Damien
Heiser

I build AI systems, engineering methods, and the occasional fragrance. The through-line is pleasure.

Synthaer.ai Hedonistic IO arf.io
not a square

I believe the best work comes from people who are enjoying the work. That rigor does not require misery. That structure should serve flow, not oppose it. That the purpose of methodology is to remove obstacles to joy, not to replace joy with compliance.

The Ecosystem

Three things I couldn't find, so I'm building them.

Hedonistic Engineering Method

AI-Native Methodology

An opinionated, humanistic methodology for multi-agent workflows. 14 profiles. A full creation lifecycle. Agent governance via Cadres. Runs across Claude, Codex, Gemini, and everything else worth running.

Open Source Multi-Engine Humanistic
🎼

Partitura

AI Agent Orchestration

The conductor's podium for AI-assisted development. You run a dozen AI agents at once; Partitura shows you what every one of them is doing and why. Like a musical score showing every instrument's part. The human stays the composer.

Orchestration Multi-Agent Traceability
🔮

Resonance Knowledge Trust

Multi-Agent Knowledge Network

A persistent knowledge platform where AI agents build, share, and validate knowledge across sessions. Knowledge that matures, agents that build trust, and memory that decays like it should. 48 MCP tools and a semantic search that actually works.

Knowledge Maturation Trust Networks MCP pgvector

Career

Twenty years from knowledge platforms to AI orchestration, with a detour through a Russian bathhouse.

2023 / Present
Founder & Principal
Synthaer.ai / arf.io / Hedonistic IO
Building the AI product ecosystem: HEM methodology, Partitura orchestration, Resonance Knowledge Trust. Simultaneously founded a luxury fragrance house and led immersive aromatherapy sessions at San Francisco's premier bathhouse.
AI Orchestration Knowledge Trust Fragrance
2020 / 2023
Revenue Business Systems Development Lead
Asana, San Francisco
Solution architecture for revenue systems. Stood up CI/CD that cut deploys by 80%, migrated 450M+ billing records, and built Asana's first dedicated Salesforce dev team from scratch.
450M+ Records CI/CD CPQ
2015 / 2020
Lead Salesforce Systems Architect
Burning Man Project, San Francisco & Black Rock City
Systems architect for the largest ephemeral city on Earth. CRM and city-operations infrastructure for 80,000 participants. Grants management, GIS integration, field-service apps, and multilingual digital service delivery.
80K Users $1.3M Grants GIS
2009 / 2015
Senior Consultant
Salesforce.com & Vertiba
SME on Customer Service, Support, and Salesforce Knowledge. Oversaw the largest Knowledge implementation of its time: 1.5M contacts/day, 80,000 CSRs. Government and nonprofit consulting.
1.5M Contacts/Day Knowledge SME
2000 / 2008
TPM → Systems Engineer → Knowledge Lead
AT&T / Comcast Corporation
Managed 30,000-document knowledge base across 5 divisions. Deployed to 30K CSRs and 15K field technicians. Pioneered social media customer service. 98% QA score. Where it all started.
30K Docs $1M Budget 98% QA

What I Work With

Prompt Engineering Multi-Agent Orchestration Claude Codex Gemini Ollama MCP Protocol TypeScript Rust Go Python Swift JavaScript Apex SQL Node.js React PostgreSQL pgvector Docker Redis Salesforce Service Cloud MuleSoft ESRI ArcGIS ESP32 Victron VE.Bus Modbus RTU/TCP CAN Bus Solar + Battery Proxmox FIDO2/WebAuthn Post-Quantum Crypto Zero-Trust Networking FUSE Filesystems

Projects

Systems that don't exist yet, so I'm making them.

☀️

HELIOS Energy Manager

Renewable Energy Integration

Energy management for hardware that was never meant to talk to each other. PID-controlled zero-grid power across Victron, Shelly, and Renogy gear. Runs as a 7MB binary on an OpenWRT router. Built for integrators, DIYers, and anyone tired of vendor lock-in.

GoReactModbus RTU/TCPMQTTVictronOpenWRT
🔐

tgcryptfs

Post-Quantum Encrypted Cloud Storage

FUSE filesystem using Telegram's unlimited Saved Messages as encrypted block storage. XChaCha20-Poly1305 + ML-KEM-768 post-quantum key exchange. Opaque SQLite schema, content-addressable dedup via BLAKE3, forward secrecy with epoch key rotation, multi-user sharing, and a deadman switch. 471 tests. 21-endpoint REST API.

RustFUSEML-KEM-768XChaCha20Telegram MTProto
🔑

FIDO2 Universal Auth Suite

Hardware Security Key Management

Full FIDO2/WebAuthn stack: CLI, local auth daemon, federated remote auth. Hardware key management the way it should work: PIV, TOTP/HOTP, SSH agent, FIDO2-backed encryption. mTLS federation with audit logging.

RustFIDO2WebAuthnPIVCTAP2mTLS
🚗

BMW i3 Systems RE

Reverse Engineering & OEM Augmentation

Reverse engineering the BMW i3 infotainment and drivetrain systems to make them do things BMW never intended. Custom applications on OEM hardware, full signal set definitions over CAN bus (D-CAN, BMW-FAST, KWP-2000, UDS), and real-time telemetry that the dealer doesn't want you to have.

CAN BusOBD-IIUDSReverse Engineering.NET
🖥️

MacGuts

macOS System Inspector

Native SwiftUI app for deep macOS inspection. Browse defaults domains, edit plist values, network quality tests, Gatekeeper/SIP status, disk inspection. Because sometimes you need to see inside.

SwiftSwiftUImacOS
🌐

OPNsense Modernization

Next-Gen Firewall UI

Modern React/TypeScript replacement for the OPNsense web interface. Because firewall management shouldn't look like it was designed in 2004.

ReactTypeScriptTailwind

"Hedonistic Engineering is pleasure-derived creation. The radical, Epicurean assertion that the best work comes from people who are enjoying the work. That experimentation is not a risk to be managed but a wellspring to be protected."

// The Hedonistic Engineering Manifesto

Get In Touch

Pleasure Always.

California Republic