NativeLink: The free and open source simulation infrastructure platform written in Rust

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Today, we are excited to release NativeLink – a Rust implementation of Bazel's Remote Build Execution protocol (RBE) and Content Addressable Storage (CAS) designed to run your code and get out of the way. NativeLink seamlessly integrates with Bazel, Reclient, Goma, and Buck2. It comes at no cost and works on every major operating system. 

Offering a vendor neutral solution out the gate was important to us and we will soon offer more options. Part of vendor neutrality began with supporting four different build systems that implement the RBE protocol. Given our focus on mission-critical systems with native code, reproducibility and hermiticity have been our guiding lights. 

Based on feedback from our earliest users, we made a few design choices around the runtime, I/O, and software supply chain. We do not have any garbage collection, supporting more deterministic and predictable execution. In addition, the tunable and highly performant asynchronicity afforded by Rust has allowed us to achieve concurrency and memory safety that were previously impracticable in most industries prior to its creation. Ultimately, we  strive for scale, modern SBOM transparency, and verifiability. The software supply chain is the biggest threat to computer security in 2023. For mission critical products, the risks are much greater. Critical systems cannot rely on closed source. 

Your contributions, questions, and community support are encouraged. Join our Slack to learn more.