Kandelo roadmap

[mho22]

❌ Next

Layer 0 — Headline goals

• WordPress Playground integration with --experimental-posix-kernel — make the Wasm kernel a selectable runtime in Playground web/CLI behind a flag (the broader Playground beta-flag work is in Layer 10; this is the concrete entry point). Proof-of-concept PRs open against WordPress/wordpress-playground: #3634 (CLI), #3635 (Web).
• Explore Node.wasm — bring the Node.js runtime onto the kernel (libuv event loop, native addons via dlopen, child_process via fork+exec). Shipped via QuickJS-NG–based Node-compatible runtime (#482) covering node:crypto, zlib, TCP sockets, TLS, real http/https, and end-to-end npm install lodash/express/vite.

Layer 1 — Stabilize what already works

• Fix the web server service worker losing context and failing to load WordPress
• Migrate from the deprecated Wasm try instruction to try_table (currently pinned via -wasm-use-legacy-eh=false and -mllvm -wasm-use-legacy-eh=true workarounds)

Layer 2 — Finish the browser surface protocols

• HTTP relay protocol — extract from demo code into a documented, versioned spec
• Service Worker interface — multi-tab routing + connected-client visibility (see "Partially landed")
• A non-isolated tunnel for secrets — a side channel that does not require COOP/COEP, so credentials/API keys can flow into a Kandelo session without granting the isolated context full access to them
• Query params as inputs to the boot process — let demo URLs pre-seed argv, env, or boot scripts
• fbDOOM mouse support — mouse input device alongside the existing keyboard scancode injection (currently called out as a limitation in docs/browser-support.md) @mho22
• fbDOOM sound support — audio output device (/dev/dsp) for sound effects @mho22
• fbDOOM music support — background music playback for fbDOOM @mho22

Layer 3 — Distribution & ecosystem

• Software installer like apt (the resolver in cargo xtask build-deps resolve is the plumbing — this is the user-facing layer on top)
• Standalone published packages for the libraries that aren't yet first-class binary artifacts
  • readline as its own package (not just bundled into bash)
• Deploy multiple kernel versions on the same web server, allowing staging and switching between live versions

Layer 4 — Observability

• A thorough OS trace facility (syscalls, signals, scheduling, IPC)
• An MCP server for OS tracing — exposes the trace stream to agents
• A living diagram of system components, current state, and relationships, served by the running kernel
  • Process listing (procfs already exists per #220 — needs a UI consumer)
  • Memory visualizer
  • File system visualizer and browser

Layer 5 — Agent integration

• Run Claude within the kernel
• More agentic guidance (CLAUDE.md is a start; codify SDK / build / debug workflows further)
• Agent skills for using the SDK
  • Software building (autoconf/CMake/Makefile flow with wasm32posix-*)
  • Image building (VFS image authoring)
  • Boot script writing (dinit /etc/dinit.d/* authoring)

Layer 6 — Multi-host & networking

• Multi-computer network running in a single browser (multiple kernels, virtual L2/L3 between them)
• WebRTC remote login — let other clients log into your in-browser computer
  • DOOM multiplayer over the WebRTC tunnel (now that fbDOOM mouse + sound + music have landed, this is the obvious payoff)
• Store and load kernel VFS images from IPFS

Layer 7 — Branding

• Lock in a memorable name — Kandelo is now in README, docs, the live UI host, and Kandelo.dev demo gallery wiring (#427, #467, #483, #485). Repo rename and host/ npm package rename still pending.
• Logo

Layer 8 — Additional runtimes & ports

Runtime

• Explore Go.wasm — bring the Go runtime onto the kernel (goroutine scheduler interaction with our threads, syscall interface, GC behavior under shared WebAssembly.Memory) @mho22

