A decade+
Contributing to GHC and the Haskell ecosystem.
Singapore → Europe · follow-the-sun engineering
Hard systems problems.
Solved while Europe sleeps.
Deep compiler, platform and infrastructure expertise—delivered from Singapore for European engineering teams. Clear handoffs turn the time difference into work that is ready when your next day begins.
Open source first
Public work across compilers, platforms and infrastructure.
Singapore based
UTC+8 · 6–7 hours ahead of Central Europe.
Engineering culture
Evidence over claims. Upstream over lock-in. Quality over noise.
What we do
Engineering below the framework layer.
Senior engineering for compilers, platforms and infrastructure—especially where the problem crosses toolchain, operating-system and deployment boundaries.
Compilers & toolchains
GHC internals, backends, linkers, runtimes, cross-compilation and toolchain bring-up.
Discuss compiler workPlatform enablement
ARM64, Apple Silicon, Linux, mobile and emerging targets—from initial port to production performance.
Bring up a platformBuild, CI & release
Nix, Hydra, heterogeneous runners, binary caches, reproducible builds and release engineering.
Fix the delivery systemEmerging systems tech
WebAssembly, RISC-V, virtualization, source maps, distributed builds and focused technical prototypes.
Explore a hard ideaSelected public work
Credibility you can inspect.
toolchain-wrapper
Target-prefixed toolchain wrappers for Raspberry Pi, Android and iOS workflows around GHC and Haskell.
hydra-tools
Event-driven bridges between GitHub, Hydra and Attic for faster feedback, leaner polling and automatic cache population.
hyper-linux
Run AArch64 Linux ELF binaries on macOS Apple Silicon through Hypervisor.framework and lightweight system-call translation.
sourcemap-tools
Advanced source-map visualisation and a visual mapping editor for Visual Studio Code.
How we work
Asynchronous by design. Synchronous when it matters.
The time-zone advantage only works with disciplined context transfer. The process reduces waiting without replacing collaboration with a ticket queue.
-
01 / EUROPE AFTERNOON
Define the handoff
Problem statement, environment, constraints, evidence, known dead ends and acceptance criteria are captured in one place.
-
02 / SINGAPORE DAY
Move the work forward
Investigation, implementation and validation happen against the agreed definition of done, with decisions documented as they are made.
-
03 / EUROPE MORNING
Start with an answer
Open a reviewed branch, reproducible test case, benchmark, incident analysis or concise decision memo—not another request for context.
The operating system
Written contextHandoffs that survive the clock.
Reviewable incrementsSmall enough to inspect and reverse.
Reproducible evidenceEnvironments, tests and measurements.
Live overlap for decisionsArchitecture and trade-offs, not status theatre.
Open source
The engineering record is public.
zw3rk grew out of the Haskell ecosystem. Work around GHC, cross-compilation, ARM64, linker behaviour, build systems and CI remains a foundation for the wider systems work we do today.
- Upstream before private forks.Design changes to fit the ecosystem whenever the commercial problem permits it.
- Evidence before claims.Public code, issue history and technical writing let engineers evaluate the work directly.
- Stewardship beyond delivery.Leave maintainable tooling, reproducible environments and useful documentation behind.
Technical writing
Notes from below the abstraction line.
The tail of an off-by-one error in GHC’s linker
A non-deterministic AArch64 Mach-O failure, followed from CI symptoms into GHC’s internal static linker.
Read articleBuilding GHC: The stages
A practical explanation of bootstrap compilers, stage one, stage two and the package databases between them.
Read articleWhy use a cross compiler?
Power, resource and environmental constraints—and the trade-offs between cross compilation and emulation.
Read articleAbout zw3rk
A small company for problems that need senior attention.
zw3rk is a Singapore-based systems engineering company serving European teams. The focus is deliberately narrow: compiler, platform, build and infrastructure work where depth and continuity matter more than headcount.
The name combines the German Zwerg—dwarf or gnome—with Werk—work or factory—and the “3” that has been part of the project from the beginning. The original dwarf head remains the company mark.
“Hard systems problems” is not a euphemism for complexity theatre. It means reducing an uncertain technical problem to reproducible evidence, a reviewable change and a decision the team can act on.
Start with the hard part
Bring the problem everyone else calls “too niche.”
Share the environment, the failure mode and the outcome you need. The first conversation should establish whether the problem is a fit, what evidence is missing and the smallest useful next step.
Singapore-based
Europe-focused
Open-source minded