The Specification Surface Is the New Source of Truth
Why this mattersDefines a governed specification surface and turns it into a practical architecture for authority, invariants, execution, and review.
Selected technical work
AI systems arguments, grounded in the work behind them.
Rooted Layers is a working archive of research and engineering on agent systems, evaluation, and governable software. This entrance highlights the pieces that best stand alone for technical review; Substack remains the canonical publication surface.
Flagship work
The strongest standalone technical arguments
Selected for technical value, distinct contribution, resolved lineage, and an inspectable evidence trail.
Confidence Debt
Why this mattersConnects a first-party evidence failure to an operational doctrine for claim auditability, reliability release, and human co-audit.
When the LLM Programs Its Own Thinking
Why this mattersShows direct engineering contribution through shared Jupyter state, replayable traces, executable examples, and explicit operational limits.
The Illusion of the Swarm
Why this mattersReplaces decorative agent-count thinking with coordination economics, typed boundaries, and concrete tests for when multi-agent structure earns its cost.
Supporting work
Useful extensions and adjacent evidence
Harnesses That Learn Under Audit
Why this mattersOffers a sharp five-part adoption audit for proving that a learned harness change actually shaped a later consequential run.
The Binding Gap
Why this mattersProvides a compact diagnostic for systems that preserve the right facts while attaching them to the wrong entities, roles, or variables.
Neural Architecture Design as a Compositional Language
Why this mattersAdds technically careful breadth through a primary-source history of reusable blocks, path discipline, design spaces, and controlled heterogeneity.
Historical record
The complete public archive remains available.
Browse every mirrored public essay and series, including work that is not part of this selective entrance. Individual essay pages keep their canonical Substack URL and repository provenance.