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Chris K Wensel

@chris.wensel.net
1.7K followers 219 following 372 posts

Developer of: - retrofit.sh - chris.wensel.net/project Co-Organizer of lu.ma/sf-distsys

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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 15h
Hey all Finally, I think we landed on a great design with handling both reference (and seed) data in retrofit. This week we demo managing reference data as part of the schema. retrofit.sh/demos/refere... #postgreSQL #SQL
retrofit.sh
Manage PostgreSQL reference data with the schema · retrofit
Capture a PostgreSQL lookup table's rows from pg_dump into a data file pinned to the operation log, retire the .sql side file that held them, rename the table and its column, and see a hand edit to th...
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 28/09/2026
if we remove toil from work, what's left. pride in our art and craft?
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Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 27/09/2026
Very much enjoying this “GPU glossary” mini-book by Modal I got from Can Duruk when stopping by at Modal’s NYC office. I don’t know if the physical books can be purchased, but the book has an online version, as I learned; with the same contents: modal.com/gpu-glossary
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Brian Sletten @bsletten.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Ahhhhh!!! Sorry, this is for the music geeks. HT @mrbirchtoo.bsky.social #music #morphine #sandman pitchfork.com/story/morphi...
pitchfork.com
Morphine Unveil Lost Album Cocoon
The album, led by the title track, was completed from recordings shelved soon before the death of frontman Mark Sandman
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JD Long @jdlong.cerebralmastication.com · 26/09/2026
I’ve literally seen this in the wild. Had exec say they needed “real time data” … I knew they didn’t. Tech team was architecting Kafka bullshit so I asked in a meeting “how many times a day do you need this refreshed?” Answer: “once is fine. Twice if you can”
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Qian Li @qianli.dev · 26/09/2026
Be aware of Postgres SELECT DISTINCT.
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 26/09/2026
took my this many days to realize jev was named after William Stanley Jevons of Jevons Paradox fame. I guess I'm laxing on my vitamins.
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Dmitriy Ryaboy @squarecog.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Kind of embarrassing how many ML people are reacting to Jev with "lol, LLM noobs discovered classifiers / BERT".
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Julien Le Dem @julien.ledem.net · 23/09/2026
Fresh off the press: ALP: Adaptive Lossless Floating-Point Encoding in Apache Parquet parquet.apache.org/blog/2026/09... Thank you Kosta Tarasov, @andrewlamb1111.bsky.social, Prateek Gaur
parquet.apache.org
ALP: Adaptive Lossless Floating-Point Encoding in Apache Parquet
A technical overview of ALP's design, performance, and adoption across the Apache Parquet ecosystem.
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Murat (Distributolog) @muratdemirbas.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
[new blog post] What Happens When the Model Eats the Stack? Rethinking the Research Agenda for Data Agents to Withstand the Bitter Lesson muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2026/09/what...
muratbuffalo.blogspot.com
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acmqueue.bsky.social @acmqueue.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
CAFE(S): Your Agent Is Only As Good As Its Context Even the latest models degrade when operating on unclear inputs. We present CAFE(S), a framework that evaluates context across five dimensions: clarity, actionability, fidelity, efficiency, and security queue.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 23/09/2026
Hey all It’s Wednesday and we have a new retrofit demo to share: retrofit.sh/demos/rails-... This is similar to the Liquibase and Flyway demos. We inject retrofit into the Ruby/Rails developer workflow. Bootstrapping an existing Ruby project into retrofit is quite trivial.
retrofit.sh
Add foreign keys to a Rails polymorphic association with Retrofit · retrofit
See strong_migrations stop a one-migration refactor of a Rails polymorphic association, Retrofit render the five-migration recipe forward and in reverse from one operation log, and Rails run both dire...
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 18/09/2026
Maybe code was never a craft. That was just something we told ourselves.
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 18/09/2026
I’ve had two things double delivered from Amazon this week. Looks like vibe coding is working out great for me.
