Brian Skyberg

Stories and software

Some of the things I make are stories: small-town mysteries for middle school readers, a near-future thriller for adults, and coloring books for kids who would rather color their way through an adventure. Others are software, built around needs I care about in search and rescue, in the classroom and at home.

They look like very different kinds of work. What connects them is curiosity, creativity and problem-solving: wanting to understand how something works, finding a problem worth solving, or imagining a world worth exploring, and then building it carefully enough that someone else can use it, read it or enjoy it.

How I build

Every application starts with a real problem. My part is figuring out what the software should actually do: who it's for, how it needs to behave in the real situations where it will be used, which workflows matter, what the screens should look like, and how the whole system should fit together.

From there, I build with advanced AI coding agents, and I'm open about that. I write the requirements, plan the architecture and user experience, and direct the implementation through detailed technical instructions. Then I review what was built, test it, track down what's broken or awkward, and send it back for another round, as many rounds as it takes.

AI writes much of the code. The ideas, the decisions about what to build and what to leave out, the testing, and the responsibility for whether it works stay with me. Modern AI development tools are what let one person turn this many ideas into working software.

Experience that shapes my work

I'm a United States Air Force veteran and a search-and-rescue volunteer. I've taken part in real search operations, served in SAR leadership, including a command leadership role, and used drones to support search efforts. I'm also an FAA Part 107 certificated remote pilot.

That experience directly informs SAR Vision, which helps operators review drone video, and SAR Command, which helps keep a search organized at the command post. Both are my own independent projects; neither is an official product of, or endorsed by, any agency. In the same way, an interest in education shapes the classroom tools I build, and an interest in artificial intelligence, and in how much we trust it, runs through The Surrender Protocol.

Beyond the screen

Away from the keyboard, I like being outdoors: hiking, camping and exploring national parks. Photography goes hand in hand with all of it, from the ground and, where the rules allow, from the air with a drone.

One person, independently

Every book and application on this site is my own independent project. There's no studio or development company behind them. I set each project's direction and requirements, use AI-assisted tools to help build it, and review, test and refine the results myself.

I usually have several projects moving at once (a manuscript in revision, an app in testing, another still being planned), so they're at very different stages. Some are finished, some are still in development, and each page says honestly which is which.