Free · open source
GPLv3, royalty-free or commercial — your choice$0forever
- Research on ten editors
- Sandboxed WASM plugin design
- Open development from day one
Kerf.
An IDE with a small Rust core and sandboxed WASM plugins; LSP and DAP run as processes the core starts.
git clone https://github.com/pyrlyn/kerf
See it run
Kerf, in the terminal.
$ git clone https://github.com/pyrlyn/kerf
Overview
What Kerf does.
Kerf is an IDE with a small Rust core and sandboxed WASM plugins.
The core draws the editor, holds the text buffer, runs the event loop and keeps a semantic index of the code (tree-sitter plus an incremental index). Languages and debugging come in through LSP and DAP: separate processes the core starts on a plugin's request. Plugins declare their permissions in a manifest and cannot spawn processes themselves.
Kerf is at the research stage, with no code yet. The research studies how Zed, VS Code, IntelliJ, Visual Studio, Lapce, Neovim, Lite XL, Pragtical, Zellij and others work, and what Kerf takes from each.
Features
Built for real workflows.
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A small Rust core
The editor, the text buffer, the event loop and the semantic index.
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A semantic index
tree-sitter plus an incremental index of the code.
-
Sandboxed WASM plugins
Plugins declare their permissions in a manifest and cannot spawn processes themselves.
-
LSP and DAP as processes
Language servers and debug adapters run as separate processes the core starts on a plugin's request.
Install
Up and running in a minute.
Install
There is nothing to build yet. The repository holds the research, the ideas and the plan:
git clone https://github.com/pyrlyn/kerfUsage
Get the research and the plan.
git clone https://github.com/pyrlyn/kerfMore examples below.
Links
Go deeper.
License
You can use Kerf under any of the following licenses, at your choice:
- GNU GPLv3 — free for open-source applications on any platform, including embedded systems.
- Royalty-free license — free for proprietary desktop, mobile and web applications, as long as you disclose that your application uses the project. Embedded systems are not covered.
- Commercial license — for proprietary applications, including embedded systems, without the attribution requirement.
Pricing
Pro is a placeholderFree forever. Pro when you need it.
Kerf Pro
Placeholder$9 / moper seat
- Team features
- Hosted dashboard
- Priority support
Placeholder — the Pro waitlist is not open yet.
Try Kerf today.
Free and open source. Star it, file an issue, or send a pull request.