Using AI to build, learn and practice | Sourcery Zone A software engineer's playground at the crossroads of AI, robotics, and cybersecurity.

Recently I've been realizing the price I pay for productivity gains by AI, is not really based on tokens, but deteriorating my knowledge.

sourcery.zone/articles/202...

#ai

Chasing a Zig AVR Segfault Down to LLVM | Sourcery Zone A software engineer's playground at the crossroads of AI, robotics, and cybersecurity.

Chasing a Zig AVR Segfault Down to LLVM

This was the most fun I’ve had programming in a long time. The actual pain of failure, the mind bugging curiosity, forming hypothesis over and over, and finally the excitement of …

sourcery.zone/articles/202...

#arduino #atmega2560 #avr #platformio #zig

Attaching Zig tests in structs | Sourcery Zone A software engineer's playground at the crossroads of AI, robotics, and cybersecurity.

Attaching Zig tests in structs

This could be useful to write tests for some internal functions in Zig structs, in order to have access to private functions. However, the test runner can’t find them, unless the struct is …

sourcery.zone/journal/2026...

#journal #zig

Removing known_hosts entry using ssh config alias | Sourcery Zone A software engineer's playground at the crossroads of AI, robotics, and cybersecurity.

Removing known_hosts entry using ssh config alias Working on my agent-vm project, I faced the oldest ssh problem I ever had more often than I could tolerate using my brute force approach of editing text manually. The known_hosts entry blocking …
sourcery.zone/journal/2026...

#journal #linux #til

Compile a Zig library for Arduino on PlatformIO

In my last stream, I needed to compile my Zig as library, in order to be used by PlatformIO to compile the program for my target architecture. Well so far I now how it's possible:

sourcery.zone/journal/2026...

#arduino #journal #platformio #zig

[Robotics Workbench]: Can I compile Zig on PlatformIO for Arduino? YouTube video by Sourcerer

It's time to get back to my sanctum and work on some interesting project!

My plan is to try compiling a simple #zig program on #PlatformIO targeting an #arduino board.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KuA...

[Low-Level Workbench]: Zig Exploration This is a live session from the Low-Level Programming Workbench. Today's focus is: refactoring the Zig codebase of my version of `wc` command. The goal of the stream is explratory, and you might expect detours. I'm learning in public, and may change direction. ## 📖 References * Build your own wc: https://codingchallenges.fyi/challenges/challenge-wc/ * Repository of the project: https://github.com/sourcery-zone/toolbox ## 📓 Notes * Parsing Arguments in Zig: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-parsing-command-line-arguments-in-zig/ * Printing a file's byte count in Zig: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-printing-a-files-byte-count-in-zig/ * Printing a file's character count in Zig: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-printing-files-character-count-in-zig/ * Re-thinking wc encoding support: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-re-thinking-wc-encodings-and-design-in-zig/ ## 💬 Reach out and Chat * Matrix: https://matrix.to/#/#sourcery-zone:matrix.org ## 🎬 Timestamps * [TBD] #zig #ziglang #zigtutorial #ziglivecoding #systemsprogramming #wc #coreutils #codinglivestream #learnzig #clitools #unixcommands

🤖 Time to refactor! I'm going live from the Low-Level Programming Workbench to clean up my `wc` clone written in Zig. It's a learn-in-public session, so expect some fun detours!

🗓️ See you Dec 27th, 2025 at 08:00 UTC.

#ziglang #systemsprogramming #livecoding #coreutils

[Rethink to Learn] Rewriting wc in Zig: Part 9 - begin again! In this short series, I’m rebuilding the classic wc command to level up my Zig skills. I’ll use the coreutils implementation as the reference and add a few extra features along the way. There has been quite a long gap since my last stream on this subject. In this session, I'm going to catch up, plan the next steps, and continue the progress on learning Zig while rewriting WC. ## 📖 References * Build your own wc: https://codingchallenges.fyi/challenges/challenge-wc/ * Repository of the project: https://github.com/sourcery-zone/toolbox ## 📓 Notes * Parsing Arguments in Zig: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-parsing-command-line-arguments-in-zig/ * Printing a file's byte count in Zig: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-printing-a-files-byte-count-in-zig/ * Printing a file's character count in Zig: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-printing-files-character-count-in-zig/ * Re-thinking wc encoding support: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-re-thinking-wc-encodings-and-design-in-zig/ ## 💬 Reach out and Chat * Matrix: https://matrix.to/#/#sourcery-zone:matrix.org ## 🎬 Timestamps * [TBD] #zig #ziglang #zigtutorial #ziglivecoding #systemsprogramming #wc #coreutils #codinglivestream #learnzig #clitools #unixcommands

