# local eth0 already exists, override refuses and set is the right verb.
if ! incus config device override "$inst" eth0 "ipv4.address=$ip" >/dev/null 2>"$err" \
&& ! incus config device set "$inst" eth0 "ipv4.address=$ip" >/dev/null 2>"$err"; then
echo "box: could not pin $box's boxnet address ($ip) as static — the NAT proxy requires one:" >&2
sed 's/^/ /' "$err" >&2; rm -f "$err"
incus network acl rule remove box-isolate ingress action=allow \
"destination=$ip/32" "destination_port=$port" protocol=tcp >/dev/null 2>&1
die "expose failed"
fi
fi
# connect=0.0.0.0 is deliberate: Incus resolves it to the instance's static
# IPv4 (the pin above). Naming an address here would work too, but 0.0.0.0
# cannot repeat the docker0 mistake — there is nothing to get wrong.
feat: 'box expose <box> <port>' — a deliberate, loopback-only door to a dev server
The 'no inbound path' contract is one notch too absolute for the tool's
own flagship workflow: coding in a box, a dev server on :3000, and no
way to open it in your browser. expose is the deliberate un-screwing.
- Loopback only, always: the host side listens on 127.0.0.1, never
0.0.0.0 — no other machine can reach the box; only this host gets a
door. No flag widens it (that is the escape hatch's job).
- A verb, per-port, reversible, visible: each exposure is a named proxy
device (expose-<port>); --list and box info show it, --remove undoes
it. A box with a hole says so.
- Mechanism (VMs): an Incus proxy device forwards host loopback to the
box's ip:port, plus a SCOPED ingress ACL allow (this box's ip + this
port only) so the forkproxy's connection survives the default drop —
the drill decides whether that allow is needed or redundant. The
in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (a VM's forwarder reaches it over
the network); inside an isolated box that is safe.
Drill phase E: start a detached listener in a box, expose it, prove the
HOST loopback reaches it, prove a NON-exposed port is still dropped (A7
survives), prove --remove shuts the door.
Closes #55
2026-07-14 16:07:17 +00:00
if incus config device add "$inst" "$dev" proxy \
2026-07-14 20:45:09 +00:00
"listen=tcp:127.0.0.1:$hport" "connect=tcp:0.0.0.0:$port" \
fix: run 17's four real findings — migrate retire, expose proxy, wait_box, grok PATH
The first drill run where every failure was the RELEASE CODE, not the
environment. 71 passed, 5 failed; all five traced to four bugs:
1. migrate-host --retire-legacy could NEVER succeed. Re-homing ADDS
user.box=1 but never removed user.claudebox=1, and legacy_boxes()
counted the old tag — so retire saw its own freshly-migrated box as
un-migrated and refused forever ('legacy boxes still exist:
legacybox'), leaving claudenet + claude-dev behind. Now: a verified
re-home drops the legacy tag LAST (after the move is proven, so a
failure anywhere above still leaves the box valid under one tag or
the other), and legacy_boxes() ignores boxes already carrying
user.box=1.
2. box expose died with a bare 'could not add the proxy device' — it
swallowed incus's reason, exactly the sin this repo keeps punishing.
Now it prints incus's error. And the mechanism is corrected: a VM's
proxy needs NAT mode, which requires a static NIC address, so expose
pins the box's current lease first (which also fixes the restart
caveat — the exposure no longer points at a lease the box may lose).
3. wait_box's 2-minute window was too short: the legacy box was declared
dead and then every migration check against it passed. 4 minutes.
4. The grok template hunted for a regular file named exactly
'grok-build' under /home/grok and found nothing — an installer's drop
may be a SYMLINK, and its binary name is upstream's to choose. Now it
tries the plausible names and paths, falls back to any executable
grok*, links both names, and SAYS what it found — or dumps what the
installer actually left when it finds nothing. The drill likewise
dumps the on-disk evidence and the cloud-init log on a --version
failure instead of discarding the box.
2026-07-14 19:56:17 +00:00
bind=host nat=true >/dev/null 2>"$err"; then
rm -f "$err"
feat: 'box expose <box> <port>' — a deliberate, loopback-only door to a dev server
The 'no inbound path' contract is one notch too absolute for the tool's
own flagship workflow: coding in a box, a dev server on :3000, and no
way to open it in your browser. expose is the deliberate un-screwing.
