About — The person behind the lab
Hi, I'm Charles.
I run the systems I build.
Systems engineer running a production homelab with 178TB of storage, 69 Docker containers, 73 Home Assistant automations, local voice control, and an ESP32 sensor mesh. I deploy local AI infrastructure on three V100 GPUs, orchestrate multi-agent development with Claude Code, and build the same systems I use every day.
This homelab started as a personal exploration into home automation, IoT development, and self-hosted infrastructure. It's evolved into a production environment that runs 24/7, handling everything from media streaming to local AI inference to smart home control.
01 — The setup
The hardware underneath.
Server hardware
Network
02 — Key technologies
What the lab runs on.
Home Automation
Home Assistant with local voice control, an ESP32 sensor mesh, and 73 YAML automations
Containerization
Docker containers for services, applications, and development environments
Local AI
llama.cpp for LLM inference, Whisper for speech recognition
IoT & Sensors
ESP32 mesh network with ESPHome, distributed sensors, and local processing
AI-Assisted Development
Multi-worker Claude Code orchestration with custom coordination system
03 — Philosophy
Rules the lab
lives by.
Self-hosted first: Prefer local solutions over cloud dependencies
Privacy-focused: Data stays on-premises when possible
Open source: Using and contributing to open source projects
Learning by doing: Building to understand, not just using
04 — Experience
Years against the craft.
Infrastructure & DevOps
Unraid, Docker, VMs, networking, backups
5+ yearsHome Automation
Home Assistant, YAML automations, IoT devices
3+ yearsMobile Development
React Native, Expo, TypeScript
2+ yearsAI/ML Integration
Local LLMs, llama.cpp, Claude API, automation
1+ yearsWork together
Want to work
together?
I'm available for freelance development work — homelabs, home automation, networking, and mobile app development. Everything I build for clients is battle-tested on my own production systems.