Layered images

The base is not copied. It is shared.

Three layers, like OCI:

1. A read-only base per family: min (Alpine), node, python.
2. A read-only layer per service: only what changes.
3. Each machine’s own overlay, sparse.

kling mcp add <server>              # picks the node/python base by itself
kling mcp add <server> -base min    # forces the minimal base
kling image ls                      # BASE column; each base counts once

Measured

service	before	after
context7	129 MiB	39 MiB
fetch	164 MiB	77 MiB
wikipedia-mcp-server	471 MiB	54 MiB
fleet of 7	1300 MiB	320 MiB + 113 of base

67 % less disk, same boot and same wake-up.

The OS is what weighs the most

Guest	Frozen
Ubuntu 24.04 + systemd	82 MB
Alpine without systemd (min)	35 MB

kling image rm refuses to delete a base used by another layer, a golden or a live machine.

In the repo: docs/three-layers.md · scripts/70-build-minimal-image.sh