Stop treating Firecracker, kernels, modules, and guest images as tracked source files. Source checkouts now resolve runtime assets from ./runtime, while installed binaries keep using ../lib/banger.
Add a small runtimebundle helper plus runtime-bundle.toml so make can bootstrap, package, and install a runtime bundle with checksum validation. Update the shell helpers and daemon path hints to fail clearly when the bundle is missing instead of assuming repo-root artifacts.
This removes the tracked runtime blobs from HEAD in favor of an ignored local runtime/ tree. Verified with go test ./..., make build, bash -n on the shell helpers, make -n install, and a temporary package/fetch smoke test. The manifest URL/SHA still need a published bundle before fresh clones can bootstrap, and history rewrite remains a separate rollout step.
Fix the misleading make install path where banger and bangerd still depended on a repo checkout for Firecracker, guest artifacts, image builds, and the SSH key.
Replace repo-root inference with an explicit runtime bundle model: resolve a runtime_dir from env/config/install layout, derive concrete artifact paths from it, and update the daemon, CLI, and image-build flow to use those paths. Keep repo_root only as an explicit compatibility alias instead of auto-detecting it.
Teach customize.sh to run from a read-only bundled runtime tree while writing transient state under XDG/BANGER_STATE_DIR, and make make install copy the runtime assets into PREFIX/lib/banger so installed binaries stay usable outside the repo.
Validate with go test ./..., make build, bash -n customize.sh, and make install DESTDIR=/tmp/banger-install PREFIX=/usr. An out-of-repo installed-binary smoke test was attempted, but this sandbox blocked bangerd from binding its Unix socket (setsockopt: operation not permitted).
Move the default guest package list into a repo manifest and record a hash beside built rootfs images so run/make-rootfs can warn when the docker-ready image is stale.
Switch the Firecracker launch path to a single sparse root overlay per VM instead of separate /home and /var disks, so many VMs can share the same base image while still installing packages under /var and working from /root.
Keep older images bootable by masking stale home.mount and var.mount units at boot, and scrub those obsolete fstab entries when customize.sh rebuilds an image. Verified with bash -n on the updated scripts; no live VM boot was run in this environment.
Make spawned VMs easier to use and restore from the host.
Add shared DNS and runtime helpers, publish <vm-name>.vm records through mapdns, and teach run/customize/interactive/restore to persist the metadata needed for SSH, DNS cleanup, and clean restores.
Seed per-VM /home and /var disks from the rootfs snapshot so package state is present on first boot, add an interactive customization entrypoint plus ssh.sh and human-friendly list output, and let stop/kill/rm operate on multiple VM identifiers.
Tear down stale TAP, dm, and loop state when VMs stop so restore can recreate them safely, and validate the updated scripts with bash -n plus targeted dry-run harnesses for teardown and restore paths.
