phalus

Private Headless Automated License Uncoupling System — a self-hosted tool for AI-powered clean room software reimplementation. Feed it a dependency manifest and it runs a two-phase, isolation-enforced LLM pipeline: Agent A reads only public documentation and produces a formal specification, Agent B reads only that specification and implements the package from scratch.

No user accounts. No payments. No SaaS. You run it on your own machine with your own API keys.

Documentation | Website | crates.io

Install

From crates.io

cargo install phalus

Download binary

Pre-built binaries for Linux (x86_64, aarch64), macOS (Apple Silicon), and Windows are available from GitHub Releases.

# Linux (x86_64)
curl -L https://github.com/phalus-sh/phalus/releases/latest/download/phalus-v0.4.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv phalus /usr/local/bin/

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -L https://github.com/phalus-sh/phalus/releases/latest/download/phalus-v0.4.0-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv phalus /usr/local/bin/

Docker

docker run -p 3000:3000 \
  -e PHALUS_LLM__AGENT_A_API_KEY=sk-ant-... \
  -e PHALUS_LLM__AGENT_B_API_KEY=sk-ant-... \
  ghcr.io/phalus-sh/phalus:latest

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/phalus-sh/phalus.git
cd phalus && cargo build --release -j2

Quick Start

Set your API keys:

export PHALUS_LLM__AGENT_A_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
export PHALUS_LLM__AGENT_B_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

Preview what would be processed:

phalus plan package.json

Run a single package through the full pipeline:

phalus run-one npm/left-pad@1.1.3 --license mit

Run all packages in a manifest:

phalus run package.json --license apache-2.0 --output ./reimplemented

Dry run (Agent A only, produce specs without implementation):

phalus run package.json --dry-run

Cross-language reimplementation:

phalus run package.json --license mit --target-lang rust

Inspect results:

phalus inspect ./phalus-output --audit
phalus inspect ./phalus-output --similarity
phalus inspect ./phalus-output --csp

Re-validate existing output:

phalus validate ./phalus-output --similarity-threshold 0.5

Supported Ecosystems

How It Works

Manifest → Registry Resolver → Doc Fetcher → Agent A (Analyzer)
    → Isolation Firewall → Agent B (Builder) → Validator → Output

1. Agent A reads only public documentation (README, API docs, type definitions) and produces a Clean Room Specification Pack (CSP) — 10 documents describing what the package does, never how.
2. The Isolation Firewall enforces separation: Agent B never sees the original documentation or source code. Only the CSP crosses the boundary, logged with SHA-256 checksums.
3. Agent B reads only the CSP and implements the package from scratch under your chosen license.
4. The Validator checks syntax, runs tests, scores similarity against the original, and flags anything above threshold.

Every step is recorded in an append-only audit trail.

Configuration

~/.phalus/config.toml:

[llm]
agent_a_provider = "anthropic"
agent_a_model = "claude-sonnet-4-6"
agent_a_api_key = ""
agent_b_provider = "anthropic"
agent_b_model = "claude-sonnet-4-6"
agent_b_api_key = ""

[llm.retry]
max_retries = 3
initial_backoff_ms = 500
timeout_secs = 120

[isolation]
mode = "context"    # context | process | container
docker_image = "alpine:3"
memory_limit = "256m"
cpu_limit = "1.0"
timeout_secs = 60
network_mode = "none"
pids_limit = 64

[limits]
max_packages_per_job = 50
max_package_size_mb = 10
concurrency = 3

[validation]
similarity_threshold = 0.70
run_tests = true
syntax_check = true

[output]
default_license = "mit"
output_dir = "./phalus-output"
include_csp = true
include_audit = true

[web]
enabled = false
host = "127.0.0.1"
port = 3000

[doc_fetcher]
max_readme_size_kb = 500
max_code_example_lines = 10
github_token = ""

All config keys can be overridden via environment variables with PHALUS_ prefix and double-underscore nesting:

PHALUS_LLM__AGENT_A_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
PHALUS_LLM__AGENT_A_MODEL=claude-sonnet-4-6
PHALUS_ISOLATION__MODE=process
PHALUS_WEB__ENABLED=true

Output Licenses

Web UI

Enable the optional local web UI:

PHALUS_WEB__ENABLED=true phalus run package.json

Or set web.enabled = true in config.toml. Serves on http://127.0.0.1:3000 by default.

Ethical Notice

This tool raises serious ethical and legal questions about open source sustainability. It exists for research, education, and transparent discourse — not to encourage license evasion. You are responsible for understanding the legal implications in your jurisdiction. The legality of AI-assisted clean room reimplementation is unsettled law.

Background

This project replicates the core pipeline demonstrated by Malus, presented at FOSDEM 2026 by Dylan Ayrey and Mike Nolan. PHALUS strips the concept down to the essential machinery: the pipeline, the isolation, and the audit trail.

License

0BSD