Arcanium

Forge Smarter Systems

Field-tested AI workflows, tools, and systems built by an engineer who ships real work with them every day. No hype. No theory. Just what works.

The Weekly Forge

One tested AI workflow per week. Plus honest tool reviews, vault configurations, and field notes from the trenches. Free.

Subscribe Free on Substack →

The Catalog

One-time purchase · No subscriptions · No lock-in

Arcanium Vault Kit $49

A Claude Code knowledge system that captures decisions, tracks risks, and surfaces what matters — automatically.

  • 6 skills: mine, review, consult, learn, do, issues
  • 3 hooks: session orient, auto-commit, write-validate
  • 9 schema templates + 11-directory vault structure
  • Full README, INSTALL guide, and worked examples
What's inside & who it's for

What's Inside

  • /mine — extract & route decisions, actions, issues, risks from any transcript
  • /review — weekly vault health check
  • /do — action item dashboard
  • /issues — issue tracker with ISS-NNN numbering
  • /consult — structured decision brief
  • /learn — web research + vault routing
  • 3 hooks — session-orient, auto-commit, write-validate
  • 9 schema templates — decisions, actions, issues, risks, strategy, competitors, pipeline, OKRs, archive
  • Meridian Analytics worked examples included

Built For

  • Founders who need to trace why a decision was made
  • Consultants who run meetings and document them
  • Teams where "who owns this?" is a daily question
  • Claude Code users who want AI with org context

Requirements

  • Obsidian (free)
  • Claude Code (Anthropic subscription)
  • Git (free) or Obsidian Sync

Setup time: 10 minutes flat.

Get the Vault Kit
After Agile $29

The practical playbook for teams transitioning from sprint ceremonies to AI-augmented execution.

  • 7-part guide (~5,000 words)
  • Team topology cheat sheet (2-page reference)
  • FDE Context Package + Agent-Ready Work Spec templates
  • Free: Agent Era Manifesto PDF
What's inside & who it's for

What's Inside

  • 7-part guide (~5,000 words) — from Agile's breaking assumptions to the four-stage transition roadmap
  • New Team Topology — Product Owner · Business Analyst · Forward-Deployed Engineer
  • Agent-Ready Work Spec — the 5-component format that replaces Jira tickets for agent execution
  • FDE Context Package Template — the CONTEXT.md your agents receive before every task
  • SPEC-NNN Template — numbered work specs with FDE review notes section
  • Team Topology Cheat Sheet — roles, review gate, transition stages, tool stack

Who It's For

  • Engineering managers navigating the AI-agent shift
  • Agile coaches ready to tell clients where teams are heading
  • Technical leads doing the FDE job without a framework to make it legible
  • CTOs and founders building small, fast teams from scratch
  • Anyone whose sprint ceremonies are producing less value

Key Concepts

  • Jidoka applied to agent review — Toyota's "stop and fix" principle for the FDE review gate
  • Stage 1→4 transition roadmap — where most teams are and what Stage 4 looks like
  • Rickover's accountability doctrine — you may delegate authority; you may not delegate responsibility
Get After Agile
Local AI Setup Guide $19

Run LLMs and image generation offline on Apple Silicon. Private, fast, and free after purchase.

  • Full PDF guide: Ollama, LM Studio, Draw Things
  • Model routing cheat sheet (one-page PDF)
  • iPad Pro toolchain coverage included
  • Research current as of March 2026
What's inside & who it's for

What's Inside

  • Why local AI — and why Apple Silicon
  • Hardware tiers: every current Mac + iPad Pro model mapped
  • Ollama: install, CLI, API, essential commands
  • LM Studio: GUI model management
  • iPad Pro: Private LLM, LLM Farm, Enchanted apps
  • Image generation: Draw Things + FLUX.2 on Mac and iPad
  • Model selection by task and by hardware tier
  • Model routing cheat sheet — task-to-model quick reference
  • Troubleshooting: memory, speed, and API issues

Built For

  • Mac + iPad Pro owners who want offline AI
  • Developers avoiding external API costs and data exposure
  • Privacy-conscious users keeping prompts on-device
  • Anyone evaluating Apple Silicon AI capabilities

Requirements

  • Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer) or iPad Pro M4/M5
  • 10–100 GB free disk space (model dependent)
  • All tools covered are free to download

Setup time: under 20 minutes.

Get the Guide
Claude Code Power User Field Guide $29

How Claude Code actually works under the hood — plus hooks, skills, and context patterns that hold up at scale.

