Overview

The world’s first operating system with a custom AI-integrated kernel.

JARVIS OS is a custom Linux distribution built on a CachyOS/Arch base where an AI assistant handles system administration, file management, and hardware control through natural language — voice or text. The kernel itself speaks to the AI through a dedicated character device (/dev/jarvis), making the AI a first-class OS citizen rather than a userspace afterthought.

Status: Work in progress. The custom kernel (linux-jarvisos), JARVIS driver, and agent runtime are functional. The full ISO build pipeline builds successfully; live-boot testing and the Calamares installer are still being refined.

What makes this different

Most “AI-integrated” desktops are just a chatbot running on top of a stock kernel. JARVIS OS integrates the AI at the kernel level:

Layer What it does
jarvis.ko Character device /dev/jarvis — kernel posts structured queries, AI daemon reads and responds
jarvis_sysmon Real-time CPU/memory/thermal metrics via ioctl and sysfs — AI uses these to pick the right LLM model size
jarvis_policy Tiered action security engine (SAFE / ELEVATED / DANGEROUS / FORBIDDEN) with kernel-enforced rate limiting
jarvis_keys Secure API-key storage in the Linux kernel keyring — cloud LLM keys never touch disk
jarvis_dibs Zero-copy DIBS buffer sharing for large inference payloads

Architecture

Voice Input ──► Vosk STT ──► wake phrase "Hey JARVIS"
Text Input  ─────────────────────────────────┐
                                              ▼
                         Ollama (local LLM) ◄─── sysmon picks model size
                              │
                              ▼
                    Plan (JSON: commands + tiers)
                              │
               ┌──────────────▼──────────────────┐
               │   JARVIS Policy Gate             │
               │   SAFE ──────► run silently      │
               │   ELEVATED ──► run + audit log   │
               │   DANGEROUS ─► user confirm first│
               │   FORBIDDEN ─► hard block         │
               └──────────────┬──────────────────┘
                              │
                     Shell execution (PTY)
                              │
          ┌───────────────────▼────────────────────┐
          │            linux-jarvisos kernel        │
          │  /dev/jarvis ◄──► jarvis.ko             │
          │  /sys/class/misc/jarvis/sysmon/*        │
          │  /sys/class/misc/jarvis/policy/*        │
          └───────────────────────────────────────┘

System requirements

Minimum — x86_64 CPU, 4 GB RAM, 20 GB disk, no GPU required (CPU inference).

Recommended — 8+ core modern CPU, 16 GB+ RAM, 50 GB+ SSD, NVIDIA GPU for accelerated inference.

Building from source additionally requires an Arch-based host (Arch, Manjaro, EndeavourOS, CachyOS) — the kernel build uses makepkg and pacman -U, which are Arch-specific. You cannot build and install the kernel on a Fedora or Debian host.

Where to go next