Practical AI, native apps and code close to the metal

I build practical AI, automation and backend systems that hold up on real machines, close to the metal and close to the problem. Right now that means an agent that asks before it touches a server, a GPS speedometer for Android and iOS, and research notes where every claim names its source.

Go, Python, Kotlin and Swift
LLM agents and tools
Native Android and iOS
Raspberry Pi and computer vision
FPGA and VHDL
Cloud services on Azure and AWS

CVKE GPS on iOS, light theme: a large speed dial reading 43.2 km/h, altitude 70 m, maximum speed and a Start trip button

CVKE GPS on iOS, dark theme: a large speed dial reading 32.4 km/h, altitude 70 m, maximum speed and a Start trip button

Research notes

Open the research library

Long-form notes written from the sources, not from memory. Every claim carries the number of its source.

Notes: 13
Sources cited: 886

Coffee and Tea Digestion Research

Coffee acts as a profound and rapid secretagogue within the gastric environment, significantly upregulating the production of hydrochloric acid and gastric juices. The mechanistic driver of this secretory surge is predominantly mediated by the peptide hormone gastrin, which is synthesized by enteroendocrine G cells located in the stomach and duodenum. Research demonstrates that the intragastric instillation of coffee induces a prompt, robust, and enduring elevation in total serum gastrin concentrations.

Source 8

Effects of Coffee on the Gastro-Intestinal Tract: A Narrative Review and Literature Update

mdpi.com

Source 10

The influence of coffee and caffeine on gastrin and acid secretion in man (author's transl)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Pick a number to see its source

16 JulCoffee and Tea Digestion ResearchHealth33 min86 sources
16 JulEco-Friendly Cleaning Products EvaluationOther24 min70 sources
9 MarBlack Pepper's Absorption Enhancement MechanismsHealth35 min40 sources
24 FebMusic Taste: Factors and PersonalityCulture30 min44 sources
3 JanRetinoids: Retinol vs. RetinalHealth20 min32 sources
22 Dec 2025Bypassing Buffer Overflow MitigationsSecurity19 min45 sources

All 13 notes in the research library7 more below these, 463 sites cited. Filter by topic or search.

Selected work

CvkeHarness

GitHub83 commitslive

A command-line agent that lets a language model inspect and debug a machine with real tools. It asks before it acts, and it remembers each machine it has worked on.

Go, SQLite, OpenRouter, LM Studio, Codex

Two ways to work: run for one task, console for ongoing work.
Recovery built in: File recovery, NGINX config transactions and Btrfs checkpoints.
Any model: Codex, OpenRouter or a local model in LM Studio.

cvkeharness consoleRuns

  1 Overview    2 Jobs    • 3 Runs    4 Chat    5 Settings 
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
  Run #124  FAILED
 
  Task             Inspect staging API latency and worker health
  Provider         openai
  Last target      staging-api
  Environment      staging
  Started          Sep 4 14:53
  Duration         7m0s
 
  Verification
 
  Status           unsatisfied
 
  Error            One worker is not responding.
 
  Agent Output
 
  Worker health
 
  Two workers are healthy. The third did not respond within 30 seconds.
 
  No changes were made. Inspect its service logs before restarting it.
 
  d show / hide diagnostics
 
 
 CvkeHarness                                    d diagnostics  e export  esc back  ↑↓ scroll  q quit

  1 Overview    2 Jobs    • 3 Runs    4 Chat    5 Settings 
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
  Run #124  FAILED
 
  Task             Inspect staging API latency and worker health
  Provider         openai
  Last target      staging-api
  Environment      staging
  Started          Sep 4 14:53
  Duration         7m0s
 
  Verification
 
  Status           unsatisfied
 
  Error            One worker is not responding.
 
  Agent Output
 
  Worker health
 
  Two workers are healthy. The third did not respond within 30 seconds.
 
  No changes were made. Inspect its service logs before restarting it.
 
  d show / hide diagnostics
 
 
 CvkeHarness                                    d diagnostics  e export  esc back  ↑↓ scroll  q quit

cvkeharness consoleChat

  1 Overview    2 Jobs    3 Runs    • 4 Chat !    5 Settings 
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 
 
   ╭────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
   │ APPROVAL REQUIRED                                                                          │
   │ Target: staging-api · staging                                                              │
   │                                                                                            │
   │ COMMAND TO APPROVE · secrets remain masked                                                 │
   │  sudo systemctl restart api-worker@3                                                       │
   │                                                                                            │
   │ Lines 1–2 of 2 · ↑↓ scroll · d details                                                     │
   │ One use · exact action · expires in 15 minutes                                             │
   │ a approve once + continue                                                                  │
   │ Esc Back without approving · Ctrl+X interrupt                                              │
   ╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
 
 
 
 
 CvkeHarness     a approve once + continue  ↑↓ scroll command  d details  esc back without approving

  1 Overview    2 Jobs    3 Runs    • 4 Chat !    5 Settings 
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 
 
   ╭────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
   │ APPROVAL REQUIRED                                                                          │
   │ Target: staging-api · staging                                                              │
   │                                                                                            │
   │ COMMAND TO APPROVE · secrets remain masked                                                 │
   │  sudo systemctl restart api-worker@3                                                       │
   │                                                                                            │
   │ Lines 1–2 of 2 · ↑↓ scroll · d details                                                     │
   │ One use · exact action · expires in 15 minutes                                             │
   │ a approve once + continue                                                                  │
   │ Esc Back without approving · Ctrl+X interrupt                                              │
   ╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
 
 
 
 
 CvkeHarness     a approve once + continue  ↑↓ scroll command  d details  esc back without approving

Sample data

Every run

one bounded repair

Plan
Execute
Verify

Security profile

extra_strictreasonable defaultyolo

Targets

Local machineSSH targets

Memory

PlaybooksCautionsFindings

CVKE GPS

ProductAndroid59 commitsliveiOS

Two native apps that show live GPS speed, record trips with the screen locked, and replay them on a speed-coloured map with speed, height and acceleration charts.

Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, SwiftUI, Core Location, Live Activities

No stale readings: An old or poor GPS fix shows as unavailable, never as a current speed.
Records in the background: Keeps going with the screen locked, with a Live Activity on iOS.
Replay: Moments such as the fastest speed, linked charts and GPX export.
Android extras: Satellite signals and a sky map.

CVKE GPS on iOS, light theme: the speed dial at 43.2 km/h, altitude 70 m, maximum speed and Start trip

CVKE GPS on iOS, dark theme: the speed dial at 32.4 km/h, altitude 70 m, maximum speed and Start trip

xdBot

GitHub62 commitslive

A modular Discord bot: model-backed chat with web search and tool calling, stock charts and indicators, music, and a quote hall.

/chat: Ollama or OpenRouter models, with web search and live stock data.
/stockchart: Candlestick, line and area charts, with RSI, MACD and moving averages.
/play: Plays a song from YouTube in the voice channel.

Python, discord.py, Ollama, OpenRouter, Docker, SQLite

bot-commandsSample

cvke used /stockchart

xdBotApp

AAPL - 30 Day Chart

Area chart

cvke used /chat

xdBotApp

The container stops when its main process exits. docker logs shows that process's last output, and a command that stays in the foreground keeps the container up.

cvke used /play

xdBotApp

Now Playing

Clair de Lune

Requested by@cvke

ytf

GitHub

Saves a video's audio as MP3 and its captions as clean, timestamp-free text, from a terminal UI, one command or a Python API.

ytf

$ pip install git+https://github.com/Glebenator/ytf$ ytf # interactive terminal UI$ ytf "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..." --out-dir ./downloads --no-transcript --lang en

Python, FFmpeg, yt-dlp, terminal UI

ytf

ytf "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOvyerl_0cE" --out-dir downloads --lang en

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ytf - YouTube Audio & Caption Downloader │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Success!                                                                                 │
│                                                                                          │
│ Video: Go/No-Go: NASA’s Space Toilet Explained                                           │
│ Audio File: Y:\downloads\GoNo-Go NASAs Space Toilet Explained.mp3                        │
│ Transcript File: Y:\downloads\GoNo-Go NASAs Space Toilet Explained_transcript.txt        │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ytf - YouTube Audio & Caption Downloader │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Success!                                                                                 │
│                                                                                          │
│ Video: Go/No-Go: NASA’s Space Toilet Explained                                           │
│ Audio File: Y:\downloads\GoNo-Go NASAs Space Toilet Explained.mp3                        │
│ Transcript File: Y:\downloads\GoNo-Go NASAs Space Toilet Explained_transcript.txt        │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

From YouTube

At 0:00.03[Reid Wiseman] Right now we see no flow at all.
At 0:03.50[CAPCOM] You are no go for toilet.
At 0:05.37And we'd like you to use CCUs overnight.
At 0:10.68[Broadcast Audio] The space toilet onboard
At 0:13.25the Orion spacecraft is called the Universal Waste Management System.

From ytf

[Reid Wiseman] Right now we see no flow at all.
[CAPCOM] You are no go for toilet.
And we'd like you to use CCUs overnight.
[Broadcast Audio]
The space toilet onboard
the Orion spacecraft is called
the Universal Waste Management System.

Video: Go/No-Go: NASA’s Space Toilet Explained, NASA.

Earlier work

2026
Research library, first version
An Express site that served these notes from private Azure Blob Storage, with an Ask the archive feature on Azure AI Search hybrid retrieval. Answers had to cite the exact note headings they came from; with no evidence, it said so instead of answering.
Node.js, Express, Azure Blob Storage, Azure AI Search, Azure OpenAI, Playwright
Repository
2026
CvkeSkills
Skills for coding agents (Claude Code and Codex): the design language behind all of my UI work, including this site, plus resume, cover letter and application writers that work only from verified evidence.
Claude Code, Codex
Private repository
2026
Get CVKed
A Flutter workout app that generates plans with the Gemini API and tracks sets, reps, weight, history and streaks.
Flutter, Gemini API
Private repository
2024–25
FridgeFriend
A Raspberry Pi 5 camera on the fridge spots motion, scans barcodes and tracks what goes in and out with YOLO object detection. A React Native app shows the inventory, warns before food expires, suggests recipes and joins live sessions over MQTT.
Python, OpenCV, YOLO, pyzbar, Raspberry Pi 5, React Native, Expo, SQLite, MQTT
Pi systemApp37 commitslive from GitHubApp v2
2024
HotSpot on an FPGA
The HotSpot chip-temperature simulation accelerated on an AMD Alveo FPGA with high-level synthesis, in buffered and compiler-optimised versions, tested in hardware emulation.
C++, Vitis HLS, OpenCL host code
Private repository
2023
Raspberry Pi security camera
A motion-watching camera built in three days as a course final project.
C++, OpenCV, Raspberry Pi
Repository
2020
androidPOS
A restaurant point-of-sale app for Android with menu categories, an admin screen, a cook screen and database tests.
Java, Android, Room
Repository48 commitslive from GitHub
2020
VHDL vending machine controller
A finite-state machine with Free, Display, Program, Vending, Reset and Hard Reset modes, and prices up to $2.55 stored in RAM. Simulated in Quartus.
VHDL
Repository
2020
CPU emulator
A small C++ CPU emulator that runs instruction programs from CSV files: powers of 2, Fibonacci and factorial.
C++
Repository