Panagiotis (Panos) Xynos
SRE | ML Platform Engineer | Agentic Systems
Github: @dark5un | Gitlab: @onlyascii | LinkedIn: panagiotisxynos
SUMMARY
I consider myself primarily a Software Engineer. Right now I am focused on how ML platforms and agentic systems are operated. Through my own company OnlyASCII Ltd, I explored agent-native infrastructure by building Chaossynergy — an immutable Linux OS designed as a substrate for AI agents — and documented the full methodology across The Philosophical Developer series. I proved that agentic systems can build multi-cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure) with plan-mode tests, Dagger pipelines, and Prometheus observability when given a clear methodology to follow.
I was acting as a DevOps or SRE before these roles had names. I automated everything that felt repetitive or fragile. Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, containerisation. I cannot go back to anything else. I want to go beyond.
I am not a pure ML researcher. I am the platform engineer who builds the infrastructure that makes ML researchers and product teams productive. Reliable, observable, automated, and designed for both human operators and AI agents.
SKILLS
ML Platform & Infrastructure: GPU/LLM inference (llama.cpp, vLLM, GGUF, mlx), model serving, local inference, agentic systems (Hermes Agent, MCP, multi-agent orchestration), workflow orchestration (Dagger, Concourse CI)
Cloud Platforms: AWS, GCP, Azure, Ali Cloud
Containerisation & Orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes (operators, Helm), Cloud Foundry, BOSH
Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, BOSH, Pulumi
CI/CD: Dagger, GitHub Actions, Concourse CI, Jenkins
Monitoring & Observability: Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, Datadog, OpenTelemetry
Languages: Go, Python, Rust, Ruby, Shell, Java
Operating Systems: Linux (CentOS Stream, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu), Unix, BSD
Platform Engineering: Immutable Infrastructure, bootc, distrobox, plan-mode testing, chaos engineering, air-gapped deployments, performance tuning
EXPERIENCE
OnlyASCII Ltd - Founder & Platform Engineer October 2019 - Present
I founded OnlyASCII Ltd to explore the intersection of platform engineering and agentic systems. This is where the most relevant work of my career lives.
I designed and built Chaossynergy, an agent-native immutable Linux operating system. Three principles guide every decision: the host OS is sacred and dumb (immutable, minimal, an appliance), the agent is disposable (runs in a distrobox container, delete and recreate in 30 seconds), and safety is by construction not policy (bootc at the kernel level, distrobox at the user level). The system ships with local GPU inference, a multi-agent architecture (Hermes orchestrates, coding agents implement), and bootc atomic updates. The CI pipeline builds with buildah, signs with cosign, and publishes to GHCR. Every design decision is documented as an Architecture Decision Record.
I designed a methodology for agentic infrastructure development that my agent (Hermes) followed successfully across AWS, GCP, and Azure. Fifteen modules, each with plan-mode tests, validated by a Dagger CI pipeline. Local development with Floci emulators. Prometheus and Grafana for observability. The four pillars: reproducible, traceable, testable, safe. The experiment proved that agentic systems can handle real infrastructure work when given a disciplined framework.
I wrote The Philosophical Developer series, documenting the full methodology for agentic development. Every chapter is a real experiment with real code, real tests, and verifiable trace tags. Topics include LSP-tethered TDD, git traceability patterns, local inference pipelines, formal bug-fix processes, and multi-cloud platform engineering. The repos are on GitHub. The code is public. Everything is verifiable.
I built a Rust MCP server wrapping the FreeAgent accounting API. Eleven tools, 37 tests, MIT licensed. Clean architecture split across models, client, and router.
I explored local inference on diverse hardware — consumer GPUs (RTX 5090, RTX 4070 Ti, RTX A1000) and Apple Silicon (M2 Max, 96GB RAM) — fitting models to constrained VRAM with quantization and understanding when local inference is worth the trade-off.
I built an iOS/macOS local AI chat app (mini-enkefalos) using MLX Swift for on-device model inference, developed with Claude Code on Xcode. The app works on both iOS and macOS with real-time streaming, conversation history, and support for multiple lightweight models.
