active
Capability vs. Control
I work with always-on agents like Grok Bot and Meta’s Muse and watch the control surface: shared credentials, standing approvals, and whether removing an agent actually revokes its access.
Independent researcher · Agentic systems · Cybersecurity
I build multi-agent AI systems,
then I try to break them:
coordination,
security,
and control.
exAgentica is my personal agentic AI lab.
I build experiments and write about what I learn. After three decades in Internet infrastructure, I keep coming back to the same questions: what can fail, how far can it spread, and who can stop it?
Read the Field Notes01 / The field notebook
Field Notes
What I’m learning about agents, security, and the infrastructure underneath.
Grok Bot and Claude Code Have Become My Operating System
I spend a lot of my day in two agents instead of the apps the work belongs to. Here's how the work splits between them, what I still do myself, and why Meta's open-weight Muse Spark Open looks like the next piece.
Why I Use AgentsView for My Coding-Agent History
Most of my coding work happens in Claude Code, with Codex and other tools mixed in. AgentsView pulls those sessions into one local archive I can search, resume, and learn from.
Superintelligence Is a Permissions Problem
I'm handing AI agents more of my work every week, which makes me care most about what they're allowed to touch and whether I can take that access back.
02 / Experiments
Active lab work
The questions I’m spending time on. Active work and research notes.
active
Multi-Agent Orchestration
I test how agents divide work, share memory, and recover when a handoff fails. When they disagree, I watch how they decide, spot circular work, and know when to stop. Coordination is the system, not the glue.
active
Agentic Coding
I use coding agents to write and review software. I look for the point where a passing test hides a decision that still needs human review.
active
Local LLM Deployment
I run models locally with Ollama and LM Studio, testing which tasks can stay on my hardware and what I give up in speed and capability.
active
AI-Driven Security
I study agents on both sides of a security boundary. Tool permissions, untrusted context, and response authority are part of the same problem.
notes
Post-Quantum & Zero Trust
I examine machine identity and cryptographic dependencies. Which permissions should an agent inherit, and which should it have to earn?
What I’m working with
- Claude Code
- Codex
- AgentsView
- Grok Bot
- Meta Muse
- Cursor
- Antigravity
- Ollama
- LM Studio
- TypeScript
- Python
- Cloudflare Workers
- Astro
- LangGraph
- CrewAI
- MCP
- Docker
- Git
- Linux
I approach multi-agent AI as a distributed systems problem. Tools, memory, and permissions make each agent part of something larger. A local mistake can become a system failure.
I co-founded one of the first ISPs in Texas, helped launch OpenStack and the Open Compute Project at Rackspace, and served as Field CTO at Cloudflare. That experience shapes what I test here.
Full bio at johnengates.com04 / Contact
Let’s compare notes.
If you’re building agent systems or working through AI and cyber decisions on a board, I’d be interested in a conversation.