Port

• Roadrunner — PHP application server
• FrankenPHP — PHP application server

Layer 9 — Miscellaneous

• Explore SDL2 — cross-platform input/audio/video library; depends on the framebuffer (shipped), mouse input + audio output (Layer 2). Unlocks a large catalogue of games and tools. @mho22
• Explore ScummVM.wasm — fun/stretch: classic adventure game engine on the framebuffer + audio stack (depends on Layer 2 audio work) @mho22
• ALSA sound device — implement alongside /dev/dsp so software targeting the modern Linux audio stack works without falling back to OSS @mho22
• WebGPU - implement alongside WebGL @mho22

Layer 10 — External suggestions

• wp-load.php benchmark: native vs wasm (the existing WordPress benchmark in benchmarks/run.ts --suite=wordpress measures HTTP first response, not the bare wp-load.php cost)
• Support both the Wasm kernel and PHP-WASM in Playground web, with the kernel behind a beta flag
• Raw Rust build command — no equivalent SDK wrapper today; user programs are C-only

🟡 Partially landed

Started, but not yet at the level Brandon's note describes:

• Protocol for relaying HTTP requests
  • Working pipeline exists: service worker → MessagePort → kernel worker connection pump (examples/browser/lib/http-bridge.ts, connection-pump.ts, lib/init/service-worker-bridge.ts)
  • Missing: documented, versioned protocol spec independent from demo glue, with a stable contract for non-Kandelo embedders
• A clean, focused Service Worker interface
  • Current SW is a unified dual-mode file (examples/browser/public/service-worker.js) that already routes HTTP via a single bridgePort
  • Still owed: route HTTP requests to the right client when multiple browser tabs are connected
  • Still owed: provide visibility for all connected clients (an enumerable list of attached kernel workers)
• Solid E2E tests
  • Playwright covers most browser demos (examples/browser/test/demos.spec.ts, playwright.config.ts)
  • Coverage gaps remain for daemonized stacks under failure injection
• Shareable computer URL — fold a running kernel's VFS + boot state into a URL another browser can rehydrate
  • Design landed: docs/plans/2026-05-11-shareable-computer-url-design.md (#452)
  • Implementation pending

✅ Shipped

Kernel & POSIX coverage

• 170+ syscalls across file I/O, fcntl, process, threads, signals, memory, networking, time, terminal, IPC, eventfd/timerfd/signalfd, poll/select/epoll
• POSIX.1-2024 header overlays + constants — major XFAIL reductions across libc-test, sortix, open-posix-testsuite (#147 #148 #149 #160 #161)
• Procfs (/proc/self, /proc/<pid>/{stat,status,cmdline,environ,maps,fd}, /proc/net/{tcp,unix}) #220
• Virtual devfs — /dev/{null,zero,urandom,full,fd/N,tty,ptmx,pts/*} (#228 + earlier batch)
• EPERM multi-user model #326, deferred pthread cancellation #333, per-thread signal routing #332, kernel-side PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED primitives #324
• AIO XFAIL closure + pthread_setcanceltype XPASS #334

Multi-process

• fork via Asyncify snapshot/restore #81
• fork() from non-main threads (#468); fork+dlopen replay so children inherit parent dlopens (#466); host reaps child workers that die without SYS_EXIT_GROUP (#465)
• execve with argv/envp #123, posix_spawn attribute handling + fd actions (#167 #168), execveat/fexecve
• Non-forking posix_spawn via SYS_SPAWN (ABI 7→8) (#439)
• Cross-process pipes, signals, waitpid/waitid/zombies, process groups, sessions
• Cross-process advisory file locking (OFD) via SharedArrayBuffer
• Cross-process PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED mutexes/condvars #324 #327
• O_CLOFORK / FD_CLOFORK (POSIX.1-2024) #159

Threads & synchronization

• clone(CLONE_VM|CLONE_THREAD) via Workers + shared WebAssembly.Memory
• pthread_create in centralized mode, futex w/ timeout, RT signals + sigqueue si_value
• pthread_atfork, dladdr, POSIX mqueues #147

Memory

• mmap with MAP_ANONYMOUS, MAP_PRIVATE file-backed #99, MAP_SHARED file + msync writeback #100
• mremap, splice, preadv2/pwritev2, readahead #67, memfd_create + copy_file_range #66, shm_open/sem_open
• Growable VFS with inodes sized for max capacity
• dlopen data allocated through guest mmap (#434)

