Solo dev revives an abandoned custom OS kernel using Claude Code
The author grew up writing toy kernels and OS projects as a way of learning C, including a project called MontaukOS started in early 2025, where much of the core kernel code was written by hand. The project sat dormant for months after other priorities took over.
When was released, the author was introduced to Claude Code and agentic AI coding for the first time, and decided to pick the dormant project back up to test how well the model handled low-level code. The results were far better than expected, and over time the author ended up writing very little code by hand.
The project grew from a toy kernel that did very little into something dual-booted and used daily on a laptop. , among other models, produced a full networking stack, disk and filesystem drivers, an Intel , a desktop environment (something the author says they could never have built due to weak graphics-coding skills), and a PDF viewer.
Key points
- The author learned C partly by writing toy kernels since childhood, and started the MontaukOS project in early 2025
- 's release introduced them to Claude Code and agentic AI coding, prompting them to revive the dormant project
- Low-level code output was much better than expected, drastically reducing how much hand-written code was needed
- The AI produced a networking stack, disk/filesystem drivers, an Intel , a desktop environment, and a PDF viewer
- The project evolved from a barebones toy kernel to something dual-booted and used daily on a laptop