Stream: show and tell

Topic: Vibe Coding at the Gym - Pi Spigot in Roc (on 6502 (on SQL))

Zak Kohler (Oct 28 2026 at 14:15):

I know some of us here at least claim we don't vibe code while at the gym, but that got me thinking....."Are there any use cases for that?"

Steve Howell said:

Yeah, nobody here is vibe coding. I didn't say "Hey Claude, write me a unikernel while I go to the gym."

I'd like to present Pi Spigot in Roc, compiled to 6502 instruction set, running on a emulator written in pure SQL statements. You might be asking yourself "is this a joke or is it real?" Well, yes it is a joke, but it is also real, and it was really done completely while I was at the gym this morning.

https://github.com/y2kbugger/roc-on-6502

rocpispigot.webm

How it works

apps/pi.roc ──roc──▶ LLVM bitcode (wasm32) ──retarget──▶ 6502 IR
            ──llvm-mos clang + platform/host.c──▶ 5 KB 6502 image
            ──mksql.py──▶ pi.sql ──sqlite3──▶ π

I have also commited the build output pi.sql, so you can just run the sql without needing the build chain:

sqlite3 < pi.sql

My favorite part is that loading the rom is just inserting into the memory table.

Oh and yes, this is also a unikernel design, I couldn't seem to fit linux.

The 6502 sql cpu is based on my previous work https://blog.y2kbugger.com/lc3-sql.html, which was, ahem, started in the pre-LLM days.

Steve Howell (Oct 28 2026 at 14:27):

I've done similarly twisted things in the past, but I don't think I've ever seen a SQL-based VM!

Zak Kohler (Oct 28 2026 at 14:33):

Part of me really misses the days when something this twisted used to stand as a monument of effort and dedication to the Art of Computer Blasphemy. LLMs have made it feel like 3D printing, cool but cheap and anyone could do it. This is actually what led me to do fourneau, you don't need to abandon LLMs and live in the past; instead just set your goals much much higher.

Last updated: Nov 04 2026 at 18:54 UTC