I built an invoice categorization tool using local models and the pydanticAI framework to process and classify invoices from multiple sources — solving a recurring personal problem while exploring structured output with LLMs.
I maintained bucc unofficially, extending it to support local BOSH/Concourse/Cloud Foundry deployments for client use.
EngineerBetter (SAP), Remote - Production Engineer (SRE) May 2024 - June 2026
Production engineering for persistence services within the SAP Cloud Foundry platform. Provisioning, handling, and operations of large-scale distributed systems.
I built internal tooling that runs Claude Code inside a container and configures the LLM company proxy tool automatically. This is the kind of ML platform tooling that makes research teams more productive without adding operational overhead.
I acted as technical lead at times, guiding the team on software engineering practices and AI-assisted engineering. I onboarded and trained new engineers on BOSH, Cloud Foundry, and automation-first operations. I drove down operational overhead through automation, self-service patterns, and infrastructure-as-code discipline.
GDS - Cabinet Office (GOV.UK), Remote - Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) October 2022 - March 2024
SRE for the GOV.UK central platform service, managing the Cloud Foundry PaaS at national scale.
I contributed to automating platform operations using Golang and Ruby as part of a team ensuring high availability and scalability. I was the last engineer on the team to decommission the platform, working to minimize disruption to citizen-facing services. As part of a team, I helped maintain open-source BOSH releases and packages. I participated in a 24/7 on-call rota, handling incidents that kept UK government systems running reliably.
EngineerBetter (SAP), Remote - Production Engineer (DevOps) October 2021 - September 2022
Production engineering for persistence services within the SAP Cloud Foundry platform. Provisioning, handling, and operations.
I mentored new engineers in BOSH, Cloud Foundry, and infrastructure automation. I contributed to the open-source Loggregator component by implementing its mTLS feature, a security-critical addition to the Cloud Foundry logging and metrics system.
PagoNxt (Santander), Remote - Production Engineer / Digital Transformation Expert November 2019 - September 2021
Production engineer on Cloud Foundry for a fintech subsidiary of Santander.
I contributed to deploying a new Cloud Foundry PaaS on an air-gapped network using immutable infrastructure principles as part of a team. The architecture was my design, but the execution was collaborative. (The project was later superseded when the company moved to a different stack.) This was a highly governed and sensitive project.
I implemented a custom “chaos monkey” BOSH release that generated intentional issues across networks and services, proving the system could recover. I introduced immutable infrastructure design patterns across several services.
I authored and maintained BOSH packages and releases: python3 (modernising the outdated packaged version), HA Postgres, HA Redis, and Kafka. I was the most experienced Cloud Foundry and BOSH engineer on the team and led upskilling across the wider engineering organisation.
EngineerBetter, London - Senior Production Engineer (DevOps) May 2017 - October 2019
I helped guide the rewrite of the in-house platform automation tool, “Concourse-Up,” in Golang, mentoring less senior engineers and contributing heavily to GCP support. The original tool only supported AWS; the rewrite made it production-ready across AWS and GCP with a single command. It was a significant rewrite and I am proud of the outcome.
I worked with Pivotal Labs, maintaining Redis BOSH releases for the Cloud Foundry service ecosystem. I co-led Cloud Foundry and BOSH training sessions for clients and internal teams. I delivered a new Kafka cluster BOSH release for a client engagement. I worked as a client-facing consultant on large-scale, immutable, air-gapped Cloud Foundry installations.
Camelot Global (National Lottery), London - Senior Software Engineer December 2015 - May 2017
Full-stack development on the National Lottery platform. I started as a Node.js mobile developer, then automated the team’s testing process with Jenkins CI. Later I redesigned the instant-win games platform and its API using Spring Framework and Cassandra. My proudest moment in this role was the roll out of the instant-win games platform.
Earlier Career - Software Engineering & Systems Administration September 1999 - September 2015
Progressive roles across backend engineering, systems administration, and DevOps.
