Build on Alfred Linux — Developer Foundation

The Problem

Starting from Debian is 10,000 hours of wheel-reinvention.

Here's what you'd have to build yourself — or what you get for free by forking Alfred.

✗ Start from Debian

Bare system. No AI. No voice. No agent. No build pipeline. No branding hooks. You're months from a bootable ISO with anything useful.

✗ Start from Ubuntu

Snap packages you can't remove. Telemetry. Canonical lock-in. Your "custom distro" is actually Ubuntu with a wallpaper change.

✗ Start from kernel.org

You'll spend 6 months getting networking to work before you can even think about your actual project.

✓ Start from Alfred Linux

Kernel 7.0.0-rc7. UEFI + BIOS. AI agent built in. Voice engine. 500+ MCP tools. 6-layer build system. One command to build your ISO. Fork and ship.

What You Inherit

Six layers. All yours to extend.

Alfred Linux is a layered architecture. Fork any layer, replace any layer, extend any layer.

L7 Your Project ← This is where you start. Everything below is already done.

L6 Calamares Graphical installer — let your users install to disk in 3 clicks

L5 Alfred Search Meilisearch — local-first search engine, no cloud dependency

L4 Alfred Voice Kokoro TTS engine — your OS speaks. Offline. No API keys.

L3 Alfred IDE Alfred IDE — full VS Code-compatible dev environment in browser

L2 Alfred Browser Tauri + WebKitGTK sovereign browser — no Google, no telemetry

L1 Base System Debian Trixie · Kernel 7.0.0-rc7 · XFCE4 · Plymouth · LightDM · Firmware

Each layer is a single hook script. Remove ones you don't need. Add your own. Build your ISO in one command.

Fork in 5 Minutes

Your custom Linux distro. Today.

Not weeks. Not months. Today.

Clone the repository

Get the entire build system — scripts, hooks, package lists, branding assets.

                    git clone https://alfredlinux.com/forge/commander/alfred-linux.git my-distro

                    cd my-distro

Customize your layers

Edit hooks in config/hooks/live/. Each is a self-contained bash script. Remove what you don't need, add what you do.

                    # Want voice but not the browser? Remove the browser hook:

                    rm config/hooks/live/0200-alfred-browser.hook.chroot

                    # Add your own layer:

                    cat > config/hooks/live/0700-my-app.hook.chroot << 'EOF'

                    #!/bin/bash

                    apt-get install -y my-custom-package

                    # Your setup logic here

                    EOF

Brand it

Hook 0100-alfred-customize.hook.chroot handles all branding — plymouth boot screen, wallpapers, fastfetch ASCII art, LightDM greeter. Change the names and images. Done.

Build your ISO

One command. Outputs a bootable hybrid ISO (BIOS + UEFI).

                    sudo ./scripts/build-unified.sh rc8 --uefi

                    # Output: iso-output/my-distro-3.0-rc-amd64-20260406.iso

                    # Size: ~2.5 GB · Boots on any PC · BIOS + UEFI

Ship it

Your ISO. Your distro. Your name. Built on a proven, AI-native foundation that already works.

Built-in SDK

500+ MCP tools. AI agent harness. Voice engine.

Every Alfred Linux ISO ships with infrastructure that would take you years to build.

AI Agent Harness

Multi-provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, Groq). Tool-calling loop. Session management. HTTP + CLI interface.

curl localhost:3102/chat

500+ MCP Tools

File operations, git, database, web scraping, code analysis, system administration — all callable by the AI agent.

gocodeme-mcp:3006

Kokoro TTS Voice

Offline text-to-speech. No cloud. No API keys. Your OS speaks. Hook into it from any application.

/usr/local/bin/kokoro

Meilisearch

Instant local search engine. Index anything. Sub-50ms results. Typo-tolerant. Runs on the device.

localhost:7700

Alfred IDE

Full VS Code in the browser. Extensions. Terminal. Git. Debug. Accessible from any device on the network.

localhost:8443

Live-Build Pipeline

Cumulative 6-stage build system. Each stage adds a layer. Skip what you don't need. Build from b1 to rc.

build-unified.sh

Build Requirements

What you need to build Alfred Linux (or your fork).

Build Host

Debian or Ubuntu server with root access
8+ GB RAM recommended
30+ GB free disk space
Fast internet for package downloads

Packages

live-build debootstrap
squashfs-tools xorriso
syslinux-utils
UEFI: grub-efi-amd64-bin mtools

        # Install build dependencies on Debian/Ubuntu:

        sudo apt install live-build debootstrap squashfs-tools xorriso syslinux-utils \

            grub-efi-amd64-bin grub-common mtools dosfstools

        # Clone and build:

        git clone https://alfredlinux.com/forge/commander/alfred-linux.git

        cd alfred-linux

        sudo ./scripts/build-unified.sh rc8 --uefi

Why Alfred as a Foundation

Compare starting points

Feature	kernel.org	Debian	Ubuntu	Alfred Linux
Bootable ISO in one command	✗	✗	✗	✓
Kernel 7.0.0-rc7	✓	✗ (6.1)	✗ (6.8)	✓
AI agent built in	✗	✗	✗	✓
Voice engine (offline TTS)	✗	✗	✗	✓
500+ MCP tools	✗	✗	✗	✓
Browser IDE included	✗	✗	✗	✓
BIOS + UEFI hybrid boot	✗	✓	✓	✓
Modular hook-based build	✗	✗	✗	✓
No telemetry / no Snap	✓	✓	✗	✓
Mobile installer (Android)	✗	✗	✗	✓
Time to first custom ISO	Months	Weeks	Days	Minutes

The question isn't "why Alfred?"

The question is "why would you start anywhere else?"

★ Fork on GoForge Download v4.0 RC8 ISO Read the Docs

Don't Start from Scratch.Start from Alfred.