About Maxwell Santoro

Research, systems, and first-principles software.

I'm an independent researcher and engineer in Brooklyn. I build formal systems, Rust software, and infrastructure-heavy projects with the same instinct: understand the foundations, then make the result real.

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The fastest ways to understand what this site is for

Try ries-rs

The project page gives the framing, the action links, and the standalone /app/ demo.

Start with Projects

The broad map: formal math, systems, protocols, and current work.

Read the Notes

Writing is where the reasoning, design choices, and implementation tradeoffs get spelled out.

I'm Maxwell Santoro. I'm an independent researcher and engineer based in Brooklyn, working on projects that span formal mathematics, systems programming, protocol/tooling work, and verification.

The common thread is that I like to build things from first principles — understanding the full stack from foundations to surface — and I tend to work on several ambitious, interconnected projects at once.

What I'm working on now

  • ries-rs — a modern Rust reference implementation of the RIES inverse equation solver, shipping as a CLI, library, Python package, and browser/WASM app.
  • dotrepo — an open metadata protocol and Rust reference toolchain for repositories, currently being shaped into its first public release.
  • Genesis Kernel — a Lean 4 formal verification project deriving mathematical and physical structure from a minimal discrete substrate.
  • RamenOS — a capability-based microkernel operating system in Rust with typed IDL contracts and user-space drivers.

How I work

I tend to care less about category boundaries than about whether a project has a real core idea. That is why the site spans theorem proving, operating systems, protocol/tooling work, and verification. The domains are different, but the operating principle is the same: start from structure, build honestly, and keep the implementation close to the idea.

Background

Before this, I ran a furniture company, did videography and film editing, and worked in supply chain management. I've always been drawn to the intersection of technical depth and creative breadth — the kind of work where you need to understand both the math and the storytelling.

This site

This site is built with Astro, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and MDX. More importantly, it's a public working map of what I'm building, what I'm learning, and what I think is worth keeping around.

Projects show the work. Writing shows the reasoning. The Hall of Internet Greatness is the separate wing where I archive things I think are worth preserving.

Some of these are profound. Some are technically brilliant. Some are historically important. Some are literally the dumbest things ever created. All of them, in my expert opinion, are worth keeping.