  The CORSIKA 8 project is a collaborative effort aiming to develop a versatile
C++ framework for the simulation of extensive air showers, intended to
eventually succeed the long-standing FORTRAN version. I present an overview of
its current capabilities, focusing on aspects concerning the hadronic and
muonic shower components. In particular, I demonstrate the "cascade lineage"
feature and its application to quantify the importance of certain phase-space
regions in hadronic interactions for muon production. Additionally, I show
first results using Pythia 8.3, which as of late is usable as interaction model
in cosmic-ray applications and is currently being integrated into CORSIKA 8.
