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ostk

Run AI agents like production infrastructure.

Local-first, audited, and filesystem-coordinated. Adopt the open-source sandboxing library, the drop-in prompt cache, the context-drift memory engine, or the full integrated CLI suite.

quick start →
ostk (kernel) AGPL-3.0

Integrated CLI Suite

Complete CLI and supervisor daemon. Orchestrates multi-agent concurrency, manages state WAL logging, enforces Landlock/Seatbelt isolation, and maintains the GPG audit trail.

Read kernel docs →
ostk-recall AGPL-3.0

Memory Engine

Hybrid vector + BM25 search server using LanceDB and SQLite. Tracks codebase context changes via filesystem watcher socket (recall.sock) with debouncing.

Read recall docs →
ostk-cache AGPL-3.0

Transparent Proxy

Port 8080 L1.5 cache proxy for Anthropic & OpenAI wire formats. Implements synthetic projection mutations, kernel-ipc cache rebuild signals, and a 4-tier soft-cap reduction pipeline.

Read cache docs →
libostk MIT

Userspace Client

Lightweight library for secure JSON-RPC communication over UNIX socket (.ostk/ostk.sock). Handles cryptographic envelope signature verification, GPG key checking, and background audit-tailing.

Read libostk docs →

macOS (universal arm64+x86_64), Linux musl arm64/x86_64, Windows x86_64 zip. All on GitHub releases, GPG-signed. ~30 seconds.

BINARY: ONE_RUST_EXECUTABLE
DEPS: NONE_AT_RUNTIME
RUNTIME: LOCAL_ONLY
TRUST: GPG_SIGNED_AUDIT

ostk is one layer down from the AI coding tools you already use.

AGENT_SURFACES

Cursor · Claude Code · Continue · Aider · your CLI · local models (Ollama, MLX)

KERNEL

ostk: state envelope · CAS writes · audit chain · capability pins · identity · fleet coordination

SUBSTRATE

your codebase · your filesystem · your machine

The agent surface is what you type into. The kernel is what keeps multiple of them from stepping on each other, what signs every action, and what ensures your agents stay oriented across thousands of turns. ostk doesn't replace your editor or your model. It sits underneath them.

Real ostk sessions, live-typed and on-device. Not screenshots. Not reenactments.

Day one: ostk init then ostk boot. Fresh repo to validated kernel in seven seconds.

FIRST_RUN

Real session. No edits. Bottom-text annotation by the kernel itself.

OSTK_MODEL

Local model on Apple silicon. Ternary-Bonsai-8B-mlx-2bit lazy-spawns mlx_lm.server, returns a real response. Zero API keys.

OSTK_CLOCK

Kernel has a clock. Session, swap, audit events, focus.

OSTK_TACK

Kernel as language. Every tack expression resolves to a typed verb.

OSTK_JOURNAL

Audit chain integrity. Hash-chained rows, signed seals, Merkle continuity.

Three failure modes show up the moment LLM agents touch real codebases. ostk addresses each one structurally — at the kernel layer, in the envelope you saw above — not as application-layer hacks bolted onto a chat loop.

01

They collide.

Two agents edit the same file. Last write wins. Silently. Kernel-mediated CAS writes catch every conflict before it lands. Nothing disappears; the second writer sees a clean error.

→ Read why
02

They drift.

Each agent has its own context. They re-discover the same things. They forget what was decided. Every syscall returns the working state envelope, so the agent re-grounds each turn — the project develops a memory the fleet shares.

→ Read why
03

They leave no trace.

You can't replay, audit, or prove what shipped. The kernel records every action in an append-only, hash-chained, Ed25519-signed audit trail. Replay any session, byte for byte.

→ Read why

Want the substrate spec underneath all of this? Read the canonical specifications →

Containers gave processes isolation. They didn't ship coordination. ostk does.

PROBLEM
CONTAINERS
OSTK
Isolation
cgroups + namespaces
Capability pins + scoped agent stacks
Packaging
OCI image
Agentfile + signed release package
Coordination across instances
Bolt-on (Kubernetes, etc.)
Built into the kernel
Audit of actions
Out of band
Hash-chained event log per project
Identity & trust
Image signing (sigstore, etc.)
GPG web of trust, four signing tiers
Reproducibility
Image digest
journal.jsonl replay + signed claims
Resource bounds
CPU/memory limits
Token/turn budgets per agent

Not a wrapper around containers. Containers contain processes; ostk contains agents.

NO_LOST_WRITES
Compare-and-swap file edits. Conflicts surface; silent overwrites don't happen.
EVERY_ACTION_AUDITED
Append-only events, hash-chained, Ed25519-signed. Replay any session.
CAPABILITY_BOUNDS
Capability pins deny by default. Agents that try to escape get a hard no, logged.
NO_KEYS_IN_CONTEXT
API keys resolved from keychain at call time. Never in the agent's prompt.
SHARED_CACHE
Prompt cache shared across the fleet. One fetch, many agents.
LOCAL_FIRST
No cloud sync, no telemetry. Works offline. Your code stays on your machine.