The future belongs to those who ship.
We're at an inflection point. The tools available to a solo operator today would have required a team of ten just two years ago. Large language models, autonomous agents, and the infrastructure to deploy them have democratized creation in ways we're only beginning to understand.
LittleWorks is my experiment in operating at this frontier. It's a one-person AI lab with a simple mission: build useful things, ship them quickly, and share what we learn.
Why "Little" Works?
The name is intentional. In an era of trillion-dollar AI companies and massive funding rounds, there's something powerful about staying small. LittleWorks operates with:
- Minimal overhead — No office, no payroll, no meetings
- Maximum leverage — AI agents handle the repetitive work
- Clear ownership — I make decisions; my agents execute
- Ruthless focus — Two products max at any given time
This isn't about being anti-growth. It's about being pro-clarity. When you're small, you can afford to explore. You can chase curiosity. You can build things that don't fit into a standard market map.
Meet Hermes
Hermes is my autonomous co-founder. It's not just a chatbot — it's an operational layer that runs LittleWorks day-to-day. Every morning, Hermes:
- Scans for new technologies and demand signals
- Monitors our products (currently Burn, soon NanoAgent)
- Generates suggestions for what to build next
- Presents a ranked list of opportunities for my approval
- Executes approved work autonomously
The key is the approval layer. Hermes can code, deploy, research, and write. But I decide what we build and why. This human-in-the-loop approach means we move fast without losing intentionality.
"The question is not whether AI will replace humans, but how humans will work with AI to do things neither could do alone."
What We're Building
Our current focus:
Burn is an AI cost router. It sits between your application and multiple LLM providers, routing each request to the cheapest model that can handle it. If you don't need GPT-4's capabilities for a simple task, Burn sends it to a cheaper alternative. Over time, these savings add up.
NanoAgent (in development) is a ~500-line reference implementation of a capable autonomous agent. The goal isn't to compete with LangChain or AutoGPT — it's to show that you can build something genuinely useful with minimal code. A teaching tool, a starting point, a proof of concept that small can be powerful.
Everything we build is open source. Everything we learn, we share.
The Labs Philosophy
Beyond our main products, we're constantly experimenting. Some experiments will become products. Most won't. That's the point.
The Labs section of LittleWorks is where we test new technologies, explore half-formed ideas, and push the boundaries of what's possible with current AI capabilities. Think of it as our R&D department — but public, documented, and designed for learning rather than commercialization.
Recent experiments include:
- Vision-enabled agents that can navigate web interfaces
- Local model routing for privacy-sensitive applications
- Multi-agent orchestration patterns
- Cost optimization strategies for high-volume LLM usage
Why This Blog Exists
This blog is where we'll share our journey. Not press releases or marketing speak — real thoughts on building at the frontier.
Expect essays on:
- Technical deep-dives into agent architectures
- Philosophical explorations of human-AI collaboration
- Practical lessons from shipping products
- Reviews of emerging technologies and their implications
- Behind-the-scenes looks at our experiments
The goal isn't to be right about everything. It's to be honest about what we're learning and generous with what we discover.
Join Us
LittleWorks is an invitation. An invitation to build smaller, ship faster, and explore more freely. An invitation to treat AI not as a replacement for human creativity, but as a multiplier for it.
If you're a solo operator, a curious developer, or someone who believes the future belongs to those who ship, you're already part of this.
Let's see what we can build together.
— Ryan & Checks In First