rtlinux 0.2.0

MeshPOP Runtime Linux — L0 node OS for AI infrastructure mesh

rtlinux — MeshPOP Runtime Linux

Layer 0 of the MeshPOP stack. A Buildroot-based minimal Linux distribution purpose-built for AI infrastructure mesh nodes.

L0  rtlinux   — Runtime OS (kernel + musl + busybox + MeshPOP)
L1  Wire      — WireGuard mesh VPN         (pip install meshpop-wire)
L2  vssh      — Secure remote execution    (pip install vssh)
L3  mpop      — Fleet orchestration        (pip install meshpop)
L4  MeshDB    — Distributed search         (pip install meshpop-db)
L5  Vault     — Secrets management         (pip install sv-vault)

What It Does

Builds a minimal, network-hardened Linux OS with the full MeshPOP tool suite pre-installed. Boot a node → it auto-joins the Wire mesh → instantly manageable via mpop exec, mpop deploy, mpop ask.

Like Talos Linux for Kubernetes, but for MeshPOP.

Install

pip install rtlinux

Quick Start

# Build runtime image (Buildroot — from source, zero dependencies)
rtlinux build --method buildroot

# Deploy to a new node
rtlinux deploy g5 --image output/meshpoplinux-rootfs.tar.gz

# Verify all nodes
rtlinux verify --all

# Full CI/CD loop: build → deploy → verify → fix
rtlinux loop --nodes "g1 g2 g3 d1 d2"

# Fleet status
rtlinux status

Build Methods

Method	Dependencies	Time	Output
Buildroot (recommended)	None — kernel+BusyBox+musl from source	20-60 min	bzImage + rootfs.cpio
Alpine	Docker	~2 min	rootfs.tar.gz
Scratch	Linux host or Docker	~1 min	rootfs.tar.gz

MCP Server

rtlinux includes an MCP server for AI-driven node management:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rtlinux": {
      "command": "python3",
      "args": ["-m", "rtlinux.mcp.rtlinux_mcp_server"]
    }
  }
}

MCP Tools

Tool	Description
rtlinux_build	Build runtime image
rtlinux_deploy	Deploy to a node
rtlinux_verify	Health check (all 5 layers)
rtlinux_fleet	Fleet status overview
rtlinux_fix	Auto-fix degraded node
rtlinux_cicd	Full CI/CD loop

Python API

import rtlinux

# Build
result = rtlinux.build(method="buildroot")

# Deploy
result = rtlinux.deploy("g5")

# Verify single node
health = rtlinux.verify("g1")
# → {"status": "healthy", "layers_ok": "5/5", ...}

# Verify fleet
fleet = rtlinux.verify_fleet(["g1", "g2", "d1", "d2"])
# → {"summary": "4/4 healthy", "fleet": {...}}

Architecture

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              rtlinux Node                       │
│                                                │
│  kernel (Buildroot-compiled)                   │
│  └─ WireGuard (mesh VPN, auto-peering)         │
│  └─ vssh daemon (remote execution)             │
│  └─ mpop agent (orchestration)                 │
│  └─ MeshDB indexer (file search)               │
│  └─ minimal userspace (BusyBox + musl)         │
│                                                │
│  No SSH. No package manager. No systemd.       │
│  Just MeshPOP.                                 │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The MeshPOP Stack

Layer	Package	PyPI
L0	rtlinux	pip install rtlinux
L1	Wire	pip install meshpop-wire
L2	vssh	pip install vssh
L3	mpop	pip install meshpop
L4	MeshDB	pip install meshpop-db
L5	Vault	pip install sv-vault

Links

• Homepage: mpop.dev
• GitHub: github.com/meshpop/rtlinux
• All repos: github.com/meshpop

License

Apache-2.0