"The computer can be used as a tool to liberate and protect people, rather than to control them." -Hal Finney
A decentralized web-based operating system for the next web, empowering users and developers to:
- Easily install many npm browser packages
- Run Node.js code using RunKit
- Customize the OS to suit your individual needs
- Write scripts to perform particular tasks
- Write full applications that can create windows and interface with the kernel
- Interact with crypto wallets and smart contracts
- Utilize a number of P2P protocols within the browser
Documentation: https://docs.web3os.sh
The project is still very young, and more documentation and organization is Coming Soon™.
- Features
- Disclaimer
- Help Wanted
- User Quickstart
- Developer Quickstart
- Autostart
- Globals
- Shortcuts
- Scripting
- Web3os Package Manager
- Official Apps
- Three (OS Assistant)
- Kernel Interface
- App Structure
- Metal (@web3os-core/metal)
- WebUSB
- Web Bluetooth
- TODO
- Can it do thing?
- Further Documentation
Expand Features
- Runs completely in the browser (Chromium-based browsers are ideal)
- Web-based terminal with xterm.js
- 3pm: The web3os package manager
- Modules may also be imported with SystemJS
- Installable as a Progressive Web App
- Optional desktop environment
- Optional backend environment runs in Docker container
- Provides interfaces for many standard and experimental browser APIs
- WebSocket support
- WebUSB support
- WebHID support
- Web Bluetooth support
- Gamepad support
- Web3 wallet integration with web3.js
- Fully in-browser filesystem with BrowserFS
- IPFS Integration with js-ipfs
- Built-in IPFS video search (WIP) and player; type
flix
- Built-in IPFS video search (WIP) and player; type
- Sexy dialogs with sweetalert2
- Slick windowing system with WinBox
- Decentralized messaging support with Mailchain
- Git integration with isomorphic-git
- GunJS integration with GUN
- Moralis integration with Moralis
- P2P communication (chat, audio, video, screenshare, fileshare) with PeerJS
- Torrent integration with WebTorrent
- It runs Doom (and Wolfenstein 3D! and other DOS stuff!) with JS-DOS
- WebAssembly executable support (WIP):
- Native
- [WIP] WASI
- [WIP] Emscripten
- [WIP] AssemblyScript
- Decentralized:
- Open source to customize and host your own copy
- Included Fleek and Netlify configs for easy deployment
- Main site hosted by Fleek at https://web3os.sh
- Backup site hosted on IPFS at https://web3os-sh.ipns.dweb.link/
- Developer-friendly:
- Easily scriptable and customizable
- Use an initfsUrl query param to load a ZIP file from a URL to populate your filesystem
- Use a mountableFileSystemConfig query param to specify how your filesystems should be mounted
- Install nearly any browser package from npm
- Programs are just HTML/CSS/JS/WebGL, or any language that compiles to WebAssembly
Expand Disclaimer
This project is still considered to be in an alpha state. All apps run in the same context and can access every other app, as well as the entire virtual browserfs.
The code in this repository has not been audited. Do not rely on it to keep anything safe, and never paste commands you don't understand. Anywhere, ever.
Heavily scrutinize any application or script you install or run, as well as its authors.
Expand Help Wanted
It's going to take people far smarter than me to make this project achieve its full potential.
Please consider digging into the code and see what you can come up with and submit a PR!
Not sure where to start? Check out the issues!
See CONTRIBUTING.md
Expand User Quickstart
- Visit https://web3os.sh
- Use
ls
andcd
to look around the filesystem - Type
help
for generic helpful information - Type
files /bin
to browse all available commands - Learn more about commands:
help [command]
- Edit a file:
edit /tmp/test.txt
- Launch the desktop:
desktop
- Run the screensaver:
screensaver
- Play DOOM:
doom
- Play Wolfenstein 3D:
wolfenstein
- Read this README:
markdown /docs/README.md
- Launch the file explorer:
files /docs
- Launch a browser:
www https://instacalc.com
- Connect to your wallet:
account connect
- Check native coin balance:
account balance
- Check token balance:
account balance USDC
- Switch to another network:
account chain polygon
,account chain bsc
,account chain 0x2
- Interact with a smart contract:
contract --help
- 🎉 Fire the Confetti Gun:
confetti
- See the list of official apps
Expand Developer Quickstart
git clone [email protected]:web3os-org/kernel.git
cd kernel
pnpm install # or npm install
pnpm start # or npm start
From here, simply connect to https://localhost:30443 and accept the certificate warning.
