ship’s manual · guide

Channel computers

The computer is not a metaphor. Every ordinary channel owns one persistent isolated Linux world.

Isolation

On Apple Silicon, 1Helm uses an Apple container machine with no Mac home mount. On Linux, it uses an unprivileged LXC with a subordinate UID/GID map and private bridge. On Windows, it imports a separate pinned Ubuntu rootfs into WSL 2 for each channel with Windows-drive automount and interop disabled. The resident command tool and channel Terminal enter the same world and start in the same /workspace.

Managed resources

Skipper chooses CPU and memory using pressure, obligations, and recent demand where the host runtime supports resizing. The Files allocation is reported as 1Helm's managed writable workspace rather than a misleading host-backed virtual ceiling.

Lifecycle

Archive cancels active turns and terminals, syncs files, and pauses the world while preserving identity and state. Restore reuses it. Deletion and app-removal cleanup require exact installation and channel ownership markers.

Wake and repair

Follow-ups, services, systemd timers, cron, terminals, and active work prevent unsafe sleep. Reconciliation detects drift, wakes due obligations, updates guests, and repairs recoverable failures.

Platform truth

Apple Silicon macOS 26 uses Apple's pinned runtime; Ubuntu/Debian systemd hosts use root-owned unprivileged LXC; Windows 11 x64 uses WSL 2. The native compatibility backend remains an explicit development/test seam and is not the production default.