Delete the smolmachines backend (the whole bot_bottle/backend/smolmachines
package and its tests). It had fatal Linux issues (TSI networking under
sustained use, exec-channel contention, no SIGWINCH) and is superseded by
the Firecracker backend (issue #342).
Backend selection now:
- default is macos-container on macOS, firecracker on KVM-capable Linux
hosts, and docker as the last resort (was smolmachines).
- firecracker is selected on a KVM host even when the `firecracker`
binary isn't installed, so start routes through its preflight and
prints an install pointer (same UX as require_container), instead of
silently falling back. Split is_host_capable() (Linux + KVM) out of
is_available() (adds the binary check) to drive this.
Retarget the cross-backend tests (parity, print-parity, prepare,
workspace, freezer, selection) from smolmachines to firecracker rather
than dropping the coverage. Remove docker.util.image_id/save, which only
smolmachines used. Update README/AGENTS/example bottles and stale
comments; historical docs/prds are left as a point-in-time record.
BREAKING: BOT_BOTTLE_BACKEND=smolmachines now errors as unknown.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01WBMWTEtQdJ4W5UrWuLHCck
didericis
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