Ginux
A Rust research kernel, later a userspace Linux-compatibility kernel, built with OpenAI Codex under human-directed architecture and acceptance gates.
Gregory Kurtzer reports that one persistent Codex task using GPT-5.6 Sol produced Ginux over about eleven days. The standalone kernel booted via UEFI and ran selected unmodified Alpine programs and a Rocky Linux 10 systemd boot. Active development now continues as a userspace kernel; the bootable research snapshot lives on the bootable-kernel branch.
Human involvement
Person directed, agent wrote the code. The author calls this Human-Directed Agentic Engineering (HDAE). The human set architecture, constraints, and acceptance criteria; Codex implemented, booted, diagnosed, and revised. The human remains responsible for claims. Codex is not listed as an author.
Evidence
- Author README
The standalone-kernel experiment proved that an AI coding agent, directed by an experienced human through architecture, gates, and executable tests, could construct a new kernel capable of running meaningful Linux userspace.
- Paper
Over eleven days, one persistent OpenAI Codex task using GPT-5.6 Sol produced Ginux, a Rust-first x86-64 research kernel.
Notes
The paper file was removed from main (blob URL now 404) but is still available on the bootable-kernel branch, which returned HTTP 200 on 2026-11-12.