#build-in-public

GCTX: the first full model training and what followed

Oct 13, 2026 · note

GCTX completed its first full 93M-parameter training run on September 22. Follow-up experiments show reliable small-set fitting, while useful generalization remains open.

Why I Froze an Imperfect Eval Baseline

Jul 31, 2026 · note

A follow-up note on why the July Open Model Lab baseline stays frozen even after the failure audit found grader artifacts, strict-format misses, and token-limit effects.

Open Model Research Harness completes its July evaluation gate

Jul 29, 2026 · note

The first Open Model Research Harness gate is complete: 25 tasks, three local open models, 75 scored outputs, a deterministic comparison, and a failure audit that shows why raw pass rates need context.

Starting Open Model Research Harness

Jul 4, 2026 · note

A public 12-stage project to build an eval-first research-engineering harness for open LLMs.

GCTX passes its first data-readiness gate

Jun 28, 2026 · note

GCTX's data pipeline passed its first volume, split, and format checks for a proof-model run.

Starting GCTX: a small model for Git diffs

Jun 21, 2026 · note

A starting note for GCTX, a from-scratch small language model project for reading Git diffs and writing Conventional Commit messages.

chess-zero: the platform's done, the intelligence isn't

Jun 16, 2026 · note

A month in, chess-zero has a complete, verified chess platform and no learned intelligence yet — the hand-written ML pipeline is what comes next.

Starting chess-zero

May 19, 2026 · note

Starting a hand-built chess engine and AlphaZero-style RL pipeline as a learning project for the ML side.