I co-founded Stone Soup, a developer community and coworking space in Athens. There I got involved with CocoaHeads and Ruby user groups, helped the hosted startups with tech architecture and hiring, and acted as an ambassador connecting startups with talent networks. This is how I became CTO at Vieno (originally Frink), where I designed and implemented the mobile application backend, hired two mobile engineers, and led the technical direction until I moved to the UK.
At the same time, I freelanced across numerous greenfield startup projects — acting as architect, hiring manager, and technology ambassador for incubators and coworking spaces. I gave presentations on development methodologies and the startup scene from a developer’s perspective. This was a pivotal period where I learned to bridge the gap between deep technical work and the people/business side of building startups.
I was DevOps at PeoplePerHour, orchestrating the migration from classic hosting to the cloud. I maintained and expanded the centralised service provisioning system at Hellas On Line, a BSS/OSS system spanning C, C++, Radius, MySQL, and Sybase. I built an equivalent provisioning system from scratch for Vivodi Telecom. The titles and dates for the roles mentioned above are listed below for reference:
Agile Actors, Athens – Contractor, Senior Software Engineer (Camelot Global project) (September 2015 – December 2015)
Vieno, Athens – Co Founder, CTO, Architect (May 2014 – March 2016)
Stone Soup, Athens – Co Founder, Tech evangelist, Developer coach (October 2014 – September 2015)
Camerize, Amsterdam / Opsiz, Athens / One Click License, London / Yoconta, Athens – Contractor, Senior Software Engineer (February 2014 – September 2015)
Logicea, Athens – Contractor, Senior Software Engineer for Boxtone Ltd (Columbia MD) (May 2013 – May 2014)
Skroutz, Athens – Contractor, Senior Software Engineer (September 2012 – March 2013)
PeoplePerHour, Athens – Devops (December 2011 – October 2012)
ICAP Group, Athens – Senior Software Engineer (March 2011 – December 2011)
Fortune Technologies, Athens – Senior Software Engineer (September 2009 – April 2011)
Vivodi Telecom, Athens – Senior Software Engineer (Full stack) (October 2005 – August 2009)
Hellas On Line, Athens – Software Engineer (Full stack), Systems Administrator (September 1999 – October 2005)
OPEN SOURCE & PUBLICATIONS
The Philosophical Developer - Documented methodology for agentic development, local inference, and multi-cloud platform engineering. Every experiment has real code, real tests, and verifiable trace tags. onlyascii.dev
Chaossynergy - Open-source agent-native Linux OS. Bootable container image, GitHub Actions CI, cosign-signed, GHCR-published. github.com/dark5un/chaossynergy
Multi-cloud IaC Methodology - AWS, GCP, and Azure infrastructure modules proven through agentic development. 15 modules, Dagger CI pipelines, plan-mode tests. local-cloud (AWS) / local-cloud-gcp / local-cloud-az
FreeAgent MCP Server - Rust MCP server wrapping the FreeAgent accounting API. 11 tools, 37 tests, MIT license. github.com/dark5un/freeagent-mcp-rs
Mini-Enkefalos - iOS/macOS local AI chat app using MLX Swift for on-device inference. github.com/onlyascii/mini-enkefalos
Bucc - Unofficial maintenance extending support for local BOSH/Concourse/Cloud Foundry deployments. github.com/onlyascii/bucc
Loggregator mTLS - Implemented mutual-TLS support for the Cloud Foundry logging and metrics system.
Concourse-Up - Helped guide the rewrite in Go of the platform automation tool for one-command deployment across AWS and GCP.
BOSH Releases - Authored and maintained open-source BOSH releases: python3, HA Postgres, HA Redis, Kafka.
Afero - Fixed a filesystem abstraction bug in the afero Go library (MemMapFs vs OsFs consistency).
tqdm - Fixed two bugs in the Python progress bar library (terminal resize ghosting, logging level leak).
EDUCATION
Edinc, USA - Bachelor of Science in IT & Software Engineering (2013)
The Open University, UK - Diploma in Computing (2000 - 2001)
Engineering High School, Athens - Diploma, Software Engineer (1988 - 1990)
INTERESTS
Role playing games - Tech geek - Extreme programming evangelist
EVENTS
Digital Empathy - A presentation at Cloud Foundry Summit Europe 2018