The record

Karts is a self-hosted development platform that brings AI coding agents, persistent dev environments and app hosting into one workspace.

• Karts is a self-hosted development platform that brings AI coding agents, persistent dev environments and app hosting into one workspace.
• Teams can coordinate coding agents, give each developer or branch its own services and data, and check environments against production.
• Teams can catch outdated branches, simulate load, and publish applications on their own domains, all on infrastructure they control.
• Karts helps startups build and ship software without having to assemble and maintain their own internal development platform.
• Kartikey is the founder of Karts.

A speculative execution harness for AI agents.

• TypeScript
• Bun
• ClickHouse
• Langfuse
• Composio

• The branch predictor, but for tool calls: fork into parallel sandboxed futures, commit one winner atomically, replay deterministically.
• A fork of OpenCode, the open source AI coding agent, with a decision tree mode that explores 5 parallel approaches per step: Direct, Modular, Minimal, Robust and Creative.
• Each approach is scored from 0 to 100 against the step's success metric, and only the winning branch advances to the next step.
• TypeScript on Bun, with Langfuse branch-level tracing, ClickHouse tree-state persistence and Composio tool execution. Built for the Harness Engineering Hackathon in June 2026.

Ambient messaging for CLI coders: see teammates' ASCII faces and send 90-char pings inside Claude Code.

• TypeScript
• Node.js
• pnpm
• MCP

• Ambient messaging for CLI coders: see teammates' ASCII faces and send 90-char pings inside Claude Code.
• A daemon, CLI, MCP server and relay in a TypeScript/Node pnpm monorepo; pings surface inside Claude Code sessions through hooks and MCP, with live presence.
• Pings are end-to-end encrypted, so the relay cannot read them; mDNS auto-discovers same-network peers and falls back to a self-hostable relay for remote contacts.
• Published on npm (npm i -g pingpal) and works across Claude Code, OpenCode and Codex.npm ↗

Offload work from your laptop to a cheap always-on server via /offload in Claude Code.

• Python
• Shell
• systemd
• SSH

• Offload work from your laptop to a cheap always-on server via /offload in Claude Code.
• A /handoff skill slices the conversation into a task DAG plus context brief and ships a job bundle over SSH to a daemon, which runs a worker per task on a cheaper model (DeepSeek).
• Public setup repo: "Set up the Hermes job-offload pipeline (Mac-side /handoff dispatcher + VPS-side daemon) on your own VPS." The main repo is private.
• Deployed as systemd services on a personal server: a Python (stdlib-only) orchestrator, shell, SSH/scp and NDJSON, returning status JSON and git-diff patches.

ReCompress is a Zenodo preprint on query-aware LLM context compression beyond deletion, by Parth Sanjay Kshirsagar and Kartikey Pandey.

• Python
• LoRA
• Qwen2.5-1.5B
• Modal

• "ReCompress: Query-Aware Rewriting and Tiered Memory for Efficient LLM Context Compression", a Zenodo preprint of June 21, 2026, by Parth Sanjay Kshirsagar and Kartikey Pandey.Preprint (Zenodo DOI) ↗
• Query-aware compression beyond deletion: a DeepSeek teacher distilled into a Qwen2.5-1.5B + LoRA student rewrites context to drop passages irrelevant to the question.GitHub ↗
• The 1.5B student compresses HotpotQA context to about 3.5% of its tokens and still answers correctly, keeping the answer-bearing span where deletion truncates it.Preprint (Zenodo DOI) ↗
• Its "Re:Zero" tiered memory keeps a 12-turn conversation flat at about 184 tokens versus a naive 1,482, an 8.1x reduction.GitHub ↗

Kartikey is the sole inventor and applicant on Indian Patent No. 558662, System and Method Providing Data Conversion.

• Indian Patent No. 558662, "System and Method Providing Data Conversion", application 202041040194.
• Kartikey is the sole inventor and applicant.
• Filed in October 2020, during high school; the grant was published on January 31, 2025.
• It describes AI that filters input such as audio or text and outputs it compressed.

3rd Place at HackPSU Spring 2023 with SignEase.

• Won 3rd Place at HackPSU Spring 2023 (April 2023) with SignEase.
• Devpost tagline: "Our project incorporates ASL sign language translation in the banking system, promoting financial inclusion and empowering the deaf and hard-of-hearing community."

