- Go 90.4%
- JavaScript 4.4%
- Python 3.8%
- Shell 0.6%
- Makefile 0.3%
- Other 0.5%
Thomas Mangin
3bf865949f
The gokrazy config had only ze_core, so the appliance binary was built without SSH (ze_ssh) or any other feature gate. Added all default-on feature gates to match the Makefile ze-appliance target. |
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| .claude | ||
| .github/workflows | ||
| .woodpecker | ||
| ai | ||
| api/proto | ||
| cmd | ||
| docker | ||
| docs | ||
| etc/ze | ||
| examples/plugin/go | ||
| gokrazy | ||
| internal | ||
| iso | ||
| mk | ||
| parked | ||
| pkg | ||
| plan | ||
| rfc | ||
| scripts | ||
| test | ||
| third_party/web | ||
| tools | ||
| vendor | ||
| .dockerignore | ||
| .gitignore | ||
| .golangci.yml | ||
| .gomuignore | ||
| CLA.md | ||
| CONTRIBUTING.md | ||
| feature-gates.txt | ||
| go.mod | ||
| go.sum | ||
| LICENSE | ||
| Makefile | ||
| README.md | ||
| SECURITY.md | ||
| tools.go | ||
Ze
Pre-release -- Ze is under active development and has not been released yet. The core BGP engine works and is extensively tested (as of 2026-04: 12,800+ unit tests, 900+ functional tests, 57 fuzz targets, chaos testing, and 35 Docker-based interop scenarios against FRR, BIRD, GoBGP, OpenBGPd, FreeRtr, RustyBGP, and rustbgpd), but some advanced features are still incomplete. APIs and config syntax may change.
Ze is an open-source network operating system for Linux. It speaks BGP, manages network interfaces, programs the FIB, and serves a config editor over SSH and a web UI. Everything beyond the core is a plugin. Plugins can be Go modules or external processes in any language. An MCP server can let AI assistants discover all its features (including plugins) and operate them directly.
The engine is a supervisor that composes a message bus, a config provider, and a plugin manager. It has no knowledge of BGP or any specific protocol. BGP, interface management, and everything else register as subsystems and plugins.
It is the successor to ExaBGP to be a fully programmable network stack for device configuration and network automation.
Components
| Component | Role |
|---|---|
| BGP engine | TCP connections, FSM, message parsing, capability negotiation |
| Interfaces | Linux network management: ethernet, bridge, VLAN, tunnels, WireGuard, DHCP, NTP |
| FIB | Route installation into the kernel forwarding table (netlink) or VPP data plane |
| Config | YANG-modeled configuration with commit, rollback, and live reload |
| CLI | SSH-accessible interactive editor and command shell |
| Web UI | Browser-based configuration editor and admin dashboard |
| Looking glass | Peer status and route viewer, birdwatcher-compatible API |
| Telemetry | Prometheus metrics export with optional Basic Auth and Netdata-compatible OS collectors |
| MCP | Model Context Protocol server for AI tool integration |
Plugins
| Type | Plugins |
|---|---|
| Storage | bgp-rib, bgp-adj-rib-in, bgp-persist |
| Policy | bgp-rs, bgp-filter-community, bgp-role |
| Resilience | bgp-gr, bgp-watchdog, bgp-route-refresh |
| Validation | bgp-rpki, bgp-rpki-decorator |
| Capabilities | bgp-aigp, bgp-hostname, bgp-llnh, bgp-softver |
| Address families | bgp-nlri-vpn, bgp-nlri-evpn, bgp-nlri-flowspec, bgp-nlri-ls, bgp-nlri-labeled, bgp-nlri-vpls, bgp-nlri-mvpn, bgp-nlri-rtc, bgp-nlri-mup |
IPv4/IPv6 unicast and multicast are built into the engine. See Feature Inventory for details.
Wire Performance
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Parsing | Lazy via offset iterators, no upfront deserialization |
| Forwarding | Zero-copy when source and destination share encoding context |
| Encoding | Buffer-first: all wire writes into pooled, bounded buffers |
| Dedup | Per-attribute-type pools with refcounted handles |
ExaBGP
Existing ExaBGP plugins work unchanged via a bridge. ze config migrate converts ExaBGP configs.
If you are an ExaBGP user, we would love your feedback on the migration experience. Please try ze config migrate with your configs and let us know what works and what does not -- even at this early stage, that feedback shapes the project. File issues or reach out on Discord.
Testing
| Type | Scope |
|---|---|
| Unit tests | 10,000+ test functions as of 2026-04 |
| Linting | 26 linters |
| Functional tests | Roughly 800 .ci files as of 2026-04: config parsing, wire encoding, plugin behavior, reloads, UI/editor flows, L2TP, firewall, and web |
| Fuzz testing | 50+ targets covering external input parsing as of 2026-04 |
| Chaos testing | Deterministic replay with configurable scenarios |
Deployment
Ze runs as a daemon under systemd (or any process manager) on any Linux, or as a dedicated appliance image built with gokrazy for purpose-built hardware. Same binary, same config format, same CLI.
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Any Linux | Standard daemon, integrates with systemd, journald, and your existing tooling. See Operations |
| Appliance | Immutable boot image for N100 mini PCs or VMs: read-only root, no shell, automatic supervision. See VM Appliance |
You own the config, the plugins, and the hardware. No per-instance licensing, no vendor portal, no cloud dependency.
Quick Start
git clone https://codeberg.org/thomas-mangin/ze.git && cd ze
make build # produces bin/ze
bin/ze init # set up SSH credentials (once)
bin/ze config import router.conf # or: ze config edit
bin/ze start
Requires Go 1.26+ on a macOS or Linux development host. Windows is not a supported development platform. See the Quick Start guide.
I Want To...
| Task | Start here |
|---|---|
| Try Ze for the first time | Quick Start |
| Announce routes to my upstream | Route Injection |
| Migrate from ExaBGP | ExaBGP Migration |
| Monitor BGP sessions | Monitoring |
| Restart without dropping routes | Graceful Restart |
| Validate routes against RPKI | RPKI |
| Write a plugin (Go, Python, Rust) | Plugin Development |
| Understand the internals | Architecture |
| Build a route server at an IXP | Route Reflection (please don't, not yet) |
| Run Ze in production | Operations |
| Build a dedicated network appliance | VM Appliance |
| Compare Ze with other daemons | Comparison |
Documentation
| Architecture | One-page overview: components, data flow, key abstractions |
| User Guide | Configuration, plugins, operations, and feature guides |
| Design Document | Full design rationale, wire format details, performance analysis |
| Feature Inventory | Protocols, attributes, capabilities, CLI commands |
| Command Reference | All shell and runtime commands |
| Plugin Development | Writing external plugins, IPC protocol, SDK |
| Comparison | Ze vs FRR, BIRD, GoBGP, OpenBGPd, and others |
An AI-Assisted Project
Ze exists because AI coding assistants (Claude Code) made a ground-up BGP rewrite feasible for a solo developer. The author focused on architecture and design decisions informed by a decade of ExaBGP; AI handled the volume of protocol encoding, boilerplate, and test generation.
Contributors using Claude Code have access to 19 project-specific slash commands for specs, implementation, review, and testing. See the Claude Code cheat sheet.
License and Contributions
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
Contributions are welcome if they follow the contribution process. A Contributor License Agreement applies.
Links
| Official repo | github.com/ze-software/ze |
| Development | codeberg.org/thomas-mangin/ze |
| Issues | github.com/ze-software/ze/issues |
| Discord | discord.gg/ykJb8meS4 |
| ExaBGP | github.com/Exa-Networks/exabgp |