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sustained use, exec-channel contention, no SIGWINCH) and is superseded by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
smolvm pack create --from-vm requires the VM to be stopped, and stopping
a smolmachines VM terminates any running interactive session.
Instead, mirror the macos-container approach: exec into the running VM as
root and stream the root filesystem via tar (smolvm machine exec -- tar),
build a Docker image from the archive, push to an ephemeral local registry,
and run smolvm pack create --image to produce the .smolmachine artifact.
The VM stays running throughout the commit.
Remove the stop-confirm prompt and machine_is_running check that were
added in the previous commit — neither is needed when we no longer stop.
smolvm pack create --from-vm requires the VM to be stopped. Add
machine_is_running() to smolvm.py (via machine ls --json state field),
and add the same confirm-stop flow to SmolmachinesFreezer that was
originally designed for macos-container: if running, prompt the user,
stop the VM, then pack. Already-stopped VMs are packed directly.
- Rename export test to reflect new exec-tar mechanism; update argv
assertions to match the new `container exec ... tar` command shape
- Change mock stderr from str to bytes (subprocess.PIPE without text=True)
- Add type annotation to capture_freeze closure to satisfy pyright
Apple Container removes containers when they stop, making the
stop-then-export flow impossible regardless of the --rm flag.
Replace `container export` (requires stopped container) with
`container exec --user root <name> tar --create ... --file=- --directory=/ .`
streamed to a temp file, then build the committed image from that archive
as before. The bottle stays running after commit, which is better UX.
Drop the stop-confirm prompt from MacosContainerFreezer since we no longer
need to stop the container at all.
Freezer._freeze only ever used bottle.name, which is always
f"bot-bottle-{agent.slug}". Remove the Bottle parameter from
commit() and _freeze(), derive the container name from agent.slug
directly in each subclass, and delete the _NamedBottle stub that
existed solely to paper over this.
Adds a Freezer ABC (backend/freeze.py) that encapsulates the
stop-commit-mark-preserved flow for all backends, following the same
pattern as BottleBackend. Each backend gets its own Freezer subclass:
DockerFreezer — docker commit
MacosContainerFreezer — container export + image rebuild; prompts
to stop if the container is running
SmolmachinesFreezer — smolvm pack create --from-vm
The base class owns write_committed_image, mark_preserved, and the
resume hint. Subclasses implement _freeze() and optionally override
_export_hint() for migration instructions.
Freezer.commit(agent, bottle) is the primary entry point for use
within a live launch context. Freezer.commit_slug(slug) is a
convenience wrapper for cmd_commit, which no longer branches on
backend names itself.
get_freezer(backend_name) is the factory, analogous to
get_bottle_backend(). CommitCancelled is raised by MacosContainerFreezer
when the user declines the stop prompt; cmd_commit catches it and
returns 0.
didericis
didericis-claude