Uses.
The stack and tools I actually use. Updated when something changes, not annually. Recommendations only — none of this is sponsored, and nothing on this page pays me a referral.
Workstation
- Laptop
- Framework 16 · Linux (Arch + Hyprland). Three USB-C, two NVMe slots, a keyboard I can replace at a workshop. The MacBook is for graphic work only.
- Desktop
- Custom AMD Ryzen 7950X · 128 GB RAM · 4 TB NVMe · 4090. The LLM-categorization layer for DomainScope runs here when I’m at home.
- Monitor
- Dell U3425WE 34“ ultrawide · paper-warm color profile (6500K → 5800K).
- Keyboard
- ZSA Voyager · Colemak-DH · split.
- Pointing
- Logitech MX Master 3S, mostly. Trackpad on the laptop.
Editor & shell
- Editor
- Neovim · LazyVim base · custom keymaps. Cursor when I’m pairing with an LLM that needs to see the whole repo.
- Shell
- Fish · Starship prompt · tmux for sessions that need to outlive my SSH connection.
- Terminal
- WezTerm. Berkeley Mono at 13pt.
- Multiplexer
- tmux 3.4 — the layout config is in the dotfiles repo.
Languages & runtimes
- Daily
- Go (DomainScope, Scrape The World, most ServerClaw services). Python for the data-science layer. TypeScript when a browser is involved.
- Occasional
- Ruby (for legacy automation), Bash (for everything that has to run on a stranger’s machine).
- Avoided
- Java, PHP, anything that needs a forty-line YAML file to print “hello”.
Infrastructure
- Hosting
- Hetzner (most workloads) · Proxmox for the lab · OVH for legal redundancy in a second EU jurisdiction.
- Orchestration
- Kubernetes · Helm · ArgoCD. ADR-438 for the rationale.
- Configuration
- Ansible (160 roles). All idempotent. All versioned.
- Mesh
- WireGuard via Headscale. Tailscale on personal devices only.
- Data
- PostgreSQL for everything that matters. ClickHouse for hot analytics. Redis as the queue.
- Object storage
- MinIO, self-hosted.
AI & agents
- Daily
- Claude (Sonnet for thinking, Haiku for cheap loops) · Codex for some refactors. The agent contract lives in CLAUDE.md at every repo root.
- Local
- Ollama with Qwen + DeepSeek for offline categorization batches.
- Agent catalog
- Execution catalog at catalog.0exec.com.
- Methodology
- The full operating model is published as Rootless Computing.
Writing & thinking
- Long-form
- Obsidian (local vault, git-backed). The /writing page is hand-curated.
- Slides
- Plain HTML + a slide-stage I wrote myself. PowerPoint only when a client insists.
- Notes
- A paper notebook for everything that doesn’t need to be searchable.
Communication
- Fastmail · custom domain · two-factor on a hardware key.
- Chat
- Signal for serious conversations. Slack for the operations rooms (WeMeshUp, the masterclass cohorts). Telegram for everything Romanian.
- Calls
- Whereby for client calls. Zoom only when the client’s legal team requires it.
Capture
- Camera
- Fujifilm X-T5 + 23mm f/1.4. Stage shots are almost always taken by someone else.
- Audio
- Rode NT-USB Mini · Sony LinkBuds S for the road.
Reading
- E-reader
- Kobo Libra 2 — Romanian PDFs and academic papers, mostly.
- Source-grade
- RSS in NewsBlur. No algorithmic feeds.