https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/ A running series on building a fully declarative Nix workstation (NixOS + nix-darwin), agentic AI tooling, and defence-in-depth security. en https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-17-bonsai-2-local-model/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-17-bonsai-2-local-model/ Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Evaluating two MLX models on an M5, why the winner needed a custom FastAPI server because it doesn't fit mlx_lm.server or mlx_vlm.server, and using it to fix a structural hallucination problem in Perplexica. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-16-pr-review-automation-take-two/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-16-pr-review-automation-take-two/ Sat, 19 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Replacing a hand-rolled OpenCode JSON-prompt PR reviewer with ocr (alibaba/open-code-review), root-causing why GitHub silently drops stale reviews, and why the result stays a PENDING draft instead of an auto-submit. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-15-tailnet-vm-roadmap-catches-up/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-15-tailnet-vm-roadmap-catches-up/ Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Tailscale plus a disposable Lima VM for remote agent sessions, nightly sanitized session backup with a secret-scan quarantine gate, and the first concrete delivery against the Part 5 autonomous-agent roadmap. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-11-fork-sync-architecture/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-11-fork-sync-architecture/ Sun, 16 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Turning a single-person nix-darwin flake into a shared config for two people: how 17 commits of hand-diverged fork drift got collapsed into one file per person, and the audit process that keeps it that way. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-12-launchd-sh-mystery/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-12-launchd-sh-mystery/ Sun, 16 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Thirteen background agents on my Mac all showed up as a process named 'sh' in Activity Monitor. The root cause was a two-mode home-manager option with no correctly-named option for RunAtLoad agents, and the fix was a 56-line Nix derivation wrapping a compiled Rust binary. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-13-skills-consolidation/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-13-skills-consolidation/ Sun, 16 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Six months of git-clone-and-forget agent skills, an audit that found 202 entries and only 4 nix-managed, and the afternoon of merges and tooling that fixed it. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-14-lightning-round/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-14-lightning-round/ Sun, 16 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT A full-screen meeting overlay that survives multi-monitor coordinate math, herdr joining tmux in the terminal, an AeroSpace schema bump with a silent behavior change, the docker runtime split, and cutting the local MLX model set from 17 to 5. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-10-post-publication-refinements/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-10-post-publication-refinements/ Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Three weeks of daily use after Parts 6-9: what changed, what I got wrong about the Lima VM, the manual migration steps no script can automate, and the honest status of the three-tier agent architecture. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/my-agentic-workflow/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/my-agentic-workflow/ Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Six months of real production Java on a financial services backend — multi-agent automation, automated reviews, and the human decisions that still matter. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/notes-as-a-codebase/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/notes-as-a-codebase/ Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT A Git repo, a fish function, and a compile step that turns raw daily captures into a wiki you actually read. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-6-macos-migration/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-6-macos-migration/ Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT When a lifetime Linux user buys a MacBook, the dotfiles follow. How the NixOS/Hyprland config from Part 1 survived the platform switch with 90% of home modules intact — and what had to change. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-7-security-audit/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-7-security-audit/ Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT After two years of incremental config changes, I audited my own setup for security, hygiene, and correctness. Starting from a threat model, working through each layer — and the surprising things I discovered. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-8-macos-bootstrap/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-8-macos-bootstrap/ Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT From a bare MacBook to the full nix-darwin setup in a single script — and the tools that make it possible: OrbStack for Docker/TestContainers, Lima for OpenCode isolation, and the unified setup orchestrator. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-9-production-pass/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-9-production-pass/ Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT After getting macOS working in Parts 6-8, two more sessions to make it right: a single source of truth for work infrastructure, three security utility scripts, and the design for sandboxed multi-agent OpenCode. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-5-future-roadmap/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-5-future-roadmap/ Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Heracles agents, Firecracker microVMs, full NixOS switch, flattened skill architecture, home server convergence, and a ten-year arc. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-4-agent-security/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-4-agent-security/ Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT AI agents that write and execute code, inside gVisor sandboxes, holding zero secrets, mediated by an audited MCP broker on the host. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-3-security-posture/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-3-security-posture/ Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT Encrypted secrets, encrypted DNS, interactive firewalls, zero-trust networking, and hardware security — all declared in Nix. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-2-agentic-development-stack/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-2-agentic-development-stack/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT How to wire up a multi-model, multi-agent AI environment: OpenCode, Claude Code, MCP servers, 90+ skills, and a three-tier agent pipeline, all managed declaratively. https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-1-declarative-nixos-stack/ https://usmanakram232.github.io/blog/part-1-declarative-nixos-stack/ Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT How a dotfiles repo evolved from shell scripts into a single flake that reproduces an entire Linux workstation.