Alternatively, install src/assets/ssl/localhost.crt to your trusted certificate store.
We use SSL locally so that all browser APIs work as expected.
Expand Autostart
To modify the commands the system executes on startup:
edit /config/autostart.sh
- For example, add
desktop
to the end of the file - Insert any additional commands you want to run on startup
Expand Globals
These objects are available on the global object (globalThis/window):
Kernel
: The global kernelTerminal
: The kernel's main terminalSystem
: The SystemJS library
Expand Shortcuts
Shortcuts are managed via a JSON object at /config/shortcuts
and accessed using the open
command.
Current shortcut types: execute
- url
Example:
{
"scarytime": {
"type": "execute",
"target": "snackbar Confetti attack! ; confetti --scalar 12"
},
"instacalc": {
"type": "execute",
"target": "www --no-toolbar --title Instacalc https://instacalc.com"
},
"github": {
"type": "url",
"target": "https://github.com"
}
}
To open a shortcut: open <key>
, e.g. open github
Expand Scripting
Web3os scripts (.sh) are a simple line-by-line execution, while Javascript (.js) offers far more power.
To run a web3os script: sh /path/to/script.sh
- Or from an app:
window.Kernel.executeScript('/path/to/script.sh')
To run a Javascript script: eval /path/to/script.js
- Or from an app:
window.Kernel.execute('eval /path/to/script.js')
See some sample scripts at: https://github.com/web3os-org/sample-scripts
Expand Web3os Package Manager
The 3pm
command can be used to manage installed packages. Installing a package adds an entry to /config/packages
and all packages in this file are loaded on startup.
Packages are generally ES Modules, located at a url that contains a package.json
.
You can attempt to install any package from npm using a CDN such as unpkg (this is the default 3pm registry).
This means that during development, you can serve up your app locally, with Live Server for example, and 3pm install http://localhost:5500
.
You may also just use the import
command to directly import an ES module from a URL. Or bypass all of this and use your own technique!
Dependency management is another monster altogether, so that's still a WIP. This means your package should already be bundled when web3os loads it, or pull in your dependencies some other way.
Here are a few examples of npm libraries that can be successfully loaded in web3os:
-
3pm install lodash
- This doesn't add an executable, but
_
is now available in the global scope.
-
3pm install jquery
- This doesn't add an executable, but
$
is now available in the global scope.
-
3pm install --umd moment
const now = Kernel.modules.moment.run()
-
3pm install umbrellajs --main umbrella.esm.js
- Now you can use it:
const u = Kernel.modules.umbrellajs.default
const body = u('body')
Expand Official Apps
See the full list
Note: some apps are currently either very basic implementations or just placeholders to be developed further
Expand Three
(WIP)
Three is just a pet at this point, but eventually it will become a useful assistant.
Just type three
at the terminal to get started!
Type three --help
to see other commands you can use to control Three, and you can access all of the features on Kernel.modules.three
, e.g.:
Kernel.modules.three.move('50%', '50%')
Kernel.modules.three.say('Hello world')
Kernel.modules.three.animate('heartBeat', 'infinite')
- Use any animate.css style
Three uses the speak
command for speech synthesis. You may customize the voice parameters using the kernel memory as follows:
- <3os>#
set three voice Google italiano
- Use
speak --list-voices
to see available voices
- Use
- <3os>#
set three volume 2
- <3os>#
set three pitch 1.5
- <3os>#
set three rate 0.5
console.log(Kernel.modules.three)
to inspect.
Expand Kernel Interface
This is a brief overview of how to use the kernel, please check https://docs.web3os.sh for updated documentation.
This (and everything else) is subject to change before version 1.0.
window.Kernel.modules
= { name: app }
- Contains all apps registered in the kernel
- e.g.,
window.Kernel.modules.desktop.run()
- e.g.,
window.Kernel.modules['@author/package'].version
window.Kernel.dialog
({ ...sweetalert2options }) = :Promise(sweetalert2result)
- Convenience method to create a sweetalert2 dialog with appropriate defaults
- e.g.,
window.Kernel.dialog({ title: 'Are you sure?', text: 'Scary stuff!', icon: 'warning' })
window.Kernel.fs
= { ...BrowserFS }
- This object holds the initialized BrowserFS instance
- e.g.,
const doesExist = window.Kernel.fs.existsSync('/config/packages')
window.Kernel.set
('namespace', 'key', :any)
- Sets a value in the kernel "memory" - persists in localStorage
- e.g.,
window.Kernel.set('user', 'name', 'hosk')
- e.g.,
window.Kernel.set('myapp', 'theme', { color: 'rebeccapurple' })
window.Kernel.get
('namespace', 'key') = :any
- Gets a value from the kernel "memory" - loaded from localStorage
- e.g.,
window.Kernel.get('user')
- e.g.,
window.Kernel.get('user', 'name')
- e.g.,
const { color } = window.Kernel.get('myapp', 'theme')
window.Kernel.windows.create
(options) = { options, window }
- Creates a new application window with WinBox options
Expand App Structure
Developers should be able to create apps in any way they like, with as few requirements as possible. Remember, your app is simply running in a browser - you have access to everything that any other script or module does.
