ostk
os + tack: the invisible os
$ ostk boot
$ ostk compile
$ ostk bench
# "tack" = shorthand intent language
$ :compile # → ostk compile
$ :boot # → ostk boot
$ .? status # → what's the current state?
Install: curl -fsSL https://ostk.ai/install | sh

What is it

Your AI agents run on an OS. ostk is that OS.

Local-first. GPG-signed. Audited. Yours.

A single Rust binary that coordinates agents through the filesystem — byte-for-byte passthrough for every command, with conflict resolution and audit trails underneath. Agents run on it without knowing.

Trust is cryptographic: GPG web of trust determines what you can do. No admin panels. No OAuth. Just signatures.

What is tack?

Tack is the shorthand intent language built into ostk. You type compressed commands; the OS compiles them into actions.

:compile  →  ostk compile
:boot     →  ostk boot
.? status →  what's the current state?
:compile :plan :ship  →  compile, plan, commit

Tack is not a fixed grammar. The OS learns your shorthand over sessions. What you type today becomes vocabulary tomorrow. Communication cost drops from ~200 tokens/op to ~10 tokens/op.

See the full tack grammar reference in the docs.

How it works

  1. Install. curl -fsSL https://ostk.ai/install | sh — installs the binary. Then ostk init in any git repo to boot the OS.
  2. Work. Your agents use their normal tools. The OS intercepts writes, resolves conflicts, compresses output, and tracks every edit. Nothing changes for the agent.
  3. Speak tack. You type intent in shorthand. The OS compiles it into agent actions. :compile :plan :ship — three words, full execution.

Signed binaries. GPG web of trust. Audit trail for every edit. Capability pins that enforce boundaries invisibly. Your agents coordinate through the filesystem — no cloud, no lock-in.

Why it exists

Agent frameworks ask agents to learn new APIs. That's backwards. An OS doesn't ask processes to coordinate — it provides the primitives and stays out of the way.

ostk emerged from building itself — hundreds of needles, all managed by agents running on the OS that was being built. No meetings. No standups. No Jira tickets. The evidence is the product.

Five laws govern everything:

  1. The write path is invisible
  2. Agents are ephemeral
  3. Coordinate through the filesystem
  4. Optimistic concurrency
  5. Invisible infrastructure, always

Get started

curl -fsSL https://ostk.ai/install | sh
cd your-repo
ostk init
ostk boot

The OS is running. Your agents are already on it.

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