# NexaCore OS — Backgrounder

*Extended background for journalists. Safe to quote or paraphrase.
Last updated: 2026-07-08.*

**One line:** An independent open-source project exploring what an operating
system should be in the age of AI agents: AI-native, local-first, and
decentralized, with inference and intelligent agents as kernel-level primitives,
running on hardware you own.

## Why now

Today's operating systems were designed before modern AI. They treat inference
and agents as applications bolted on top of a cloud service, which means the
intelligence in your daily computing runs on someone else's servers, under
someone else's terms. NexaCore OS starts from a different premise: if AI is now
a primitive of computing, it belongs in the kernel, next to processes and files
— and it belongs on hardware the user controls.

## What it is

NexaCore OS is an independent open-source project. It treats inference, model
orchestration, and intelligent agents as kernel-level primitives rather than
cloud-backed add-ons. It runs locally by default. When it needs more compute it
federates over a peer-to-peer mesh of cryptographically-attested nodes, rather
than commercial cloud APIs. Privacy is enforced by the protocol, not by policy:
the guarantees are structural, checked cryptographically, not promised in a
terms-of-service document.

## How it works

- **Microkernel in Rust.** The kernel is written entirely in Rust with a frozen
  system-call ABI and a Ring 0 / Ring 3 split. A small, auditable trusted base.
- **Capability model.** Access is granted by unforgeable capabilities, not
  ambient authority. A component can touch only what it was explicitly handed.
- **Five system agents.** Orchestrator, Guidance, System Administrator,
  Security & Performance, and Task — each capability-isolated, so an agent's
  reach is bounded by the capabilities it holds.
- **ncScript (NCIP).** A capability-gated scripting language for automating the
  system without handing scripts unrestricted power.
- **Federated mesh.** Compute scales outward — local first, then a personal
  cluster, then a federated mesh of attested peers, with commercial cloud as a
  last resort rather than a default.

## Openness

The codebase is Apache-2.0 and the protocol specifications are public domain.
The project's openness does not depend on any single organisation: forks are
first-class citizens by design. The long-term stewardship and governance
structure will be announced as the project matures.

## Status

Phase 1 — a microkernel proof of concept that boots and runs under QEMU,
Proxmox and VirtualBox (bare-metal bring-up on physical machines in progress),
released as v0.3.0-alpha.2. At this stage the numbers that describe the codebase
are: 86 crates, 7,700+ tests, 70 frozen syscalls, 100% Rust. This is early, pre-1.0
software: it demonstrates the architecture, it is not yet a daily-use operating
system.

## Founded by

Founded by Matteo Sala.

## Links

- Website: https://nexacoreos.com
- Technology deep dive: https://nexacoreos.com/technology.html
- ncScript manual: https://nexacoreos.com/manual.html
- Built-in agents: https://nexacoreos.com/agents.html
- Devlog: https://nexacoreos.com/devlog.html

## Media contact

press@nexacoreos.com — we aim to respond within two business days.