The Lightweight AI Operating System at the Center of Everything You Do
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CenterOS is a lightweight, cloneable operating system for working with AI.
It gives your AI a persistent home: instructions, memory, workflows, wikis, templates, and logs, all organized in plain Markdown files that live on your own computer.
The point is simple: stop starting from zero in every AI session. Give your AI a structured place to learn how you work, remember what matters, and build repeatable systems around your life or business.
Stars help more people find the project and keep it moving. It takes one click.
You can install CenterOS by downloading the latest zip file or cloning the repo.
Download the latest release:
Unzip it on your computer, open the folder in your AI coding harness, and tell the AI:
Read STARTUP.md and follow its instructions.
Clone this repo to your computer, open it in your AI coding harness, and tell the AI:
Read STARTUP.md and follow its instructions.
The AI will run the first-time setup, ask a short questionnaire, personalize the placeholder files, and leave you with your own AI operating system.
After setup, future sessions should start with:
Read BOOTSTRAP.md and follow its instructions.
Repeatable procedures for anything you do more than once: writing, research, planning, content production, business operations, household admin, client work, or anything else you want to systematize.
Each workflow gets its own folder, context file, log, and optional workflow-scoped skills.
Structured knowledge bases for topics you care about. Put source material in raw/, let your AI synthesize pages in wiki/, and build a reference system that compounds over time.
Durable project memory stored inside the repo. Your AI can remember preferences, decisions, context, and operating rules without depending on a vendor-specific hidden cache.
Reusable scaffolding for creating new workflows and wikis consistently. The system favors boring, inspectable Markdown over complicated infrastructure.
Append-only logs record meaningful system changes and workflow runs. You can always see what changed, when, and why.
CenterOS is built around a few simple files:
STARTUP.md- one-time setup after cloning.BOOTSTRAP.md- every-session orientation.AGENTS.mdandCLAUDE.md- operating rules for AI harnesses.SOUL.md- identity, purpose, voice, and behavioral principles.PRINCIPAL.md- the user's profile and working preferences.SYSTEM_INDEX.md- the internal map of the operating system.memory/MEMORY.md- the index of durable memories.
Everything is local, readable, and editable. No database required. No platform lock-in required.
Most AI work disappears when the chat ends. CenterOS gives that work somewhere to live.
Use it when you want:
- A personal AI setup that survives across sessions.
- Repeatable workflows instead of one-off prompts.
- A knowledge base your AI can maintain with you.
- Clear rules for how your AI should act, write, and make decisions.
- A repo you can inspect, version, fork, and improve.
After startup, the AI will ask whether you want to create your first workflow.
Describe what you want the workflow to do in plain language. For example:
Create a workflow that turns a raw meeting transcript into a cleaned summary, action items, and follow-up email.
CenterOS will scaffold the workflow, document its inputs and outputs, and keep it consistent with the rest of the system.
To use the workflow later, start a normal session and tell your AI what you want to run:
Run the meeting-summary workflow on this transcript.
Replace meeting-summary with your workflow folder name and provide whatever input the workflow expects. The AI will follow the documented steps, produce the output, and append the required workflow log entry.
- Plain files first.
- Relative paths only.
- One concept per directory.
- Every important directory explains itself with
CONTEXT.md. - Every active component keeps an append-only
LOG.md. - Deterministic work should be handled by code whenever practical.
- AI judgment should be reserved for the parts that actually need judgment.
CenterOS is early and intentionally lightweight. It is meant to be cloned, personalized, and adapted.
MIT License. See LICENSE for details.
- SectionZero.ai - Learn how to customize your own CenterOS.
- Codemy.com - Learn to code in the AI world.
- JohnElder.com - John Elder's personal website.
Created by John Elder and the CenterOS.ai community.