Northstar
An open software forge for humans and agents
A self-hostable Git platform that owns repositories, issues, reviews, project memory, sandboxed agent execution, evidence, policy gates, rollback, and the final human merge decision.
- Role
- Creator & systems architect
- Built with
- Next.js · Go · PostgreSQL · Git · Docker
- Project dates
- 2026 - Present
overview
Northstar is a repository-native software forge where human and agent work share one evidence trail. It includes Git hosting, organizations, issues, reviews, runners, project memory, agent objectives, sandboxed execution, policy checks, and recovery operations.
problem
Adding an AI integration to an existing forge leaves the most important decisions fragmented across bots, pull requests, logs, and external sandboxes. A trustworthy agent workflow needs repository ownership, approval boundaries, execution evidence, independent review, rollback, and operational history to agree.
approach
I designed a self-hostable open core with native smart-HTTP and SSH Git access, commit-bound reviews, background migration, signed webhooks, disposable network-controlled sandboxes, independent review agents, repository policies, metered model budgets, backup verification, and incident-aware rollback.
outcome
The current alpha supports real repository hosting and migration plus approved agent objectives that produce patches, test evidence, review results, and a human-controlled merge. The same codebase targets both community self-hosting and a managed cloud edition.
- Native Git hosting over authenticated smart HTTP and SSH
- Human-approved agent runs in disposable, policy-controlled sandboxes
- Patch, test, review, incident, and rollback evidence in one trail
- GitHub migration, runners, backups, audit exports, SSO, and model budgets