rules lite

all the so-called "rules lite rpg" games turn out to be table top, board games with a collaborative wheme sith very little roleplay (limited to the confined of some pre-genned chars). can you recommend some rules-lite rpg games that truly are that: Role Playing Games.

Well, I ran a game of Lasers & Feelings on GP when I first joined. You can't go much more rules lite than that and that was definitely a real role playing game. Players made up their own characters, I ran them through one and a half adventures before my lack of planning blew up right in my face 💁‍♀️

Can't go wrong with Stargazer Games Warrior, Rogue, and Mage.

The lightest with fairly simple rules are the TinyD6 games. No stats except health and only a few abilities per character.
One game is starting soon with a recruitment thread here and I am running another here

Good recommendations already -- the Lasers & Feelings games, the Tiny D6 games... and I would add Into the Odd, EZD6, Folklore, The Window, Lady Blackbird, Risus, 24XX, Cthulhu Dark, World of Dungeons / Offworlders / Breakers, Tricube Tales, Caltrop Core, Mini-Six. Gold Star examples of games that are a little less minimalist but still darned light would be Index Card RPG and The Black Hack (and many of its offshoots).

Isn't Lady Blackbird exactly this:
It was the one game that came to my mind for this qualification. Not sure for which others that is actually true.

Yeah, fair, but it's been hacked a bunch of times too.

One more open-ended one, if D&D is the experience you're looking for -- Knave.

Let's not forget Kosmosaurs! Only two stats, a few qualities, gears, and knowledges that can add or subtract from your dice pools and that's it.

Diogo Nogueira (author of Kosmosaurs) actually kind of specializes in lighter (if not usually minimalist) RPGs. Love his work.

There is also Push (not a searchable name, so I provided a link:). It is not much more than a very clever core mechanic and few example tables (and some guidance to help you make your own for your own setting).

I remember FU being very light and general, as stated on the label

Forgot about Push — does have a neat if not super-intuitive mechanic. Freeform Universal — there’s been a new version of that brewing for a few years, I think?

I have a large repository of free games here, many of them rules-lite. Some of them are bound to be exactly what you're looking for...

Pretty much anything that runs on the PbtA system is fairly to very rules-light, and are definitely not board games.

It covers most genres too. The Wiki page has a list.