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Mission

DeskOS compiles a workstation from declared intent into a bootable image.

You describe the machine (applications, desktop settings, branding, update policy) in declarative resources. DeskOS validates them, composes the layers into a typed Plan, and renders one build context. That context becomes a bootc image, and the image a disk or an installer. The same inputs give the same Plan and the same context; no model and no network take part.

What follows from that​

  • The artifact is the product. An image and a disk, not a controller, an agent or a reconciliation loop; a machine updates by moving to another image.
  • The vendor owns the base. Each platform starts from its vendor's official base image, pinned by digest. DeskOS composes on top; it does not fork the distribution or replace its packages.
  • Layers, not last writer wins. Foundation, organization, role and workstation each contribute. Sets union, keyed definitions must agree, and a scalar takes the highest layer. File order never changes the output.
  • The record is checkable. Every published digest carries records: what was built, what was scanned, what booted, what a session proved, and what was not measured. A claim with no digest behind it is not proof.

Who it is for​

  • A person who wants a workstation they can rebuild, not a machine whose history exists only on its disk.
  • An organization that needs its own packages, settings and branding without copying or forking Core.
  • A developer who wants to read the whole path from YAML to a bootable image.

Non-goals​

A proposal that needs one of these needs a decision first, not a patch:

  • Fleet management. No controller, inventory, policy server, agent or reconciliation loop, on the machine or off it.
  • Runtime enforcement. The image states defaults; it does not lock a running system. Locks are an organization's choice, never Core's.
  • Escape hatches. No scripts, free-form commands, post-install hooks, templating, raw kernel arguments or Plymouth scripts; extend the model instead.
  • Managing a user's home. Personal tooling, dotfiles and application state belong to the user, not to the image.
  • AI in compilation. No kind, provider, Plan or backend depends on a model, and nothing in the compiler phones home.
  • A general-purpose distribution. DeskOS is not a distro, and it promises no hardware compatibility beyond the models a field validation covered.
  • A support contract. Each platform states what was verified; a platform that was never booted says so.

Values​

  • Results over claims. Publish the digest and the checks, gaps included.
  • Narrow scope over feature count. Saying no keeps the model small.
  • Human approval over automation. Automation proposes; a person publishes.