alt Hacker NewsAsk HN: What are you working on? (January 2026)
What are you working on? Any new ideas that you're thinking about?
Comments
Making complex simple again.
I'm working on a negotiation tool. A sidekick for negotiations. No public domain yet.
im building a backtesting framework that uses polars as the underlying engine instead of the more traditional pandas. i've learned a ton.
Finally writing up the documentation (architecture and safety concept) for the fly-by-wire system for the homebuilt airplane I'm 15+ years into designing. Got to OML lock about a year ago, and the aerodynamics are checking out, so really hoping that I can get a subscale flying in 2026 (although I've said that before). On full scale, major remaining design task is structures, but there's plenty of other stuff (propulsion integration) as well.
I am working on vulnetic.ai, an agentic penetration testing platform.
words.saej.in
A site for filtering word lists and solving word puzzles
Anagrams, regular expression search, and a crossword helper, as well as several NYT word games.
Repo-manager, SBOM tool for managing dependency (like Artifactory)
Solving L2 DAO retention incentives
I hate all the portfolio tracking tools out there + don't understand why tools like FactSet or CapitalIQ cost so much.
... so I'm building an open source version.
Track all your trades in Excel, and get Sharpe ratios, Sortino ratios, or even pass it on to an LLM to have it recommend trades based on news feeds.
Planning to open source it in the next week or two, once I add the proper tests and docs! :)
Building a text editor w/ git-like version history
versionary.app
launched https://www.cofounder-hunt.com today
Finding other co-founders based on proof-of-work
I'm building an agent builder and execution platform. It's a multi model, multi agent system with lots of tools (bash, databases, APIs, crawler...).
Agents are codified for specific goals. Any business process that needs agent based assistance is broken into workflows and steps. Each step is assigned to an agent. Integrations (API or file access) is requested. Then user can try out, tweak and finally deeply.
The aim is to build a diy platform work configuration, tracing and evals in one place. Code generation is used internally. User doesn't need to write any code.
A Python terminal audio recorder. Using pyaudio.
Not really a side project but:
I've been using linux for a few years now as my main/only OS, but have mainly just used Linux Mint as a sorta plug-and-play distro.
Looking to revive my 15 year old ThinkPad (1st laptop ever!) by building up from a base Void linux install. As I'm doing it I'm writing install-scripts and getting my dotfiles in order (after never really doing so for 17+ years as a programmer lol), so I can repeat the process in the future on other machines, or when I want to do a fresh re-install.
Also building a CW Ham radio from a kit
So i split it into two groups of stuff im working on:
Main Projects: 1. cyberbrain ( https://github.com/voodooEntity/cyberbrain ) It is a golang based architecture to write event/data driven applications. It is based on an in-memory directed graph storage ( i also wrote https://github.com/voodooEntity/gits). The point of the system is that instead of writing code where A calls B calls C calls D .... you define single "actions". Each action has a requirement/dependency in form of a data structure. If a structure is mapped to the graph storage, it will automatically create singular payloads for such action executions. The architecture is multithreaded by default, meaning all "jobs" will be automatically parallel processed without the developer having to care about concurrency. Also, since every "thread/worker" also does "scheduling" new "jobs", the system scales very well with alot of worker.
Why? Well it mainly developed this architecture for the next project im listing.
2. Ishikawa : an automated pentesting/recon tool Ishikawa does not try to reinvent well established pentesting/recon tools, instead it utilizes and orchestrates them. The tool consists of actions that either do very simple things like resolveIPFromDomain , or actions which utilize existing tools like nmap, wfuzz, etc.. - collects the info in the central graph and at the end you get a full mapping of your target. Compared to existing solutions it does alot less "useless scans" and just fires actions which make sense based of the already gathered data (we found a https port, we use sslscan to check the cert...).
3. Gits (as mentioned above) a graph in memory threadsafe storage. While i don't plan to many changes on it, it has been developed for cyberbrain so if i need any additions ill do them, also planing to reenable async persistence.
Regarding ishikawa: while im still working on this project, it may be that i will shut it down. I had a rather expensive meeting with a lawyer that basically told me that open sourcing it while beeing a citizen of germany would just open up potentially ALOT of trouble. Right know im not sure what the future will bring - i basically spend 10 years developing it starting with gits, than cyberbrain to finally build the tool i was dreaming of. Just to hide it on my disk.
