The machines can think. You still decide.
I’m Doug Cashio. I started in IT in 1996, the year Quake went truly 3D after Wolfenstein and Doom spent years faking it brilliantly. This is my workshop after hours: local AI, original worlds and a few things that fly.
Built at home. Open to inspect.
A BACKUP THAT KEEPS UP
A backup that keeps up with the work.
A backup only counts if you can get your files back. I restored this one on a second machine and checked every file against the original. The receipt shows exactly what was tested, and what was not.
- 01Capture
- 02Decrypt
- 03Verify
Files verified October 3, 2026. A live system restore was not performed.
Read the repair and receipt →A TOOL TO TAKE WITH YOU
A brief worth keeping.
Choose what matters. Keep the sources and the unknowns attached. Take the decision brief with you.
- 01What we observed
A source and a date. - 02What we don’t know
The unknown stays visible. - 03Who decides
A person keeps the final say.
Zeus and Apollo are my two servers. Hermes schedules jobs; Atlas is a local model. The experiments below illustrate the routing rules. The dated evidence shows what was actually observed.
Everything you try here runs in your browser; nothing reaches my servers. The evidence section answers from a dated record, and a small copilot marks where a person holds authority.
Every name on this page, in plain English ▾
- Bit
- The gold copilot. It marks where a person holds authority.
- E.V.E.
- The Evaluation Verification Engine. A console for dated observations and clearly labeled lore.
- HERMES
- My job scheduler. The first experiment below shows how a routing policy chooses where work goes.
- DSH
- My operator console, where I run everything from.
- Zeus and Apollo
- My two servers.
- Atlas
- The local model that handles recurring work.
- cAshIo
- Cashio, with the AI in capitals. My personal AI workspace, and the name on this site. Its page is linked in the footer.
- Mostly Harmless
- The name of this site’s visual edition. Each evidence record keeps its own date.
- Workhorse, Research, Synthesis
- Routes for everyday drafting, sourced research and combining information.
Open to speaking, mentoring and comparing notes.Say hello →Certifications on Credly ↗
Pick a world.
Stay a while.
Fly, tinker, watch or read. Each world opens as its own page and brings you right back.
01 
02 
03 
04 A world worth
getting lost in.
Shape the light, explore the signature or settle into the short film collection.
Starship Flyby
A slow departure over the workshop, into the deep blue evening.
Qualitypicksthemodel.
Costonlybreaksatie.
Try a decision.
See what changes.
One choice, one result, about twenty seconds.
THE PRIVACY TEST
One change. Who decides?
Analyze a document and require sources. Now make that document private.
SMART ROUTING
Spend the AI budget where it matters.
Quality picks the model.
Cost only breaks a tie.
Try the rule: change the task, require sources, then make the input private. Watch which constraint wins.
Seven questions.
Take the controls.
Choose a question. Change the inputs. See the rule at work.
EXPERIMENT 01
Choose a route
Choose the work. Add a boundary. See the route.
Choose a task
ROUTE NOT RUNChoose a task, then follow its five step route.
Rule, limits and a test to try ▾
Change the inputs. See the rule choose a route.
Intent and sources choose the route. Privacy can overrule both.
What wins when intent, evidence requirements, and privacy disagree?Meet the machines.
Two servers I own, Zeus and Apollo, do the computing. Hermes, my job scheduler, decides where each task goes, and my operator console (DSH) is where I watch and approve. Follow one request across them.
HERMES
SELECTED49 of 56 retained definitions were enabled at the October 3, 2026 observation. The HERMES experiment explores the routing rule in your browser.
Scheduler observation · October 3, 2026 · routing not verified- 01Intent
- 02Qualify
- 03Compute
- 04Review
The same request and routing rule as the HERMES experiment.
Continue with these settings in HERMES ↑Trust has
a timestamp.
Ask the evidence console what was observed, or inspect the raw record.
THE RECORD
What the record shows.
See how the record grew ▾
The latest observation comes first and counts running guests on the two servers. Older columns keep their original dates and unknowns.
A real run: the backup tool that refused to run ▾
Keep the snapshot moving with the work.
The tool's notes describe a fixed revision check that blocked snapshots as the project advanced. The repair archives the current revision, checks that it stays stable, and includes the installed skills, agent presets and operations scripts.
The October 3, 2026 receipt records 990 verified files and a matching archive hash from decryption on a second host. This was DeepSeek Harness operations tooling. The trigger was a daily schedule configured for 3:45 AM Central; the work was a backup script, with no AI routing claim.
"status": "verified",
"restored_files_verified": 990,
"live_restore_performed": false,Receipt: October 3, 2026 at 3:45 AM Central Daylight Time. This checks readable console files, not recovery of a running system or the fleet. One missing snapshot date means uninterrupted daily success is not claimed. Storage paths and host identifiers remain private.
Inspect the redacted job receipt →Doug Cashio
A workbench for the things I keep wondering about.
I like systems I can take apart, explain and put back together. This site is where that curiosity meets aviation, science fiction and the pleasure of making something work.
The GitHub and Credly handles use my first name, James. Everyone calls me Doug.
Don’t panic.
Say hello.
Bring me your trickiest question about local AI, private data or keeping a human in the loop. I am open to speaking, mentoring and comparing notes. The answer is probably not 42.