SynapseOS – Where the Kernel Thinks SynapseOS, an Arch-based operating system with a local LLM integrated at the system layer, has been released in alpha. The OS runs a local LLM daemon as a system service, allowing the shell, compositor, security monitor, network filter, and a kernel module to communicate over a Unix socket without network calls. The default ISO embeds Mistral 7B Instruct, making AI available on first boot. ███████╗██╗ ██╗███╗ ██╗ █████╗ ██████╗ ███████╗███████╗ ██╔════╝╚██╗ ██╔╝████╗ ██║██╔══██╗██╔══██╗██╔════╝██╔════╝ ███████╗ ╚████╔╝ ██╔██╗ ██║███████║██████╔╝███████╗█████╗ ╚════██║ ╚██╔╝ ██║╚██╗██║██╔══██║██╔═══╝ ╚════██║██╔══╝ ███████║ ██║ ██║ ╚████║██║ ██║██║ ███████║███████╗ ╚══════╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═══╝╚═╝ ╚═╝╚═╝ ╚══════╝╚══════╝ Where the kernel thinks. An Arch-based operating system with a local LLM wired into the system layer — not bolted on top. synui, the wlroots compositor: waybar status bar, auto-hiding dock, CRT post-process filters. SynapseOS runs a local LLM daemon as a system service and lets the rest of the system talk to it over a Unix socket: the shell, the compositor, the security monitor, the network filter, and a kernel module that exports syscall telemetry and AI scheduling hints through sysfs. No network calls, no API keys — the model lives on the machine. It boots to synsh , a shell where you can type a command or just say what you want, and into synui , a wlroots compositor that knows the AI daemon exists. Status: alpha.Version 0.1.x. This is a real, actively developed system — the author daily-drives it — but it is early, moves fast, and will break. Try it in a VM before you give it a disk. Grab the latest ISO from Releases https://github.com/velle999/SYNAPSE/releases/latest and boot it. The default ISO embeds Mistral 7B Instruct Q4 K M, ~4.1 GB , so the AI is live on first boot with nothing to configure. To take it for a spin without touching hardware: git clone https://github.com/velle999/SYNAPSE.git && cd SYNAPSE QEMU RAM=8G ./archiso/build scripts/qemu-test.sh auto-detects the newest ISO The script uses KVM when available, boots UEFI via OVMF falling back to BIOS , and attaches a persistent 20 GB test disk. Give it 8 GB+ of RAM when the model is embedded. Kernel and boot output are mirrored to the serial console — View → serial0 in the QEMU window. Each lives in its own directory with its own PKGBUILD . | Component | What it does | |---|---| synapd | Local LLM inference daemon llama.cpp . Owns the model; serves every other component over a Unix socket. | synsh | AI-native shell. Type naturally, or use it as a normal shell. | synui | Wayland compositor on wlroots 0.19 — tiling and monocle layouts, per-output workspaces, XWayland, layer-shell. See synui/ROADMAP.md | synguard synui subscribes to. synnet synapse kmod Supporting pieces: syn-install , syn-firstboot , syn-model , waybar/ status bar config , and archiso/ install media . User │ ▼ synsh ─── natural language / commands ──┐ │ │ ▼ │ synapd local LLM — Mistral 7B │ │ inference over SYN socket protocol │ ├──► synguard security verdicts ─┤ ├──► synnet network policy │ └──► synapse kmod kernel sysfs │ │ ▼ ▼ synui Wayland /sys/kernel/synapse/ syscall log, ai hints, stats, status, config, version synui is a compositor written for this system rather than adapted to it. It draws its own display-settings panel, wallpaper picker, and dock; it renders an optional CRT-style post-process pass; and it holds a live subscription to synguard 's verdict feed and synapd 's activity. Defaults override in ~/.config/synui/synuirc or /etc/synui/synuirc : | Key | Action | |---|---| Super tapped alone | Start menu the bar's SYNAPSE badge | Super + C | Control panel — every shortcut, plus the settings, in one place | Super + Return | Open a terminal | Super + Space | Command bar | Super + Backspace | Ask the AI | Super + A | Neural activity overlay | Super + D | Display settings | Super + W | Wallpaper picker | Super + E | Toggle visual effects | Super + Escape | Menu | Super + Tab | Cycle layout | Super + Q / Super + Shift + Q | Close window / quit compositor | Super + J / Super + K | Focus next / previous | Super + H / Super + Shift + L | Shrink / grow master area | Super + F / Super + M / Super + N | Float / maximize / minimize | Super + Shift + F | Fullscreen forces it — for games that only do "borderless" | Super + O / Super + Shift + O | Move window to next / previous monitor | Super + P | Power saving panel | Ctrl + Alt + Delete / Super + T | Task manager processes, CPU/RAM/GPU | Super + G | Game mode | Super + L | Lock screen | Print | Screenshot the monitor you're on | Shift + Print / Super + Shift + S | Screenshot an area drag it out with slurp | Ctrl + Print | Screenshot every monitor at once | Super + 1 – 9 | Switch workspace | Super + Shift + 1 – 9 | Move window to workspace | Screenshots land in ~/Pictures/Screenshots and on the clipboard, so you can paste one straight into a chat without opening the file. Everything starts on boot: systemctl status synapd AI inference daemon systemctl status synguard security monitor systemctl status synnet network policy lsmod | grep synapse kmod kernel module cat /sys/kernel/synapse/status ISOs built with --no-model are ~4 GB smaller and fetch the model on first boot via syn-firstboot . You can also drop one in by hand: cp your-model.gguf /var/lib/synapd/models/synapse.gguf systemctl restart synapd synsh ⚡ AI online — type naturally or use shell commands Any GGUF that llama.cpp can load will work; Mistral 7B Instruct is what the prompts are tuned against. Prerequisites — an Arch or Arch-based host with archiso , base-devel , meson , ninja , wlroots0.19 , qemu , and ovmf . Budget ~22 GB of free disk with the embedded model, ~9 GB without. archiso/build.sh runs the whole pipeline: builds llama.cpp pinned at tag b8272 , matching CI , packages every component through its PKGBUILD into a local pacman repo, fetches the model, and invokes mkarchiso . sudo archiso/build.sh full build, GPU auto-detected sudo archiso/build.sh --no-gpu CPU-only llama.cpp — use for QEMU-targeted ISOs sudo archiso/build.sh --no-model slim ISO, model downloaded on first boot sudo archiso/build.sh --no-clean reuse the previous llama.cpp build Output lands in archiso/out/SynapseOS-