Rares P. / Software engineer
I build software for complicated systems: tools people can use, boundaries they can trust, and games worth getting lost in.
Focus
Systems, security & applied AI.
Open-source maintenance and independent software.Approach
Spike. Iterate. Stabilize.
Find the constraint. Build a working path. Make it last.Tools
Python for glue. C for guts.
Linux underneath. Games on the side.Recognition / September 2026
White Approach won first place overall in Micro Jam 064: Mountains! This certificate was awarded to Small Loop Works.
Explore White Approach & the game shelf
View the certificate
01 / Selected work
Software across systems, security, AI, and native applications. Filter by area, or show the contribution behind each project.
Core maintainer and Security Manager on an open-source, self-hosted AI workspace. I work on authorization, isolation, model routing, and the tests that keep those boundaries intact.
My contribution: reconstruct the invariant, trace it through code, state, tests, and authorization boundaries, reproduce the failure, then probe the smallest safe fix.
Private tooling for repeatable code reviews. It pins Git ranges, checks artifacts, and runs probes in offline containers with no secrets.
My contribution: evidence-bound findings, bounded subprocesses, stale/duplicate guards, immutable probe inputs, and human-controlled publication.
A cross-platform desktop assistant for audio playback, transcripts, and Gemini-powered chat, with persistent settings and automated releases.
My contribution: brought UI, playback, transcription, configuration, packaging, documentation, and Linux/macOS/Windows release paths into one operable desktop product.
A complete chess ML workflow: validate data, train and evaluate models, manage cloud GPUs, and play against them in a standalone arena.
My contribution: connected data generation, training, evaluation, inference, UI, cloud execution, tests, committed behavior specifications, and a separate CPU demo deployment with draggable-board play.
Local-model agents with explicit routing, checkpoints, retrieval, and controlled tools. Built with LangGraph, Qdrant, and llama.cpp.
My contribution: explored agent orchestration as an explicit state machine with local models and controlled tool boundaries rather than a chat wrapper.
Minesweeper for desktop and terminal, built around a compact C core with self-tests, portable builds, and automated releases.
My contribution: evidence that the “C for guts” part is real: deliberately small scope, explicit memory/runtime boundaries, and portable builds.
Review pull requests from a physical apartment. Earn upgrades, automate the work, and live with what the automation gets wrong. A Godot game taken from prototype to playable release.
My contribution: gameplay systems, diegetic UI, performance work, cross-platform builds, release automation, screenshots, public devlogs, and a playable browser build.
Small Loop Works / Games
Mountain climbs, unlikely coffee, and systems with a mind of their own. Browse the shelf and play in your browser.
Explore the games02 / How I work
Start with what is unknown. Test a small working path, then make it dependable. Explore each phase of the process.
question / 01
Map the system and trust boundaries. Reproduce the risky behavior. Build a small probe to test the assumption.
03 / Review & perspective
A patch is one part of the story. I follow what should happen through code, stored state, permissions, and tests, then reproduce the failure and check the smallest safe fix.
Read the plain-text CVState the intended invariant and ownership boundary.
Follow code, state, permissions, persistence, and tests.
Separate the PR regression from an existing defect.
Test the smallest safe fix in isolation.
Across the stack
Linux infrastructure, speech tools, ML pipelines, native apps, and Godot games. In each, I care about the whole path from a working experiment to something another person can run and continue.
Lab bench
On the lab bench: digital logic, a working 4-bit CPU with a custom instruction set in Turing Complete, and IC10 automation. Independent experiments in how machines work.
04 / Contact
Get in touch about systems, security, applied AI, or a prototype that needs a working path forward.
