A virtual environment toolchain for the local-first web, inspired by Plan 9.
📺 Wanix: The Spirit of Plan 9 in Wasm
- Capability-oriented microkernel architecture ("everything is a file")
- Abstract POSIX process model for generalized compute execution
- Per-process namespaces for security, isolation, and custom environments
- Built-in emulator for x86 support, Linux compatibility, and Docker-like functionality
- Runs in the browser as well as natively on Mac, Windows, and Linux
- Web: File interfaces for OPFS, DOM, web workers, and service workers
- Web: Runs WASI WebAssembly and x86 executables
- Embed systems software and development tools in web applications
- Experiment with Plan 9 capabilities in browser or natively
- Use as foundation for a modern web-native operating system
Play with the stock Wanix distro at wanix.run.
The Wanix CLI is available for download from the latest release.
If you want to build from source, see the CONTRIBUTING.md doc.
The wanix command has a number of subcommands in development, but the primary
command is wanix serve.
You can easily add files to the Wanix environment by dragging files onto the
terminal. This will put them in /web/opfs.
In Chrome, you can also use the pickerfs capability to mount a full directory
in Wanix for the duration of your session. Run id=$(capctl new pickerfs mount)
to bring up a directory picker. The resulting id can be used to get to the
mount: cd /cap/$id/mount.
WASI Wasm executables can simply be run like running a normal executable once added to the environment. Tested languages that can compile to Wasm and run in Wanix include Golang, Rust, and Zig.
Files in the root namespace can be accessed via subpaths on the domain with the
prefix /:, so accessing /web/opfs/file.html would work using
/:/web/opfs/file.html. This works for any HTML elements or JS functions that
take a URL, including fetch and iframes.
We use iframes as windows (by styling and JS), which can be created with:
id=$(domctl new iframe)
domctl body append-child $idThen you can load a URL in the iframe by setting its src attribute:
echo src=/:/web/opfs/file.html >> /web/dom/$id/attrsYou can "close" a window by removing the iframe:
domctl $id removeIf you have a JavaScript source file you want to run in a Web Worker, you can
use workerctl start <file>, which returns a resource ID you can use under
/web/worker.
You can terminate the worker with workerctl <id> terminate.
You can currently create DOM elements using domctl. Run domctl new to see
available element types. For example, you can allocate a div element and get a
resource ID for it with domctl new div. DOM resources are under /web/dom,
including a named resource for the body.
You can also append CSS styles to the page by appending to /web/dom/style:
echo "html { border: 8px solid lightgreen; }" >> /web/dom/styleWe are currently developing a roadmap to convey the direction we're exploring with Wanix, but this is an open and modular project that you can take and experiment with for your own purposes.
Take a look at our issues to see how you can help out. You can also ask questions and participate in discussions, however right now most discussion takes place in our Discord.
MIT