- Loopback only, always: the host side listens on 127.0.0.1, never
0.0.0.0 — no other machine can reach the box; only this host gets a
door. No flag widens it (that is the escape hatch's job).
- A verb, per-port, reversible, visible: each exposure is a named proxy
device (expose-<port>); --list and box info show it, --remove undoes
it. A box with a hole says so.
- Mechanism (VMs): an Incus proxy device forwards host loopback to the
box's ip:port, plus a SCOPED ingress ACL allow (this box's ip + this
port only) so the forkproxy's connection survives the default drop —
the drill decides whether that allow is needed or redundant. The
in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (a VM's forwarder reaches it over
the network); inside an isolated box that is safe.
Drill phase E: start a detached listener in a box, expose it, prove the
HOST loopback reaches it, prove a NON-exposed port is still dropped (A7
survives), prove --remove shuts the door.
Closes #55
2026-07-14 16:07:17 +00:00
echo "box: 127.0.0.1:$hport → $box:$port"
echo "box: (the in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0:$port, not only its own loopback)"
2026-07-14 22:55:10 +00:00
# The device alone is not the door: the DNAT'd loopback packet also needs
# route_localnet on the bridge (box-firewall.sh installs it, with the
# masquerade). Readable without root — warn instead of handing over a
# door that silently does not answer.
if [ "$(cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/boxnet/route_localnet 2>/dev/null)" != 1 ]; then
echo "box: WARNING — route_localnet is off on boxnet, so this door will NOT answer." >&2
echo "box: the host firewall predates expose — apply it: sudo /usr/local/sbin/box-firewall" >&2
fi
feat: 'box expose <box> <port>' — a deliberate, loopback-only door to a dev server
The 'no inbound path' contract is one notch too absolute for the tool's
own flagship workflow: coding in a box, a dev server on :3000, and no
way to open it in your browser. expose is the deliberate un-screwing.
- Loopback only, always: the host side listens on 127.0.0.1, never
0.0.0.0 — no other machine can reach the box; only this host gets a
door. No flag widens it (that is the escape hatch's job).
- A verb, per-port, reversible, visible: each exposure is a named proxy
device (expose-<port>); --list and box info show it, --remove undoes
it. A box with a hole says so.
- Mechanism (VMs): an Incus proxy device forwards host loopback to the
box's ip:port, plus a SCOPED ingress ACL allow (this box's ip + this
port only) so the forkproxy's connection survives the default drop —
the drill decides whether that allow is needed or redundant. The
in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (a VM's forwarder reaches it over
the network); inside an isolated box that is safe.
Drill phase E: start a detached listener in a box, expose it, prove the
HOST loopback reaches it, prove a NON-exposed port is still dropped (A7
survives), prove --remove shuts the door.
Closes #55
2026-07-14 16:07:17 +00:00
else
fix: run 17's four real findings — migrate retire, expose proxy, wait_box, grok PATH
The first drill run where every failure was the RELEASE CODE, not the
environment. 71 passed, 5 failed; all five traced to four bugs:
1. migrate-host --retire-legacy could NEVER succeed. Re-homing ADDS
user.box=1 but never removed user.claudebox=1, and legacy_boxes()
counted the old tag — so retire saw its own freshly-migrated box as
un-migrated and refused forever ('legacy boxes still exist:
legacybox'), leaving claudenet + claude-dev behind. Now: a verified
re-home drops the legacy tag LAST (after the move is proven, so a
failure anywhere above still leaves the box valid under one tag or
the other), and legacy_boxes() ignores boxes already carrying
user.box=1.
2. box expose died with a bare 'could not add the proxy device' — it
swallowed incus's reason, exactly the sin this repo keeps punishing.
Now it prints incus's error. And the mechanism is corrected: a VM's
proxy needs NAT mode, which requires a static NIC address, so expose
pins the box's current lease first (which also fixes the restart
caveat — the exposure no longer points at a lease the box may lose).
3. wait_box's 2-minute window was too short: the legacy box was declared
dead and then every migration check against it passed. 4 minutes.
4. The grok template hunted for a regular file named exactly
'grok-build' under /home/grok and found nothing — an installer's drop
may be a SYMLINK, and its binary name is upstream's to choose. Now it
tries the plausible names and paths, falls back to any executable
grok*, links both names, and SAYS what it found — or dumps what the
installer actually left when it finds nothing. The drill likewise
dumps the on-disk evidence and the cloud-init log on a --version
failure instead of discarding the box.
