Roadmap

Six milestones, each with a check.

Each milestone ends with something CI can check. Design stage. Nothing boots yet, and the big choices are still open. The first milestone is next.

0
M0
Boots in a VM
Next

What it proves
The image can be built the same way every time, and CI can boot it. Every later test stands on this.

At the end
An image boots in qemu on x86_64 and aarch64, and CI boots it on every pull request.
1
M1
Joins a cluster
Planned

What it proves
A machine becomes a cluster member by itself, with Felix and felixd running from the image and no setup by hand.

At the end
Felix and felixd start on the image, and a machine joins a cluster on first boot.
2
M2
Survives losing a machine
Planned

What it proves
The central claim: kill a machine and its workload carries on elsewhere with nothing lost or repeated.

At the end
Three VMs form a cluster, run a workload, lose one VM, and the workload continues. CI runs this.
- #7Three-VM demo: lose a machine, keep the workload
- Milestone on GitHub ↗
3
M3
Atomic upgrades
Planned

What it proves
A machine can be upgraded and rolled back without losing its state, and only signed images run.

At the end
An upgrade switches atomically and falls back on a failed boot. Images are signed. A/B root partitions are the proposal.
4
M4
System programs on the log
Planned

What it proves
The operating system is made of programs on the log, so its own decisions can be replayed like any other workload's.

At the end
The scheduler, the name service and the fx shell run as programs on the log.
5
M5
Real hardware and clouds
Planned

What it proves
NineLives runs somewhere other than qemu.

At the end
Cloud images and a Raspberry Pi image.

Open questions

The milestones say what has to work, not how. These choices are still open.

The status of each milestone lives in site/data/milestones.toml and the issues behind it are on GitHub. The long version of each milestone is in the design.

Boots in a VM

Joins a cluster

Survives losing a machine

Atomic upgrades

System programs on the log

Real hardware and clouds

Open questions