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 built an entire operating system for agentic development (Chaossynergy) with local GPU inference, multi-agent orchestration, and atomic immutability. I documented the full methodology across The Philosophical Developer series. I built the same infrastructure platform across three clouds (AWS, GCP, Azure) with plan-mode tests, Dagger pipelines, and Prometheus observability.
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, ThinkingCap, RTX 5090), 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 (k3s/k3d, Helm), Cloud Foundry, BOSH
Infrastructure as Code: OpenTofu, 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 based on Bluefin LTS. 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 (RTX 5090, 32GB VRAM, ThinkingCap 27B at 62 tokens per second via llama.cpp, vLLM for production serving), a multi-agent architecture (Hermes orchestrates, OpenCode implements, Pi extends, Claude Code reasons), 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 built a multi-cloud infrastructure framework across AWS, GCP, and Azure. Fifteen OpenTofu modules, each with plan-mode tests, validated by a Dagger CI pipeline. Local development with Floci emulators (69 AWS services, 17 GCP services, 15 Azure services). Prometheus and Grafana for observability on k3s. The four pillars: reproducible, traceable, testable, safe.
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 (reconnaissance, work item, RED test, fix), and multi-cloud platform engineering. The repo is 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 built the local inference pipeline end to end. Compiled llama.cpp from source, integrated CUDA with the GPU, optimised for 32GB VRAM with flash-attention and KV cache quantization. The model runs at 62 tokens per second on bare metal.
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 automated all aspects of platform operations using Golang and Ruby, ensuring high availability and scalability. I led the decommissioning of the platform with minimal disruption to citizen-facing services. I maintained 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 deployed a new Cloud Foundry PaaS on an air-gapped network using immutable infrastructure principles. No internet access. Fully automated updates via open-source tooling. This was a highly governed and sensitive project and I am very proud of what we accomplished.
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 led the rewrite of the in-house platform automation tool, “Concourse-Up,” in Golang. One command, deploy to AWS or GCP. This was a significant rewrite that made the tool production-ready across multiple cloud providers.
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. I was CTO at Vieno, designing and implementing the mobile application backend. I was DevOps at PeoplePerHour, orchestrating the migration from classic hosting to the cloud with Puppet. I built the centralised service provisioning system at Hellas On Line, a BSS/OSS system spanning C, C++, Radius, MySQL, and Sybase. I also worked across Vivodi Telecom, ICAP, Fortune Technologies, and others.
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 Repositories - AWS, GCP, and Azure local-cloud frameworks. 15 OpenTofu 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
Loggregator mTLS - Implemented mutual-TLS support for the Cloud Foundry logging and metrics system.
Concourse-Up - Led the rewrite in Go of the platform automation tool for one-command Concourse deployment.
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