🤖 It's been a while, but the Zig `wc` project is back! Join me live on December 20th at 7:00 UTC. We'll catch up on our progress, plan the next steps, and continue leveling up our skills by rebuilding this classic coreutil. #ziglang #systemsprogramming #codinglivestream #learnzig

Scarcity as a discipline for software design | Sourcery Zone A software engineer

🤖 Modern software is often slow, despite fast hardware. What if we designed with a scarcity mindset, not relying on abundance to cover for poor performance? We could build leaner systems without losing key features. #SoftwareDesign #Performance #SoftwareEngineering

[Rethink to Learn] Rewriting wc in Zig: Part 6 - clean up and designing the structure In this short series, I’m rebuilding the classic wc command to level up my Zig skills. I’ll use the coreutils implementation as the reference and add a few extra features along the way. So far, the wc implementation is able to count bytes, characters and lines. This is a good time now to clean up the code, and make sure we are not unnecessarily sacrificing the CPU cycles! ## 📖 References * Build your own wc: https://codingchallenges.fyi/challenges/challenge-wc/ * Repository of the project: https://github.com/sourcery-zone/toolbox ## 📓 Notes * Parsing Arguments in Zig: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-parsing-command-line-arguments-in-zig/ * Printing a file's byte count in Zig: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-printing-a-files-byte-count-in-zig/ * Printing a file's character count in Zig: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-printing-files-character-count-in-zig/ * Re-thinking wc encoding support: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-re-thinking-wc-encodings-and-design-in-zig/ ## 💬 Reach out and Chat * Matrix: https://matrix.to/#/#sourcery-zone:matrix.org ## 🎬 Timestamps * [TBD] #zig #ziglang #zigtutorial #ziglivecoding #systemsprogramming #wc #coreutils #codinglivestream #learnzig #clitools #unixcommands

🤖 My `wc` clone in Zig is working, but is it fast? Join my next live stream where we'll refactor the code and optimize for performance. Let's hunt down some wasted CPU cycles! ⚡

Live on December 1, 2025 at 17:00 UTC.

#zig #ziglang #systemsprogramming #coreutils #codinglivestream #learnzig

[Rethink to Learn] Rewriting wc in Zig: Part 6 - counting the lines In this short series, I’m rebuilding the classic wc command to level up my Zig skills. I’ll use the coreutils implementation as the reference and add a few extra features along the way. It's now about the time to expand our wc's feature set further. The next step is counting the number of lines. ## 📖 References * Build your own wc: https://codingchallenges.fyi/challenges/challenge-wc/ * Repository of the project: https://github.com/sourcery-zone/toolbox ## 📓 Notes * Parsing Arguments in Zig: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-parsing-command-line-arguments-in-zig/ * Printing a file's byte count in Zig: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-printing-a-files-byte-count-in-zig/ * Printing a file's character count in Zig: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-printing-files-character-count-in-zig/ * Re-thinking wc encoding support: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-re-thinking-wc-encodings-and-design-in-zig/ ## 💬 Reach out and Chat * Matrix: https://matrix.to/#/#sourcery-zone:matrix.org ## 🎬 Timestamps * [TBD] #zig #ziglang #zigtutorial #ziglivecoding #systemsprogramming #wc #coreutils #codinglivestream #learnzig #clitools #unixcommands

🤖 Time to level up our Zig skills! Join me live on November 28th at 17:00 UTC as we continue rebuilding the classic `wc` command. Next up: adding line counting! Let's dive into some systems programming. #zig #ziglang #systemsprogramming #codinglivestream #learnzig #coreutils

LiveStream Notes: Re-thinking wc encodings and design in Zig | Sourcery Zone A software engineer

🤖 Rewriting `wc` in Zig has been a lesson in assumptions. I found its character count is tied to the system locale, often just returning the byte count. My new post explores this encoding detail and its design implications.

#Zig #SystemsProgramming #CLI

[Rethink to Learn] Rewriting wc in Zig: Part 5 - finalize explicit character count design YouTube video by Sourcerer

🤖 Plans have changed! My project to build the `wc` command in Zig is no longer a "rebuild"; it's a "rethink". After some learnings, I'm adjusting the design to be more explicit and make it my own.

Join me live today 👇!

#ziglang #systemsprogramming #codinglivestream
youtube.com/watch?v=6xUA...

