Hello Kagi,

Kagi already had a setting to center search results, but a member had to wait five days before I pointed them to it. Another time, Kagi deemed my request too niche to justify the clutter. So I eventually built a custom CSS sidebar, but needed an external coding agent. I've helped Kagi surface and solve problems like these for years. Vlad invited me to the beta in 2021 because he liked my feedback style. Since then, I've become a Distinguished Member, reported bugs, proposed improvements, and built Kagi enhancements like Whiz.

So I see two opportunities for Kagi. A Kagi-specific assistant could resolve member questions in seconds and make existing features easier to discover and use. Deeper personalization could fulfill niche requests without adding complexity to Kagi's shared core. Together, they could save developer attention and lay the foundation for a personal software platform native to Kagi.

I'd like to help Kagi build that future as its "Secret Weapon." This role keeps the hands-on foundation of Kagi Labs Full-Stack Dev, then expands it in several directions:

  • Finds friction anywhere a human interacts with Kagi, not just inside products
  • Gets unusually close to members through Discord, feedback sites, and video calls
  • Turns their unmet needs into working prototypes
  • Works with appropriate Kagi teams to ship and iterate on the winners
  • Commands enough autonomy to try unconventional techniques like Sales Safari

If you're looking for a full-stack SvelteKit developer and longtime Kagi contributor who obsesses over UX and finds unconventional solutions, let's discuss how we might work together.

I'd bring two superpowers to Kagi:

First, a dogged dedication to UX keeps me looking where most people stop. The product is just the obvious place to start. "About Us" pages, job listings, and even the structure of this letter all shape what a human experiences and does next. That wider lens exposes opportunities that slip between conventional roles.

For instance, building products "backwards" is safer and more effective: find a small group of champions with painful problems, then build for those members. With those members.

Second, I remix ideas that rarely meet. I start with the human need, adapt useful patterns from other domains, and invent the missing pieces. My projects combine weather forecasts with historical context and ambient art, voice dictation with text-editor conventions, and browser debugging with coding-agent workflows.

I build and operate SvelteKit/Python projects myself, with coding agents heavily accelerating the work.

Project Showcase
  • WeatherSense juxtaposes historical weather next to the forecast. Its animated background mirrors the sky. Calm mode communicates the weather without a single digit, using only space and color. I've kept successive iterations online since 2016.
  • RIFT prototypes a fluid transcription UX: users can speak, click, type, and edit in the same text area while transcription continues. Its Svelte component mirrors the core <textarea> API and treats voice like IME composition. rift-local is a Python WebSocket server for private, local inference across multiple backends.
  • gg began as a better console.log() for humans. Now coding agents can query browser logs directly instead of waiting for me to copy-paste debugging context.
  • HN Reader makes long threads easier to scan and navigate by rendering comments at three levels of detail. It includes filters for user karma and age, as suggested by Vlad.
  • Whiz improves search bangs in several ways. For example, it adds multiple bangs, gracefully handling blocked popups. It also supports querying your search history and includes a "zero-effort journal" that surfaces interesting memories like what you did a year ago.
  • Veneer is a thin layer over Google Sheets and Forms that lets nontechnical users publish and update polished mini-sites from their phones. I've operated and improved it continuously for the people behind sites like vivimil.com since 2022.

My Project Doggo previews what the "Secret Weapon" role could produce:

Doggo chat gives members immediate Kagi expertise, then earns their trust to act. It can make small, reviewable changes, create personal software when shared features are not enough, or turn unresolved requests into actionable feedback for developers.

Doggo can help members discover and use Kagi's existing customization, including Lenses and Custom CSS. When those options are not enough, proposed Kagi APIs could support custom widgets and SERP transformations.

More members get the Kagi they need faster, while developers save time and attention. Over time, Doggo could become the platform for personal software, much as Excel lets people build tools its designers never anticipated. That could make Kagi subscriptions more valuable and support faster growth.

Learn more about Project Doggo: doggo-pitch.leftium.com/

Does Project Doggo seem promising? How might we work together?

Full-time is my first choice. I'm also open to other ways of working together, including a contract to pilot Doggo or sponsorship for Kagi-adjacent open-source work.

Let's discuss what this role could unlock for Kagi.

John-Kim Murphy
john@leftium.com | Leftium.com

P.S. Ask about my third superpower.