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Nautilus OS Wiki

Welcome to the Nautilus OS wiki — a lightweight, low-RAM desktop environment for the Raspberry Pi 500, built entirely in Python on PySide6 (Qt for Python).

Nautilus is a floating-glass desktop shell with twelve native apps, each running as its own isolated process. The whole system targets under 350 MB of RAM at the desktop shell and stays usable on a 2 GB machine.

Quick Facts

Primary target	Raspberry Pi 500 (ARM64, 8 GB RAM recommended)
Also runs on	Any Linux / Windows machine with 64-bit Python 3.11+
UI framework	PySide6 (Qt for Python)
Shell memory base	under 350 MB
Design	Translucent "glass" surfaces over a generated ocean wallpaper, seafoam #00F2C2 accent on abyss-navy #081626
License	MIT

Getting Started

python3 core/main.py            # Linux / Raspberry Pi OS
py -3.13 core/main.py           # Windows

You boot into a login dialog, then the Nautilus desktop:

• Top bar — floating glass pill with logo, running-app indicators, CPU/RAM metrics, user avatar, clock, fullscreen and shutdown controls.
• Desktop — generated ocean wallpaper, a glass clock/greeting card, and a right-click menu.
• Dock — centered floating glass dock; the ⊞ button opens the full app grid, and each app tile shows a seafoam dot while running.
• Launchpad — full-screen app grid with a filter box and every app.

Global Shortcuts

Keys	Action
Meta / Ctrl+Alt+G	Toggle the app grid (Launchpad)
Ctrl+Space	Global search: apps + local files + web
F11 / Ctrl+Alt+F	Toggle fullscreen / windowed
Ctrl+Alt+Q	Shut down Nautilus
Ctrl+Alt+Esc	Minimize the shell to the system tray

The Apps

Each app is an independent process with its own entry point and its own wiki page:

App	Shortcut	Memory	Page
Abyssal IDE	Ctrl+Alt+A	80 MB	Abyssal
Surfline Browser	Ctrl+Alt+S	250 MB	Surfline
Riptide Audio	Ctrl+Alt+R	60 MB	Riptide
Cinema	Ctrl+Alt+M	180 MB	Cinema
Logbook	Ctrl+Alt+L	40 MB	Logbook
Mariner	Ctrl+Alt+E	20 MB	Mariner
Current Telemetry	Ctrl+Alt+C	15 MB	Current
Harbor File Manager	Ctrl+Alt+H	30 MB	Harbor
Tide Terminal	Ctrl+Alt+T	25 MB	Tide
Anchor Settings	Ctrl+Alt+,	20 MB	Anchor
Kraken AI	Ctrl+Alt+K	120 MB	Kraken
Reef Messenger	Ctrl+Alt+Z	40 MB	Reef

Shell & System

Beyond the apps, Nautilus ships a set of core system services:

• NautilusShell (core/main.py) — floating-glass desktop: top bar, dock, launchpad, tray, shortcuts, login gate.
• AppLauncher (core/launcher.py) — APP_MANIFEST routing table + process lifecycle (launch / track / terminate via process groups).
• Theme (core/theme.py) — centralized design tokens + global QSS stylesheet shared by the shell and every app.
• Auth (core/auth.py) — login gate with PBKDF2 hashing, lockout, and hashed sessions over the live wallpaper.
• Icons & Wallpapers (core/icons.py, core/wallpaper.py, core/wallpapers.py) — programmatic logo and wallpaper generation, cached to assets/.
• Global Search (core/search.py, core/search_overlay.py) — offline-first search across apps, files, and web, bound to Ctrl+Space.
• Kraken AI assets (core/ai_assets.py) — optional local ComfyUI-based generator for wallpapers, app icons, and control icons (FLUX.2-klein).
• Security toolkit (core/security/) — opt-in red/blue team CLI for network discovery, monitoring, and integrity checks.

Where Data Lives

Location	Contents
~/.kraken/	Kraken config, API keys, agent specs, SQLite memory
~/.reef/	Reef messenger accounts + messages
~/.nautilus/	Wallpaper selection, search config, brain database
~/Documents/Logbook/	Logbook notes archive
~/Cinema/Movies, ~/Cinema/TV	Imported Cinema media
assets/logos/, assets/wallpapers/	Generated logos and wallpapers

Design Tokens

Token	Hex	Usage
Abyss Navy	#081626	Main window backdrops, root viewports
Slate Navy	#0E2238	Sidebars, toolbars, inactive panels
Seafoam	#00F2C2	Primary accent — carets, active borders, running dots
Coral	#FF7F50	Errors, warnings, shutdown
HD White	#EEF4F8	Primary text, mono fonts

Development

# Lint
python3 -m ruff check .

# Smoke-test every app (launches each standalone, 4 s each)
python3 tests/smoke_test.py
python3 tests/smoke_test.py --app tide

# Kraken engine unit tests
python3 tests/test_kraken_engine.py
python3 tests/test_kraken_agents.py
python3 tests/test_kraken_providers.py

See the README for full installation instructions, the PROJECT_MAP for the repository layout, and PROJECT_BRAIN.py for the architecture knowledge map.