Kernelit

Kernelit is an open-source toolkit designed to assist kernel developers and system engineers in building, inspecting, and optimizing operating system kernels. It provides a portable set of tools and libraries covering instrumentation, configuration, build automation, and testing, with an emphasis on reproducibility and safety.

The project aims to support multiple kernel ecosystems, including Linux, various BSD variants, and microkernel designs, through a modular plugin architecture. It offers a kernel instrumentation API that can attach to running kernels or to compile-time hooks, enabling tracing, event collection, and performance counters.

The toolkit includes an integrated build and test harness to automate cross-compilation, unit tests, and hardware-in-the-loop validation. It also provides configuration tooling for kernel parameters and automated optimization workflows, such as workload-driven profiling and parameter sweeps.

Architecture centers on a lightweight core runtime, a plugin framework, and backend adapters for different kernel families. Instrumentation plugins expose probes and counters; backends collect data and export traces in standard formats. The project emphasizes security, sandboxing of experiments, and reproducible results.

Licensing and community: Kernelit is distributed under an open-source license and governed by an open development process. It welcomes contributions from kernel maintainers, researchers, and industry practitioners. Current usage spans academic research, performance engineering, and hardware testing.