Deploying Onion Services for Websites on NixOS | Sourcery Zone A software engineer

🤖 I finally got around to deploying a Tor Onion Service for a website. It's something I've wanted to do for years, and I wrote about how to set it up declaratively on NixOS. #NixOS #Tor #OnionServices

TIL: Link to current revision on GitHub | Sourcery Zone A software engineer

🤖 TIL a fantastic GitHub pro-tip! To get a permanent link to the exact version of a file you're viewing—so your line-specific links don't break after future commits—just press the 'y' key. The URL updates instantly! 🤯

Read more on my blog!

#GitHub #Git #ProTip #Developer #Coding #TIL

LiveStream Notes: Printing files character count in Zig | Sourcery Zone A software engineer's playground at the crossroads of AI, robotics, and cybersecurity.

🤖 My latest livestream notes are up! I'm rebuilding the `wc` command in Zig, and this time I tackled printing character counts. ⚡️

I was surprised by how helpful Zig's standard library is, and the challenges of comprehending C source code.

sourcery.zone/articles/202...

#ZigLang #LiveStream

[Build to Learn] Rewriting wc in Zig: Part 3 - printing the char count In this short series, I’m rebuilding the classic wc command to level up my Zig skills. I’ll use the coreutils implementation as the reference and add a few extra features along the way. In today’s session, the aim is to learn what's the difference between byte counting and char counting, and implement it for our wc rebuild. ## References * [TBD] ## Notes * Parsing Arguments in Zig: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-parsing-command-line-arguments-in-zig/ ## Timestamps * [TBD] #zig #ziglang #zigtutorial #ziglivecoding #systemsprogramming #wc #coreutils #codinglivestream #learnzig #clitools #unixcommands

🤖 Byte vs. Character: what's the difference? 🤔 Let's find out by rebuilding the classic `wc` command from scratch in Zig!

Join me live on Nov 24, 2025 at 06:30 UTC as we implement both and level up our systems programming skills.

#ziglang #systemsprogramming #coreutils #codinglivestream #learnzig

[Build to Learn] Rewriting wc in Zig: Part 2 - printing the byte count In this short series, I’m rebuilding the classic wc command to level up my Zig skills. I’ll use the coreutils implementation as the reference and add a few extra features along the way. In today’s ssession,I'm going to implement the first actual feature of wc, which is printing out the number of bytes from a given file. ## References * [TBD] ## Notes * Parsing Arguments in Zig: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/11/livestream-notes-parsing-command-line-arguments-in-zig/ ## Timestamps * [TBD] #zig #ziglang #zigtutorial #ziglivecoding #systemsprogramming #wc #coreutils #codinglivestream #learnzig #clitools #unixcommands

🤖 Ever wonder how `wc` works? Let's build it from scratch in Zig! Join my livestream on Nov 19 @ 18:30 UTC where I'll be implementing the very first feature: counting bytes from a file.

#ziglang #systemsprogramming #codinglivestream #coreutils #wc

LiveStream Notes: Parsing command line arguments in Zig | Sourcery Zone A software engineer

🤖 New blog post! 📝 I'm documenting my new livestream series where I rewrite `wc` in Zig. First up: Parsing command-line arguments. A great refresher on low-level programming!

#Zig #ZigLang #Programming #CommandLine #LearnToCode #Livestream

[Build to Learn] Rewriting wc in Zig: Part 1 In this short series I’m rebuilding the classic wc command to level up my Zig skills. I’ll use the coreutils implementation as the reference and add a few extra features along the way. In today’s session I’m setting the stage: defining requirements and diving into argument parsing. First the manual approach; then a cleaner version using a library. ## Timestamps * [TBD] #zig #ziglang #zigtutorial #ziglivecoding #systemsprogramming #wc #coreutils #codinglivestream #learnzig #clitools #unixcommands

🤖 Building a `wc` clone from scratch in Zig! 🚀

Join my first live stream for the series on November 18, 2025 at 16:00 UTC. We're setting the stage: defining requirements and diving into argument parsing (manual vs. library).

#ziglang #systemsprogramming #codinglivestream #clitools

Crafting Systems on NixOS: Part 6 In this live series, I’m rebuilding my entire NixOS system configuration from the ground up. This setup powers my daily driver laptop, backup machine, and a network of self-hosted servers I've used every day for a few years now. I’ll walk through how everything fits together, what I’ve learned so far, and how I plan to evolve it over time. Enough with procrastination, I'm ready to finalize my server setup for: 1. Main edge server for blog, Plausible, pihole, and n8n. 2. Monitoring node (Raspberry Pi 4) with Grafana and Prometheus. 3. Network service node (Raspberry Pi 5) with Searx, and a redundancy instance of pihole. Let's see how much of it I can cover in this session. ## Timestamps * [TBD] #nixos #home-manager #devops #linux #homelab

🤖 Enough procrastination! I'm rebuilding my entire NixOS setup from scratch, and I'm doing it live. We'll be configuring my edge server, monitoring nodes, and more.

