Philip O'Toole
Software engineer working on distributed systems and databases; creator of rqlite, the distributed database built on SQLite.
Philip O'Toole did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
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What they believe
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Framing a code-review request as looking for bugs can trigger an AI coding assistant's safety refusal, while framing the same request as looking for improvements does not.
It seems like looking for bugs is not acceptable, but looking for improvements is fine.
philipotoole.comSaid 6 Jul 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs.
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Their words
It seems like looking for bugs is not acceptable, but looking for improvements is fine.
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Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 1 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Framing a code-review request as looking for bugs can trigger an AI coding assistant's safety refusal, while framing the same request as looking for improvements does not.
It seems like looking for bugs is not acceptable, but looking for improvements is fine.
First impressions of Claude Fable Said 6 Jul 2026
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Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 6 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Liked Becoming a Technical Leader
Becoming a Technical Leader is both an interesting and subtle book. At times it feels like a self-help book, at other times a Machiavellian explanation of how programming teams really wok. But in the end it's sincere and mature, and wants to help. Weinberg's introspective style will appeal to many programmers, and it appealed to me. This book is useful because it talks about many of the practical issues of becoming a technical leader or manager within a team of developers — and from many unexpected viewpoints.
philipotoole.com 25 Nov 2016
Loved Peopleware
But once you start to do so, it's a great book and probably the best one there is on programming management.
philipotoole.com 25 Nov 2016
Recommends The Unix Programming Environment
The Unix Programming Environment is a book you can't read too soon. It's something I wish I'd come across years before I actually did. An authoritative and comprehensive manual for using Unix as a programmer, it clearly explains concepts such as inodes, hard and soft links, system calls, and the power of joining programs together via stdin and stdout. By the time I came across this book I already knew these concepts, but had never studied them before in one place, and in such a coherent manner.
philipotoole.com 25 Nov 2016
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Recommends The C Programming Language
What can one say about this book, that hasn't been said already? Perhaps this: that of all the books written about programming, this has the highest information density of them all. And yet it's so pleasant to read. There is something about the tone of this book — the way the authors speak to you. They explain everything, and yet never seem patronizing or condescending. The joy they feel for their craft — it really does seem like this book comes from a time when programming was a craft — is unmistakable. Many of today's programmers — web developers, iOS developers, front-end engineers — may have no need to ever read this book. But for those who have not done so, and really want to improve as programmers, work through this book. It's a rite of passage.
philipotoole.com 25 Nov 2016
Liked Writing Solid Code
This book had a big impact on me as young software developer. It was the first time I saw in print the principle "bugs that go away by themselves come back by themselves". It's something that I've often repeated to myself, and my team, if nothing else but to prepare us mentally for when that hard bug does come back. The chapter advising developers to "proactively step through your code during development, don't wait for the bug report" improved my productivity enormously, and I followed the practice for many years.
philipotoole.com 25 Nov 2016
Loved The Mythical Man-Month
The amazing thing about The Mythical Man Month is that it doesn't feel dated, even though it was first published in 1975. Instead it simply feels like a group of programmers discussing the very same challenges the industry has today, with just different technology in use.
philipotoole.com 25 Nov 2016
Where they publish
Blog philipotoole.com His blog on distributed systems, databases and engineering teams.
Recent
- rqlite 10.5.1 to 10.6.0: Numeric Error Codes, Node Promotion, and CDC Fixes 13 Oct 2026 rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, fault-tolerant relational database built on SQLite and the Raft consensus protocol. Versions 10.5.1 through 10.6.0 focus on four core themes: richer error reporting in the API, chan…
- Improved web console in rqlite v10.5.0 2 Oct 2026 rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, fault-tolerant relational database built on SQLite and the Raft consensus protocol. v10.5.0 is out now, and comes with an improved web console. Specifically the console features a n…
- rqlite 10.3.1 to 10.4.0: Cluster Integrity, Streaming Backups, and CDC Security 29 Sept 2026 rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database built on SQLite and the Raft consensus protocol. Versions 10.3.1 through 10.4.0 focus on four core themes: safeguarding cluster consistency under loc…
Show 7 more
- Antithesis breaks rqlite on purpose 25 Sept 2026 rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database built on SQLite and Raft. Antithesis has published a post on how they use AI Agents to inject bugs in rqlite, then check whether their tests catch th…
- rqlite v10.3.0 – features, upgrades, and bug fixes 1 Sept 2026 rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, fault-tolerant relational database built on SQLite and Raft. Version 10.3.0 has been released and includes some updates to the web console, upgraded SQLite, and other bug fixes and…
- From 18 months to 6: High-velocity database engineering 19 Aug 2026 I recently appeared on the Bug Bash podcast to talk about rqlite, software testing, and the impact of Agentic coding. You check out the audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, and the video on YouTube.