Sideprojects:
1. go-tachicrypt ( https://github.com/voodooEntity/go-tachicrypt ) It started as a fun project/experiment - a very simple CLI tool which allows to encrypt file(s) / directory(ies) into multiple encrypted files so you can split them over multiple storages or send them via multiple channels. Im planing on hardening it a bit more and giving basic support.
2. ghost_trap ( https://github.com/voodooEntity/ghost_trap ) A very small project i recently put out, nothing to serious but kinda funny and maybe usefull to one or another. It provides - An github action that will inject polymorphic prompt injections to the bottom of your README.md so LLM scrapers may be fend off - An javascript that will inject polymorphic prompt injections into your html so more sophisticated crawlers like google etc which emulate javascript also may be fend off
While working on alot of other stuff, these are i think the most relevant.
IQ Test Platform (https://www.riotiq.com) I've been working 3 years on this. We developed our own professional, modern, proprietary IQ test and IQ testing platform for individuals to test themselves and to administer professional IQ tests to others. Lots of silicon valley folks seem to love it for their startups and hiring, but we built it mainly for IQ researchers from the International Society For Intelligence Research (ISIR) and psychologists.
We're at Open Community organizing an AI Vibe Coding Hackathon. As of now we got near to 500 builders, big Sponsors like ElevenLabs, Daytona, Nord Security brands and etc. Near to $200,000 in Prizes. Everyone is welcome to the hackathon https://vibe.devpost.com, Technical or Non-technical. Since it's vibe coding hackathon. Our discord btw - https://discord.gg/nUdcd9p8Ae
Puzzleship - a free daily puzzles website with the archives paywalled. Right now it has Logic Grid Puzzles, Zebra Puzzles and a dozen of Solitaire variations. I'm pretty proud of the LGP generator algorithm and some experienced players also liked the way the puzzles are constructed. Launched in early December last year.
querybear.com - basically retool but make the learning curve waaaaay lower
A bunch of things that get zero engagement whenever I mention them in one of these threads
https://soatok.blog/2025/10/15/the-dreamseekers-vision-of-to...
Futzing around with analog televisions.
I relaunched one of my Dutch agricultural communities to reach a more international audience. I’m starting to see great traction and it’s very rewarding: https://www.tractorfan.us
https://codeinput.com - Tools for PR-Git workflows
Currently experimenting with semantic diffs for the merge conflicts editor: https://codeinput.com/products/merge-conflicts/demo
You can try by installing the GitHub App which will detect PRs who have a merge conflict and create a workspace for them.
I’m building a few Projects that are ready for users
https://bittorrented.com a torrent-first Streaming platform
http://marksyncr.com a free bookmarks synchronizer web extension for chrome safari and Firefox based browsers
http://defpromo.com a zero-cloud self promotion web extension for all browsers helps automate commenting on social media posts to promote your product api keys required
http://coinpayportal.com a non custodial crypto payment gateway Easy to integrate similar to stripe with web hooks and manage multiple businesses
Doing Math Academy
Toying/Vive Coding with the idea or algorithm to classify the tendencies, ideological biases, and sentiment from contents of posts on message forums, including HN, by using LLMs to measure the temperatures and intensities of posters and replies to posts. Also thinking of incorporating ability to identify potential duplicate accounts, (e.g. same user multiple accounts) based on similar language and grammatical usage in posts. Don't see much of that type of detection in forums or message boards. Perhaps it can be useful in law enforcement circles. It's a work in progress, though, no repos yet.
This is the year I take my open source MMO to public alpha!
Another pass at the keyword index for my indieweb/blogosphere discovery website.
Turns out there are a lot of words and some are more useful than others!
I've been thinking about building a compiler for a while, but didn't have much time to do it. Over the break, I finally built a significant portion of a working, optimizing compiler. Heavily built by AI, of course.
https://blog.paulbiggar.com/full-optimizing-compiler-with-ai...
An RSS reader / dashboard.
It has AI summarize buttons (gemini-flash-lite is so fast!) along with other features I wanted. I'm almost done adding a "war mode". The user (me!) specifies a list of OSINT style x users which show up sequentially in a grid along with a ticker on the bottom of polymarket markets I've chosen. War mode is also obviously only available in dark mode...
A lot of things because LLMs enable my potential ADHD and no-filter-brain. A thing that controls a small FPV drone from the PC with vision input. Cloudflare but in Europe! An open source synth out of a Pi Pico! A reservations engine for local market. A small orchestrator for when Swarm is annoying but K3S is just too much!
