Engines — Ubuntu / Debian / Alpine / Arch

Each engine ships an identical toolchain so your workflow is portable.

Only the base image and package manager change.

All 4 are published as GHCR multi-arch (linux/amd64 + arm64) on v* tags — pull one that matches your needs.

At a Glance

Engine	Base	PM	GHCR Package	Size amd64 / arm64	Best for
ubuntu	ubuntu:latest	apt-get	ghost-machine-ubuntu:latest	1.38 / 1.21 GB	AI agents, PPA, daily dev
debian	debian:stable-slim	apt-get	ghost-machine-debian:latest	1.36 / 1.20 GB	Slim & stable, prod-like
alpine	alpine:latest	apk	ghost-machine-alpine:latest	1.59 / 1.32 GB	Ultra-light, musl
arch	archlinux:latest	pacman	ghost-machine-arch:latest	1.63 / 1.63 GB	Rolling, latest upstream

Host distro does not matter — Debian host can run Arch image. Only CPU arch matters (amd64 vs arm64 auto-picked).

Identical Toolchain (all engines)

Layer	What
Runtimes	Go 1.24, Rust rustup minimal (cargo/rustc), Node current + Bun, Python uv + pipx + venv
Editors & Git	Helix 25.01.1, Micro, Lazygit, Tmux
AI Harnesses	agy/antigravity, opencode, kilo + rtk (60–90% token save)
MCP & Conductor	7 HeLa headless servers (mitosis/genome/membrane/nucleus/ribosome/enzyme/phenotype) + Conductor /opt/conductor
Shell UX	Oh-My-Bash, Alias-Hub, Fastfetch/Neofetch, fortunes, openssh-server, LXCFS

When to Pick Which

Ubuntu — Recommended. PPA support (`add-apt-repository`) for drivers and newer toolchains. Largest apt footprint but most compatible with AI agent scripts that expect Ubuntu. Use when unsure.

Debian — slim base, fewer packages out-of-the-box, closest to production Debian stable. Choose for smaller images and longer stability; good for WaaS classrooms where you want minimal bloat.

Alpine — apk + musl. Smallest base but musl can break some npm/native addons (needs glibc shim). Pick when you explicitly want a tiny image; avoid if you rely on many binary wheels.

Arch — pacman + rolling. Always latest upstream packages; biggest and slowest to build; good for bleeding-edge testing.

How Images Are Built

All 4 Dockerfiles share the same stages:

base → system tools → Go/Rust → Node/Bun/uv → Micro/Helix/Lazygit → AI harnesses → HeLa MCP → Conductor → non-root user (developer).

The only differences are apk add vs apt-get install and package names (e.g. build-base vs build-essential).

Build args HOST_UID/HOST_GID sync the developer user to your host.

Copy-Paste

Pull one — not four.

docker pull ghcr.io/1999azzar/ghost-machine-ubuntu:latest
GHOST_IMAGE=ghcr.io/1999azzar/ghost-machine-ubuntu:latest ./start.sh -e ubuntu -m single
ssh -p 2223 developer@localhost # pass ghost

docker pull ghcr.io/1999azzar/ghost-machine-debian:latest
GHOST_IMAGE=ghcr.io/1999azzar/ghost-machine-debian:latest ./start.sh -e debian -m single

docker pull ghcr.io/1999azzar/ghost-machine-alpine:latest
GHOST_IMAGE=ghcr.io/1999azzar/ghost-machine-alpine:latest ./start.sh -e alpine -m single

docker pull ghcr.io/1999azzar/ghost-machine-arch:latest
GHOST_IMAGE=ghcr.io/1999azzar/ghost-machine-arch:latest ./start.sh -e arch -m single

Host Compatibility

Any Linux (x86_64/aarch64), macOS with OrbStack or Docker Desktop, or Windows with WSL2.

Image arch is auto-selected: Intel/AMD → amd64, Apple Silicon/ARM VPS → arm64.

Debian host can run Arch image — only the kernel (host) and userland (image) are split.

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