  • 14-page guide PDF (6 chapters)
  • Quick-reference card: hooks, CLAUDE.md, skill patterns
  • 4 production-ready hooks included
  • Covers context management, MCPs, and subagents
What's inside & who it's for

What's Inside

  • 14-page PDF guide — six chapters: how Claude Code works, CLAUDE.md, hooks, skills, context management, MCP
  • Quick-reference card — single-page landscape cheat sheet, print it and pin it
  • session-orient.sh — git status, open tasks, recent commits at session start
  • auto-commit.sh — every write goes to git automatically with a descriptive message
  • write-validate.sh — markdown frontmatter validation before Claude writes
  • session-log.sh — timestamped audit trail of every tool call

Who It's For

  • Claude Code users who've set up hooks but aren't sure they work
  • Developers standardizing Claude Code across multiple projects
  • Anyone who's lost context mid-session and wants a systematic fix
  • Teams building shared CLAUDE.md conventions

What You'll Learn

  • Exit 0 vs. exit 1 in hooks — when to block Claude and when to fail silently
  • Skill invocation patterns — natural language only; why /skillname never works
  • The orient-first pattern — keeping context lean across long sessions
  • Task tool for subagents — spawning parallel agents without cluttering main context
Get the Field Guide
Agent Orchestration Strategy $49

Your CIO's vendors have polished decks. This gives you the six decisions, vendor filter, and 90-day plan they can't.

  • 5-part strategic guide (~5,000 words)
  • The Six Decisions framework — build/buy/wait through workforce transition
  • Vendor Filter + CIO Brief Template
  • Quick-reference card (4-page PDF, print-ready)
What's inside & who it's for

What's Inside

  • 5-part strategic guide (~5,000 words) — three layers, six decisions, vendor evaluation, CIO conversation, 90-day checklist
  • The Six Decisions — build/buy/wait · infrastructure vs. application layer · vendor lock-in · governance · pilot selection · workforce transition
  • Vendor Filter — four questions that separate real enterprise deployments from vaporware pitches
  • CIO Brief Template — one-paragraph executive conversation starter, ready to adapt and send
  • 90-Day Decision Checklist — four phases, concrete deliverables, pilot framed and authorized
  • Quick-reference card — all six decisions, vendor filter, CIO brief, and sprint checklist on four pages

Who It's For

  • Technical leaders responsible for enterprise IT strategy
  • Engineering leads navigating agent platform vendor pitches
  • CTOs and VPs evaluating whether OpenClaw belongs in the roadmap
  • Anyone whose CIO just asked "what's our agent orchestration strategy?"
  • Organizations piloting AI agents without a governance framework yet

Key Concepts

  • The Pilot-Forever Trap — why experiments without graduation criteria aren't strategy
  • Infrastructure vs. Application Layer — most orgs don't need an OpenClaw decision yet
  • The Vendor Gap — why established relationships are selling last cycle's technology
  • Jidoka applied to agent governance — quality built in at the review gate, not inspected out after
Get the Playbook
FREE DOWNLOADS
Agent Era Manifesto Free free via email

Five principles for engineers building in the agent era. Direction over execution. Precision over interpretation. No fluff.

  • Rickover accountability doctrine as operating principle
  • Jidoka applied to AI-augmented teams
  • One page. Keep it in your vault.
Subscribe Free → Get PDF
AI Glossary Free free via email

Plain-language definitions for every term you'll encounter working with modern AI. No jargon, no assumed knowledge.

  • 14 sections covering models, training, agents, safety, and more
  • 100+ terms defined clearly
  • Jargon Buster quick-reference table
Subscribe Free → Get PDF

What We Build

Vault Kits

Pre-built AI knowledge systems. Drop them into Obsidian or Claude Code and start working. Structures that think with you.

Skill Packs

Tested Claude Code skills for real workflows. Agile sprints, content pipelines, sysadmin automation, research synthesis.

Playbooks

Prompt engineering guides built for specific outcomes. Not generic tip lists. Structured chains that produce consistent results.

Field Guides

Step-by-step setup guides for local AI, mesh networks, and off-grid tech. Written for people who build their own infrastructure.

Arcanium is built by a nuclear engineer turned AI crusader who has been running Linux since 1994 and working with AI daily since it stopped being purely theoretical.

The AI content space is full of marketers who learned AI last year. This is different. Every workflow, skill, and template published here has been tested in actual work, on real systems, solving real problems.

Based in the mountains of northwest Montana. Powered by Claude, cast iron, and an unreasonable amount of hot chocolate.