Operating-system researchPublic field guide
Starfish: a guide to the operating-system research
Starfish is an operating-system research project that makes the path from boot to applications available for study. Its current C and assembly implementation provides the runnable reference. The direction is a Yeho rewrite co-designed with Qube, so the software and machine can be investigated together.
Start with a practical evaluationThe useful starting point
What Starfish gives your team
The team can inspect the boundary between loader, kernel, userland, and storage instead of treating the operating system as an unchangeable box.
Systems engineers, operating-system educators, and research teams studying boot, scheduling, filesystems, and hardware/software co-design.
- 01
Build the layers
Prepare the loader, kernel, userland, and filesystem image.
- 02
Boot the reference
Use the documented virtual-machine route and inspect its output.
- 03
Exercise a boundary
Follow one shell action through the relevant system layers.
Understand what happens between power and a prompt
A loader prepares the machine to enter the kernel. The kernel manages execution and memory, while user programs reach services through defined boundaries. A filesystem makes selected state durable. Starfish exposes these layers in a compact research stack.
The visible shell is a useful destination, but compilation and boot are different checks. A successful build says the artifacts were produced. A virtual machine reaching its prompt provides another kind of evidence. A particular command, recovery path, or physical machine needs further testing.
Keep the runnable reference and the future machine distinct
The current implementation uses C and assembly on x86_64. Rewriting it in Yeho and co-designing it with Qube is an active direction, not an already completed port. A research team can use that distinction to select a realistic project boundary.
Start in the documented virtual environment. Evaluate one system behavior before considering unfamiliar hardware, graphics, power management, or isolation requirements. The present project is a research platform rather than a hardened general-purpose replacement for an organization's host operating system.
Current public evidence
Build-verified research OS
The research slice includes a UEFI loader, kernel, page tables, allocator, interrupts, preemptive multicore scheduling, ring-3 userland, syscalls, pipes, framebuffer output, FIT64 images and journal replay, an sf> shell, and a virtual-machine boot loop. It is not yet a finished, hardened, general-purpose OS.
Explore the project and its evidenceTry one bounded question
Trace one command from boot to result
A suggested evaluation for your team.
- Record the source revision, build tools, firmware image, and virtual-machine configuration.
- Build the loader, kernel, userland, and filesystem artifacts using the supplied route.
- Boot the VM and retain the loader and kernel output separately from the build log.
- Exercise a documented shell operation and inspect the relevant system boundary.
- Restart with the same configuration and compare the observed behavior.
A reproducible boot and one explained system operation, with explicit limits on the environment tested. Use that evidence to choose the next kernel or runtime experiment.
Before you go further
Common questions about Starfish
Is Starfish already written in Yeho?
No. The current runnable reference is C and assembly. The Yeho rewrite is a separate development program, with Qube as a co-design partner.
Can I use Starfish as a production desktop OS?
The current evidence does not support that claim. It is a research system with a documented VM route, not a completed compatibility, security, or hardware-certification program.
What is FIT64's role?
FIT64 is part of the filesystem and image tooling in the current research stack. Evaluate its exact build, storage, and recovery behavior alongside the kernel version you are using.
From an idea to your first evaluation
Build on what you understand.
Start with Starfish's public evidence. If it fits your team's problem, compare source memberships or tell us what you would like to evaluate.
These guides are free to read. Private source releases follow the membership license. Compare plans and team seats.