Ne.app Kernel (NeAnt) Primer

NeAnt Product Documentation

Author: Amlal El Mahrouss (amlal at nekernel dot org)

Citing The Work

@book{El_Mahrouss_NeKernel_org_Primer,
  author = {El Mahrouss, Amlal},
  year = 2026,
  title = {{ne-app.eu System Primer.}},
  url = {https://src.nekernel.org}
}

Resources

https://github.com/ne-app-open/srchttps://github.com/ne-app-open/krnlhttps://github.com/ne-app-open/ncc

Abstract

Designing and implementing Low-Level Systems is one of the most challenging tasks in Software Engineering. Ne.app NeKernel Primer was designed to give you a head start. Ne.app NeKernel is written in modern C and C++, it also makes use of a new programming language called "Nectar".

Warning

Ne.app follows the Linux approach to using large language models in an operating system kernel. That means the author must disclose AI assistance and is legally liable for AI-assisted changes.

Requirements

You will need to install:

  • • NeBuild
  • • CoreUtils
  • • Git
  • • MinGW/Clang

What is an Hybrid Kernel?

Think of it as the layer who has the near-minimum needed in order to have what's considered an 'Operating System'.

These include, but not limited to:

  • → Inter Process Communication
  • → Process Scheduling
  • → Thread Management

Expanding the Hybrid Kernel — The 'Hello World' DDK

You will need to link against:

libDDK.dll

This first exercise will focus on implementing a simple DDK in C, which prints a simple 'Hello, World!' to NeKernel's console output.

Sources:

#include <DriverKit/DriverKit.h>

DDK_EXTERN void simple_kputc(const char ch) {
    char assembled[2] = {0};
    assembled[0]      = ch;
    assembled[1]      = 0;

    ke_call_dispatch("ke_put_string", 2, assembled, 2);
}

DDK_EXTERN void hello_ddk(void) {
    const char* message = "Hello, World!\n";
    
    while (*message != 0) {
        simple_kputc(*message);
        message++;
    }
}

One shall use NeBuild to compile the DDK as follows:

nebuild hello_ddk_manifest.{json, toml}

Where the manifest files contain the needed metadata to build the DDK driver, which links against libDDK.dll.

Adding a Kernel Subsystem — The 'GFXKit'

Adding a new subsystem is straightforward: add your directory 'GFXKit', include your headers, add the directory 'GFX' in 'kernel/src', then include the compilation of the GFX module in the makefiles.

[1] Note:

One should be careful to think about whether your subsystem could be part of an existing one — that would avoid reinventing the wheel.

[2] One can visualize a kernel subsystem as such:

Headers:

/GfxKit
    /GPU.h
    /FB.h
    /Packet.h

Sources:

/src/Gfx
    /GPUPacket.cpp
    /FBPacket.cpp

Next Steps

Practicing and experimenting with your distribution of the Ne System is what comes next after this primer. Please read the documentation available at https://docs.src.nekernel.org as well to learn more.

More pages like this will be made available online soon.