# Brian Kimball — Systems Engineer & Developer

> Systems Engineer and Developer. Writing about IBM i modernization, full-stack web development, network infrastructure, and building tools from the metal up.

This is the personal website and technical blog of **Brian Kimball** at [brian-kimball.com](https://brian-kimball.com/). Field notes on modernizing IBM i, operating infrastructure, and building software that survives contact with production.

## What I build

### IBM i modernization
System tooling, application integration, and a practical path forward for IBM i (AS/400) — LDAP, LAGG, Knex/DB2, MCP tools, and production operations.

### Infrastructure architecture
Networks, compute, storage, and high-availability systems designed as a whole: datacenter installs, pfSense, redundant physical and logical layers.

### Application development
Full-stack products with low operational complexity — Astro, React, Node.js, Hono, Fastify, and Cloudflare.

### Engineering tools and AI
Agent workflows, MCP servers, and tools that make technical teams more capable without hiding the process.

## Latest field notes

- [My Custom Pi Configuration for a Multi-Agent Coding Workflow](https://brian-kimball.com/blog/custom-pi-agent-workflow/index.md): The Pi configuration I use for daily development: specialized coding agents, persistent RPC workers, iterative review loops, and a custom orchestration UI.
- [Building Compass: A Life Assistant That Still Works When the AI Does Not](https://brian-kimball.com/blog/building-compass-life-assistant/index.md): I wanted a more customizable workout tracker, a budget my wife and I could share, and AI help on both. So I built Compass on TanStack Start and Cloudflare, and made sure it still works when the AI does not.
- [Welcome to the Atomic Drafting Room](https://brian-kimball.com/blog/atomic-drafting-room/index.md): Why I tore down the Renaissance Technical design and rebuilt the site in Raygun Gothic — atomic starbursts, chrome typography, and a turquoise-coral-gold palette that finally feels like me.
- [Bringing AI to IBM i: An MCP Server with 31 System Tools](https://brian-kimball.com/blog/ibmi-ai-mcp/index.md): A BYOK MCP server that exposes 31 facade tools for IBM i observability, job management, and security. Built to train new users and accelerate expert workflows.
- [Surveyor: A Field-Tested Network Discovery Tool for MSPs](https://brian-kimball.com/blog/surveyor-msp/index.md): From Raspberry Pi prototype to Wails desktop app: how Surveyor replaces manual nmap commands with stealth scanning and RFC 1918 auto-discovery.
- [Renaissance Technical: Designing with AI](https://brian-kimball.com/blog/renaissance-technical/index.md): How I used OpenCode and Gemini to build a "Renaissance Technical" design system that pits rigid grids against organic circles—and why AI is the brush, not the painter.
- [Designing Fully Redundant Infrastructure: Physical and Logical Layers Explained](https://brian-kimball.com/blog/high-availability/index.md): How redundant compute, SAN mirroring, load balancers with CARP, and synchronous database clustering eliminate both hardware failures and maintenance windows.
- [A Production-Ready Knex Dialect for IBM i DB2](https://brian-kimball.com/blog/knex-ibmi/index.md): Streaming queries, emulated RETURNING, multi-row inserts, and a custom migration runner. This is the Knex dialect I wish existed when I started building on IBM i.
- [TanStack Hono: A Lightweight SSR Monolith Without the Meta-Framework Weight](https://brian-kimball.com/blog/tanstack-hono/index.md): Single-process SSR + CSR with type-safe RPC, Vite, React, and Hono. The goal is low operational complexity without giving up dynamic UI.

## Where to go next

- [About Brian Kimball](https://brian-kimball.com/about/index.md)
- [Blog](https://brian-kimball.com/blog/index.md)
- [Brian Kimball developer resources](https://brian-kimball.com/developer/index.md)
- [OpenAPI 3.1 specification](https://brian-kimball.com/openapi.json)
- [llms.txt](https://brian-kimball.com/llms.txt)
- [Full markdown corpus](https://brian-kimball.com/llms-full.txt)
- [Sitemap](https://brian-kimball.com/sitemap-index.xml)
- [RSS](https://brian-kimball.com/rss.xml)