# 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](what-is-yuva.md) 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](quickstart.md) - a working call in five minutes.
- [Choose a provider](choose-a-provider.md) - the eight drivers.
- [Packages](packages.md) - the whole published surface, package by package.
- [Agent identity and capabilities](agent-identity-and-capabilities.md) - the
  authorisation model every Cogitave agent runs under.