diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3f0aa28bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -0,0 +1,133 @@
+# CLAUDE.md - BurmillaOS Development Guide
+
+## Project Overview
+
+BurmillaOS is a minimal Linux distribution where **everything runs as a Docker container**, including system services. It is the community-maintained successor to RancherOS. The OS uses a dual-Docker architecture: **System Docker** (PID 1) manages OS-level containers, and **User Docker** runs user workloads in isolation.
+
+## Build System
+
+### Prerequisites
+- Docker (for `dapper` containerized builds)
+- `make`
+
+### Key Commands
+```bash
+make build           # Build the ros binary and images
+make test            # Run Go tests with race detection
+make validate        # Run go vet + go fmt checks
+make pr-validation   # CI validation (skips kernel build, runs test + validate)
+make release         # Build all release artifacts (ISO, initrd, etc.)
+```
+
+### Build Architecture
+- Uses **dapper** (containerized build tool) with `Dockerfile.dapper` (Ubuntu 18.04 base)
+- Go 1.19.5 with `GO111MODULE=off` (GOPATH-based vendoring, NOT Go modules)
+- Cross-compilation targets: `amd64`, `arm64`
+- Build scripts live in `scripts/` directory
+
+### Dependency Management
+- Uses **trash** tool (not Go modules) - dependencies declared in `trash.conf`
+- Vendor directory is checked in (`vendor/`)
+- To update dependencies: edit `trash.conf`, then run `make deps`
+
+## Project Structure
+
+```
+cmd/                    # CLI entry points
+  control/              # Main `ros` CLI (subcommands for OS management)
+  cloudinitexecute/     # Cloud-init execution
+  cloudinitsave/        # Cloud-init config saving
+  init/                 # System initialization
+  network/              # Network configuration (netconf)
+  power/                # halt, poweroff, reboot, shutdown
+  sysinit/              # System init
+  respawn/              # Process respawning
+
+pkg/                    # Core libraries
+  init/                 # Init subsystem (bootstrap, cloudinit, docker, fsmount, etc.)
+  compose/              # Docker Compose integration
+  dfs/                  # Docker filesystem utilities
+  docker/               # Docker client operations
+  hostname/             # Hostname management
+  libcompose/           # Internal libcompose replacement (12 subpackages)
+  log/                  # Logging
+  netconf/              # Network configuration (bridges, bonds, VLANs, DHCP, IPv4LL)
+  sysinit/              # System initialization
+  util/                 # Utilities (network, versioning)
+
+config/                 # Configuration types, parsing, validation
+  cloudinit/            # Cloud-init documentation and schemas
+
+images/                 # Docker container image definitions
+  00-rootfs/            # Base root filesystem
+  01-base/              # Base image
+  02-*/                 # System services (acpid, bootstrap, console, logrotate, syslog)
+
+scripts/                # Build, package, release, and CI scripts
+```
+
+## Key Entry Point
+
+`main.go` registers reexec handlers that map binary names to functions:
+- `init` -> system init
+- `cloud-init-execute/save` -> cloud-init
+- `netconf` -> network configuration
+- `ros-sysinit` / `ros-bootstrap` -> system/bootstrap init
+- Default -> `control.Main()` (the `ros` CLI)
+
+## Testing
+
+```bash
+# Run all tests
+make test
+
+# Run tests directly (from inside dapper container or with correct GOPATH)
+go test -v -cover -tags=test ./...
+
+# Validate code (vet + fmt)
+make validate
+```
+
+Test files are alongside source: `config/*_test.go`, etc.
+
+## Custom/Forked Dependencies
+
+BurmillaOS maintains forked versions of several critical dependencies under the `burmilla` GitHub organization. These are declared in `trash.conf` with custom repository URLs.
+
+### Why Custom runc?
+- **Package**: `github.com/opencontainers/runc` -> fork at `github.com/burmilla/runc.git`
+- **Usage**: Only the `libcontainer/user` package is imported (user/group lookup from `/etc/passwd` and `/etc/group`)
+- **Used by**: Vendored Docker packages (`docker/go-connections`, `docker/docker/pkg/homedir`)
+- **Reason**: Inherited from RancherOS. The fork maintains compatibility with the specific Docker version used by BurmillaOS's System Docker (v17.06.107). The actual runc binary is bundled with System Docker, downloaded as a pre-built binary from `github.com/burmilla/os-system-docker`
+
+### Why Custom netlink?
