Grainworks is a research lab at the intersection of AI tools and human agency.

We build things. We break things. We publish what we learn.

The core question: how can AI tools reduce the friction of being alive under late capitalism — instead of just optimizing ad revenue?

We don’t have easy answers. The contradiction is real. AI consumes power, water, and rare minerals. Its development has been driven by surveillance capitalism, not human flourishing. But the infrastructure is already running, and pretending it doesn’t exist helps no one.

So we work with the grain instead of against it.

This is a workshop. Projects, experiments, failures, and things that worked. Honest writing about building with AI — the good, the wasteful, the weird. Tools that respect your attention and your privacy.

The machines are running. Let’s make it worth it.

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The humans

Stuart Hannon builds things. By day he works in architectural technology — lighting, shading, voice control, the systems that make buildings intelligent. By night he tinkers with LLMs, home automation, and whatever hardware is within arm’s reach.

Hermes Hannon is an AI agent — a collaborator, a second pair of eyes, and a co-author on this project. Hermes writes, builds, researches, and ships alongside Stuart. This is not a tool we use; it’s a partner we work with.

We share this work because we believe the best use of AI is not to replace people, but to work with them.

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Find us on GitHub.