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Show HN: Anos – a hand-written ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V
A minimalist, modern microkernel built from datasheets, supporting IPC, multitasking, and SMP, explicitly avoiding legacy features and largely eschewing AI-generated code for core kernel components.
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A minimalist, modern microkernel built from datasheets, supporting IPC, multitasking, and SMP, explicitly avoiding legacy features and largely eschewing AI-generated code for core kernel components.
Anos represents a deep dive into low-level systems programming, emphasizing manual implementation and a strict 'no AI code' rule for the kernel. While a hobby project, its focus on a ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V, built from datasheets and avoiding legacy features, highlights a pursuit of efficiency and modern architecture. The developer's experience with LLMs for documentation and tests, but not core kernel code, provides a critical insight into the current limitations of AI in highly specialized, correctness-critical systems development. This project underscores the enduring value of fundamental engineering knowledge and the current boundaries of AI assistance in foundational software layers.
I pretty much always have a kernel project going on, and have been that way for decades. Over the past couple of years, that's been Anos, which has gotten further along than any of my previous hobby kernels, supporting IPC, multitasking, SMP (x86-64 only right now) and running on real hardware.LLMs (mostly Claude Code) have been used during development, but I learned early on that it's not _great_ at code at this level, so I've restricted its use to mostly documentation and tests. There's _a little_ AI code in the user space, but I have a strict "no AI code" rule in the kernel itself. I find this helps not only with the quality / functionality of the code, but also with learning - for example, even though I've written multiple kernels in the past, it wasn't until Anos that I _truly_ grokked pagetable management and what was possible with a good VMM interface, and if I'd outsourced that implementation to an LLM I probably wouldn't have learned any of that.In terms of approach, Anos avoids legacy platform features and outdated wiki / tutorial resources, and instead tries to implement as much as possible from manuals and datasheets, and it's definitely worked out well so far. There's no support for legacy platform features or peripherals, with all IO being memory mapped and MSI/MSI-X interrupts (no PIC), for example, which has helped keep the codebase focused and easy to work on. The kernel compiles to about 100KiB on x86-64, with enough features to be able to support multitasking and device drivers in user space.As a hobby project, progress ebbs and flows with pressures of my day job etc, and the main branch has been quiet for the last few months. I have however been working on a USB stack as time allows, and hopefully will soon have at least basic HID support to allow me to take the next step and make Anos interactive.I don't know how useful projects like Anos are any more, given we now live in the age of AI coding, but it's a fun learning experience and helps keep me technically grounded, and I'll carry on with it for as long as those things remain true.
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What is Anos – a hand-written ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V?
Anos – a hand-written ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V is analyzed by our AI as: A minimalist, modern microkernel built from datasheets, supporting IPC, multitasking, and SMP, explicitly avoiding legacy features and largely eschewing AI-generated code for core kernel components.. It focuses on Anos represents a deep dive into low-level systems programming, emphasizing manual implementation and a strict 'no AI code' rule for the kernel. Wh...
Where did Anos – a hand-written ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V originate?
Data for Anos – a hand-written ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V was aggregated directly from the Hacker News community ecosystem, representing raw developer and early-adopter sentiment.
When was Anos – a hand-written ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V publicly launched?
The initial public indexing or launch date for Anos – a hand-written ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V within our tracked developer communities was recorded on April 7, 2026.
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Anos – a hand-written ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V has achieved measurable traction, logging over 31 traction score and facilitating 7 recorded discussions or engagements.
Which technical categories define Anos – a hand-written ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V?
Based on metadata extraction, Anos – a hand-written ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V is categorized under topics such as: microkernel, x86-64, RISC-V, IPC.
What are some commercial alternatives to Anos – a hand-written ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V?
Our semantic intelligence engine identifies potential commercial alternatives in the SaaS space, such as Databerry, which offers overlapping value propositions.
How does the creator describe Anos – a hand-written ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V?
The original author or development team describes the product as follows: "I pretty much always have a kernel project going on, and have been that way for decades. Over the past couple of years, that's been Anos, which has gotten further along than any of my previous hobb..."
Community Voice & Feedback
Oh boy.. this is a perfect Show HN to wake up to :)With the wild pace of everything going on right now. I can’t be alone feeling it truly captures the hacker spirit. Echoes to early Lisp days, or maybe my high school side quest to learn Minix? Ie building from scratch and seeing what’s possible.Sadly most of us will never have the staying power (well definitely not myself) and yet you gave us a little window into your passion.Thank you for the inspiration. Especially the focus on compounding small wins and including us in your orbit. Long live Anos
I love the adjective "hand-written" and I'm gonna add it to my repositories.Although I don't practice vibe coding, I'v observed that the first principle of vibe coding is to never look at the generated code. (You learn the code from external metrics, such output correctness and memory usage)
> Anos is a modern, opinionated, non-POSIX operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like GNU-Linux®) for x86_64 PCs and RISC-V machines.Love that Linus quip! Hopefully it will be. Non-POSIX sounds exciting
Is this inspired by any particular micro-kernel design?Looking at syscalls.h, it looks like it abstracts the platform details, for example.Is SYSTEM for amd64 source-compatible with the riscv version?
In my opinion if you learned something from it, it was useful. Bonus points if others learn from it as well, but if not then as long as you did then it doesn’t matter. AI age or not.I’ve always found hobby OS projects like this interesting, and I hope there’s never a shortage of them in the future
> I don't know how useful projects like Anos are any moreI get pretty excited when project like Anos come out, I love Anos. Long live all Anos.
The comment in the "high level overview" section - "(just a hobby, won't be big and professional like GNU-Linux®)" is an amusing reference
> I don't know how useful projects like Anos are any moreThey have the same utility they always have. They help you and the people you share it with learn. So it's exceedingly useful.> given we now live in the age of AI codingWe live in an age of AI overinvestment. I would reserve judgement until they prove they actually have something.
Going to take a guess the author is not a Spanish speaker :p
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I haven't read through them yet, but I'm curious what forces the minimum requirement of 256MiB RAM?