I'm finally revisiting a distributed syscall model for transparently scaling unix instances. syscalls get translated into batched operations on an underlying non-transactional datastore. On the service side, database operations get backed by a proxy serving whatever filesystem or socket interface you like. Scaling is one motivation, but the ability to enforce fine-grained policy on these data operations is another big one.
MOOLLM -- treating the LLM as eval() for a microworld operating system.
Started this incarnation on Dec 30, 2025 -- but it's the crystallization of decades of earlier prototypes, all the way back to my Commodore-64 Logo Adventure. Built on top of Anthropic's Skills framework, extended with seven innovations (and counting):
1. Instantiation -- Skills as prototypes creating instances with their own state
2. K-lines -- Names as semantic activation vectors (Minsky's Society of Mind)
3. Empathic Templates -- Smart generation based on semantic understanding, not string substitution
4. Three-Tier Persistence -- Platform (ephemeral) → Narrative (append) → State (edit)
5. Speed of Light -- Many turns in one call, minimal tokenization overhead
6. CARD.yml -- Machine-readable skill interfaces with advertisements
7. Ethical Framing -- Room-based inheritance of performance context
Lineage: Colossal Cave → TinyMUD → LambdaMOO (filesystem as world). Papert's Logo and constructionism (learnable microworlds). Will Wright's SimCity and The Sims (I worked on the originals) -- the "Simulator Effect" where players imagine more than you simulate, and the SimAntics visual behavior programming language.
YAML Jazz: Comments aren't ignored -- they're semantic. The LLM reads and interprets them. A comment like "# gentle but firm" on a character trait actually affects behavior. This inverts the traditional "comments are for humans" assumption. Comments become part of the program and data.
The core idea: instead of prompt engineering, you give the LLM a github repo filesystem to inhabit: a persistent microworld. Seymour Papert's Constructionist philosophy comes alive, with Minsky's K-Lines pulling the strings. Skills are programs (not documentation). Characters have persistent state in directories, and can reflect on and edit themselves. Everything is inspectable and editable by human AND model. Model and platform independent. Runs on Cursor and other tools and orchestrators.
The proof is in adventure-4 -- a complete text adventure with 150+ files, 6000+ lines of session transcripts.
Repo: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm
MOOLLM Manifesto: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/designs/MOOLLM...
The MOOLLM Eval Incarnate Framework: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/designs/MOOLLM...
Adventure 4 Example: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/examples/adven...
My sessions as proof it works: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/examples/adven...
79 Anthropic Skills (standards compatible, plus extensions, intertwingled with k-lines) and growing: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/skills
A guided tour through the MOOLLM skills and microworld -- Session Log: K-Line Connections Safari: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adven...
Adventure Compiler Design Discussion -- Adventure Uplift Session Log: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adven...
MOOLLM Kernel: https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/kernel
Happy to answer questions about any of the weird design decisions!
Navigation.
Is anyone still working on functional immortality? Are we going to get SAGI before it? How is the head/body freezing scene nowadays?
EV recharging software. book on HPC. book collection of short stories. Golang latency instrum lib. realtime Rogue-like game set in postapoc NorAmerika.
Just about done building a C# wrapper for libcurl targeting Windows 98. Then i can finish my system tray weather app for Windows, which will work on all versions of Windows from 98 to 11.
I'm a filmmaker, and this is ArtCraft:
https://github.com/storytold/artcraft
AI tools are becoming incredibly useful for our industry, but "prompting" without visual control sucks. In the fullness of time, we're going to have WYSIWYG touch controls for every aspect of an image or scene. The ability to mold people and locations like clay, rotate and morph them in 3D, and create literally anything we can imagine.
Here are a bunch of short films we've made with the tool:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAAiiKteM-U (Robot Chicken inspired Superman parody)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqoCWdOwr2U (JoJo inspired Grinch parody)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tii9uF0nAx4 (live action rotoscoped short)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj-dJvGVb-w (lots of roto/comp VFX work)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_2We_QQfPg (EbSynth sketch about The Predator)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FkKf7sECk4 (a lot of rotoscoping, the tools are better now)
Another camera body around the RPi HQ cam and updated camera software.
I've been buying vintage lenses to try out.
[dead]
[dead]
[dead]
mock, an API creation and testing utility. Any feedback is welcome!
https://dhuan.github.io/mock/latest/examples.html