oxide2

Oxide is a human-directed, AI-written, vibe-coded operating system in Rust: Linux-class kernel + userspace, with strict engineering gates around specs, safety, testing, and workflow discipline.

It targets x86_64-unknown-oxide-kernel and aarch64-unknown-oxide-kernel, with userspace on upstream *-unknown-linux-musl (docs/29a-userspace-platform.md).

What Oxide is

Oxide is not "just code that boots." It is a spec-driven systems project where behavior is defined in versioned contracts first, then implemented with enforcement in CI and local workflow.

Core identity:

• Human-directed, AI-implemented: design intent and acceptance criteria are human-owned; implementation can be AI-heavy.
• Rust-first kernel engineering: memory/concurrency/safety rules are explicit and reviewed against specs.
• Linux-compat target surface: syscall ABI and userspace expectations track modern Linux-class behavior.
• Security + workflow as first-class: hard guardrails prevent unsafe shortcuts from quietly entering main.

Engineering contract

Oxide development is intentionally constrained:

• Spec-before-code discipline (docs/02-spec-discipline.md): subsystem behavior is contractual, traceable, and reviewed.
• Manifest-governed scope (docs/MANIFEST.md): every spec is indexed with status and dependencies.
• Architecture lockstep: x86_64 and aarch64 are phase gates, not optional follow-ups.
• Guardrails in code style and review (docs/07-toolchain-and-targets.md, docs/08-ai-density.md): no hand-wavy patterns, no silent drift from contract.
• Testing depth over claims (docs/40-ci.md, docs/42-test-strategy.md): unit, integration, hosted kernel tests, QEMU smoke, and CI gating.

Current capability snapshot

Oxide currently includes major kernel/runtime surface across boot, memory, scheduling, syscall plumbing, process control, proc/dev/tty surfaces, cgroup enforcement work, and interactive shell bring-up in QEMU. The active handoff state and latest landed work are tracked in state.md.

For authoritative subsystem status, read docs/MANIFEST.md and the referenced spec docs.

Quick start

make ci
cargo run -p xtask -- qemu --arch x86_64 --features debug-all

Where to read first

• docs/00-master-plan.md
• docs/MANIFEST.md
• docs/02-spec-discipline.md
• docs/07-toolchain-and-targets.md
• docs/08-ai-density.md
• docs/40-ci.md
• docs/42-test-strategy.md
• state.md

License

MIT