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Xavier Chanthavong

Xavier Chanthavong

I am an independent software consultant and currently building Woosah, a startup working on solving problems in the operational assurance space. I love all kinds of software and have spent time deepening my knowledge across full-stack development, systems programming, and data science and machine learning. I write about how software is designed, shipped, and maintained.

Before Woosah, I was a senior engineer at Atsign. Through Chanthavong Consulting Inc., I've served clients across technology startups, public-sector records, mining services, healthcare, media and entertainment, and recreation since 2017.

Writing

  1. Why spec driven development fails

    And how I've made it work better for me

  2. The Five I's of Agentic Engineering

    A simple framework for using AI agents to design high-quality software.

  3. Context Should Be Lazy

    A case for lazy context, small AGENTS.md files, and using plain Markdown instead of skill sprawl.

  4. Greenfield Architecture

    A practical workflow for using AI without giving up good greenfield decisions.

  5. The Next Generation of the User Experience

    The Evolution of UX: Why Security is the New Engine of Innovation

Work

  • Woosah Technologies

    Present

    Co-Founder & CPTO

    Building operations-assurance infrastructure for distributed systems.

  • Atsign

    2021–2025

    Senior Engineer

    Worked on the atSDK and related open-source tooling across Dart, C, and networking. Continues as an advisor.

  • Independent consulting

    Since 2017

    Software consultant

    Engagements across technology startups, public-sector records, mining services, healthcare, media and entertainment, and recreation.

Open source

  • pi-tai

    Personal

    My highly opinionated coding agent; built on top of pi.

  • Swapper

    Personal

    A native macOS utility for swapping windows between dual monitors.

  • NoPorts & at_c

    Atsign

    Two of the more notable projects from my Atsign days.

Colophon