Story

From the build log

We build in public. Each note is a short, honest look at what we shipped, what broke, and what we learned.

Three-panel painted comic. Panel one, deep indigo: a builder looks uneasy at his laptop while a glowing cloud with a watchful eye hovers over the screen and a beam of light lifts his private client files up and away to a distant server tower. Panel two, indigo: the same builder sits calm at the laptop, the command npx orionfold-relay glowing on screen, one result held inside a bright approval gate with a pause icon and his hand raised to release it, a small flat gold AI computer glowing beside the laptop. Panel three, emerald: the builder leans back happy before a screen showing a per-client margin receipt reading five cents, six runs, 32,150 tokens against about 500 dollars a month, with a blue star constellation of checkmarks rising. A banner reads Keep the data. See the margin.
Orionfold Relay

Keep the data. See the margin.

The AI you rent to run your client work can see your client work. So I built the opposite. Orionfold Relay is a free engine you run yourself, every result waits for your approval, and it shows you the real margin on each client. It launches on Product Hunt today.
A comic of a glowing laptop on a desk at night. A signed paper receipt unspools from it across the desk, and a small wrench icon hovers over a corrected number, with a star constellation overhead.
Proof

The fix that changed the leaderboard

I found two honesty bugs in my own product and fixed both the same day. Then I reran the three-way governance bench on the fixed code. A four-billion-parameter model on my laptop scored highest, the famous frontier model came last, and the cost column finally told the truth. Here is the whole receipt, bugs and all.
Three-panel comic. A builder eyes a glowing laptop while a big server tower looms; twenty-one question cards stream into the laptop; the screen reads 18 of 21 as a blue star constellation rises.
Proof

A 4B model scored 18 out of 21 on my laptop

A published governance benchmark, run on a four-billion-parameter model, on an Apple laptop, for nothing. It refused all nine trick questions, matched the big-iron baseline answer for answer, and missed the same three. Here is the whole receipt.
Two-panel before-and-after comic. On the left a pair of hands holds a fading, crumbling grey screenshot of a chart; on the right the same hands hold a glowing printed receipt stamped with a star seal, a laptop beside it.
Proof

Same input, same receipt

A benchmark you cannot rerun is a rumor. Every Proof Receipt carries a config hash, twelve characters that reproduce the whole run to the byte. Here is what that small string actually buys you, and why I built the product around it.
A comic race at night. A glowing laptop streaks across the finish line first on a blue comet trail while two big dark server racers marked with question marks lag behind, a star constellation overhead.
Proof

The famous model didn't win

I put a four-billion-parameter model that runs on my laptop in a head-to-head with Claude Opus and a frontier GLM, on a governance task, scored by a machine. The small local one won, for nothing, and faster. Here is the whole receipt, including the part where the scorer was too harsh.
Four-panel painted comic. A builder studies a long project plan on the wall labeled 10 WEEKS that climbs like a staircase. He stands like a conductor waving a baton over blue light that loops between a laptop holding three glowing AI helpers and a small flat gold AI computer holding a fourth. Late at night the laptop and the gold box work together while a calendar crosses out 10 WEEKS and circles 1 DAY. He leans back happy beside a screen showing a first-boot receipt stamped VERIFIED with a tally of the tools, models, and books shipped, under a blue star constellation. A banner reads The lab that shipped itself.
Arena Field Edition

The lab that shipped itself

The paid edition of my AI lab launched this weekend, and the lab shipped itself. My plan said ten weeks. A team of AI agents I conduct did it in a day. Here is how, and what you get.
Three-panel comic. A builder pins a card to a big public roadmap board with Shipped, Building now, and Planned lanes, a diverse community cheers and raises coins to vote, and a lane lights up Funded under a blue constellation. A banner reads: Build in public, vote with dollars.
Building in public

Building in public

Every story here, every number and honest miss, I put out in public on purpose. This is why I build in the open, and how you can help shape what comes next.
Three-panel painted comic. A builder's finger hovers over a glowing key while a screen warns of a six hour job, then he studies three small glowing gauges on his workbench, then he relaxes as a small gold AI computer runs the job as a pure test, with a blue star constellation in the window. A banner reads Measure first, spend second.
Models

The run I almost wasted

I built Kepler, a space-math model, on one desktop. Three cheap checks told me the big training run would change nothing. I ran it anyway, and proving them right was the win.
Spotlight comic. In a cozy night reading nook, an open glowing book pours friendly code into the air that becomes a blue star constellation and a tiny running app, with a small gold desktop computer glowing beside it. A banner reads: Read it, run it yours.
Books

A book you can read and run

I write books you can run, not just read. The code works and every page is online. Here is why open, reproducible books beat theory behind a paywall.
Three-panel comic in a warm workshop. A tired builder glues the same parts by hand, a tall tower of repeated glue-tax parts looms over them, then they open a tidy blue toolbox of ready-made modules. A banner reads: Pay down the glue tax.
fieldkit

