FoldingOS logo FoldingOS
Where we're headed

Roadmap

FoldingOS is a purpose-built appliance operating system for Folding@home compute nodes. The folding-os repository has completed Milestones 1 and 2 — a bootable x86_64 appliance with verified Folding@home 8.5.6 runtime. FoldOps fleet monitoring is available separately via apt today.

v0.1.0 runtime — complete

Milestones 1 and 2 passed readiness review on 2026-06-12 and 2026-06-13. Build a working appliance from source, validated on Dell OptiPlex Micro hardware.

Public release — not yet published

Runtime gates are satisfied, but public v0.1.0 image publication remains blocked until release metadata finalization and mandatory release gates are complete.

Done shipped or largely complete In progress active development Planned upcoming milestone

FoldingOS milestones

Sequential milestones toward a fleet-ready appliance. Milestones 1 and 2 define the v0.1.0 runtime scope and are complete. Milestone 3 adds supervisor-led network provisioning. Full detail in ROADMAP.md.

0

Documentation & architecture

Done
  • Project vision, design principles, and system architecture
  • Build approach, hardware targets, security and update strategy
1

Bootable base system

Done
  • Reproducible x86_64 UEFI image with GRUB boot to shell
  • DHCP networking, SSH access, persistent storage layout
  • systemd appliance graph, foldingosctl, and bounded journald logging

Readiness review passed 2026-06-12. See Milestone 1 review and physical validation record.

2

Folding@home integration

Done
  • Pinned FAH 8.5.6 manifest with verified upstream acquisition
  • Atomic activation, versioned storage, and least-privilege fah service
  • Automatic startup, checkpoint persistence, and acquisition retries

Readiness review passed 2026-06-13. Client downloads from official Folding@home infrastructure — not bundled in release images. See Milestone 2 review.

3

Network fleet provisioning

In progress
  • Bootstrap the first supervisor by direct flash to NVMe or SATA
  • Supervisor image registry and upstream release polling
  • Provision agent nodes over UEFI PXE/iPXE with HTTP image transfer
  • Register agents, assign fixed roles, and stage image updates on boot

Replaces the earlier combined-image USB installer approach. See ADR-0016 and the Milestone 3 spec.

4

FoldOps integration

Planned
  • Integrate pinned FoldOps package artifacts into the OS image
  • Activate fixed agent and supervisor service graphs with TLS configuration
  • Node registration, metrics reporting, and remote configuration from FoldOps
  • Report node health and FAH status to the fleet supervisor

FoldOps is already installable via apt on Debian nodes today. Milestone 4 brings native OS-level fleet integration.

5

Update system

Planned
  • Signed update bundles with rollback behavior
  • Evaluate A/B root filesystem design
  • Report update status to FoldOps
6

Raspberry Pi support

Planned
  • ARM64 build target and Raspberry Pi 5 boot process
  • Validate Ethernet and storage
  • Produce flashable Pi image
7

v1.0 release

Planned
  • First stable x86_64 release with published install images
  • Complete installation docs and hardware compatibility list
  • Security model, networking validation, and release signatures

FoldOps

FoldOps is further along as a standalone farm monitor. Core dashboard, alerts, and apt packages are available now. The FoldOps roadmap is a backlog of ideas — not committed work — revisited when they solve a real farm pain.

Already shipped

Farm dashboard

Kiosk view and per-node cards with FAH status, PPD, temperatures, and apt/reboot badges.

Node history

Charts for progress, PPD, CPU, memory, disk, and temperatures over time.

Alerts & Discord

Webhook notifications, alert history, stuck work unit detection, and farm health rules.

Remote control

Pause, resume, finish work units, and manage agent and FAH services from the dashboard.

apt packages

foldops-agent, foldops-supervisor, and foldops-web from deb.folding-os.com.

Deploy agents

Push updates from the supervisor on legacy git-checkout farms.

On the radar

Agent IP in ingest Store LAN IP on every snapshot so farms don't depend on /etc/hosts after DHCP changes Farm timeline One feed for offline events, high temps, FAH failures, deploys, and control actions Prometheus metrics Export farm PPD, online count, and temperatures for Grafana dashboards Per-node thresholds Different temperature alert limits per host in the fleet

Open source from day one.

Milestones 1 and 2 are complete with physical validation on Dell OptiPlex Micro. Build from the folding-os repo, track Milestone 3 network provisioning, or install FoldOps via apt while public release images are finalized.

FoldingOS roadmap Build or install