Work in Progress — Active Development

Your OS. Your AI.
Running Locally.

ZephyrOS is a lightweight, Arch-based Linux distribution with a built-in AI assistant powered by Ollama. Choose an edition tailored to your workflow — every model runs locally on your machine, no cloud required.

Built Different

A modern desktop experience with AI that respects your privacy and runs entirely on your hardware.

🤖

Local AI Assistant

Every edition ships with an AI model via Ollama. Ask questions, write code, analyze logs — all offline, all private. No data leaves your machine.

Lightweight & Fast

Built on Arch Linux with Wayfire (Wayland compositor). Minimal resource usage means more RAM for your AI model and your work.

🔒

Secure Boot Ready

Full UEFI Secure Boot support with shim → GRUB2 → signed kernel chain. Your system is verified from firmware to desktop.

🎨

Modern Desktop

Windows 11-inspired design with a centered taskbar, frosted glass effects, rounded corners, and a beautiful dark theme out of the box.

📦

Choose Your Edition

5 editions tailored for different workflows. Each comes with curated tools and an AI model optimized for your use case.

🛠

Easy Installation

Guided TUI installer walks you through disk setup, user creation, and configuration. Boot the ISO, click install, and you're done.

Download ZephyrOS

Each edition includes a full desktop environment, curated tools, and a locally-running AI model. Pick the one that fits your workflow.

Scholar
Student

AI-powered study companion. The AI acts as a patient tutor — explaining concepts, guiding problem-solving, and checking your understanding.

  • AI ModelPhi-3 Mini (3.8B)
  • RAM8 GB minimum
  • ToolsFirefox, Evince, Xournal++
Download Scholar ISO
Dev
Developer

Full-stack development workstation. AI code assistant helps you write, debug, and review code across 6 languages with production-quality suggestions.

  • AI ModelDeepSeek Coder V2 16B
  • RAM16 GB minimum
  • ToolsNeovim, Helix, Docker, Git
  • LanguagesPython, Node, Go, Rust
Download Dev ISO
SOC
Security

Security operations workstation. AI acts as a Senior SOC Analyst — triaging alerts, analyzing logs, and mapping to MITRE ATT&CK techniques.

  • AI ModelLlama 3.1 8B
  • RAM16 GB minimum
  • ToolsWireshark, Nmap, tcpdump
Download SOC ISO
Lite
Minimal

For low-end hardware. A lightweight AI assistant with a minimal footprint — fast responses, small model, low resource usage.

  • AI ModelSmolLM2 1.7B
  • RAM4 GB minimum
  • ToolsMousepad, Midori
Download Lite ISO
Core
Base

The base desktop without a bundled AI model. Perfect if you want the ZephyrOS desktop experience and prefer to configure AI yourself.

  • AI ModelNone (Ollama included)
  • RAM4 GB minimum
  • ToolsThunar, Kitty, Wofi
Download Core ISO

Installation Guide

From download to desktop in 4 simple steps. ZephyrOS includes a guided installer that handles everything for you.

1

Download the ISO

Choose your edition above and download the ISO file. Each edition is a standalone bootable image — no other OS required.

2

Create Bootable Media

Flash the ISO to a USB drive using Balena Etcher or Rufus, or attach it directly to a virtual machine (VirtualBox, QEMU, VMware).

# Linux / macOS
$ sudo dd if=zephyros-scholar.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress
3

Boot & Install

Boot from the USB or ISO. A welcome dialog gives you the option to Install or Try ZephyrOS. The guided installer handles partitioning, user setup, and bootloader configuration.

4

First Boot

After installation, reboot into your new system. On first boot, ZephyrOS automatically downloads your edition's AI model. Open a terminal and run zephyros-ai to start chatting.

$ zephyros-ai "Explain how TCP works"

System Requirements

ZephyrOS runs on modern x86_64 hardware with UEFI boot support.

Component Lite / Core Scholar Dev / SOC
CPU Intel Core i3 / AMD Ryzen 3 or newer (2+ cores) Intel Core i5 / AMD Ryzen 5 or newer (4+ cores) Intel Core i5 / AMD Ryzen 5 or newer (4+ cores)
RAM 4 GB 8 GB 16 GB
Storage 20 GB 30 GB 40 GB
Boot UEFI UEFI UEFI
Network Required (first boot) Required (first boot) Required (first boot)

Community

ZephyrOS is built in the open. Share your feedback, ask questions, report bugs, or suggest features — every voice shapes the project.

💬

Discussions

Ask questions, share ideas, show off your setup, or chat with other ZephyrOS users. This is the best place for general feedback and feature requests.

Join Discussions
🐛

Bug Reports

Found something broken? Open an issue on GitHub with steps to reproduce it. Include your edition, hardware info, and any error messages.

Report a Bug
💡

Feature Requests

Have an idea for a new feature, edition, or improvement? Suggest it and the community can discuss and vote on what gets built next.

Suggest Feature
💻

Contribute

ZephyrOS is open source. Fork the repo, pick up an issue, or submit a pull request. Check the roadmap for what's planned next.

View Source