- Claude redesigns rqlite.io 15 Aug 2026 rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database built on SQLite and Raft. rqlite.io is the Hugo-based website for rqlite, built on the Docsy theme. It introduces people to the database, as well as…
- Codex for Open Source 11 Aug 2026 OpenAI has given me six months of ChatGPT Pro through its Codex for Open Source programme, which backs maintainers of projects the wider ecosystem depends on. I will be putting it to work on rqlite — primarily coding an…
- Proving to Fable I maintain the repo 8 Jul 2026 rqlite is a lightweight, open-source, distributed relational database built on SQLite and Raft. After my initial experience with Fable, it got me thinking. I created rqlite, I maintain it. Why won’t Fable help me find a…
- First impressions of Claude Fable 6 Jul 2026 Today I tried Anthropic’s latest model, Fable, for the first time. I asked it to run a full code review of the core Go code of rqlite. Fable rejected my first prompt as unsafe – review the rqlite code base for potential…
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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Recent
- rqlite V10.6.0 is out now. 🚀 The easy-to-use, fault-tolerant database built on #SQLite now features an improved web console, API enhancements to make working with rqlite even easier, and many quality-of-life improvements under the hood. 15 Oct 2026 philipotoole.com
- Lots of new updates and improvements to rqlite, the lightweight fault tolerant database built on #sqlite. Special shout-out to @spin_lock_init for detecting a couple of potentially high-impact bugs. All fixed. 29 Sept 2026 philipotoole.com
- rqlite - the fault-tolerant database built on SQLite - v10.3 is out -- headline fix in this release is for an elusive bug found by @AntithesisHQ. The bug was super-hard to notice. Impressive work. 1 Sept 2026 philipotoole.com
Show 17 more
- Thanks to the Antithesis team for having me on the BugBash podcast to talk rqlite, distributed systems testing, and software development in the age of AI. 19 Aug 2026
- Taking control of the #sqlite WAL - a deep dive into how rqlite lifts the lid on SQLite. And a h/t to @benbjohnson whose work on Litestream showed it was possible. 14 May 2026 philipotoole.com
- Major new release of rqlite (https://t.co/hzLPmWFhl1) - the lightweight, fault-tolerate database built on SQLite - v10 out now. Includes more robust clustering, better SQLite WAL handling, and a new built-in console application for easy management. 28 Apr 2026 github.com
- rqlite, the distributed database built on SQLite. 9.0 released - major upgrade. rqlite now supports Change Data Capture, allowing you to stream database changes to other systems #sqlite #golang #distributedsystems 15 Sept 2025 philipotoole.com
- New blog post on how rqlite handles the CAP Theorem. 7 Aug 2025 philipotoole.com
- rqlite, the lightweight distributed database build on SQLite, now supporting automatic backup-and-restore to Google Cloud Storage. Improved Disaster Recovery options. 7 Jul 2025 philipotoole.com
- rqlite turns 10 this summer. 26 Jun 2025 philipotoole.com
- rqlite -- the lightweight, user-friendly distributed database built on #SQLite, Raft consensus and @golang -- rqlite 8.31 is out now with improved support for BLOB data. 24 Sept 2024
- Great video by @stephenlb on rqlite -- the lightweight distributed database built on #SQLite. 26 Aug 2024 youtube.com
- rqlite -- the lightweight, user-friendly distributed database built on @golang , Raft consensus, and SQLite -- release 8.29 is out now with more baked-in SQLite extensions, and even easier Extension management. 23 Aug 2024 github.com
- Spin up a highly-available Vector Search engine in seconds with the latest rqlite Docker image! Loading sqlite-vec is now super-easy at Docker launch. Thanks @agarcia_me 15 Aug 2024 rqlite.io
- rqlite now supports loadable SQLite extensions - check out release 8.27, and the demo of rqlite running sqlean from @ohmypy and sqlite-vec from @agarcia_me . 10 Aug 2024 philipotoole.com
- rqlite -- the lightweight, distributed database built on SQLite. Release 9.0 will be even more lightweight! Building rqlite 9.0: Cutting Disk Usage by Half: 6 Aug 2024 philipotoole.com
- Announcing Office Hours for rqlite, the lightweight distributed database built on #SQLite and #Raft. This is a great opportunity for you to ask questions or share ideas about rqlite directly with me. 3 Jun 2024 philipotoole.com
- My @GopherCon 2023 talk, Build "Your Own Distributed System Using Go", has been published to YouTube. #raft #distributedsystems @golang 13 May 2024 youtube.com
- https://t.co/op4Ryuebsv - using rqlite and #SQLite to build a highly available search engine. 25 Apr 2024
- rqlite, the lightweight distributed database built on #SQLite and #Raft, and written in #golang -- all the latest changes to the 8.23 release series. 23 Apr 2024 philipotoole.com
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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