# cloudius-systems/osv

OSv, a new operating system for the cloud.

Repository: https://github.com/cloudius-systems/osv
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/osv
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2026-08-17T16:19:20+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 67/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5004, "days_push": 16, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4263, forks 610 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:40.645388+00:00)

## What it is
OSv is an open-source modular unikernel operating system designed to run single unmodified Linux applications securely as microVMs on top of a hypervisor. It boots in as fast as ~5 ms with as little as 11 MB of memory, targeting effortless deployment of microservices and serverless applications.

## Use cases
- run a single Linux application as a lightweight microVM
- deploy microservices with minimal OS overhead
- run JVM, Python, Node.js, or Go apps in a unikernel
- boot VMs in milliseconds on Firecracker for serverless workloads
- package a native C/C++ or Rust app as a cloud image
- run unmodified Linux binaries on QEMU/KVM, Xen, VMware, or EC2

## When to choose
- you need minimal boot times and memory footprint for a single application
- you want to run unmodified Linux binaries without porting to a unikernel API
- you are deploying microservices or serverless functions as microVMs
- you need a small, secure attack surface compared to a full Linux guest

## When to avoid
- you need a general-purpose OS with multiple applications, shells, and full package management
- your application depends on Linux kernel features or drivers OSv does not implement
- you need broad hardware support on physical machines rather than hypervisors
- you require a large, well-funded maintenance community - it is maintained by a small group of volunteers

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: microservices, serverless
- domain: operating-systems, cloud-computing, infrastructure-as-code
- platform: windows, cross-platform
- tags: unikernel, microvm, linux-binary-compatible, hypervisor, firecracker, qemu, x86-64, aarch64, cloud-native, minimal-os, operating-systems, virtualization, containers, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- cloudius-systems/osv (main) score 67

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:40.645388+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 2026-08-29T18:22:04.417215+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/cloudius-systems/osv (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:40.645388+00:00, sha bf761145730d)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.