Source, releases, issues, merge requests, and CI all live on GitLab. This GitHub copy is a read-only mirror and may lag. Please file issues and get releases there.
The authoritative source for this project lives on GitLab — always: https://gitlab.com/ncz-os/distro-core
This GitHub repository is retained only to host release assets. Development, issues, and merge requests happen on GitLab.
🌐 Language: English · 简体中文
📚 Start here: AI/ML Stack Reference (中文) · How Did We Get Here — engineering post-mortem (中文) · NCZ-OS Organization
NCZ Distribution Core is the heart of NCZ: an agentic Linux distribution for Arm and Intel systems, and the home of MNEMOS, the agentic memory system.
NCZ ships a complete, autonomous-agent-ready operating system — a hardened Ubuntu base, an always-on agent stack, on-device AI (NPU / GPU / CPU embeddings), and MNEMOS memory — that boots and runs on edge boards, desktops, and servers across both Arm (e.g. CIX Sky1, Raspberry Pi) and Intel / x86-64 hardware.
This repository is the shared, hardware-agnostic core of that distribution: the userland, agent stack, AI runtime, desktop, branding, and CLI that every hardware variant builds on. Platform-specific builders consume this core and add only the bits unique to their hardware (kernel, firmware, bootloader, device trees).
- MNEMOS — the agentic memory operating system. Production-grade memory for
agents, interoperating with every major framework via MCP, an
OpenAI-compatible gateway, and native
/v1/*REST. NCZ is its home. →ncz-os/mnemos - Agent stack — ZeroClaw runs out of the box as a Podman quadlet; OpenClaw
and Hermes are operator opt-in via the
nczCLI. - On-device AI — automatic embeddings across NPU / GPU / CPU via
mnemos-embedkit, with the same API on every silicon target. - Desktop — a polished XFCE environment with NCZ branding (the Reinhardt desktop variant), or a headless server profile (Magnetar).
nczCLI — operator tooling for the agent stack and fleet.
NCZ Distribution Core (this repo — shared userland)
│ consumed by
▼
Per-variant BUILDERS (build mechanism differs per platform)
cix-installer CIX Sky1 (Arm) — d-i / debootstrap netinstall
pi-gen Raspberry Pi (Arm) — pi-gen image
(x86-64 builder) Intel / AMD desktops — planned
Per-variant KERNELS: linux-cix · linux-rpi · …
BSP / Yocto: meta-cix (registered BSP layer) · meta · meta-base
Packaging / tooling: debs · ncz-tools
The core is consumed as a pinned git submodule (offline-friendly for air-gapped
image builds); a .deb packaging is a future option.
See docs/ for the full organization and migration plan.
GitLab ncz-os/* is the canonical source of truth. GitHub and Codeberg are
mirrors kept in lockstep — never push to a mirror as the lead.
- GitLab (canonical): https://gitlab.com/ncz-os/distro-core
- GitHub (mirror): https://github.com/ncz-os/distro-core
- Codeberg (mirror): https://codeberg.org/ncz-os/distro-core
Vendor-neutral by design ≠ tested everywhere. To date the distribution has only been validated on one board. Testers and donated hardware are the fastest way to expand this list.
| Architecture | Target | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Arm (aarch64) | CIX Sky1 — Minisforum MS-R1 (32 GB / 64 GB) | ✅ Tested — the only validated platform |
| Arm (aarch64) | CIX Sky1 — Radxa Orion O6 / O6N | ❌ Untested — testers wanted, board needed (different board, same SoC) |
| Arm (aarch64) | CIX Sky1 — Framework add-in board | ❌ Untested — no hardware in hand |
| Arm (aarch64) | CIX Sky1 — Orange Pi (Cix variants) | ❌ Untested — no hardware in hand |
| Arm (aarch64) | Raspberry Pi | 🚧 Builder exists (pi-gen); not yet validated |
| Intel / AMD (x86-64) | Desktops / servers | 🗺️ Planned |
If you can help: an O6 (or any non-MS-R1 Cix board) in our hands, or a community tester filing issues, directly unblocks support. Radxa, Framework, Orange Pi — we'd love a board.
Apache-2.0. See LICENSE.