# unikraft/unikraft

A next-generation cloud native kernel designed to unlock best-in-class performance, security primitives and efficiency savings.

Repository: https://github.com/unikraft/unikraft
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/unikraft
Homepage: http://unikraft.org
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: unikernel, unikraft, library, application, operating-system, os, osdev, kernel, unikernels, virtualization, qemu, security, microservice, hacktoberfest, performance, cloud, cloud-native
Last push: 2026-08-24T15:11:54+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 86/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 60, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2700, "days_push": 9, "days_rel": 105, "gap_med": 105.0, "n_releases_24m": 5}
- 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 3832, forks 1493 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:23.666827+00:00)

## What it is
Unikraft is an open-source Unikernel Development Kit for building custom, specialized operating system kernels tailored to individual applications. It produces lightweight, fast-booting, secure unikernels for cloud and edge deployments as an alternative to general-purpose OSes like Linux.

## Use cases
- build a custom unikernel for a microservice
- reduce VM boot time from seconds to milliseconds
- package an application as a containerless cloud-native image
- minimize kernel attack surface for security-sensitive workloads
- run lean single-purpose VMs on QEMU or cloud infrastructure
- build minimal OS images for edge computing devices

## When to choose
- you need millisecond cold-boot times and tiny memory footprints for single-purpose applications
- you want to strip an OS down to only the components your app needs
- you are deploying microservices as lightweight VMs instead of containers
- security through a minimal trusted computing base is a priority

## When to avoid
- you need a full general-purpose OS with shell, package manager, and multi-process support
- your application depends on complex Linux kernel features or drivers not yet ported
- your team cannot invest in learning unikernel build and debugging workflows
- you need to run many unrelated services in one OS instance

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: compiler, build-tool, container-runtime, security, microservices
- domain: operating-systems, cloud-computing, security, developer-tools, embedded-systems
- platform: cpp, c, cloud, cross-platform
- tags: unikernel, kernel, virtualization, qemu, cloud-native, osdev, microvm, posix, containers, linux, docker

## Member repositories
- unikraft/unikraft (main) score 86

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:23.666827+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 2026-08-29T18:26:18.834044+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/unikraft/unikraft (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:23.666827+00:00, sha 788b890d10ed)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.