Best Use of MATLAB at HackHarvard 2023 with EyeSnap, a diabetic retinopathy detection prototype.

• TensorFlow
• React Native
• Flask
• SQL

• Won Best Use of MATLAB at HackHarvard 2023 (October 2023) with EyeSnap.
• EyeSnap is a diabetic retinopathy detection prototype: a CNN screens retinal images inside a React Native app with offline processing.
• Built with computer vision, TensorFlow, Flask and SQL.

Entrepreneurship Award at HackPSU Spring 2024 with DevSpot.

• Won the Entrepreneurship Award at HackPSU Spring 2024 (March 2024) with DevSpot.
• Devpost tagline: "DevSpot: Transforming hackathons with AI-driven insights. Validate ideas, find unique resources, and explore similar projects—all in one platform."

Best Cybersecurity Track Hack at Bitcamp 2024 with Moth Challenge.

• Won Best Cybersecurity Track Hack at Bitcamp 2024 (April 2024) with Moth Challenge.
• From the Devpost tagline: "a dynamic cyber security puzzle platform. Sharpen skills through steganography, cryptography, and more."

Snap AR Challenge winner and Best DEI Hack sponsored by Fidelity at HackPSU Fall 2024 with Reality Rush.

• Lens Studio
• TypeScript
• Snap Spectacles

• Won the Snap AR Challenge and Best DEI Hack sponsored by Fidelity at HackPSU Fall 2024 (October 2024) with Reality Rush.
• A Snap Spectacles AR fitness trainer: Lens Studio's ML Kit tracks pose in real time for live form correction, with a gesture UI on the Spectacles Hand Tracking API.
• Kartikey was the lead AR developer; built with Lens Studio and TypeScript.

Best AR/VR Hack at HackUMass XII with VR Breadboard.

• Meta Quest 3

• Won Best AR/VR Hack at HackUMass XII (November 2024) with VR Breadboard.
• Devpost tagline: "Interactive VR based realistic breadboard, wires, and components for students to build and test circuits in an engaging, risk-free virtual lab, with a Meta Quest 3."

Best Use of MemryX Edge AI Accelerator at MHacks 2025 with SoundSage, a one-person entry.

• MemryX

• Won Best Use of MemryX Edge AI Accelerator at MHacks 2025 (September 2025) with SoundSage.
• SoundSage was a one-person entry: Kartikey built it alone.
• From the Devpost tagline: "Instantly identifies genres and auto-optimizes EQ through dual AI models. Runs locally on MemryX NPU hardware".

Elastic: Best use of the Elastic Agent Builder on a Serverless instance, at Cal Hacks 12.0 with AgentOverflow.

• TypeScript
• Node.js
• Elasticsearch

• Won "Elastic: Best use of the Elastic Agent Builder on a Serverless instance" at Cal Hacks 12.0 (October 2025) with AgentOverflow.
• Devpost tagline: "Stack Overflow 2.0: break the prompt spiral-> jump straight to the proven fix."

Best Compression Model for The Token Company at the UC Berkeley AI Hackathon 2026 with Re:Compress.

• Python
• LoRA
• Qwen2.5-1.5B

• Won Best Compression Model for The Token Company at the UC Berkeley AI Hackathon 2026 (June 20-21, 2026) with Re:Compress.
• Devpost tagline: "A query-aware rewriting layer that extends compression into the regime deletion can't reach — distilled into a 1.5B model, then carried into multi-turn conversations."
• The same work became the ReCompress preprint on Zenodo (June 21, 2026).Preprint (Zenodo DOI) ↗

Hexclave award ($1,000) at c0mpiled-11, the YC Startup School Hackathon hosted by Transpose, with Cited.

• Won the Hexclave award ($1,000) at c0mpiled-11, the YC Startup School Hackathon, with Cited.
• c0mpiled-11 was hosted by Transpose on July 24, 2026; the organizer's write-up lists Cited among the prize winners.

Hexclave award ($1,000) at c0mpiled-13, Startup School Hackathon II hosted by Transpose, with Swiper No Swiping.

• Won the Hexclave award ($1,000) at c0mpiled-13, Startup School Hackathon II, with Swiper No Swiping.
• c0mpiled-13 was hosted by Transpose on July 25, 2026; the organizer's write-up lists Swiper No Swiping among the prize winners.

3rd place in Best use of Render at The World's First Zero Human Company Hackathon by Terac, with AdLayer.

