A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

The Kernel Dev

Curated AI Builders & Researchers in San Francisco

WEMEETINPERSONSANFRANCISCO

Our manifesto

Craft

A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and their head. An artist works with their hands, their head and their heart. We build the third way.

After Marco Pierre White

Obsession

For the people who can't leave it alone. Still at it at 2am because the thing is almost working. We come to be around others who care this much.

Wonder

If AI takes the mundane, what is left is beauty, judgment and wonder. That is what we build toward, with everything we know and everything we can imagine.

Who it is for

The Kernel Dev is for people who are deeply invested in what they build, and who bring their creativity and their wisdom to it.

We meet in person.

We care about this more than is reasonable, and we want to be in a room with people who do too.

Who we were

We started in April 2026 as The Kernel: a landing page, a Google Form, and a plan for an outdoor meetup called Touch Grass and Build.

Seventeen people signed up in the first four days. Over the next six months we ran four private events and grew to about forty people, most of them GPU kernel and AI infrastructure engineers. Good rooms, serious people.

The problem was sameness. Forty people who all write kernels end up having the same conversations, and by the fourth event we were having them again. Meanwhile people kept finding the site, and a VC we had never met forwarded it to a company, which told us the interest was wider than the room.

So this is the second chapter. Same core, wider room: builders and researchers across the whole stack, and a first public event on the calendar. The forty from the first chapter are already in.

Next up

Show Your AI Setup

Sat Oct 17, 2026 · 15:00–17:30
Spark Social SF, Mission Bay

Eight builders, five minutes each, laptop on the table, showing the setup they actually use: agent harnesses, eval loops, Claude Code and Cursor configs, inference stacks, the scripts nobody shows anyone. Nobody brings slides. Afterwards there is an hour to find the person whose setup you want to steal.

Not on the list yet?

Tell us what you are building or researching. We read every answer ourselves and invite by hand.

Join The Kernel Dev

Hiring?

Our members are about forty AI builders and researchers, each one approved by hand. If you want to meet them before they are on the market, come to an event as a guest or sponsor one. We only bring in companies our members would actually want to work for.

Talk to us about hiring

Reach out

Want to show your setup, host a session, bring a group, or just ask whether this is for you? Email works. So does a message on X or LinkedIn.

caroori@thekernel.dev

The Kernel Dev · San Francisco

Run by Chandrahas Aroori

caroori@thekernel.dev