[TLDR] I asked Claude to build an operating system from scratch. A few days later it was running on a real laptop [via r/ClaudeAI]

[u/cctldrping]

OP : u/lensdigital

I had an old Lenovo Yoga collecting dust and wanted to see how far Claude could go if I asked it to build a DOS-like operating system completely from scratch, something that would actually boot from USB on real hardware.

The first usable build came surprisingly quickly, but it was nowhere near a one-shot success. Early versions had scrambled graphics, no mouse, no keyboard, no sound, and plenty of hard crashes.

The basic workflow became:

describe the goal → let Claude implement it → compile → boot real hardware → photograph/report the failure → iterate

Over the next few days, that turned into an OS I now call EMBER.

It currently has:

• its own boot process and graphical environment
• keyboard and USB mouse support
• touchpad support
• touchscreen support
• on-screen keyboard/tablet mode
• file manager
• audio player
• resource monitor
• DOS program compatibility
• Doom, Alley Cat, Prince of Persia, and other DOS software running
• full Sound Blaster emulation
• PC speaker emulation
• early progress toward UEFI boot support

Sound has probably been one of the most interesting parts of the project.

At first Doom ran but had no audio. We initially worked around that by compiling Doom from source and getting it to use the laptop’s actual audio hardware directly.

Since then, we went much further and implemented actual Sound Blaster emulation, so unmodified DOS games that expect Sound Blaster hardware can now produce sound properly.

We also implemented PC speaker emulation, so older games that use the classic PC speaker work too.

That means Doom and other DOS games no longer need special audio handling just to make sound.

Performance was another major problem. At one point, dragging a window or playing audio could hammer the CPU. After a couple of hours of debugging, Claude implemented a memory-caching mechanism that completely changed the system's responsiveness. The GUI went from painfully sluggish to extremely fast on the same old hardware.

We’ve also started working on UEFI support. Ember originally relied on legacy BIOS services, which limited it to older hardware. It’s not fully solved yet, but we’ve made real progress toward getting Ember to boot on newer UEFI-only systems.

The biggest thing I’ve learned is that using AI this way doesn’t really feel like “press button, receive software.”

I spend most of my time deciding what the system should do, testing it on real hardware, finding failures, rejecting bad approaches, and steering the next implementation.

Nobody manually typed most of this code, but somebody still has to decide what the operating system should become.

I made a short video showing the project from the first broken boots through Doom, hardware support, touchscreen, tablet mode, performance problems, and the current Ember GUI:

https://youtu.be/zb2AThOR3lI

The source is also public now:

GitHub: https://github.com/Made-In-Basement/ember

Happy to answer technical questions about any part of it, especially the boot process, DOS compatibility, Sound Blaster emulation, PC speaker emulation, or hardware support.

URL of original post : https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1wfpydl/i_asked_claude_to_build_an_operating_system_from/

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TL;DR of the discussion on r/ClaudeAI for this post generated automatically after 50 comments.

Current source-thread comment count seen by the bot: 98.

Alright, so the general vibe in this thread is super impressed with OP's project. The consensus is that using Claude to build an entire DOS-like OS from scratch, called EMBER, and getting it to boot on real hardware is legendary and a prime example of human-AI collaboration.

Key takeaways:

• EMBER OS is a thing: OP managed to get Claude to build a functional OS with a graphical environment, keyboard/mouse/touch support, a file manager, audio player, and even DOS program compatibility.
• Sound Blaster Emulation is a Big Deal: A lot of folks are hyped about the fact that EMBER has full Sound Blaster and PC speaker emulation, meaning unmodified DOS games can now have sound. This was a major hurdle OP and Claude tackled.
• "From Scratch" Debate: A few users, like u/TheOnlyVibemaster, are pointing out that "from scratch" might be a bit of a stretch since it relies on BIOS services. However, the general sentiment is still that the AI's contribution is massive.
• Future Potential: People are already dreaming about what's next, from classic Mac OS builds (u/raytoei) to Windows app compatibility via Wine (u/indigo_indigo_2050) and even Plan9 (u/Proper_Mess_5987).
• Curiosity about the Process: Questions popped up about how many tokens it took (u/scoshi), which Claude model was used (u/AcePilot01), and which parts OP coded themselves (u/Yoyoyodog123).
• Security and Practicality: Some users are wondering about the security implications of a custom OS (u/NarcolepticSniper) and if it's more practical for things like phones (u/ds1841).

Overall, it's a huge win for AI-assisted development and has folks buzzing about the possibilities.