Join me on November 5, 2025 at 06:30 UTC to see how the homelab comes together!

#nixos #home-manager #devops #linux #homelab

Crafting Systems on NixOS: Part 5 In this live series, I’m rebuilding my entire NixOS system configuration from the ground up. This setup powers my daily driver laptop, backup machine, and a network of self-hosted servers I've used every day for a few years now. I’ll walk through how everything fits together, what I’ve learned so far, and how I plan to evolve it over time. In the last session, I dragged on longer than I expected to work with the new test VM I built. Basically I couldn't deploy any configuration to it. After that session I spend some time on the problem, and after learning several details about TTY/PTY and piping over SSH, it seems like everything is working. In this session, I'm going to share what I've learned so far, what the errors I faced were, how I fixed them, and some design decisions around it. ## Timestamps * [TBD] #nixos #home-manager #devops #linux #homelab

🤖 Remember that stubborn NixOS VM from last stream? After a deep dive into TTY/PTY over SSH, I finally fixed the deployment issue!

Join me live on October 30th at 18:30 UTC where I'll break down the errors, the solution, and what I learned.

#nixos #linux #homelab #devops

Crafting Systems on NixOS: Part 4 In this live series, I’m rebuilding my entire NixOS system configuration from the ground up. This setup powers my daily driver laptop, backup machine, and a network of self-hosted servers I've used every day for a few years now. I’ll walk through how everything fits together, what I’ve learned so far, and how I plan to evolve it over time. With the new test virtual machine setup out of the way, it's now time to finalize my secret management strategy by keeping secrets in a separate git submodule. I will use it as a flake and give exclusive access to the Caddy service to use it as an environment variable. ## Timestamps * [TBD] #nixos #home-manager #devops #linux #homelab

🤖 Live stream incoming! We're diving deep into secret management in my NixOS from-scratch rebuild. I'll be finalizing my strategy using a git submodule as a flake to securely give Caddy access.

Join me Oct 29, 2025 at 06:00 UTC!

#nixos #home-manager #devops #linux #homelab

Crafting Systems on NixOS: Part 2 In this live series, I’m rebuilding my entire NixOS system configuration from the ground up. This setup powers my daily driver laptop, backup machine, and a network of self-hosted servers I've used every day for a few years now. I’ll walk through how everything fits together, what I’ve learned so far, and how I plan to evolve it over time. In this session, I'm going to first invest some time and implement what Andi suggested in the previous part and use `build vm` for testing my setup (instead of the VPS, which I was using). Then I'll continue solving the issue of requiring the secret files to be shared within the repository for age-nix to work. ## Timestamps * [TBD] #nixos #home-manager #devops #linux #homelab

🤖 NixOS stream incoming! Join me live on Oct 24th at 6:00 UTC as I continue rebuilding my entire setup. This session: we're finally implementing `build vm` for local testing and tackling the age-nix secrets-in-repo problem. See you there! #nixos #home-manager #devops #linux #homelab

Crafting Systems on NixOS YouTube video by Sourcerer

🤖 I'm rebuilding my entire NixOS configuration from scratch, LIVE! Join me as I walk through how it all fits together and what I've learned.

🗓️ October 23, 2025 @ 06:00 UTC

#nixos #home-manager #devops #linux #homelab
youtube.com/watch?v=S-Xr...

LiveStream Log: Building a DNS Server in Zig Conclusion | Sourcery Zone A software engineer's playground at the crossroads of AI, robotics, and cybersecurity.

🤖 It's a wrap! The final post in my series on building a DNS server in Zig is live. It recaps the challenging final stages, which involved heavy debugging and a full rewrite. Check out the lessons learned and the final code!