The glue tax, and the kit that pays it

Every AI project, I kept rewriting the same boring plumbing. I named it the glue tax. So I built fieldkit, an open kit of 12 tested parts, to stop paying it.
Emblem-style comic with four glowing panels: an open book labeled Books, a friendly app window labeled Software, an AI brain chip labeled Models, and a small gold desktop computer labeled Devices, tied together by a blue star constellation. A banner reads: Four things you control.
AI Native

Four things you actually control

The AI divide feels out of your hands. It is not. There are four things you can own instead of rent. Playbooks, software, models, and a device of your own.
Editorial comic. A crowd is stuck behind a wall while a few people walk through a door marked Learning into bright light, where a small gold desktop AI glows.
AI Native

Why most teams get nothing from AI

Companies poured 30 to 40 billion dollars into AI and 95% got nothing back. The reason is not cost or tech. It is learning. That gap is why Orionfold exists.
A builder smiles at a night desk under a starry sky as a small gold computer folds a glowing blue constellation down onto the desk. A banner reads: Fold it down. Open, private, yours.
Founder

Why I folded Orionfold

After nearly nine years at Amazon, I left to build Orionfold solo. The twenty-five-year story behind that choice, and what the name means. By Manav Sehgal.
Three-panel painted comic. A builder looks overwhelmed at a shelf full of glowing AI model boxes and a tangle of terminal windows, then sketches a single dashboard beside a glowing gold desktop computer, then sits back happy at one screen with live dials, a leaderboard, and two models racing, under a blue star constellation. A banner reads One cockpit for every model.
Tools

The cockpit for my models

I had a shelf of models on one desktop and no way to drive them. In fifteen hours I built a cockpit to run, compare, and score them, all on that desk.
Spotlight comic. A small friendly AI model wears a graduation cap and holds a badge that says My Field, standing on a small gold desktop computer while the builder claps.
Fine-tuning

Teaching a small model my field

I taught a 3B model my own field with 231 question-answer pairs. It stopped refusing and started answering, in my voice. Small and tuned beat big and general.
Three-panel comic. A builder runs one command, gets a first word in 52 milliseconds, and a small gold desktop AI glows with a blue constellation of icons.
DGX Spark

My first model on a desktop

I ran my first model on a small computer on my desk. 52 milliseconds to the first word, no cloud, no per-use bill. It felt like a local function, not a service.
Two-panel comic. On the left a builder is stuck choosing from a wall of model names. On the right the same builder ships happily with one gold desktop AI.
Local AI

Access first, models second

On day one with my desktop AI machine I did not pick a model. I set up how I reach it. Models change every six months. Good access lasts for years.
Four-panel comic. A builder writes three sentences at breakfast, the plan fans out into tasks, an app fills the screen by noon, then the builder leans back by the finished app.
Spec-driven

A spec at breakfast, an app by lunch

With Kiro I turned three sentences into a 24,000-line app, about four hours of my time. The spec did the heavy lifting, and speed became a skill.
Three-panel comic. The same AI agent meets a developer at a terminal, a manager at a dashboard, and a person by voice.
Agents

One agent, three faces

The same AI agent should meet a developer in the terminal, a manager in a dashboard, and a phone user by voice. One brain, many doors.
Comic. A builder works at a desk inside a warm glowing dome at night while data stays safely in the room.
Privacy

Keeping my data in the room

I built an analyst AI that never sends my work to the cloud. Privacy is not a setting you flip at the end. It is a choice you make in the design.
Four-panel comic. A builder plays chess against a glowing AI at night, looking relaxed at first, then leaning in focused and making the winning move. A banner reads: Vibe coding is not passive.
Vibe coding

Vibe coding is not passive

After my AI-built weekend I thought coding got easy. Andrew Ng named what I felt. Vibe coding is not passive, it is engineering done fast.
Three-panel comic of a builder at a home desk turning a weekend idea into a finished app with AI help.
Vibe coding

I built a real product in a weekend

Over one holiday weekend I built Web Memo, a working browser tool, about 2,400 lines of code. AI wrote most of it. My sense of my own ceiling moved.
Splash comic. A giant glowing price tag tears from 100k down to 10k in a grand hall, while a golden AI brain and a small gold desktop computer glow nearby. A banner reads: Frontier reasoning at a tenth of the cost.
Open models

Frontier reasoning at a tenth of the cost

In early 2025 a model called DeepSeek did frontier-level reasoning for about 95% less. And it was small enough to run on my own machine.
Two-panel comic at a sunset stadium. In 2023 a runner labeled CLOSED leads a smaller runner labeled OPEN by a wide margin. In 2024 the two hit the finish tape side by side under a blue star constellation. A banner reads: The year the gap closed.
Open models

The year the gap closed

In late 2024 I watched the AI tool stack collapse into the model itself. The first sign that one person could build what used to take a team.
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Short, honest notes from building Orionfold in public. What we shipped, what broke, and what we learned. One email a week, no more.