Hermit Kernel is the core component of HermitCore, a Rust-based unikernel that runs directly on hypervisors or bare-metal systems to support high-performance cloud and HPC applications. This repository contains the microkernel’s implementation, optimized for running Rust applications natively in a lightweight, single-address-space environment. Hermit Kernel is designed to reduce latency and overhead by avoiding traditional OS abstractions, while still providing essential services such as scheduling, memory management, and networking. It bridges the gap between performance-critical applications and the simplicity of unikernel deployment.

Features

  • Rust-based microkernel for safety and performance
  • Single-address-space unikernel design
  • Bootable on bare-metal and hypervisors (e.g., QEMU, uhyve)
  • Lightweight task scheduling with low overhead
  • Memory management with paging and heap support
  • TCP/IP networking stack for cloud applications
  • Integration with Rust’s standard library via libhermit
  • Syscall and interrupt handling for application support
  • Designed for HPC, cloud-native, and embedded environments

Project Samples

Project Activity

See All Activity >

License

Apache License V2.0

Follow Hermit Kernel

Hermit Kernel Web Site

Other Useful Business Software
Custom VMs From 1 to 96 vCPUs With 99.95% Uptime Icon
Custom VMs From 1 to 96 vCPUs With 99.95% Uptime

General-purpose, compute-optimized, or GPU/TPU-accelerated. Built to your exact specs.

Live migration and automatic failover keep workloads online through maintenance. One free e2-micro VM every month.
Start Free
Rate This Project
Login To Rate This Project

User Reviews

Be the first to post a review of Hermit Kernel!

Additional Project Details

Programming Language

Rust

Related Categories

Rust Operating Systems

Registered

2025-03-28