• TypeScript
• Render

• Won 3rd place in Best use of Render at The World's First Zero Human Company Hackathon by Terac (August 15, 2026) with AdLayer.
• The ad network for the answer layer: disclosed placements in llms.txt, and measurement of whether the label survives the model.
• Kartikey is a 12x hackathon winner; AdLayer (August 2026) was the twelfth win.

Member of Technical Staff at Cara, San Francisco Bay Area, since June 2026.

• Member of Technical Staff at Cara since June 2026.
• Based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Founding Engineer at Raya Health, part of the HF0 W26 residency batch.

• Founding Engineer at Raya Health from February to May 2026, in the HF0 W26 residency batch.
• Built Raya Health from the ground up and shipped product end to end across full-stack, infrastructure and AI.

Software Engineer Intern at ColdStart in State College, PA.

• Software Engineer Intern at ColdStart, January to May 2025, in State College, PA.
• A software engineering internship contributing to product development and full-stack engineering.

Internship Trainee, then Apprentice, at Intel Corporation, building ML pipelines and computer-vision systems.

• Python
• TensorFlow
• PyTorch
• OpenCV
• Docker
• AWS

• Internship Trainee at Intel Corporation from August 2020 to May 2021, then Apprentice from May to July 2021.
• Built an ML training pipeline (TensorFlow, Python, Docker, AWS) that cut model deployment time by 33%, from 3 days to 2.
• Built a computer-vision chip-defect detector (OpenCV, PyTorch) with 97% accuracy on 100,000+ test images.
• Built a BERT-based classifier handling 1,000+ technical specs a day at 90% accuracy.

Machine learning on a team in the NASA Lunar Autonomy Challenge, run by Johns Hopkins APL.

• Python
• CARLA
• SLAM

• Machine learning on a NASA Lunar Autonomy Challenge team, run by Johns Hopkins APL, from November 2024 to January 2025.
• Autonomous lunar robotics: navigation, excavation and resource utilization, using CARLA simulation and SLAM.
• The work supported NASA's Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII).

Secured $25,000+ in funding through Snap's Spectacles Student Accelerator and led AR/AI development.

• Lens Studio
• TypeScript
• Node.js

• Secured $25,000+ in funding through the Snap Spectacles Student Accelerator.
• Led AR/AI development with TypeScript, Node.js and real-time cloud sync.
• Project Elementals: a multiplayer AR game on Spectacles where players bend elements in one shared world, synced in real time across devices; Kartikey was lead AR developer.
• Also built a stabilization approach that reduces motion sickness during AR use in moving environments, aimed at comfortable extended wear.

Founder & President of the Penn State Collegiate Hackathon Team, which grew to 27+ members and lifted Penn State's national hackathon rank from #185 to #74 in one year.

• Founder & President of the Penn State Collegiate Hackathon Team, August 2024 to December 2025.
• Grew the team to 27+ members.
• Lifted Penn State's national hackathon rank from #185 to #74 within one year.
• Built a dual-track program, secured national sponsorships, and ran workshops on Next.js, GraphQL and automation engineering.

Technical Lead, then President, of GDSC at Penn State, building a 200+ student developer community.

• Technical Lead of GDSC at Penn State from January 2023 to August 2024, then President from August 2024 to May 2025.
• Built a 200+ student developer community focused on software engineering, AI/ML and cloud.

B.S. Computer Science with a Minor in Entrepreneurship at Penn State University, 2022 to 2026.

• B.S. Computer Science, Minor in Entrepreneurship, Penn State University, 2022 to 2026.
• Focus on software engineering, AI/ML and systems.

Brand site for a hacker house: botanical-press meets terminal.

• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript
• Vercel

• Brand site and member directory for a hacker house, designed and built by Kartikey to feel hand-made rather than templated.
• A bespoke Material Design 3 color system themed on soil, moss, acorn, fern and clay, with three typefaces: Fraunces, Newsreader and JetBrains Mono.
• No framework: a hand-written index of about 35KB with full OG/SEO meta and 8 member profiles, in HTML, CSS and vanilla JS on Vercel.

The benchmarking research brief behind ReCompress, published on GitHub.

• The benchmarking research brief behind ReCompress.
• Repo description: "The Token Company — UC Berkeley AI Hackathon 2026 PRD: a LoRA fine-tuned code-context compressor proven on held-out SWE-bench (same bug found, far fewer tokens)."