+- **Package**: `github.com/vishvananda/netlink` -> fork at `github.com/burmilla/netlink`
+- **Usage**: Extensively used in `pkg/netconf/` for network configuration
+- **Features used**: Link management (bridge, bond, VLAN creation), IP address management, routing, IPv4 link-local addressing
+- **Reason**: The fork contains patches for BurmillaOS-specific network configuration needs including bridge creation for container networking, VLAN tagging, interface bonding, and zero-config networking (IPv4LL). Migrated from `niusmallnan/netlink` to `burmilla/netlink` in May 2021
+
+### Other Custom Forks
+- `burmilla/docker.git` - Docker engine (System Docker patches)
+- `burmilla/containerd.git` - containerd runtime
+- `burmilla/candiedyaml` - YAML parser
+- `burmilla/cli-1` - CLI framework
+- `burmilla/libcompose.git` - Docker Compose library (replaced by compose-spec/compose-go + pkg/libcompose)
+
+## Configuration
+
+- **OS config template**: `os-config.tpl.yml` - defines defaults (DHCP, DNS, services)
+- **Config types**: `config/types.go` - constants, paths, labels
+- **Network config types**: `pkg/netconf/types.go`
+
+## CI/CD
+
+- **PR validation**: `.github/workflows/pull-request-validation.yml` (runs `make pr-validation`)
+- **Releases**: `.github/workflows/create-release.yml` (manual trigger, builds + publishes)
+
+## Common Pitfalls
+
+- This project uses `GO111MODULE=off` - do NOT add `go.mod`/`go.sum` files
+- Dependencies are managed via `trash.conf`, not `go mod`
+- The `ros` binary is a multi-call binary (behavior changes based on argv[0])
+- System Docker is a separate pre-built binary, not built from this repo's vendor tree
+- Network configuration (`pkg/netconf/`) operates at the Linux netlink level - test on real/virtual hardware
diff --git a/pkg/netconf/bonding.go b/pkg/netconf/bonding.go
index f75f65c20..a61ee20a8 100644
--- a/pkg/netconf/bonding.go
+++ b/pkg/netconf/bonding.go
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ func (b *Bonding) init() error {
 		log.Info("Loading bonding kernel module")
 		cmd := exec.Command("modprobe", "bonding")
 		cmd.Stderr = os.Stderr
-		cmd.Stdout = os.Stdin
+		cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout
 		err = cmd.Run()
 		if err != nil {
 			for i := 0; i < 30; i++ {
diff --git a/pkg/netconf/ipv4ll_linux.go b/pkg/netconf/ipv4ll_linux.go
index ef719063e..27c8bd75a 100644
--- a/pkg/netconf/ipv4ll_linux.go
+++ b/pkg/netconf/ipv4ll_linux.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"math/rand"
 	"net"
+	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/burmilla/os/pkg/log"
 
@@ -21,7 +22,7 @@ func AssignLinkLocalIP(link netlink.Link) error {
 		return err
 	}
 	for _, addr := range addrs {
-		if addr.String()[:7] == "169.254" {
+		if strings.HasPrefix(addr.String(), "169.254") {
 			log.Info("Link Local IP already set on interface")
 			return nil
 		}
@@ -30,9 +31,9 @@ func AssignLinkLocalIP(link netlink.Link) error {
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	randGenerator := rand.New(*randSource)
 	// try a random address upto 10 times
 	for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
-		randGenerator := rand.New(*randSource)
 		randomNum := randGenerator.Uint32()
 		dstIP := getNewIPV4LLAddr(randomNum)
 		if dstIP[2] == 0 || dstIP[2] == 255 {
@@ -65,7 +66,7 @@ func RemoveLinkLocalIP(link netlink.Link) error {
 		return err
 	}
 	for _, addr := range addrs {
-		if addr.String()[:7] == "169.254" {
+		if strings.HasPrefix(addr.String(), "169.254") {
 			if err := netlink.AddrDel(link, &addr); err != nil {
 				log.Error("ipv4ll addr del failed")
 				return err
diff --git a/pkg/netconf/netconf_linux.go b/pkg/netconf/netconf_linux.go
index 32776d0e0..93b4bd567 100644
--- a/pkg/netconf/netconf_linux.go
+++ b/pkg/netconf/netconf_linux.go
@@ -514,7 +514,7 @@ func applyInterfaceConfig(link netlink.Link, netConf InterfaceConfig) error {
 	}
 
 	// replace the existing gw with the main ipv4 one
-	if err := setGateway(netConf.Gateway, true); err != nil {
+	if err := setGateway(netConf.Gateway, false); err != nil {
 		log.Errorf("Fail to set gateway %s", netConf.Gateway)
 	}
 	//and then add the ipv6 one if it exists