Writing a C++20M:N Scheduler from Scratch (EBR, Work-Stealing)
tiny_coro is a lightweight, educational M:N asynchronous runtime written from scratch using C++20 coroutines. It's designed to strip away the complexity of industrial libraries (like Seastar or Folly) to show the core mechanics clearly. Key Technical Features: M:N Scheduling: Maps M coroutines to N kernel threads (Work-Stealing via Chase-Lev deque). Memory Safety: Implements EBR (Epoch-Based Reclamation) to manage memory safely in lock-free structures without GC. Visualizations: I used Manim (the engine behind 3Blue1Brown) to create animations showing exactly how tasks are stolen and…
In plain words
tiny_coro is an educational M:N asynchronous runtime built from scratch in C++20 that demonstrates core scheduler mechanics through minimal code. It maps multiple coroutines to kernel threads using work-stealing queues and implements epoch-based reclamation for lock-free memory management without garbage collection. The project includes animated visualizations explaining task scheduling and execution. Designed for developers who want to understand how modern async runtimes work rather than just use them, the implementation keeps the core to roughly 1,000 lines of readable code.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
tiny_coro is a lightweight, educational M:N asynchronous runtime written from scratch using C++20 coroutines. It's designed to strip away the complexity of industrial libraries (like Seastar or Folly) to show the core mechanics clearly. Key Technical Features: M:N Scheduling: Maps M coroutines to N kernel threads (Work-Stealing via Chase-Lev deque). Memory Safety: Implements EBR (Epoch-Based Reclamation) to manage memory safely in lock-free structures without GC. Visualizations: I used Manim (the engine behind 3Blue1Brown) to create animations showing exactly how tasks are stolen and executed. Why I built it: To bridge the gap between "using coroutines" and "understanding the runtime." The code is kept minimal (~1k LOC core) so it can be read in a weekend.
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