Technology
Work on AI systems, local LLM stacks, Python tooling, debugging, and the infrastructure that makes it all hold together.
The Local First AI and Agent Operations series follows one larger engineering thread across control planes, deterministic intake, governed memory, measurement, and safe agent operation. Its runnable companion pieces remain in the separate Hands-On section.
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The Agent Memory and Optimization Tool Landscape
Memory, caching, compression, shell reduction, routing, and observability do different jobs. I stopped looking for one winner and built a correctness-first way to evaluate complementary layers.
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Scope Creep Has Never Been This Easy
Use SSH host aliases, isolated user accounts, and secure tunnels to edit and debug Python on the same Mac or a remote system with VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and related editors.
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Memory Is a Governance Problem, Not Just a Vector Database
A relevant memory from the wrong context is not a better result; it is a disclosure. I moved authorization ahead of ranking and kept durable authority separate from disposable retrieval state.
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Deterministic First: Building a Knowledge Intake Pipeline
Before a model can decide what matters, the system still has to identify what exists, what changed, where it came from, and whether a human decision has already been made. I moved those jobs into a deterministic intake pipeline.
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When a Local AI Stack Becomes an Operations System
The model may be running while the system around it is still broken. This is how a local-first AI experiment became an operations problem involving ownership, dependencies, readiness, recovery, and rollback.
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Remote Debugging with VS Code and Its Derivatives
Use SSH host aliases, isolated user accounts, and secure tunnels to edit and debug Python on the same Mac or a remote system with VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and related editors.
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Building This Site With AI
Initially I wanted to use a web builder which would produce my HTML, CSS, and SCSS files, in a nice WISIWIG format and even tried out a couple of the web builder products. I mostly wanted something I could move to any hosting service available and did not want to get locked into a proprietary platform. I tried Mobirise, but didn’t like their pricing model, you could buy lots of nice modules, but had to pay a recurring fee to use them, then I tried Sparkle, but there was a high learning curve for someone who is a s non-creative as me. I liked Sparkle, and might give it another ho sometime, but learning it was going to take a lot of effort.
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AI Coding Assistants
AI coding assistants have changed quickly since I first published this article. Cursor is now my primary coding editor, supported by ChatGPT and other tools when I need a second perspective.