Comprehensive, beginner-friendly definitions. Source of truth lives in docs/glossary.md on GitHub — this page mirrors it for the web (30 terms, no todo/conductor internal jargon).
| Term | What It Means | Why It Matters Here |
|---|---|---|
| Ghost Machines | Toolkit for disposable Linux sandboxes. | The “hotel”. |
| Ghost / Sandbox | Running container you code inside, thrown away when done. | Your private room. |
| Container | Sealed Linux room sharing host kernel, own filesystem. | 1–2s boot, ~73 MB idle. Not a VM. |
| VM | Full computer inside (own kernel, hypervisor). | For hostile/Windows. |
| Docker / Compose | Engine + blueprint (docker-compose.yml). | How Ghost is defined. |
| Image | Read-only template built from Dockerfile. | ubuntu-template or GHCR prebuilt. |
| Dockerfile | Recipe that builds an image. | 4 variants: ubuntu/.debian/.alpine/.arch. |
| GHCR | GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io). | Pull instead of building. |
| Multi-arch | One tag → amd64 + arm64; auto-picked. | Works on Intel + Apple Silicon. |
| Engine | Linux base choice (Ubuntu/Debian/Alpine/Arch). | Pick by PPA vs slim vs musl vs rolling. |
| Mode | Resource profile (dual/single/power/half). | 1c/8G → 50% host. |
| IaC | Machines defined in code. | No “works on my machine”. |
| Mount / Volume | Host folder mounts/ mapped in. | Work survives deletion. |
| UID/GID Sync | Align developer to host id -u/g. | Fixes permissions. |
| LXCFS | Makes htop/free show cgroup, not host. | Linux only. |
| Non-root User | developer, not root; sudo via ghost. | Security. |
| SSH | ssh -p 2223 developer@localhost. | How you connect. |
| WaaS / CDE | Vending workspaces on one host/cloud. | tenant.sh + Tunnel. |
| Tenant | Isolated user room with port + mount + quotas. | WaaS primitive. |
| Host | Machine running Docker. | The building. |
| Bridge Network | ghost_sandbox LAN. | Tenants isolated. |
| Cloudflare Tunnel | Zero-trust remote without ports. | TUNNEL_TOKEN. |
| MCP | Model Context Protocol for AI tools. | Agents → files/terminal. |
| HeLa MCP Ecosystem | 7 MCP servers (mitosis/genome/…). | Agent tooling. |
| RTK | Token saver via PreToolUse hook. | 60–90% save. |
| HeLa | Named for Henrietta Lacks. | Product naming. |
| OrbStack / Docker Desktop | macOS Docker daemons. | How macOS runs Ghost. |
| WSL2 | Windows Linux kernel for Docker. | How Windows runs Ghost. |
| Snapshot / Restore | Archive of mounts/ + SHA + atomic undo. | Save/undo. |
| Cleanup Levels | L1 -s, L2 -v, L3 -a, L4 --nuke (+ GHCR + cache). | Free disk. |
| Builder Cache | Stored Docker layers. | Cleared by --nuke. |
Full 30-term table with beginner-friendly “Why It Matters” lives in docs/glossary.md — this web page is a 1:1 mirror without internal todo/conductor terms.