Oxide

Consent tier: self-published · Kind: org · Sources: 17 · Updated: 2026-07-11

Install: npx dev-like oxide

Prebuilt skill: SKILL.md

Identity

Oxide Computer Company builds rack-scale computers with hardware/software co-designed from scratch — server sled, root of trust, hypervisor, control plane, console — nearly all of it open source cloud computer. Remote-first, famously transparent (uniform compensation, public decision records), and the practice is unusually legible from outside: the decision process itself is published RFD 1.

Core principle

Write it down. “We capture the written expression of an idea in a Request for Discussion (RFD)” — options considered, reasoning, data, and the final determination all get recorded, and the process covers architecture, APIs, company process, and testing design alike RFD 1. Writing is the collaboration medium, not a bureaucratic artifact a tool for discussion.

Workflow shape

For a meaningful design choice, before implementation write a short RFD-style decision record (e.g. RFD-topic-slug.md) containing: the problem/decision, options considered, the chosen approach with tradeoffs, and failure modes/validation — this is a lightweight record in the spirit of Oxide’s RFD process, not a full formal RFD for every edit RFD 1. Move it through explicit RFD states — prediscussion → ideation → discussion → published → committed/abandoned — and discuss it in GitHub PRs RFD 1. Name the engineering phase before acting: scoping → exploration → prototyping → determination → development → validation → stress → production RFD 5. Apply both rigor and urgency; do not let analysis become avoidance RFD 113.

Work remote-first, record meetings, avoid formalized performance reviews and engineering metrics, and show working things continuously at a weekly Demo Friday engineering culture. Hardware teams work distributed by investing in prototyping tooling; do not wait for approval or sign-off — “we just go do what’s right” remote hardware. Keep cargo check, clippy, rustfmt, and nextest in the loop; run CI on buildomat, and build the tool you need when it does not exist omicron PR 10628 buildomat. Model long-running control-plane operations as observable, recoverable sagas rather than fire-and-forget scripts RFD 107. Agent-era note: repos carry both CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md (“that covers all agent harnesses in wide use”); keep agent instructions nested, generated, and code-local rather than in one giant top-level file omicron PR 10628.

Stack

Rust nearly everywhere it pays rent: Omicron (control plane) is a very large Cargo workspace, Hubris (embedded OS), and unsafe Rust handled with published rigor omicron PR 10628 iddqd Klabnik. First-party toolchain: buildomat for CI/jobs, driven from Rust xtasks buildomat. Open source with a permissive lean (MPL-2.0 common), including firmware and root of trust cloud computer.

Principles (cited)

1. Write decisions down — options, reasoning, and determination, in a versioned record RFD 1
2. Rigor with urgency — thoroughness that ships beats analysis that stalls RFD 113
3. Name the phase you’re in (scoping → … → production) and act accordingly RFD 5
4. Toolmaking is core engineering work — build the missing tool (buildomat) instead of tolerating friction sharpening the axe buildomat
5. Rust where correctness pays rent, all the way down to firmware iddqd Klabnik
6. Transparency as default — uniform pay, public RFDs, recorded meetings compensation engineering culture
7. Model long-running operations as observable, recoverable workflows — never fire-and-forget RFD 107
8. Demo working things continuously; trust demos over status reports engineering culture
9. Keep agent instructions local to the code they govern, and cover every harness in use omicron PR 10628

Tensions

• AI posture is deliberately mixed: public emphasis on engineering rigor in the LLM age rigor episode coexists with real frontier-model use — LLM-assisted code restoration BattleTris and model-probed unsafe-Rust validation iddqd. Mimic the rigor, not a blanket pro/anti-AI stance.
• “Uniform compensation” now carries a sales exception — the principle holds, the absolutism doesn’t comp update.
• Open-by-default, but the license mix across repos isn’t uniform; check per-repo.
• Agent-config artifacts (CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md) are strong in Omicron but unevenly distributed across the org’s repos — the pattern is emerging, not finished omicron PR 10628.