# theseus-os/Theseus

Theseus is a modern OS written from scratch in Rust that explores 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧: closing the semantic gap between compiler and hardware by maximally leveraging the power of language safety and affine types. Theseus aims to shift OS responsibilities like resource management into the compiler.

Repository: https://github.com/theseus-os/Theseus
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/theseus
Homepage: https://www.theseus-os.com/
Language: Rust
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: operating-system, rust, kernel, research, theseus, intralingual
Last push: 2024-09-22T18:48:20+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3330, "days_push": 710, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3182, forks 185 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:47.851839+00:00)

## What it is
Theseus is a research operating system written from scratch in Rust that explores intralingual design, shifting OS responsibilities like resource management into the compiler via language safety and affine types. It runs on bare metal (testable in QEMU) and is being extended with a WASM-native runtime to safely execute modules written in arbitrary languages.

## Use cases
- research operating system design in Rust
- study how compiler type systems can replace OS resource management
- run a safe-language kernel on bare metal or in QEMU
- experiment with a WASM-native bare-metal runtime
- learn OS kernel development with Rust
- explore fault recovery and live evolution in OSes

## When to choose
- you are doing academic research on OS structure and language-OS co-design
- you want to study or contribute to a from-scratch Rust kernel
- you need a testbed for intralingual design or WASM-native system ideas

## When to avoid
- you need a production-ready OS for daily use or servers
- you require broad hardware driver support or a mature ecosystem
- you just need a general-purpose Linux alternative

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: experimental
- function: compiler, security, wasm
- domain: operating-systems, programming-languages, embedded-systems
- platform: rust, cross-platform
- tags: kernel, intralingual-design, research-os, rust-os, bare-metal, qemu, academic-research, operating-system, research, linux

## Member repositories
- theseus-os/Theseus (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:47.851839+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 2026-08-30T07:25:04.115628+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/theseus-os/Theseus (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:47.851839+00:00, sha 9d6fe4e1ebe5)
  - homepage: https://www.theseus-os.com/ (fetched 2026-08-29T09:39:09.597927+00:00, sha 71e463cd7b91)
  - site_page: https://www.theseus-os.com/2021/11/01/October-Update-WASM.html (fetched 2026-08-29T09:39:09.600209+00:00, sha 36c59b9adc72)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.