2026-07-14 19:56:17 +00:00
# NEVER swallow incus's reason — the first cut of this verb died with a bare
# "could not add the proxy device" and told the drill nothing.
echo "box: incus refused the proxy device:" >&2
sed 's/^/ /' "$err" >&2; rm -f "$err"
feat: 'box expose <box> <port>' — a deliberate, loopback-only door to a dev server
The 'no inbound path' contract is one notch too absolute for the tool's
own flagship workflow: coding in a box, a dev server on :3000, and no
way to open it in your browser. expose is the deliberate un-screwing.
- Loopback only, always: the host side listens on 127.0.0.1, never
0.0.0.0 — no other machine can reach the box; only this host gets a
door. No flag widens it (that is the escape hatch's job).
- A verb, per-port, reversible, visible: each exposure is a named proxy
device (expose-<port>); --list and box info show it, --remove undoes
it. A box with a hole says so.
- Mechanism (VMs): an Incus proxy device forwards host loopback to the
box's ip:port, plus a SCOPED ingress ACL allow (this box's ip + this
port only) so the forkproxy's connection survives the default drop —
the drill decides whether that allow is needed or redundant. The
in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (a VM's forwarder reaches it over
the network); inside an isolated box that is safe.
Drill phase E: start a detached listener in a box, expose it, prove the
HOST loopback reaches it, prove a NON-exposed port is still dropped (A7
survives), prove --remove shuts the door.
Closes #55
2026-07-14 16:07:17 +00:00
incus network acl rule remove box-isolate ingress action=allow \
"destination=$ip/32" "destination_port=$port" protocol=tcp >/dev/null 2>&1
fix: run 17's four real findings — migrate retire, expose proxy, wait_box, grok PATH
The first drill run where every failure was the RELEASE CODE, not the
environment. 71 passed, 5 failed; all five traced to four bugs:
1. migrate-host --retire-legacy could NEVER succeed. Re-homing ADDS
user.box=1 but never removed user.claudebox=1, and legacy_boxes()
counted the old tag — so retire saw its own freshly-migrated box as
un-migrated and refused forever ('legacy boxes still exist:
legacybox'), leaving claudenet + claude-dev behind. Now: a verified
re-home drops the legacy tag LAST (after the move is proven, so a
failure anywhere above still leaves the box valid under one tag or
the other), and legacy_boxes() ignores boxes already carrying
user.box=1.
2. box expose died with a bare 'could not add the proxy device' — it
swallowed incus's reason, exactly the sin this repo keeps punishing.
Now it prints incus's error. And the mechanism is corrected: a VM's
proxy needs NAT mode, which requires a static NIC address, so expose
pins the box's current lease first (which also fixes the restart
caveat — the exposure no longer points at a lease the box may lose).
3. wait_box's 2-minute window was too short: the legacy box was declared
dead and then every migration check against it passed. 4 minutes.
4. The grok template hunted for a regular file named exactly
'grok-build' under /home/grok and found nothing — an installer's drop
may be a SYMLINK, and its binary name is upstream's to choose. Now it
tries the plausible names and paths, falls back to any executable
grok*, links both names, and SAYS what it found — or dumps what the
installer actually left when it finds nothing. The drill likewise
dumps the on-disk evidence and the cloud-init log on a --version
failure instead of discarding the box.
2026-07-14 19:56:17 +00:00
die "expose failed"
feat: 'box expose <box> <port>' — a deliberate, loopback-only door to a dev server
The 'no inbound path' contract is one notch too absolute for the tool's
own flagship workflow: coding in a box, a dev server on :3000, and no
way to open it in your browser. expose is the deliberate un-screwing.
- Loopback only, always: the host side listens on 127.0.0.1, never
0.0.0.0 — no other machine can reach the box; only this host gets a
door. No flag widens it (that is the escape hatch's job).
- A verb, per-port, reversible, visible: each exposure is a named proxy
device (expose-<port>); --list and box info show it, --remove undoes
it. A box with a hole says so.
- Mechanism (VMs): an Incus proxy device forwards host loopback to the
box's ip:port, plus a SCOPED ingress ACL allow (this box's ip + this
port only) so the forkproxy's connection survives the default drop —
the drill decides whether that allow is needed or redundant. The
in-box server must listen on 0.0.0.0 (a VM's forwarder reaches it over
the network); inside an isolated box that is safe.
