# microsoft/demikernel

Kernel-Bypass LibOS Architecture

Repository: https://github.com/microsoft/demikernel
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/demikernel
Homepage: https://aka.ms/demikernel
Language: Rust
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: kernel-bypass, network, dpdk, rdma, spdk, linux, libos
Last push: 2026-07-23T20:52:29+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 65/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 94, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2696, "days_push": 41, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1235, forks 150 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:04.856915+00:00)

## What it is
Demikernel is a library operating system (LibOS) architecture from Microsoft Research for kernel-bypass I/O devices like DPDK and RDMA. It provides a uniform system call API across multiple LibOS implementations (catnap, catnip, catpowder) written in Rust.

## Use cases
- build low-latency networking applications with DPDK
- use RDMA with a portable socket-like API
- experiment with kernel-bypass networking stacks
- write user-level TCP/IP networking for DPDK
- abstract over kernel sockets and kernel-bypass devices
- research high-performance datacenter networking

## When to choose
- you need a uniform API across DPDK, RDMA, and raw socket backends
- you are doing systems research on kernel-bypass I/O
- you want a Rust user-level networking stack for DPDK

## When to avoid
- you need production-grade stability - it is explicitly a prototype
- you need a general-purpose networking library with broad device support
- you want drop-in POSIX socket replacement with guarantees

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: experimental
- function: networking, http-server, concurrency
- domain: operating-systems, networking, developer-tools, microservices
- platform: windows, rust
- tags: kernel-bypass, libos, dpdk, rdma, spdk, xdp, research-prototype, linux

## Member repositories
- microsoft/demikernel (main) score 65

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:04.856915+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T08:22:07.296086+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/microsoft/demikernel (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:04.856915+00:00, sha f6c7e01acb27)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.