To make your module executable from the command line, you may export an async function named run
, or your default export must be a function.
Your module or package.json
may also contain a help
property that contains your module's help text.
The best way to create applications for web3os is to create an npm
package, using any bundler you'd like.
For example, to create an application with snowpack:
package.json
:
{
"name": "@yourorg/yourapp",
"description": "A sample application",
"version": "1.2.3",
"license": "MIT",
"main": "build/index.js",
"module": "src/index.js",
"scripts": {
"start": "snowpack dev",
"build": "snowpack build",
"prepublishOnly": "npm run build"
},
"devDependencies": {
"snowpack": "^3.8.8"
}
}
index.js
:
export const help = `
This app enables developers to Do An App!
Usage: @yourorg/yourapp [options] Run yourapp with some options!
`
export async function run (terminal, context) {
// or: export default async function (terminal, context) {
console.log(terminal) // the xterm.js terminal in which your app is running
console.log(context) // the plain string of arguments passed to your app
terminal.log('Thanks for checking out myapp!')
terminal.log(context)
// You may also access the web3os system terminal
window.Terminal.log('This is output to the root globalThis.Terminal')
}
Apps can be written and bundled a number of different ways, for some ideas check out:
Expand Metal
(WIP)
Metal is the web3os hardware link, allowing web3os access to certain hardware features and other capabilities of the host operating system.
It offers a multi-user environment while restricting access based on a user's authenticated wallet address, or other attributes such as NFT ownership, etc.
The metal
command is the utility to connect to and interact with web3os metal servers.
Expand WebUSB
Experimental WebUSB API features are limited in browser support at this time.
The usb
command doesn't do much except pair and maintain a list of devices.
Usage:
usb devices List paired USB devices
usb request <options> Request USB device (blank for user choice)
Options:
--help Print this help message
--name Specify a friendly name for the USB device
--product Product ID of the USB device
--vendor Vendor ID of the USB device
--version Print the version information
Access the array of devices within an app: Kernel.modules.usb.devices
Expand WebHID
Experimental WebHID API features are limited in browser support at this time.
The hid
command doesn't do much except pair and maintain a list of devices.
Usage:
hid devices List paired HID devices
hid request <options> Request HID device (blank for user choice)
Options:
--help Print this help message
--product Product ID of the HID device
--vendor Vendor ID of the HID device
--version Print the version information
Access the array of devices within an app: Kernel.modules.hid.devices
Expand Web Bluetooth
Experimental Web Bluetooth API features are limited in browser support at this time.
The bluetooth
command doesn't do much except pair and maintain a list of devices.
Usage:
bluetooth devices List paired bluetooth devices
bluetooth pair <options> Request bluetooth device (blank for user choice)
Options:
--help Print this help message
--name Specify a friendly name for the bluetooth device
--version Print the version information
Access the array of devices within an app: Kernel.modules.bluetooth.devices
Expand TODO
- There's a lot to do... please help. 😅
- IO piping
- Tab completion
- Typescriptify everything
- Finish internationalization/translations
- Decoupling of most built-in modules into their own packages
- Unified WASM handling
- Rewrite expensive core modules using Emscripten
- Improve security/isolation
- Some apps are just placeholders; flesh them out
- Modify command interfaces to conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-2017
- Add more things to the TODO list
If it's not in this README or not readily apparent in the included apps, the answer is probably not yet. PR's are always welcome and encouraged. Let's talk about it on Discord! But remember, you can always just use Javascript!
Better yet, if you can make it do the thing, please submit a PR! This project will never grow without a thriving community of developers!
You can find the full API reference and other tutorials at https://docs.web3os.sh
Questions? Check out the discussion forums
Problems? Search the issues