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Chapter 11 — Kernel program, ecosystem, and non-goals
Time to read: one pass. Prerequisites: Preface, Chapter 3 — Protocol.
Why this chapter exists
Bare OS sits at the intersection of Pear (packaging and desktop hosts), Bare (embedded-first JS runtime and modules), and Holepunch stacks (Hyperswarm, HyperDHT holepunch, Hyperdrive). This chapter names research directions and intentional limits so distributors know what the project will and will not become.
Ecosystem map (local clones)
If you maintain a checkout of holepunch-repos (or a mirror), useful adjacencies include:
- Runtime / packaging —
pear-runtime,pear-stage,pear-ipc— Host OTA, IPC, staging - Bare modules —
bare-subprocess,bare-daemon,bare-kit,bare-storage— Optional delegates, worklets, storage policy - Transport —
hyperdht(holepunch docs),hyperswarm,udx-native— NAT, relays, stream behavior
Nothing in that tree is the Bare OS kernel: our kernel remains /boot/init.js on the system Hyperdrive, executed by the booter.
Capability words (protocol)
Capability words bits … bits11 (see packages/bare-os-protocol) advertise what the stock booter and seeder implement. BARE_OS_SEED_CAP_STRICT requires the seeder to cover every non-zero stock word. Capability words 6–11 checklists: docs/reference/feature-roadmap.md. Kernel program (100-item backlog): developer-guide/kernel-program.md; program batch B table lives in the same reference doc. Governance: developer-guide/adr/001-kernel-feature-bits-governance.md. Word 10 extends Pear/Bare-aligned seed RPCs, /proc JSON for that generation, boot policy v10, extension registry schema 7, telemetry schema 9 / OTel 7 / audit 7, and the Node→Bare module map in developer-guide/node-to-bare-modules.md. Word 11 continues that posture with hypercorePackHrpcLifecycle gates (boot policy v11), extension registry schema 8, and the eleventh-word operator /proc family.
Intentional non-goals
- No hardware MMU kernel — no ring 0, no real
fork; isolation is policy, caps, and host boundaries. - No full POSIX
sh— line shell with bounded grammar; see Chapter 9 §8.5. - No single HTTP mirror as source of truth — image distribution is P2P-first; offline boot is optional LKG + local Corestore (
BARE_OS_OFFLINE_LKG_BOOT).
Where to read next
- Documentation home — all trees, glossary, FAQ
- Compatibility matrix — versions in one place
- Kernel extensions — feature / env / proc map
- ADR 001 — Feature bit governance
- Handbook home
Experimental research software, not a production OS. Open source under Apache-2.0. Owned, operated, and engineered by HoneyPeer, LLC, a DeKalb, Georgia limited liability company — LICENSE.