Bosn

Bosn is a Rust daemon for safely managing Docker development applications. It keeps ownership, generation, volume, lease, execution-session, and event state in a durable SQLite registry. The daemon is the only component that mutates Docker or that writes that registry.

The distribution includes three intentionally thin front ends:

• bosn, a bundled native CLI;
• import bosn, a PyO3 client binding; and
• bosn mcp, a stdio MCP server for Hermes and other MCP clients.

The former Python daemon, Docker front doors, manifest parser, and SQLite registry are deliberately not packaged. Python callers use bosn.Client; they cannot import or invoke a second lifecycle implementation.

Install

pip install bosn
bosn --version

Platform wheels contain the native bosn CLI and the bosn._native Python extension. Installing the wheel puts the bosn binary itself into the environment's scripts directory, so the bosn on PATH is the native CLI, with no Python wrapper in between. The extension uses PyO3's abi3-py310 ABI, so Bosn supports CPython 3.10 and newer with one platform wheel rather than publishing cp311-only artifacts.

One-file setup

Bosn accepts a local file or HTTPS URL for a versioned setup document. The document declares a digest-pinned image or inline Dockerfile, optional inline files, environment, bind mounts, named volumes, tmpfs mounts, and named tasks. Planning is inert; ensure and task submission are daemon-owned jobs.

version = 1

[app]
image = "registry.example/team/app@sha256:REPLACE_WITH_64_LOWERCASE_HEX_DIGEST"
command = "exec sleep 120"

[task.check]
command = "cargo check"

bosn setup plan --state-dir "$HOME/.local/state/bosn" \
  --workspace "$PWD" --config https://example.invalid/bosn-setup.toml \
  --refresh
bosn setup ensure --state-dir "$HOME/.local/state/bosn" \
  --workspace "$PWD" --config https://example.invalid/bosn-setup.toml \
  --refresh --deadline-ms 300000 --output-limit 8388608

online_refresh is explicit; offline_cache_only uses only a previously validated local cache record. URLs with credentials, unsupported schemes, path traversal, unpinned images, and oversized documents are refused.

Python

from pathlib import Path
import bosn

client = bosn.Client(Path.home() / ".local/state/bosn")
plan = client.plan_setup(
    Path.cwd(), "https://example.invalid/bosn-setup.toml", policy="online_refresh"
)
job_id = client.submit_setup_ensure(
    Path.cwd(),
    "https://example.invalid/bosn-setup.toml",
    policy="online_refresh",
    deadline_ms=300_000,
    output_limit=8 * 1024 * 1024,
)

The binding exposes typed request and observation operations only. It does not accept Docker command arguments, container identifiers, mounts, or arbitrary commands from callers.

Concurrent runs

The daemon runs task jobs (bosn run --task ...) from different checkouts in parallel, max(1, ncpu * 2) runner slots by default, each limited to 4 CPUs. Stack ensures run in their own lane, so they never wait behind long tasks. bosn jobs (or the bosn_jobs MCP tool) shows what is running, in which slot, with which containers and caches. A task that goes silent is torn down, and a daemon restart reaps what its predecessor left running. For stacks that drive the host Docker engine (act), a per-job proxy labels, limits, isolates and removes the job's containers, and maps cache volumes into act's job containers. See docs/runners.md.

The daemon starts on demand and exits after 10 idle minutes (BOSN_DAEMON_IDLE_EXIT_SECS, 0 to keep it), so the next command always runs the current release; containers and the registry survive the exit. Any command that reaches a daemon of another release warns bosn daemon/client mismatch on stderr.

bosn jobs                                  # what is running now
bosn daemon serve --state-dir "$HOME/.local/state/bosn" --runner-slots 8 --runner-cpus 4

MCP / Hermes

Run bosn mcp over stdio. A typical Hermes registration is:

mcp_servers:
  bosn:
    command: bosn
    args: [mcp]

Set BOSN_STATE_DIR if the default state directory is not appropriate. MCP tools use the same typed daemon operations as the CLI and Python client; long operations return durable job IDs.

Development

./install
./lint
./test

./install prepares Soldr and the Rust toolchain pinned by rust-toolchain.toml before installing the native package. Source builds use Soldr for both the CLI and Maturin's compiler calls. The declared Docker test and lint tasks build a wheel against a read-only checkout, with writable target, toolchain and environment volumes.

The Rust migration status, native manifest lifecycle boundary, and registry details are documented in docs/migration-rust.md, docs/rust-manifest-runtime.md, and docs/rust-registry.md. Daemon-owned task secrets (an opt-in GITHUB_TOKEN for act runs) are in docs/task-secrets.md; the read-only GitHub API proxy that keeps the token out of containers is in docs/github-api-proxy.md. Bosn runs its containers at low CPU priority so the desktop stays responsive; see docs/cpu-priority.md. Local CI on an isolated, daemon-owned engine (bosn ci run --wait, with reports and stable exit codes for agents) is in docs/ci.md.

Before pushing this repository, run its gate from a clean, committed checkout:

uvx --from git+https://github.com/zackees/ci.yml@86b63937960d00655f7ef3752ef6f15b6b06f35b ci-lint local-gate run

The heavy lanes require Bosn 0.1.12 or later and replay the Rust checks and Linux test tier through act2 on isolated engines. The gate checks the executed source and required successful steps before stamping the commit. Unchanged lane inputs can reuse a recorded pass; compiler units are cached across runs.

PR verification refuses missing or stale proof. A trusted, attested PR can skip the mapped policy and Rust jobs, with audit sampling retained. Explicit ci-test/ci-full requests keep their Linux test-tier coverage; main pushes and release validation retain their remote checks.

If the gate rejects an old Bosn before submitting a run, check bosn --version and the executable selected by command -v bosn. The gate requires at least 0.1.12. Its uv run --no-project --isolated launchers avoid selecting a virtual environment in an ancestor directory: --no-project alone does not isolate the tooling environment. Make the supported executable available on PATH and rerun the gate; the rejected preflight produces no attestation.