$ ssh kai@lights-out.factory
Last login: now from anywhere
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platform / sre · east bay · 13 yrs in
the lights are out. the factory's running.
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Hi! I'm Kai. Platform engineer, 13 years in, currently most interested in what one person can build right now. The ceiling has shifted a lot in the last year and I'm pushing on it. Day job is platform / SRE work that's slowly bending toward AI agents and observability. Off-hours I run a small lights-out factory: a single-node k3s homelab, a herd of agents that build and break my own services in the dark, and a steady output of small tools that exist because I wanted them to. I treat AI tooling the way I'd treat any other piece of infra. Wire it in, instrument it, then push on it until it shows you where it breaks.
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operator: Kai Siren
role: Senior Platform Engineer
employer: Kapwing
location: East Bay, California
shift: lights-out
active_repos_30d: ~35
homelab: single-node k3s
on Tailscale
specialties:
- platform / SRE
- AI agents + MCP
- observability
- adversarial testing
- the substrate nobody
notices until it breaks
prior_art:
- urfave/cli maintainer
- Built HHS gov site @ Nava
- DevOps EM @ EnergyHub
- Multi-cloud BGP VPN @ Textio
- Crypto product @ Callisto |
What's running in the dark factory right now. Status is honest, not aspirational.
| Build | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 🥊 gauntlet | Two-agent adversarial loop. Infers correctness by watching code behave under sustained, targeted attack. A fleet of agents running on it (count on /now). | RUNNING HOT |
| 🛰️ infrastructure | Single-node k3s, GH Actions deploys, SSM-backed secrets, reachable over Tailscale. The substrate everything else lives on. | OPERATIONAL |
| 🧰 coily | Operator CLI wrapping kubectl / aws / gh / ssh for kai-server. The only tool authorized for privileged ops. Audit-logs everything. | ACTIVE |
| 🌱 eco-mods-public + eco-cycle-prep | C# mods + Python cycle automation for Eco via Sirens. Biggest OSS output over rolling 6-month windows. | ACTIVE |
| 📡 eco-spec-tracker | FastAPI + HTMX live dashboard of every player's professions. Live at eco-jobs-tracker.coilysiren.me. | LIVE |
| 🔌 eco-mcp-app | Inline Claude Desktop widget for any public Eco server. Hand-rolled MCP Apps iframe in ~300 lines, no bundler. | WIP |
| 📊 bsky-popularity-contest | Small Bluesky stats app. | LIVE |
| 📈 claude-code-pulse | Cognition-stack telemetry over Claude transcripts. Daily rollups, reading lists, the whole pipeline. | ACTIVE |
| 📝 Golang PR Field Notes | Blog series on real OSS contributions. | ONGOING |
2025 - now Kapwing Senior Software Engineer
2023 - 2025 Nava Principal Infrastructure Engineer
2022 - 2023 Textio Staff Infrastructure Engineer
2021 - 2022 EnergyHub DevOps Engineering Manager
2020 - 2021 Bluelink Senior Backend Engineer
2018 - 2020 Textio Senior Infrastructure Engineer
2016 - 2018 Callisto Senior Software Engineer
2015 - 2016 Harlot Media Software Engineer
2014 - 2015 Quirell / CollectQT Software Engineer
2012 - 2013 NASA Goddard Engineering Student Ambassador
Full career page with stack details and shipped projects: coilysiren.me/resume. Living document of what I'm into this week: coilysiren.me/now.
I build things for the joy of it. Things that give engineering teams more leverage. Now I'm pointing the same instinct at my own work, with AI as the accelerant.