Build Logs / Essays

AI Systems Build Logs

Notes on real-time voice, agent orchestration, and decision systems. The throughline is what survives production: latency, memory, tools, approvals, and messy inputs.

15 posts

System note

Evals over vibes: testing AI systems like software

It worked when you tried it is not a test for any LLM system. Here is how to build an eval discipline that catches prompt, model, and retrieval breaks.

5 min read

System note

Telephony gotchas: what SIP does to your audio that localhost doesn't

Your voice agent works on localhost because localhost hides everything a phone line does to audio. Here is what breaks the moment a real call hits SIP.

5 min read

System note

Regression-testing a voice agent like software

A one-line prompt or timer change can silently break a call flow. How to build a regression harness that replays real calls and asserts on structured output.

5 min read

System note

The latency budget of a Twilio and Deepgram voice agent, from published numbers

What each stage of a phone voice agent actually costs — telephony, Deepgram STT, LLM, and TTS — using vendors' own published latency figures, not guesses.

5 min read

System note

Choosing a speech-to-text and TTS stack for a voice agent in 2026

How to pick streaming STT and TTS for a real-time phone agent, judged on the numbers a caller feels: streaming latency, partial stability, and tail latency.

5 min read

System note

How to turn a restaurant phone call into a kitchen ticket with AI

KOTA takes messy, real-time speech over the phone and resolves it into a structured order the kitchen can act on. Here is the pipeline, and the parts that were actually hard.

5 min read

System note

Why single-prompt AI agents break: orchestration is the product, not the model

Most agents are one prompt in a loop. Archon is a control plane: it routes across models, runs tools over MCP, keeps compressed memory, and hands real work to coding agents through a worker router.

5 min read

System note

Markets as a real-time system: scoring decisions, not outcomes

A trade can be right and lose, or wrong and win. I built tooling that scores decision quality and enforces process, treating the market as a noisy real-time system rather than a slot machine.

5 min read

Off-the-shelf AI phone tool, an answering service, or a custom agent: what should a small business pick?

Off-the-shelf voice AI, an answering service, or a custom-built agent? An honest, no-hype breakdown of which one a small business should actually pick.

5 min read

AI receptionists for small business, explained

A plain-English guide to AI receptionists for small business: what they do, how they actually work, what they cost, and who should skip them entirely.

5 min read

Does an AI receptionist actually work, or will it embarrass me on a call?

The honest answer to whether an AI phone agent can handle real callers without embarrassing you: how it deals with mumbling, mind-changing, and its mistakes.

5 min read

On Emotions

Emotions aren’t something to control—they’re a part of you, quietly reminding you where it hurts. Learning to befriend them is where real growth begins.

5 min read

The Outsider's Truth: An Analysis of Camus's The Stranger

A deep dive into Albert Camus's The Stranger, exploring themes of authenticity, the absurd, and finding freedom in a world that demands conformity.

5 min read

We’re All Walking Toward the Same Light

Spirituality isn’t about sides — it’s about direction. Through faith or awareness, belief or observation, we’re all moving toward the same quiet coherence of love and truth.

5 min read

The Art of Generative Design

Exploring the intersection of code and creativity to produce unique visual art through algorithms and mathematical beauty.

5 min read