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>
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>
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
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
`status` was the only lister: misnamed, silently ignoring the `<box>` its own
help advertised, and unable to show a snapshot label — the one thing the
README's snapshot→clone flow requires you to know. Typing the obvious
`claudebox list` printed the help and exited 0.
- `list` — a table of your boxes (name, state, type, snapshot count).
- `info <box>` — detail, the snapshot labels, and the `--from` line to clone one.
- `list <box>` is a wrong guess we can answer: it points at `info`.
- `--json` passthrough; `--remote` honored; a real error on an unknown box.
- `status` stays as a deprecated alias for `list` so muscle memory keeps working.
Reads are filtered by the `user.claudebox=1` tag, so an Incus instance
claudebox didn't mint is never reported on or touched.
Closes#7
Instance names now equal the box name (claudebox new --name work -> 'work',
not 'claude-work'). To still tell claudebox's instances apart from any other
incus instances, tag each on creation with user.claudebox=1 and filter status
+ teardown by that tag instead of a name prefix. Clones (new --from) inherit
the tag.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A CLI that mints trust-less, network-isolated Incus VMs with Claude Code
installed. Boxes are strictly creds-free — the operator logs into Claude
interactively inside; authenticated state is reused via snapshots. The tool
knows nothing about projects; a repo ships an optional agent-facing .claudebox/
runbook that Claude reads.
- bin/claudebox: new/shell/exec/snapshot/restore/down/start/rm/status; creds-free
'new' (fresh launch or clone via --from <src>[/<snap>]).
- cloud-init: global ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md self-describing the box + .claudebox/ runbook.
- install.sh: curl-pipe-bash installer.
- host/: Incus isolation stack (claudenet + claude-isolate ACL + claude-dev
profile + firewall).
- docs/: design + .claudebox/ convention.
Initial canonical import (prototyped separately; re-homed onto the heavy-duty fork).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
