ORCA · Open Robust Compartmentalization Alliance · a foundation of The Linux Foundation

ORCA Is Now Accepting Projects

We're open for projects

The Open Robust Compartmentalization Alliance (ORCA) is ready to welcome its first projects. If you are building or researching ways to isolate and compartmentalize real systems across the stack, we invite you to bring your work to ORCA.

We are now accepting proposals to enter ORCA at the Sandbox level, the entry point into our hosted project ecosystem. This announcement explains what ORCA is looking for, what your project is asked to contribute, what it receives in return, and how to apply.

Why ORCA, and why now

Attacks are getting faster, cheaper, and more automated, increasingly with the help of AI tooling. The industry already invests heavily in reducing the chance that a bug can be exploited. ORCA focuses on the other half of the risk equation: limiting the consequences when something does go wrong.

Strong compartment boundaries through clean separation of components help ensure that a single compromise does not cascade into a full-system failure. ORCA is a neutral, vendor-independent home for the people turning that idea into deployable, everyday defense in depth — and a crossroads where isolation efforts from across the stack come together, reinforce one another, and reach a wider audience than any one of them could alone.

What we're looking for

ORCA is intentionally cross-layer. We are interested in techniques that reinforce one another across the stack, including:

  • Languages & runtimes — memory-safe programming languages, capability systems
  • User-space isolation — WebAssembly, sandboxes, software fault isolation (SFI), isolation libraries
  • Containers & orchestration — multi-tenant services, cloud isolation
  • Operating systems & kernels — compartmentalized OS designs
  • Hypervisors & virtualization — VM isolation, secure hosting layers
  • Hardware & processors — architectural support, memory protection

A strong candidate project is aligned with the ORCA mission and is either a novel approach in one of these areas or addresses an unfulfilled need.

What your project gets

In exchange for meeting the requirements at each level, projects are eligible for an assortment of benefits and access to the Alliance's resources. From day one at the Sandbox level, a project can expect:

  • Technical guidance — architecture and roadmap alignment, with guidance on technical direction from the Technical Steering Committee (TSC)
  • Communication and collaboration support — ORCA mailing list, Slack, GitHub, calendaring and meeting recordings through the Linux Foundation, and social media and external-engagement support
  • Basic infrastructure support — such as a mailing list and GitHub repository
  • Best-effort ORCA staff support
  • Conference and event consideration — in-scope status for submissions to any ORCA-managed conference or event
  • Governance and administration support — project charter development and review, TSC setup, IP and license review, operations and maintenance, and technical support
  • A recognized identity — the ability to describe your work as “a sandbox project in the ORCA”
  • Fundraising help — with TSC approval, coordination and letters of support for grants and dedicated project funds

These benefits grow as a project matures into the Incubating and Graduated stages, adding a custom ORCA logo and the right to use the ORCA brand to promote the project (e.g., “ORCA $ProjectName”), posts on the ORCA blog, project swag, booth space at ORCA-managed events, advanced infrastructure such as cloud hosting, ORCA budget for security audits, and higher-priority staff support. See the “Gives and Gets” document for the full set of requirements and benefits at each level.

The project ladder

Projects join ORCA at the Sandbox level and can grow through three maturity stages:

  • Sandbox — the entry point for promising, early-stage, or experimental work
  • Incubating — projects with documented governance, an active and diverse community, and demonstrable adoption
  • Graduated — mature projects with proven governance, a documented roadmap, a consistent release cadence, and a completed security assessment

Please refer to the “Gives and Gets” document for more information.

How to apply

  1. Create an issue in the ORCA TSC repository requesting to enter the Sandbox stage.
  2. Come talk to us first if you'd like. We're glad to discuss fit, answer questions, and help you prepare a strong proposal before you file.

To start a conversation, reach out through any of these channels:

ORCA spans the whole stack, from hardware up through operating systems, runtimes, and the applications that run on them. Wherever your work sits, if you care about isolation and compartmentalization, there is a place for your project here. We look forward to building it with you.