What Namzu is
Namzu is an agent kernel for TypeScript. It runs agents the way an operating system runs processes: isolation, scheduling, budgets, signals, memory, durability, and an auditable event stream. It does not render a user interface, it does not choose your database, and it does not have a favourite model vendor.
The distinction that matters
Most agent libraries are application frameworks. They ship a chat interface, a hosted dashboard, a fast path for one vendor, and drivers for a handful of databases. You get a demo in an hour. Three months later the framework owns your frontend, your storage, your observability, and your model choice - and none of those decisions were yours.
Namzu takes the Unix position instead. At the bottom sits a kernel that:
- isolates work and mediates what it can reach,
- schedules tool calls and propagates signals across a call tree,
- manages memory pressure and persists checkpoints,
- emits an auditable event stream.
Above the kernel is user space: shells, editors, IDEs, voice gateways, React apps - whatever you want. The kernel does not care which one you pick, and the one you pick cannot break the isolation the kernel provides.
What the kernel owns
| Concern | In the kernel |
|---|---|
| Agent lifecycle, scheduling, signals | Yes |
| Budgets and memory pressure | Yes |
| Durability and checkpoints | Yes |
| Inter-process communication, MCP and A2A | Yes |
| Provider abstraction | Yes - one uniform surface |
| Auditable event stream | Yes |
What it refuses to own
This list is a feature, not a gap:
- No user interface. No chat window, no dashboard, no components.
- No hosted service. Nothing phones home; there is no control plane you must sign into.
- No favoured vendor. Providers are drivers in separate packages (
@namzu/openai,@namzu/anthropic,@namzu/ollama, and others). You install the one you use; the kernel treats them identically. - No opinion about your data layer. Contracts, not drivers.
The consequence is that swapping a model vendor is a one-line change at registration, and swapping the shell around your agent is not the kernel's business at all.
How it is licensed
Namzu is Fair Source: FSL-1.1-MIT. Every published version converts to MIT two years after its release. You can read the source, run it, and build on it today, and the code becomes fully permissive on a published schedule.
Where Yuva fits
Namzu and Yuva are separate products at different layers, and Namzu does not require Yuva. Namzu is a TypeScript kernel you install from npm and run on Node. Yuva is a from-scratch sovereign unikernel in Rust - a much lower floor, with its own maturity and its own honest status. Read the Yuva page before assuming the two are a single stack.
Next steps
- Quickstart - a working call in five minutes.
- Choose a provider - the eight drivers.
- Packages - the whole published surface, package by package.
- Agent identity and capabilities - the authorisation model every Cogitave agent runs under.