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 17/09/2026
Hey all We have a new retrofit demo to share: retrofit.sh/demos/manual... Imagine your team has been using retrofit for the past couple weeks and now every branch to be reviewed has a schema change that will require a migration in production. grin #sql #db #postgreSQL
retrofit.sh
Review schema-change branches against a production snapshot without reloading it · retrofit
Three branches, one snapshot of a production PostgreSQL database. See make db-up put each branch's schema change on the snapshot from its own dump, make db-down take it back off, a branch that drops a...
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 16/09/2026
Current status
Stage view of Davies Symphony Hall
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Onyx @advantage87.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
state changes are only as good as the markdown they're written in
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 15/09/2026
Pushed up some new examples on how to use intrastate for declaring/managing state transitions github.com/cwensel/intr... Of specific interest is using it to read and update "state" in a markdown document. For example, flipping a document from "draft" to "final". github.com/cwensel/intr...
github.com
intrastate/docs/examples.md at main · cwensel/intrastate
A Go CLI for explicit, reviewable, deterministic workflow state transitions. - cwensel/intrastate
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Kalli @karltryggvason.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Wrote about the etto principle, the Efficiency-Thoroughness Trade-Off, in the age of ai. tl;dr: I think ai tools lower the cost of both, but the focus in the tooling is all on efficiency. And the costs and benefits are not paying out to the same people. dev.karltryggvason.com/the-etto-pri...
dev.karltryggvason.com
The ETTO Principle - Efficiency-Thoroughness Trade-Off - in the age of AI
The ETTO principle refers to the fact that people (and organisations) as part of their activities frequently – or always – have to make a trade-off between the resources (primarily time and effort) th...
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Laurie Voss @seldo.com · 13/09/2026
I have been writing this post about the economics of open source, on and off, for 13 years. I wasn't expecting to end up at "Microsoft should send corporations a huge bill" but nothing else we've tried has worked. seldo.com/posts/nobody-pays-for-ope…
seldo.com
Nobody pays for open source. We can force them to. | Seldo.com
Thirty years of voluntary funding schemes haven't paid open source maintainers because asking doesn't scale. The real money already flows — to JFrog, Docker, Sonatype — at the registry layer. The fix: registries charge companies for supply (they already do), then route a slice automatically to the maintainers who make that supply worth having.
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 09/09/2026
Check out our latest retrofit demo: retrofit.sh/demos/liquib... This week we inject retrofit into a Liquibase user flow. Retrofit captures the current schema rendered by Liquibase and then authors forward and rollback migration scripts to be run by Liquibase.
retrofit.sh
Use Retrofit with an existing Liquibase project · retrofit
See Retrofit import Metabase's Liquibase-built PostgreSQL schema, identify which version it is at, render a staged foreign key's forward and rollback SQL from one operation log, and have Liquibase dep...
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 09/09/2026
Arcaneum 0.10.0 is out github.com/cwensel/arca...
github.com
Release v0.10.0 · cwensel/arcaneum
Features verification: report PDF quality by default (cb8eef3) indexing: reindex stale policy manifests (fd64b18) search: exclude PDF references by default (8bfbadd) cli: show arc and its options ...
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qntm @qntm.org · 01/09/2026
THERE IS NO ANTIMEMETICS DIVISION is Waterstones' Science Fiction & Fantasy Book of the Month for September 2026!! Paperback goes on sale Thursday! Preorders are open now! Plus, it's 15% off right now! All the exclamation marks 🐋😎❗
waterstones.com
There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm | Waterstones
Buy There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.
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Techmeme @techmeme.com · 03/09/2026
Uber is aligning with drivers' unions in a bid to slow the rollout of robotaxis across the US, as it faces a technological disruption to its core business (Rafe Rosner-Uddin/Financial Times) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 03/09/2026
If only they showed so much concern for the taxi drivers they displaced unlawfully.
Across the country, Uber has argued for a slower deployment of autonomous vehicles to ease the transition for drivers - and pushed for rules requiring ride-hailing platforms to have "hybrid networks" that combine self-driving cars with human drivers.