Networking

• AF_INET sockets — connect, send/recv, sendmsg/recvmsg, getsockopt/setsockopt, SO_RCVTIMEO/SO_SNDTIMEO #115, TCP_INFO + extra TCP options #271
• AF_UNIX (stream + dgram) with SCM_RIGHTS #112, AF_UNIX bind() creates filesystem inode #356
• In-kernel loopback TCP/UDP, MSG_OOB + SIOCATMARK #104
• DNS via host __lookup_name, getaddrinfo
• Virtual MAC for network ioctls #270, SIOCGIFCONF ptrWidth-aware for wasm64 #277
• Host network backends: TCP, fetch, TLS-intercepting (#240)
• Git HTTP clone over HTTPS in browser shell #229, AF_UNIX + git HTTP clone tests #287

Filesystem & VFS

• MemoryFileSystem (SharedArrayBuffer-backed), OpfsFileSystem (browser persistence), DeviceFileSystem
• *at() family with stored OFD paths, realpath, hard links, chmod/utimensat
• Lazy VFS files — defer fetch until first read #206
• Pre-built VFS images replacing JSON bundles #286
• zstd-compressed .vfs.zst browser demo images (#384)
• Lazy archive-backed files (e.g. vim.zip in shell demo) #279
• Kernel-owned VFS + dinit-supervised demos #370
• VFS uid/gid foundation — chown stores values, stat reports honestly (#417)
• mkrootfs CLI — declarative rootfs image builder (#440); rootfs source tree + image build wiring (#441); mount-table cutover + remove synthetic_file_content (#442)

Browser runtime

• Centralized kernel architecture w/ channel IPC over SharedArrayBuffer + Atomics
• Dedicated kernel worker (NodeKernelHost) #289 + browser kernel worker #194
• Service worker COOP/COEP bootstrap + HTTP bridge #117
• TLS MITM for transparent HTTPS in demos #240
• Configurable CORS proxy for GitHub Pages #248
• GitHub Pages deployment of demos #198
• PTY support + xterm.js terminal panel (#181 #182)
• Framebuffer (/dev/fb0) + canvas renderer + fbDOOM (#349 #350 #351 #364)
• fbDOOM mouse input via /dev/input/mice + Pointer Lock (#459)
• fbDOOM sound output via /dev/dsp + Web Audio (#460)
• fbDOOM MUS/MIDI music through OPL2 → /dev/dsp (#461)
• fbDOOM IWAD fetched at runtime (#462)
• dinit init system across daemon demos (#234 #370)
• WASI Preview 1 shim + 14 Unix utility build scripts #205
• Hybrid wasm32/wasm64 kernel with i64 channel ABI #269
• Git revision link in demo sidebar #280
• WordPress LAMP demo install: ~30 s → ~2 s (#425)
• wasm64 mariadbd boot + MySQL/Redis demo handshake fixes (#420)
• Terminal pane on WordPress demos + shell-based VFS (#463)
• Kandelo live UI host (#467, #483) + Node.js live gallery demo (#485)

Runtimes on the kernel

• Node.js–compatible runtime via QuickJS-NG — node:crypto, real zlib, TCP, TLS, real http/https with Mozilla cacert.pem, npm install lodash/express/vite end-to-end, plus browser Node/npm demo (#482, design #470, implementation plan #471)

SDK & toolchain

• All 8 CLI wrappers — wasm32posix-{cc,c++,ar,ranlib,nm,strip,pkg-config,configure} (#sdk batch)
• WebAssembly dynamic linking — dylink.0 parser + dlopen runtime #62, end-to-end shared library load #63
• setjmp/longjmp via Wasm exception handling, exnref for setjmp #79
• Asyncify-onlylist fork support for Git 2.47.1 #218
• Nix flake providing reproducible dev shell #376
• Fork instrumentation tool (#488)

Ported software (~40 packages)

