036: Your machines are boxes you own, kept as BB machines

Status: accepted, 1 October 2026. Extends 032: a spare that a thread starts on through BB’s picker becomes yours. Amended since: a spare becomes yours when BB says a thread on its machine is working (#155), and a stopped one does too (#156).

Context

“New box” (033) is hard to find in BB’s new-thread picker. The operator asked to add boxes in BB Box’s settings, as machines in BB’s list and sidebar, like any other (#144).

Decision

Owner. A box can belong to you, not to a thread. Its record is a box record of the reserved thread operator, as spares are of spare (032), with no project and role “box”. BB’s thread IDs never take that form. You name it when you add it: a hostname label, unique among your machines. That name is also its BB machine’s name. It is outside the per-thread limit, and counts against a backend’s room like any box.

Adding and removing. BB Box’s settings list your machines and add one of any kind that can enrol, at any size, desktops included. Adding goes through acquire, so it takes a spare when one fits, renamed. It enrols under its box ID, whatever the general enrolment setting. It is removed only in settings, or by removing its machine in BB. 034 applies: settings asks before removing or stopping one a thread is working on.

Lifecycle.

The sweep never releases it, as its thread operator is always live.
A lost record is restored from the guest’s owner label (019) to you, with its name. The box enrols again under its ID, and BB gives back its machine (025).
After a start it reconnects as any enrolled box does (017).
When you remove its machine in BB, bb-box releases the box. remove first clears the box’s machine, so the release does not delete it again, which would wait on BB’s removal (as found in #125).

Where it shows.

BB’s machine list, sidebar and new-thread picker, under your name.
In a thread that runs on a box’s machine, box_list and the Box panel show that box as “the machine this thread runs on”, and the box tools take it. box_release and box_stop refuse it, and point to settings.
The Desktops page lists your machines’ desktops under “Your machines”.

Spare guard. A spare whose machine gets a thread through BB’s picker becomes yours. A claim skips it, and the spare upkeep moves it to you, with the “(spare)” dropped from its machine’s name, and makes a new spare. The upkeep runs when BB says a thread on a spare’s machine was created or is working, as well as at each sweep. A stopped spare with a thread becomes yours too, still stopped, and reconnects when you start it. A thread counts while it is neither archived nor deleted.

Consequences

One way to keep a box as a machine, which you can see and remove.
A spare you start a thread on stays until you remove it in settings.
Kinds that cannot enrol, such as Windows, cannot be your machines yet.