Donald B. Havery · AI Systems Engineer
Software that holds up quietly.
I build AI tools that stay running an hour before anyone is awake — assistants, voice pipelines, retrieval engines, and the small, attentive things that give people back their evenings.
Selected work · 10 systems
A small, attentive set of tools.
Most of these run quietly while I sleep. A few are still in progress. The rest are in production for one user — me — which means every line ships against the test suite first and the user second.
Companion
LiveA local-first AI assistant with a trained persona, tool use, and a cinematic desktop interface. Runs entirely on-device.
- Local LLM
- LoRA v2
- Agent loop
Darkroom
ShippedA local image studio. FLUX.1-dev for quality, RealVisXL Lightning for speed; PySide6 desktop UI with 144 passing tests.
- FLUX.1-dev
- PySide6
- Python
Wire
LiveMorning automation. Compiles and publishes a daily LinkedIn brief at 6 a.m. on weekdays. Live since March.
- Python
- Scheduled
- LinkedIn API
Dispatch
Case studyA fleet-operations console for dispatch, fueling, and what-if planning. Operator-first, readable across the yard.
- Next.js
- React
- Operations
Albums
In progressA self-hosted replacement for Google Photos and Drive. Your memories, your hardware, your search — no cloud, no subscription.
- Python
- SQLite
- Vector search
Reserve
ShippedSelf-hosted search and provider failover for AI apps. When OpenAI, Anthropic, or your vector DB has a bad day, your app keeps running.
- Python
- OSS
- Resilience
Auditor
Case studyAutomated compliance scanner. Reads policies, cross-references SOC 2, GDPR, and HIPAA, and surfaces what a real auditor would find — in eight seconds.
- LLM-assisted
- SOC 2 · GDPR · HIPAA
Vox
ShippedPush-to-talk desktop dictation. Hold right-Ctrl, speak; text appears at the cursor. Sub-second Whisper latency on CPU.
- Whisper
- Python
- Windows
Grid
Shipped5×5 keyboard-driven desktop launcher with live Claude Max usage tiles. Muscle memory beats Spotlight.
- WinAPI
- OAuth
- Python
Snap
ShippedScreenshot clipboard utility. Watches Win+Shift+S snips and pops a three-button chooser: save, rename, discard.
- Python
- Win32
- Daemon
About
A long detour, then a straight line.
I drove freight at night for almost three decades. The trucks teach you two things: a system works only when it works at 3 a.m., and the people who keep it running are usually the ones nobody notices.
I came to software late and from the side door — a Sophia associate’s, a master’s in progress, and the kind of curiosity that gets you a hundred tools deep into your own workshop before you look up. The work I show here is what I built in the time other engineers spent commuting. Most of it runs every day. A few are still in progress.
I’m looking for senior AI engineering work where the bar is real and the systems matter. Vancouver, WA — remote, hybrid, or a short flight away from anywhere on the West Coast.
The work that matters tends to show up as relief — small, attentive, often unnoticed. A morning a little easier than it should have been.
Read the full essaySay hello.
Available for senior AI engineering roles starting 2026-05-15. Vancouver, WA — remote or hybrid. I read my own email; send me something real and I’ll write back.
Or email dbhavery@gmail.com