• Servers/DBs: nginx 1.27, PHP 8.4 (CLI + FPM, opcache enabled #423), MariaDB 10.5 (Aria + InnoDB #291, dual-arch wasm32/wasm64 #294), Redis 7.2, SQLite, WordPress 6.7
• Languages: CPython 3.13, Perl 5.40, Ruby 3.3, QuickJS-NG, Erlang/OTP 28 BEAM (#255 #258 #260 #263), bash 5.2 + readline #293
• Editors: Vim 9.1 + ncurses, GNU nano 8.3, NetHack 3.6.7
• Tooling: Git 2.47, GNU coreutils 9.6, grep, sed, gawk, findutils, diffutils, make, m4, bc, tar, less, file, lsof
• Compression: gzip, bzip2, xz, zstd, zip, unzip #222
• Network: curl + libcurl, wget
• Demo headliners: TeX Live (pdfTeX) #285, fbDOOM #351, full LAMP stack #121

Testing infrastructure

• musl libc-test runner (539+ tests passing, 0 unexpected failures)
• Vitest host integration tests (276 tests)
• Open POSIX Test Suite integration #38ac0b1a
• Sortix os-test integration (4817+ pass) #40399442
• Browser test infrastructure — Playwright libc-test + POSIX runners #152 #153
• Browser sortix runner #155, browser E2E demo tests #131
• MariaDB mysql-test suite (185 tests in browser) #256, nginx + SQLite test suites #257, SQLite TCL upstream suite #264
• Performance benchmark suite (5 suites, Node.js + browser) #282
• CI gating on every PR — cargo test, vitest, run-libc-tests.sh, run-posix-tests.sh, and check-abi-version.sh all run in .github/workflows/prepare-merge.yml (Phase B-1/B-2 #428 #432, staging release #438)

ABI, packaging, releases

• Structural ABI snapshot + enforced version bump #295
• Kernel-wasm exports included in snapshot #296
• Runtime ABI version enforcement on kernel and user programs #297
• Additive ABI snapshot changes allowed without version bumps (#490)
• Per-package manifests, content-addressed cache, binaries-abi-v<N> release scheme #365
• Binary resolution via index.toml ledger — replaces the in-package [binary] schema with a per-release index, atomic publish via scripts/index-update.sh, project-state split into build.toml (#464, design #457)
• Decoupled package builds — Phase B-1 per-package matrix + content-hash gating (#428), Phase B-2 sticky PR comment + kernel_abi required check (#432), Phase C resolver cutover + legacy publish pipeline removal (#438)
• libc++ published as a binary package, bundling libunwind (#368)
• dinit published as a package #371; lockfile + sha refresh flow (#372 #377 #379)

Documentation

• Architecture, SDK, porting, browser-support, posix-status, profiling, package-management, binary-releases, abi-versioning, wasm-limitations docs in docs/
• TypeDoc API docs auto-deployed to GitHub Pages #265
• CLAUDE.md test-verification + ABI checklist
• Relicensed to GPL-2.0-or-later with MIT runtime #223

Mapping to Brandon's manual list

These are the items from the original list that are now closed:

• Protocol for rendering to a frame buffer — #349 #350 #351 #364
• Protocol for TTY — #181 #182 #221
• CORS proxy workaround for COOP/COEP — #248 #240
• Each demo build tagged with git revision — #280
• Prebuilt disk images — #286 #279 #370
• Binary registry of prebuilt programs and libraries — #365 #371 #372 #464
  • libcurl, ncurses, libc++ (#368) all shipped as standalone packages; readline still only via bash #293 (standalone package still in Layer 3)
• Raw C build command (Dennis) — wasm32posix-cc + 7 sibling SDK wrappers

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Last updated: May 17, 2026 (originally April 30, 2026)

[mho22]

Related Playground PRs :

• [wasm-posix-kernel] WordPress Playground CLI under wasm-posix-kernel - Proof of concept WordPress/wordpress-playground#3634
• [wasm-posix-kernel] WordPress Playground Web under wasm-posix-kernel - Proof of concept WordPress/wordpress-playground#3635