Research articles from Skelf Research — an independent AI research lab investigating machine reasoning, computational intelligence, and safe AI systems.https://skelfresearch.com/en-gbhttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/safe-computing/programmable-databases-why-we-built-liath-twice/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/safe-computing/programmable-databases-why-we-built-liath-twice/The story of building a Lua-native database in Lua, then rewriting it in Rust with RocksDB — and what the performance tells us.Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTsafe-computingdatabaseluarustRocksDBstorage-engineshttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/edge-intelligence/deliberative-search/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/edge-intelligence/deliberative-search/Why traditional search retrieves first and ranks later — and how slorg inverts this by understanding intent before fetching results.Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTedge-intelligencesearchSvelteKitreasoningintentretrievalhttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/llm-cognition/persistent-memory-for-agents/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/llm-cognition/persistent-memory-for-agents/What happens when LLM agents need to remember across sessions — structured memory schemas, retrieval strategies, and the memory-context distinction.Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTllm-cognitionmemoryagentsretrievalarchitecturehttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/safe-computing/vector-search-without-the-cloud/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/safe-computing/vector-search-without-the-cloud/Building approximate nearest-neighbour search on SQLite in pure Rust — and why you might not need a dedicated vector database.Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTsafe-computingvector-searchSQLiteANNembeddingsrusthttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/cross-cutting/ephemeral-credentials-zero-trust-ai/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/cross-cutting/ephemeral-credentials-zero-trust-ai/Why AI agents need scoped, time-limited credentials — and how perishable implements zero-trust patterns for LLM API access.Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTcross-cuttingsecurityzero-trustcredentialsAPIagentshttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/llm-cognition/prompt-lifecycle-management/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/llm-cognition/prompt-lifecycle-management/A practical framework for managing prompts as versioned dependencies — tackling drift, regression, and reproducibility.Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTllm-cognitionpromptsversioningdevopsreproducibilityhttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/formal-optimisation/better-rankings-fewer-comparisons/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/formal-optimisation/better-rankings-fewer-comparisons/How compere uses MAB algorithms to rank items effectively with minimal pairwise feedback — applications in search and recommendation.Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTformal-optimisationMABrankingbanditsrecommendationsearchhttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/llm-cognition/formalising-prompts-as-first-class-objects/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/llm-cognition/formalising-prompts-as-first-class-objects/Why treating prompts as typed, portable artefacts changes how we reason about LLM behaviour — and how promptel implements this idea.Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTllm-cognitionpromptsformal-methodsspecificationportabilityhttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/formal-optimisation/from-english-to-optimal/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/formal-optimisation/from-english-to-optimal/Describe optimisation problems in plain English and receive mathematically guaranteed solutions — no PhD required.Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTformal-optimisationNLPconstraint-satisfactionsolversoptimisationhttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/llm-cognition/intelligent-llm-routing/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/llm-cognition/intelligent-llm-routing/How route-switch uses MIPROv2 to automatically select the right model for each query — balancing cost, quality, and latency.Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTllm-cognitionroutingMIPROv2cost-optimisationmodel-selectionhttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/edge-intelligence/autonomous-mobile-agents/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/edge-intelligence/autonomous-mobile-agents/Building AI agents that browse, observe, and automate tasks entirely on-device — the autonomy-safety spectrum on mobile.Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTedge-intelligenceagentsmobileautonomyflutterautomationhttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/safe-computing/fastc-memory-safe-c-for-ai/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/safe-computing/fastc-memory-safe-c-for-ai/LLM agents write systems code, but C is unsafe and Rust is hard to generate. fastC explores the middle path.Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTsafe-computingcompilermemory-safetycode-generationlanguage-designhttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/llm-cognition/building-mullama/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/llm-cognition/building-mullama/A post-mortem on building a local LLM serving layer — llama.cpp integration, model management, and where existing tools constrain research.Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTllm-cognitionllama.cppinferencelocal-llmarchitecturehttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/edge-intelligence/running-language-models-on-your-phone/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/edge-intelligence/running-language-models-on-your-phone/What happens when you run a full LLM on mobile hardware with zero cloud dependency — memory, latency, and model quality on consumer devices.Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTedge-intelligencemobilellama.cppflutteron-deviceinferencehttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/safe-computing/sandboxing-untrusted-code-in-zig/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/safe-computing/sandboxing-untrusted-code-in-zig/How zviz uses Zig's comptime capabilities to build gVisor-inspired sandboxing with near-zero runtime cost.Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTsafe-computingzigsandboxinggVisorsecuritycomptimehttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/safe-computing/why-we-write-ai-infrastructure-in-rust/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/safe-computing/why-we-write-ai-infrastructure-in-rust/Language choice as research methodology — how memory-safe, deterministic-performance languages produce falsifiable systems claims.Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTsafe-computingrustziggosystems-programmingmethodologyhttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/formal-optimisation/compiling-trading-signals/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/formal-optimisation/compiling-trading-signals/From visual signal specification to verified Rust executable — how sigc turns alpha hypotheses into production-ready code in minutes.Sat, 07 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTformal-optimisationquantsignalscompilerrustverificationhttps://skelfresearch.com/blog/cross-cutting/open-science-in-ai/https://skelfresearch.com/blog/cross-cutting/open-science-in-ai/The case for radical openness in AI research — reproducibility, falsifiability, and community trust through 24 open-source projects.Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTcross-cuttingopen-scienceopen-sourcereproducibilitymethodology