MDE Construct
A secure, no-fixed-center workgroup mesh — and the egui-native, DRM-native desktop that runs on it. Up to eight machines form one private, encrypted workgroup with no central server: any node can author fleet policy, every node enforces it.
- Category
- Mesh-native desktop OS
- Primary language
- Rust
- Platform
- Stock Fedora 44
- Sheet
- E-03
A workgroup with no center to lose.
MDE Construct pairs a leaderless encrypted mesh with a native thin client that brokers full VM desktops — all over an overlay network with distributed coordination and replication.
01No-fixed-center mesh
Up to eight machines form one private, encrypted workgroup with no central server and no single point of failure.
02Any-node policy authoring
Fleet policy can be authored from any node; every node enforces it, so control is shared rather than centralised.
03egui-native desktop
A DRM-native desktop rendered natively over the mesh — not a web wrapper, but a real graphical shell.
04Thin-client VDI
The client brokers full VM desktops — Windows, Ubuntu, and more — streamed and rendered over the mesh.
05Nebula overlay network
All traffic rides a Nebula overlay, giving every node a stable, authenticated, encrypted address on the workgroup.
06etcd coordination
Distributed coordination keeps fleet state consistent across nodes without electing a permanent leader.
07Syncthing replication
State and assets replicate between nodes with Syncthing, so any machine can carry the workgroup forward.
08Runs on stock Fedora
Installs on unmodified Fedora — no custom kernel or bespoke distribution required to join the mesh.
Rust, top to bottom.
The mesh, the policy engine, and the native desktop are all written in Rust — one memory-safe language across a system where a crash or a leak is not an option.
The leaderless workgroup mesh and the policy layer that every node authors and enforces — memory-safe and concurrent by design.
The DRM-native graphical desktop, built on egui and rendered directly over the mesh with no web layer in between.
Proven components for overlay networking, coordination, and replication, orchestrated by the Rust core.
Proven under partition and failure.
A leaderless mesh is only as good as its behaviour when nodes drop, so MDE Construct is tested against the failure modes that matter — partitions, churn, and policy conflicts.
- Multi-node integration tests spin up full workgroups and verify convergence.
- Partition & churn tests confirm the mesh heals when nodes leave and rejoin.
- Policy-enforcement tests assert every node applies authored policy identically.
- Property-based tests exercise the coordination logic across generated states.
- VDI brokering tests validate that VM desktops attach and render over the mesh.
- Rust safety guarantees — the borrow checker and
cargo testgate every change.
Encrypted by default, centralised by nothing.
Security is structural: there is no central server to breach, all traffic is encrypted on the overlay, and policy is enforced uniformly across the workgroup.
- No central server — there is no single system to compromise or subpoena.
- Encrypted overlay — all node-to-node traffic is authenticated and encrypted via Nebula.
- Uniform policy enforcement — every node applies the same authored rules, no exceptions.
- DRM-native desktop — the graphical layer renders on stock kernel DRM, not a shimmed stack.
- Bounded workgroup — membership is capped at eight known, authenticated nodes.
- Open source — the full Rust implementation is published for inspection.