/ˈsɜːrkəl/ · from Zirkel, a drawing compass

Wield a very powerful machine — from your phone.

phantom makes a Linux box fully operable: it owns the screen, the input, the works. Zyrkel is the connection hub between you, your model, and phantom — so you can actually drive all that power from anywhere: a chat on your phone, or tools your model calls directly. Tiny, friendly, and it stays on your machine.

Get Started See it on GitHub
$ curl -fsSL https://phantomlinux.com/install.sh | bash

Installs the whole stack on a fresh, disposable VM. Or build from source.

Alpha · dual-use · keep no sensitive data on the VM · no warranty.

1.9K
Lines of Rust
2.4MB
Binary size
1
Rust crate
10
Dependencies
100%
Rust
Fig. 1 — your machine, on your phone A smiling phone connected by a compass-drawn arc to a happy Linux computer with Tux the penguin

phantom — a machine you can fully operate.

phantom takes a Linux box and makes every part of it operable. It runs the screen itself, holds the keyboard and mouse, and sits in the path of what programs do — the whole machine, system-wide, even with no monitor attached.

On its own, that's a remarkably capable engine. But an engine needs a driver — and that's zyrkel.

  • Owns the display — its own compositor, screen or no screen
  • Holds the input the kernel treats as real
  • Sits in the path of what programs read and write
  • Runs as a managed, always-on session
  • No cloud, no AI inside — it stays on your box
  • Open source — github.com/schlein-lab/phantom
Fig. 2 — the operability layerA helper hand typing keystrokes into a real application window

Your machine, wherever you are.

Each thing you're running gets its own thread: read it on your phone, type back, and zyrkel drives the real program through phantom — without ever stealing your focus. Spin up a fresh agent in its own thread, or keep a VS Code coding session going while you're away from the desk.

Many at once, each its own thread, named live and kept alive across reboots — reach them over Telegram or Slack today, or let your model drive them through zyrkel's tools.

  • Both ways — read your machine and reply, from anywhere
  • One thread per session, many at once, named live
  • Steer a coding agent without going back to the desk
  • Survives crashes and reboots
  • Picks up exactly where you left off
  • Reach it from Telegram, Slack, or your model's tools
Fig. 3 — both waysA phone and a computer connected by two-way arrows, a bidirectional bridge

Between you, the model, and phantom.

Power is only useful if you can wield it. Zyrkel sits in the middle with two faces — one for you (a chat on your phone) and one for your model (tools it can call) — and both drive phantom directly, focus-free. The hub that turns all that capability into something you can actually use, from anywhere.

Fig. 4 — three layersAn exploded technical diagram of three layers: operator, bridge, foundation
  • operatorYou, a script, or the model — whoever sends the command.
  • zyrkelThe hub: a chat for you, tools your model can call — both into phantom.
  • phantomThe operability: what makes the machine controllable at all. No AI, no network.

Get started.

Clone, build, go live. One tiny binary.

Build
git clone https://github.com/schlein-lab/zyrkel
cd zyrkel
cargo build --release
Go live
bash deploy/setup-persist.sh
# one thread per session

Linux — built on phantom.

Open. Free. Local.

Built by Christian Schlein at the Institute of Human Genetics, UKE Hamburg. Zyrkel is the connection hub; phantom is the OS it connects to. Open, free, and it stays on your box.

GitHub YouTube AG Schlein · UKE Hamburg