Providers

Multipass Provider

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Multipass Provider

Read this when you:

  • choose provider: multipass (aliases mp, canonical-multipass);
  • want local Ubuntu VMs through Canonical Multipass instead of a local container;
  • change internal/providers/multipass.

Multipass is a local SSH-lease provider. Crabbox drives the configured multipass CLI on the same workstation, launches an Ubuntu VM with cloud-init, creates a per-lease SSH user/key, syncs the checkout over SSH, runs commands through the normal Crabbox SSH executor, and deletes the VM on stop.

The provider is local only. It never uses the coordinator or cloud credentials.

Targets: Linux.

Hosts: macOS, Linux, or Windows workstations with the Multipass CLI and daemon installed.

Capabilities: SSH, Crabbox sync, cleanup, cache volumes.

#Host Requirements

Install Canonical Multipass before selecting this provider:

multipass version
multipass list --format json

On macOS, install from Canonical's installer or with Homebrew:

brew install --cask multipass

The first Crabbox run may take longer while Multipass downloads the selected Ubuntu image and initializes the local VM backend.

#When To Use It

Reach for Multipass when you want:

  • a local Ubuntu VM smoke path with stronger isolation than a container;
  • the same Crabbox warmup, run, ssh, stop, and cleanup workflow used for remote SSH providers;
  • a quick way to test against Canonical Ubuntu cloud images on macOS, Windows, or Linux hosts where Multipass is installed.

Use Local Container when startup speed and container cache reuse matter more than VM isolation. Use Parallels, Proxmox, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or Hetzner when you need larger machines, non-Linux targets, desktop/browser/code surfaces, native snapshots, tailnet reachability, or shared team infrastructure.

Multipass is not a Docker replacement in Crabbox. Docker-compatible providers run containers that share a host kernel; Multipass runs a full Ubuntu VM with its own kernel, systemd, cloud-init, SSH daemon, disk, and network identity. Choose Multipass when the test needs VM-like behavior. Choose Local Container when the test only needs a fast disposable Linux userland.

#Quick Start

multipass version
multipass list --format json

crabbox run --provider multipass -- go test ./...

crabbox warmup --provider mp --slug multipass-smoke
crabbox status --provider mp --id multipass-smoke
crabbox run --provider mp --id multipass-smoke -- uname -a
crabbox ssh --provider mp --id multipass-smoke
crabbox stop --provider mp multipass-smoke

Cache volume smoke:

crabbox run --provider multipass \
  --cache-volume gomod=my-app-linux-go:/var/cache/crabbox/go \
  -- go test ./...

#Optional live smoke

Run the guarded local smoke when the Multipass CLI and daemon are available:

CRABBOX_LIVE=1 CRABBOX_LIVE_PROVIDERS=multipass scripts/live-smoke.sh

The smoke creates one short-lived Multipass VM, waits for SSH readiness, syncs the current checkout, runs the shared live-smoke command, prints recent history/log evidence when available, then deletes and purges only the VM it created. It uses --ttl 15m --idle-timeout 5m and the same cleanup path as normal crabbox stop --provider multipass.

#Configuration

provider: multipass
multipass:
  cliPath: multipass      # Multipass CLI to invoke
  image: "26.04"          # Multipass image selector
  user: crabbox           # SSH user created by cloud-init
  workRoot: /work/crabbox # remote Crabbox work root
  cpus: 4
  memory: 8G
  disk: 30G
  launchTimeout: 20m

Defaults applied when unset: cliPath=multipass, image=26.04, user=crabbox, workRoot=/work/crabbox, cpus=4, memory=8G, disk=30G, launchTimeout=20m, SSH port 22.

The Multipass image follows Crabbox's portable osImage default unless multipass.image, --multipass-image, or CRABBOX_MULTIPASS_IMAGE is set. For example, osImage: ubuntu:24.04 selects multipass.image: "24.04".

Provider flags:

--multipass-cli <path-or-name>
--multipass-image <image>
--multipass-user <user>
--multipass-work-root <path>
--multipass-cpus <n>
--multipass-memory <size>
--multipass-disk <size>
--multipass-launch-timeout <duration>

Environment overrides:

CRABBOX_MULTIPASS_CLI
CRABBOX_MULTIPASS_IMAGE
CRABBOX_MULTIPASS_USER
CRABBOX_MULTIPASS_WORK_ROOT
CRABBOX_MULTIPASS_CPUS
CRABBOX_MULTIPASS_MEMORY
CRABBOX_MULTIPASS_DISK
CRABBOX_MULTIPASS_LAUNCH_TIMEOUT

#Lease Behavior

  1. warmup or a fresh run creates a per-lease SSH key.
  2. The provider writes a temporary cloud-init file using Crabbox's Linux bootstrap and launches an instance with multipass launch --name ....
  3. Optional cache volumes are host directories under the Crabbox user cache. On macOS with the QEMU driver, Crabbox launches the VM, stops it, attaches each cache with multipass mount --type native, then starts it again. Other drivers use Multipass classic launch mounts with repeated --mount host:guest arguments.
  4. Crabbox reads instance details with multipass info --format json, waits for SSH readiness on port 22, syncs the checkout to multipass.workRoot, then runs the command over the normal SSH path.
  5. The provider records a local Crabbox claim with the Multipass instance name.
  6. list, status, and stop resolve by lease ID, slug, or Multipass instance name. stop deletes and purges the VM.
  7. cleanup --provider multipass deletes stopped Crabbox VMs and running non-keep VMs whose local claim is stale past the idle timeout plus the direct-provider grace window.

Multipass does not expose provider labels. Crabbox therefore treats the exact instance-bound local lease claim as the source of ownership. stop and cleanup skip every unclaimed instance, including stopped crabbox--prefixed instances. Adopt intentionally recovered instances through an explicit --reclaim reuse before destructive lifecycle operations.

#Limits And Caveats

  • Linux target only; non-Linux targets are rejected.
  • No coordinator support; lifecycle is local to the machine running the CLI.
  • No Tailscale bootstrap. Use a remote SSH provider when tailnet reachability is required.
  • No desktop, browser, VNC, WebVNC, code-server, or native checkpoint support in this first implementation.
  • warmup --actions-runner is not supported. Use plain crabbox run for local VM smoke tests, or a remote SSH provider for GitHub runner registration.
  • Cache volumes are host directories, not provider-managed disks. Remove stale directories under the user cache when a cache key is obsolete.
  • On macOS with the default QEMU driver, Crabbox uses Multipass native mounts for cache volumes. Other Multipass drivers use the standard classic mount path.
  • Startup time depends on Multipass image availability, the host hypervisor, and first-boot package setup.

#Runtime Expectations

The backend relies on the standard Multipass CLI:

  • multipass version
  • multipass get local.driver
  • multipass launch --name <name> --cloud-init <file> --cpus <n> --memory <size> --disk <size> --timeout <seconds> [--mount <host>:<guest>] <image>
  • multipass stop <name>
  • multipass mount --type native <host> <name>:<guest>
  • multipass start <name>
  • multipass list --format json
  • multipass info --format json <name>
  • multipass delete --purge <name>

See Canonical's Multipass product page and the Ubuntu Multipass CLI reference for installation and CLI behavior.