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Zephyr — a small-footprint RTOS for MCUs, embedded systems, and IoT devices

OSS scale score 319.5OSS health 92Update pace 3,590 commits/30d
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OSS scale score is an unbounded metric that log-compresses and weights Stars, Watchers, Forks, and Contributors. Discovery score is the current OSS scale score minus the score at discovery. Update pace is commits in the last 30 days, growth momentum is the OSS scale score difference within the recent observation window, and OSS health is a 0–100 rating based on available recency, Community Health, and release data.

Stars
16,562
Primary language
C
License
Apache-2.0
Repository last updated
Sep 19, 2026

Overview

Zephyr is a real-time operating system for resource-constrained devices ranging from sensors and wearables to smart watches and IoT gateways. It supports ARM, x86, RISC-V, Xtensa, and other architectures with board support, drivers, networking, Bluetooth, and security features.

Features and best fit

Based on official documentation; not hands-on tested · Content checked:

Provide a configurable small-footprint kernel and real-time primitives

Threads, scheduling, synchronization, memory management, and other services can be configured so constrained systems include only the functionality they need.

Sources: [2][4]

Unify boards, drivers, and networking across architectures

Zephyr supports many architectures and boards while using devicetree and Kconfig to configure drivers, Bluetooth, networking, and platform features.

Sources: [2][4]

For firmware platforms on MCUs, sensors, wearables, and IoT devices

Zephyr fits embedded projects that want reusable RTOS scheduling, drivers, protocol stacks, and security capabilities instead of assembling everything as bare metal.

Sources: [2]

Account for board/toolchain dependencies and configuration complexity

Real hardware requires target-specific toolchains, flashing/debug workflows, and memory validation. Because west, CMake, Kconfig, and devicetree interact, starting with native_sim or QEMU is a practical way to learn the build model.

Sources: [4]

Official sources

  1. [1]zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr repository(2026-09-20)
  2. [2]Zephyr README(2026-09-20)
  3. [3]Zephyr Apache-2.0 license(2026-09-20)
  4. [4]Zephyr documentation(2026-09-20)
  5. [5]Zephyr Getting Started Guide(2026-09-20)
Supplemental curator note

Zephyr fits devices too constrained for a general-purpose OS where scheduling, drivers, networking, and Bluetooth need a common RTOS foundation. Its board, devicetree, and Kconfig model targets real hardware, while native_sim lets developers exercise the build flow on a host before purchasing or flashing hardware.

Try it in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Create a west workspace

    Create a virtual environment and west workspace following the official workflow, then fetch Zephyr and its modules.

    python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate && pip install west && west init zephyrproject && cd zephyrproject && west update
  2. 2

    Install Python dependencies

    Install Python requirements matching the checked-out Zephyr version and modules.

    west packages pip --install
  3. 3

    Run Hello World without hardware

    Use native_sim to verify the configure, build, and run workflow without flashing a physical board.

    west build -b native_sim zephyr/samples/hello_world -t run
Check the official README

Growth

Growth trends · Last 30 days

16,562 Stars

Trend data is still being collected.

Development activity

Last 90 days · weekly

Commits (last 30 days)
3,590
Open PRs
1,926
Issues opened
1,183
Issues closed
1,477
PRs opened
6,599
PRs merged
5,001

Issues

1,183 / 1,477

Jun 23Sep 20
Issues openedIssues closed

Pull requests

6,599 / 5,001

Jun 23Sep 20
PRs openedPRs merged

Maintenance

Median first response
11 min
Issue response rate
1.1% (1/94)

Based on up to the 100 newest issues opened by external users in the last 90 days. A first comment from an OWNER, MEMBER, or COLLABORATOR counts as a response; issues whose full comment history cannot be checked are excluded. The median and response rate update weekly.

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GitHub data

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GitHub Topics

  • rtos
  • iot
  • embedded
  • real-time
  • mcu
  • microcontroller
  • zephyr
  • zephyr-rtos
  • zephyros
  • bluetooth
  • bluetooth-le
  • embedded-c
Stars
16,562
Forks
10,000
Watchers
413
Open issues
2,005
Contributors
403
Primary language
C
License
Apache-2.0
Repository last updated
Sep 19, 2026
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