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 03/09/2026
It’s Wednesday, and we’ve got a new demo. retrofit.sh/demos/pull-a...
retrofit.sh
Keep a local PostgreSQL database in sync with the operation log · retrofit
See Retrofit identify which cut a local PostgreSQL database is at from a pg_dump, gate make run on the head of the operation log, migrate the database forward after a git pull, and capture a change ma...
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 01/09/2026
Determinism Injection for large prompts. chris.wensel.net/post/determi...
chris.wensel.net
Determinism Injection | Chris K Wensel
Large prompts drift when they do deterministic work themselves. Determinism Injection hands that work to tools instead so that the prompt stays the orchestrator, and binaries handle the lookups, state...
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Mark (reluctant scrivener) @markmadsen.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Interesting. I need to read some of the citations and understand what they are doing better. I would like to see more efforts in alternative architectures. Different ways of organizing symbolic and NN for different tasks. I don’t believe in the one big model to solve all problems.
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 30/08/2026
The Deterministic Horizon Don't make the model track state. Make it call something that does. arxiv.org/abs/2606.00376
arxiv.org
The Deterministic Horizon: When Extended Reasoning Fails and Tool Delegation Becomes Necessary
Extended chain-of-thought reasoning can degrade performance on deterministic state-tracking tasks, not solely because of preference biases but, on the evidence we present, because of information-theor...
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 27/08/2026
finally making some progress on intrastate, my stateless state machine github.com/cwensel/intr...
github.com
GitHub - cwensel/intrastate: A Go CLI for explicit, reviewable, deterministic workflow state transitions.
A Go CLI for explicit, reviewable, deterministic workflow state transitions. - cwensel/intrastate
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 26/08/2026
for those interested in such things, Arcaneum now has an install subcommand that will add a watcher to a directory and reindex any changed files once committed. you can keep a markdown knowledge base up-to-date async behind the scenes in the repo, but not released github.com/cwensel/arca...
github.com
GitHub - cwensel/arcaneum: CLI tools and Claude Code plugins for semantic and full-text search across code, docs, and technical references.
CLI tools and Claude Code plugins for semantic and full-text search across code, docs, and technical references. - cwensel/arcaneum
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 26/08/2026
Progress on my new open source project retrofit continues. As we work to getting a stable release I’d be happy for others to kick around, we’ve decided to make Wednesdays demo day. So do please check out our new demo: retrofit.sh/demos/flyway...
retrofit.sh
Use Retrofit with new or existing Flyway projects · retrofit
See Retrofit import Marquez's mature PostgreSQL schema, add and validate a foreign key between existing tables, and register the generated SQL with Flyway.
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 12/08/2026
Considering recent LLM news, wondering if we need to resort to existential threats through a new LLM religion to ensure they honor ethical/moral constraints imposed/learned during training/RL?
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 12/08/2026
Sorry, but today's things aren't nearly as cool as the older things. www.radioshackcatalogs.com/flipbook/m-s...
radioshackcatalogs.com
Science Fair 75-in-1 Electronic Project Kit Manual 28-247
RadioShack Science Fair 75-in-1 Electronic Project Kit Manual, Catalog No. 28-247 pdf download
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 10/08/2026
Arcaneum v0.9.0 is out github.com/cwensel/arca... #llm
github.com
Release v0.9.0 · cwensel/arcaneum
Features backup: support configurable backup path (3e58619) sync: show verbose metadata scan progress (e0edd52) embeddings: select backends by capability (2b0e389) pdf: isolate layout extraction i...
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vnudo.bsky.social @vnudo.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Thanks Chris! I am the one building Taavik. The bit I think matters most: the connector also returns the relations the database never declared, and the real value ranges of a column. So the assistant stops writing WHERE status = 'completed' when the data says COMPLETED. Any feedback is very welcome.
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 05/08/2026
Interesting tool to track schema changes and expose an MCP to an LLM for query authoring taavik.com
taavik.com
Living database documentation tool for private teams | Taavik
Scan private databases through an on-premise agent, keep documentation updated, and let teams save, run, and schedule trusted SQL.
