Personal website and blog of Pranesh Nikhar -- thoughts, projects, and everything in between.https://praneshnikhar.site/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/what-happens-when-you-run-a-program/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/what-happens-when-you-run-a-program/From `./a.out` to `exit()` — the full journey through ELF loading, fork+exec, virtual memory layout, syscalls, page faults, context switches, and kernel mode.Sat, 27 Jun 2026 15:58:00 GMTFrom `./a.out` to `exit()` — the full journey through ELF loading, fork+exec, virtual memory layout, syscalls, page faults, context switches, and kernel mode.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/leetcode-vs-engineering/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/leetcode-vs-engineering/LeetCode measures pattern recognition and speed under pressure. Real engineering is about system design, debugging, communication, and trade-offs. Here is how to navigate both worlds.Fri, 26 Jun 2026 08:12:00 GMTLeetCode measures pattern recognition and speed under pressure. Real engineering is about system design, debugging, communication, and trade-offs. Here is how to navigate both worlds.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/postgres-mvcc/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/postgres-mvcc/How PostgreSQL handles concurrent reads and writes without locking through Multi-Version Concurrency Control — xmin/xmax system columns, transaction snapshots, isolation levels, vacuum internals, and tuple visibility rules.Tue, 23 Jun 2026 13:49:00 GMTHow PostgreSQL handles concurrent reads and writes without locking through Multi-Version Concurrency Control — xmin/xmax system columns, transaction snapshots, isolation levels, vacuum internals, and tuple visibility rules.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/cap-theorem-outage-story/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/cap-theorem-outage-story/CAP theorem defined, why "pick two" is wrong, real outage stories from GitHub and DynamoDB, CP vs AP systems, CRDTs, tunable consistency, and a trade-off decision table for real workloads.Mon, 04 May 2026 04:51:00 GMTCAP theorem defined, why "pick two" is wrong, real outage stories from GitHub and DynamoDB, CP vs AP systems, CRDTs, tunable consistency, and a trade-off decision table for real workloads.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/codepilot/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/codepilot/An automation agent that reads natural-language requirements and existing FastAPI code, reverse-engineers DB schemas, generates migrations, creates databases, and produces deployment configs — all with zero external dependencies.Sun, 03 May 2026 11:25:00 GMTAn automation agent that reads natural-language requirements and existing FastAPI code, reverse-engineers DB schemas, generates migrations, creates databases, and produces deployment configs — all with zero external dependencies.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/common-auth-mistakes/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/common-auth-mistakes/Five critical JWT pitfalls (alg=none, HS256/RS256 confusion, localStorage XSS, infinite tokens, kid injection), session vs token tradeoffs, CSRF, refresh token rotation, and why PASETO is worth knowing about.Fri, 01 May 2026 15:34:00 GMTFive critical JWT pitfalls (alg=none, HS256/RS256 confusion, localStorage XSS, infinite tokens, kid injection), session vs token tradeoffs, CSRF, refresh token rotation, and why PASETO is worth knowing about.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/playcli/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/playcli/Real-time video playback in your terminal using ANSI true-color escape sequences, with 5 render modes, audio sync, subtitles, and adaptive quality.Fri, 01 May 2026 18:55:00 GMTReal-time video playback in your terminal using ANSI true-color escape sequences, with 5 render modes, audio sync, subtitles, and adaptive quality.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/getman/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/getman/Define API routes in TOML config files, run them from terminal or TUI with assertions and extractors. Like Postman for your shell, with CI-friendly output.Thu, 23 Apr 2026 06:17:00 GMTDefine API routes in TOML config files, run them from terminal or TUI with assertions and extractors. Like Postman for your shell, with CI-friendly output.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/functional-vs-oop/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/functional-vs-oop/The same order processing system implemented in OOP and functional styles — classes with mutation vs pure functions with immutable data — so you can compare tradeoffs directly.Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:49:00 GMTThe same order processing system implemented in OOP and functional styles — classes with mutation vs pure functions with immutable data — so you can compare tradeoffs directly.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/fixloop/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/fixloop/An AI agent that writes code, runs tests, spots failures, and retries until everything passes. Supports OpenAI, Gemini, Groq, and Ollama.Mon, 13 Apr 2026 04:34:00 GMTAn AI agent that writes code, runs tests, spots failures, and retries until everything passes. Supports OpenAI, Gemini, Groq, and Ollama.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/raft-consensus/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/raft-consensus/How Raft solves distributed consensus through leader election, log replication, and safety guarantees — with the bus tour guide analogy, term-based time, and real-world systems like etcd, Consul, and CockroachDB.Fri, 10 Apr 2026 05:18:00 GMTHow Raft solves distributed consensus through leader election, log replication, and safety guarantees — with the bus tour guide analogy, term-based time, and real-world systems like etcd, Consul, and CockroachDB.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/what-happens-url/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/what-happens-url/A deep dive into the journey of a single URL — URL parsing, DNS resolution, TCP/TLS handshakes, HTTP requests, server processing, and browser rendering — with a full timing breakdown.Fri, 10 Apr 2026 08:30:00 GMTA deep dive into the journey of a single URL — URL parsing, DNS resolution, TCP/TLS handshakes, HTTP requests, server processing, and browser rendering — with a full timing breakdown.