Building large systems from scratch, to understand them deeply.
I'm Seba Gedeon Matsoula Malonga, a software engineer and tech lead based in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.
This organization hosts a long-term program: rebuilding the systems that run the world (an interpreter, Git, a cache, a database, Raft, a mini-Kubernetes, a mail server, a collaborative editor...) in reduced but working versions. The goal is not to ship products. It is to understand these systems well enough to explain them on a whiteboard, and to lead a team that builds them for real.
- I write the core code myself. AI is used to explain, review and generate tests, never to build the system.
- Every line is explainable. If I can't explain it, it doesn't stay.
- Plan before code. Each project starts with a written breakdown into milestones and small tasks.
- Every project ships five deliverables: the plan, the code with tests, a design document (C4 + ADRs), a public article, and a 45-minute talk.
| # | Repository | What it rebuilds | Language | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go-fundamentals | Go foundations | Go | 🚧 In progress |
| 2 | tree-walk-interpreter | A programming language interpreter | Go | 🔜 Planned |
| 3 | bytecode-vm | A bytecode virtual machine with garbage collection | C | 🔜 Planned |
| 4 | mini-git | Git | Go | 🔜 Planned |
| 5 | unix-shell | A Unix shell | C | 🔜 Planned |
| 6 | kv-cache | Redis | Go | 🔜 Planned |
| 7 | btree-db | SQLite | Go | 🔜 Planned |
| 8 | raft-kv | etcd / Raft | Go | 🔜 Planned |
| 9 | mini-kube | Kubernetes | Go | 🔜 Planned |
| 10 | mail-server | SMTP + IMAP server | Go | 🔜 Planned |
| 11 | headless-cms | A headless CMS | Go / TypeScript | 🔜 Planned |
| 12 | collab-editor | Google Docs (CRDT) | TypeScript / Go | 🔜 Planned |
| 13 | backend-framework | NestJS | TypeScript | 🔜 Planned |
Later: my own language, a Linux distribution, a Wayland desktop, a cross-platform Dart framework, a toy browser.
- algorithms: solved problems, organized by pattern
- system-design: architecture katas and interview designs
- paper-notes: notes on research papers (Raft, Dynamo, Borg, B-trees, CRDTs...)
- talks: 45-minute explanations of each system
- handbook: the program, templates and quarterly reviews