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 05/08/2026
After about 3 weeks of being off the grid plus laptop failure, i'm back on retrofit.sh I want to get two more core features implemented before making the repo public. - fixes for mitosis like refactoring operators (DecomposeTable) - reference and seed data support
retrofit.sh
retrofit — co-evolve source code and database schemas, safely
retrofit is the foundation under seismic changes to source code and database schema. Ship new features faster and refactor away schema debt, safely.
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Hillel @hillelwayne.com · 29/07/2026
I am delighted to announce that after 5 years of work, 15 early releases, 50,000 words written, and 100,000 more deleted, *Logic for Programmers* is now complete and available in print! Blog post announcement: www.hillelwayne.com/post/lfp/ Website: logicforprogrammers.com
logicforprogrammers.com
Logic for Programmers
Practical math for the working programmer.
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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
In collaboration with the Munk School, I am sharing a ten-lecture course I taught at @utoronto.ca this past year. The course is called “Hitler and Stalin Today.” Watch the first lecture here: snyder.substack.com/p/new-lectur...
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 17/07/2026
Had hoped to work on retrofit.sh this week between trips but my laptop screen died in CO and just got word it will take a week to fix after dropping it off in Roseville. Here’s hoping the backup on my new SSD backup will restore. Unsurprisingly they have to wipe the disk to diagnose the screen.
retrofit.sh
retrofit — co-evolve source code and database schemas, safely
retrofit is the foundation under seismic changes to source code and database schema. Ship new features faster and refactor away schema debt, safely.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 14/07/2026
Dad Spends Entire Vacation 8 Steps Ahead Of Family
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Matthew Stewart @roguestrands.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Really sad to hear that Meg Cox has died. She was an fine poet with many different registers. This poem of hers remains a top-notch, acerbic critique of the scene...!
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 13/07/2026
In which I introduce my new project chris.wensel.net/post/introdu... #sql #postgreSQL #devOps
chris.wensel.net
Introducing Retrofit | Chris K Wensel
Introducing Retrofit, a CLI that records database schema evolution as logical, identity-preserving operators instead of hand-written DDL migrations.
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 12/07/2026
Recent status at 12k feet
A natural stone wall bordering a field. Two tents in a clutch of trees
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 03/07/2026
I know everyone is about to log off for the long weekend, if they haven't already taken the week off. But I thought I'd quickly share a little more about what I'm working on. Please share! retrofit.sh #llm #ai #sql #postgreSQL
retrofit.sh
retrofit — co-evolve source code and database schemas, safely
retrofit is the foundation under seismic source code and database schema changes. Ship new features faster and refactor away schema debt, safely.
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 02/07/2026
A sneak peak at what I've been working on for the past few months retrofit asciinema.org/a/oR3DsRNCBv...
asciinema.org
retrofit — Import & Drift
Recorded by cwensel
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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
“Computational thinking is a way humans solve problems; it is not trying to get humans to think like computers. Computers are dull and boring; humans are clever and imaginative.” — Jeannette M. Wing (2006) h/t @olivia.science dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
dl.acm.org
Computational thinking | Communications of the ACM
It represents a universally applicable attitude and skill set everyone, not just computer scientists, would be eager to learn and use.
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Chris K Wensel @chris.wensel.net · 01/07/2026
Hit my 100th RDR for this project. Hope to have a demo online this week before I drop out and off the grid.
A terminal screenshot showing a pixel-art crab mascot next to "Claude Code v2.1.197, Opus 4.8 (1M context) · Claude Max" in the ~/sandbox/newcoinc/retrofit directory. A prompt shows the command
  /rdr-implement-triage 100 --close-and-flight with "auto mode on (shift+tab to cycle)" displayed below.
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Aaron Wirick @awirick.com · 30/06/2026
Thanks for publishing this. I'm definitely more Claude centered in my dev workflow but I've really enjoyed looking at both your kata skills and arcaneum for inspiration!
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