signal acquired

any server.
one panel.

kern turns any folder on your computer into a managed server instance — with a live terminal, per-process telemetry, and graceful lifecycle. web servers, discord bots, local apis. teach it new types with plugins.

download view on github

every status is a signal. kern renders instance state as arrays of light-emitting micro-nodes — a glowing core, concentric rings, a slow sweep. green is running, amber is transitional, crimson is fault. the panel never lies about what’s alive.

// live terminal

stream stdout. pipe stdin.

process stdout/stderr streamed live to the ui, appended to latest.log, with full ansi color parsing, dimmed timestamps, and command history. the input box is a command dispatcher.

web_api · latest.log

[12:04:28][INFO]Starting web server (node 22)

[12:04:29][WARN]No .env found, using defaults

[12:04:31][INFO]listening on 0.0.0.0:3000

[12:05:02][INFO]GET /api/health 200 2ms

[12:05:44][INFO]POST /api/users 201 14ms

[12:05:44][INFO]server ready

dispatch:startstoprestart· or type a command

// lifecycle

start. stop. restart. gracefully.

driven by each plugin’s lifecycle manifest. commands support {{userOverrides.*}} templating resolved at launch by rust.

discord_bot · lifecycle

// graceful shutdown

15-second timeout before hard-kill.

deliberately tuned so in-flight requests finish — active connections drain before teardown. no silent drops.

// file editor

edit in place. safe paths.

monaco editor with a file tree, tabbed multi-file editing, path-traversal protection, and drag-and-drop copy from the os.

explorer

web_api
app.js
.env
package.json
src
routes
nodemon.json

server.properties+ eula.txt

# server config
PORT=3000
NODE_ENV=production
LOG_LEVEL=info
CORS_ORIGIN=https://myapp.com

// plugins

teach it new server types.

the app is intentionally generic. plugins teach it how to run each type of server — a .kern file with a manifest, a config schema, lifecycle commands, and an isolated ui bundle.