Drill phase E: start a detached listener in a box, expose it, prove the
HOST loopback reaches it, prove a NON-exposed port is still dropped (A7
survives), prove --remove shuts the door.
Closes #55
2026-07-14 16:07:17 +00:00
fi
}
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
# --- dispatch: driven by the table, not by a hand-written case --------------
row="$(cmd_row "$cmd")" || unknown_command "$cmd"
IFS='^' read -r _ _ pre _ action ok <<<"$row"
case ",$pre," in *,box,*) need_name; inst="$(resolve_box "${args[0]}")" ;; esac
case ",$pre," in *,arg2,*) need_arg2 ;; esac
case ",$pre," in *,stopped,*) require_stopped "$inst" "${args[0]}" ;; esac
case ",$pre," in *,confirm,*) confirm "delete $inst and all its snapshots" ;; esac
case "$action" in
fn:*)
"${action#fn:}"
;;
incus:*)
sub="${action#incus:}"
# word-split intentionally: a subcommand may carry a flag ("delete -f")
# shellcheck disable=SC2086
incus $sub "$inst" "${args[@]:1}"
if [ -n "$ok" ]; then
msg="${ok//\{\}/${args[0]}}"; msg="${msg//\{1\}/${args[1]:-}}"
feat!: claudebox becomes box — the Claude box is one template among several
The tool underneath was already generic: a thin, honest wrapper over
Incus. What was Claude-specific was welded on — one image, one profile,
one cloud-init file, one hardcoded 'sudo -u claude'. The weld is now a
template.
The mechanic: 'box new' stamps the template's identity onto the
instance (user.box=1, user.box.template, user.box.user); shell/exec/
tmux read the user back off the instance, and 'incus copy' carries
user.* keys (audit B2), so a clone knows what it is without consulting
the template. Templates are box.env (parsed against a strict allowlist,
never sourced — no key for a network exists, on purpose) plus a
verbatim cloud-init. Every template launches with the shared box-net
profile: the isolated NIC and root disk, nothing template-controlled —
resources land per-instance from box.env, overridable via BOX_CPU/
BOX_MEMORY/BOX_DISK (which is also how the drill shrinks boxes on a
small host now that profile edits can't).
The three open calls, taken as recommended: clean cut at 0.4.0 (no
claudebox shim; the installer retires the old symlink); default
template = claude (muscle memory survives); repo stays heavy-duty/
claudebox, binary is box.
Compat is the tag, not the name: resolve_box and list honor the legacy
user.claudebox=1 forever, and the legacy tag maps to the claude user —
a pre-rename box lists, shells, clones, unchanged.
Deliberate divergence from #17's table: the host-stack resource names
(claudenet, claude-isolate, nft tables, claudebox-firewall.*) are NOT
renamed — they are host-internal, invisible to users, and renaming
them breaks every provisioned host for zero user-visible gain.
claude-dev is no longer created; setup-host creates box-net, teardown
removes both.
Closes #17
2026-07-14 14:22:50 +00:00
echo "box: $msg"
feat: make the command surface a table, add rename and an escape hatch
Every incus verb is a candidate feature request, and wrapping them one at a
time grows a worse incus. This lands the rule instead: claudebox owns a command
when it must enforce an invariant incus cannot see — the user.claudebox=1
boundary, the isolation stack, or the creds-free snapshot workflow. Everything
else is incus's job, and now has a door.
- CMDS table: one row per command, carrying synopsis, preconditions, summary,
action and success message. Dispatch AND help are rendered from it, so the
help can no longer describe a command that doesn't exist — the drift that
produced #8 is now impossible, not merely fixed.
- rename, via a table row: it needs the box stopped (incus won't rename a
running instance), so it says so instead of leaking an incus error.
- `claudebox incus <box> -- <args...>`: the escape hatch. Box resolved and
tag-checked, rest passed to incus verbatim, {} substituted, command echoed.
Warns when it can move a box off the isolation stack.
- The boundary is now ENFORCED, not assumed: every box-taking command resolves
through the user.claudebox=1 tag, so claudebox will not stop, rename or delete
an instance it didn't mint.
- The rule, written into docs/claudebox-design.md.
Closes #11
2026-07-13 20:49:46 +00:00
fi
;;
2026-07-10 15:00:36 +00:00
esac