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/zero-knowledge-proofs/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/zero-knowledge-proofs/What if you could prove you know a secret without revealing any part of it? Zero-knowledge proofs make this possible — here is how they work, from the Ali Baba cave analogy to zk-SNARKs on Ethereum.Thu, 09 Apr 2026 18:11:00 GMTWhat if you could prove you know a secret without revealing any part of it? Zero-knowledge proofs make this possible — here is how they work, from the Ali Baba cave analogy to zk-SNARKs on Ethereum.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/persistent-memory/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/persistent-memory/MCP server that gives AI agents long-term memory with semantic search (vector embeddings) and keyword search (BM25). Zero infrastructure — just Python and SQLite.Sat, 04 Apr 2026 13:10:00 GMTMCP server that gives AI agents long-term memory with semantic search (vector embeddings) and keyword search (BM25). Zero infrastructure — just Python and SQLite.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/http3-quic/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/http3-quic/Why QUIC and HTTP/3 represent the biggest shift in web transport since HTTP/1.0 — solving head-of-line blocking, enabling connection migration, and cutting handshake overhead to zero.Thu, 02 Apr 2026 10:43:00 GMTWhy QUIC and HTTP/3 represent the biggest shift in web transport since HTTP/1.0 — solving head-of-line blocking, enabling connection migration, and cutting handshake overhead to zero.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/rust-borrow-checker/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/rust-borrow-checker/The borrow checker isn't just a compiler pedant — it prevents the C++ bugs that wake you at 3 AM. Iterator invalidation, use-after-free, and data races, caught at compile time.Sat, 28 Mar 2026 04:43:00 GMTThe borrow checker isn't just a compiler pedant — it prevents the C++ bugs that wake you at 3 AM. Iterator invalidation, use-after-free, and data races, caught at compile time.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/llm-from-scratch/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/llm-from-scratch/A complete GPT-style decoder-only transformer built from scratch in PyTorch — no transformers library, no HF. BPE tokenizer, training loop, FastAPI server, and React chat frontend.Wed, 25 Mar 2026 07:21:00 GMTA complete GPT-style decoder-only transformer built from scratch in PyTorch — no transformers library, no HF. BPE tokenizer, training loop, FastAPI server, and React chat frontend.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/lsm-trees-bloom-filters/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/lsm-trees-bloom-filters/Why LSM trees exist, how they work (MemTable → WAL → SSTable → compaction), the read path with bloom filters, tiered vs leveled compaction, write amplification, and the RUM conjecture.Mon, 23 Mar 2026 11:50:00 GMTWhy LSM trees exist, how they work (MemTable → WAL → SSTable → compaction), the read path with bloom filters, tiered vs leveled compaction, write amplification, and the RUM conjecture.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/compiled-vs-jit-vs-interpreted/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/compiled-vs-jit-vs-interpreted/The spectrum from AOT (C/Rust/Go) → JIT (Java V8/LuaJIT/PyPy) → interpreted (CPython/bash), what each tier costs, V8\u2019s 4-tier pipeline, PyPy\u2019s tracing JIT, monomorphization, and why "compiled vs interpreted" is the wrong question.Wed, 11 Mar 2026 04:34:00 GMTThe spectrum from AOT (C/Rust/Go) → JIT (Java V8/LuaJIT/PyPy) → interpreted (CPython/bash), what each tier costs, V8\u2019s 4-tier pipeline, PyPy\u2019s tracing JIT, monomorphization, and why "compiled vs interpreted" is the wrong question.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/cve-2025-breach-analysis/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/cve-2025-breach-analysis/A technical breakdown of two of the most significant 2025 security events: the Microsoft Midnight Blizzard breach (Russian state-sponsored APT29 compromising C-suite email) and the record-breaking 16 billion credential leak from infostealer malware campaigns.Tue, 10 Mar 2026 14:31:00 GMTA technical breakdown of two of the most significant 2025 security events: the Microsoft Midnight Blizzard breach (Russian state-sponsored APT29 compromising C-suite email) and the record-breaking 16 billion credential leak from infostealer malware campaigns.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/cs-degree-gaps/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/cs-degree-gaps/Eight practical engineering skills that every CS graduate has to learn on the job — from Git workflows to debugging, testing, operations, and writing for humans.Mon, 09 Mar 2026 05:04:00 GMTEight practical engineering skills that every CS graduate has to learn on the job — from Git workflows to debugging, testing, operations, and writing for humans.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/how-compilers-optimize/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/how-compilers-optimize/From C source to x86 assembly — a tour through the compiler pipeline, the key optimization passes, and how to read the output of -O3 with GCC and Clang.Thu, 26 Feb 2026 09:17:00 GMTFrom C source to x86 assembly — a tour through the compiler pipeline, the key optimization passes, and how to read the output of -O3 with GCC and Clang.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/mcp-workflow-builder/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/mcp-workflow-builder/Drag-and-drop canvas for chaining MCP tools into multi-step pipelines. Export as standalone TypeScript scripts. React Flow frontend, Express backend, SQLite persistence.Tue, 20 Jan 2026 18:45:00 GMTDrag-and-drop canvas for chaining MCP tools into multi-step pipelines. Export as standalone TypeScript scripts. React Flow frontend, Express backend, SQLite persistence.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/titan/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/titan/A terminal-based AI coding agent in Go that connects to any OpenAI-compatible LLM, with 9 built-in tools, MCP server integration, and a Bubble Tea TUI.Tue, 06 Jan 2026 08:46:00 GMTA terminal-based AI coding agent in Go that connects to any OpenAI-compatible LLM, with 9 built-in tools, MCP server integration, and a Bubble Tea TUI.posthttps://praneshnikhar.site/posts/agentic-eda/https://praneshnikhar.site/posts/agentic-eda/An automated EDA service powered by a LangGraph agent with local LLM (Ollama). Upload datasets, connect SQL databases, and get comprehensive analysis reports with visualizations.Sat, 03 Jan 2026 14:25:00 GMTAn automated EDA service powered by a LangGraph agent with local LLM (Ollama). Upload datasets, connect SQL databases, and get comprehensive analysis reports with visualizations.post