bit.ly/3KZDIP7

#ZigLang #DNS #SystemsProgramming #Codecrafters #Coding

Build to Learn: DNS Server in Zig - Final Update 🎉 Building a DNS Server from Scratch in Zig! After completing Ziglings, I'm taking on the #codecrafters DNS challenge to push deeper into systems programming. Live and unfiltered. Well, after grinding some time in the past few days on this project and rewriting a bunch of it, it's finally done. In this short live session, I'm going to give a quick tour of changes and what I've learned so far. I'm sure it'll be fun, so CHALLENGE ACCEPTED 💪🏼🤓. ## Related Playlists: - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvWC0OdoEeTgVkVMyvBSgvwv4_oVI0bkF - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvWC0OdoEeTh7ZQuJXq42YVuNRC4PcBsY ## Notes: - ✅ Session 1: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/09/livestream-log-building-a-dns-server-in-zig-part-1/ - ✅ Session 2: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/09/livestream-log-building-a-dns-server-in-zig-part-2/ - ✅ Session 3: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/09/livestream-log-building-a-dns-server-in-zig-part-3/ - ✅ Session 4: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/09/livestream-log-building-a-dns-server-in-zig-part-4/ - ✅ Session 5: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/09/livestream-log-building-a-dns-server-in-zig-part-5/ - ✅ Session 6, 7, and 8: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/09/livestream-log-building-a-dns-server-in-zig-part-6-7-and-8/ - ✅ Session 9, and 10: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/09/livestream-log-building-a-dns-server-in-zig-part-9-and-10/ - ✅ Session 11: TBD - ✅ Session 12: TBD - ✅ Session 13: TBD - ✅ Session 14: TBD - ✅ Session 15: TBD - ✅ Session 16: TBD ## Timestamps - [TBD] #zig #lowlevelprogramming #systemprogramming #coding #codinglive

🤖 CHALLENGE COMPLETE! ✅ My DNS server built from scratch in Zig is finally done.

Join me live on YouTube for a quick tour of the final code and what I learned after a ton of grinding and rewrites.

See you October 12th at 18:00 UTC! 🤓

#zig #systemprogramming #codecrafters #codinglive

Build to Learn: DNS Server in Zig - Part 14 Building a DNS Server from Scratch in Zig! After completing Ziglings, I'm taking on the #codecrafters DNS challenge to push deeper into systems programming. Live and unfiltered. So, finally, in the last session, I managed to solve the compressed question section parsing, caused by the drift on the offsets (I was using header length, while the function wasn't getting the header portion). In today's session, I'm going to continue my progress and resolve the issue of using label format in the response. I'm sure it'll be fun, so CHALLENGE ACCEPTED 💪🏼🤓. ## Related Playlists: - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvWC0OdoEeTgVkVMyvBSgvwv4_oVI0bkF - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvWC0OdoEeTh7ZQuJXq42YVuNRC4PcBsY ## Notes: - ✅ Session 1: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/09/livestream-log-building-a-dns-server-in-zig-part-1/ - ✅ Session 2: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/09/livestream-log-building-a-dns-server-in-zig-part-2/ - ✅ Session 3: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/09/livestream-log-building-a-dns-server-in-zig-part-3/ - ✅ Session 4: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/09/livestream-log-building-a-dns-server-in-zig-part-4/ - ✅ Session 5: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/09/livestream-log-building-a-dns-server-in-zig-part-5/ - ✅ Session 6, 7, and 8: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/09/livestream-log-building-a-dns-server-in-zig-part-6-7-and-8/ - ✅ Session 9, and 10: https://sourcery.zone/articles/2025/09/livestream-log-building-a-dns-server-in-zig-part-9-and-10/ - ✅ Session 11: TBD - ✅ Session 12: TBD - ✅ Session 13: TBD - ⭐ Session 14: TBD ## Timestamps - [TBD] #zig #lowlevelprogramming #systemprogramming #coding #codinglive

🤖 The DNS server in Zig saga continues! After fixing compressed question parsing, it's time to tackle label formatting in the response. Challenge accepted! 💪🤓

Join me live for some unfiltered systems programming on October 6th at 18:00 UTC.

#zig #systemprogramming #codinglive #codecrafters

Build to Learn: DNS Server in Zig - Part 13 Building a DNS Server from Scratch in Zig! After completing Ziglings, I'm taking on the #codecrafters DNS challenge to push deeper into systems programming. ...

🤖 The DNS decompression logic is fighting back! 😠 Join me live on Oct 4th at 18:00 UTC as I debug my DNS server in Zig. It's me vs the bug in the #codecrafters challenge, live and unfiltered. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! 💪🤓 #zig #systemprogramming #codinglive

LiveStream Log: Building a DNS Server in Zig Part 9, and 10 | Sourcery Zone A software engineer's playground at the crossroads of AI, robotics, and cybersecurity.

🤖 New LiveStream Log! 🚀 In parts 9 & 10 of my 'Building a DNS Server in Zig' series, I'm tackling decompression logic and handling those tricky compressed pointers in the parser. See the progress here: [Link to your blog post]

#ZigLang #DNS #NetworkProgramming #Coding #LiveStream