Matt Layher
Software Engineer at planetscale
Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States
Summary
🤩
RockstarMatt Layher is a software engineer with 13 years of experience in Go, systems programming, Linux networking and embedded IoT, based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is a prolific open-source contributor across projects from the Go toolchain and Prometheus to WireGuard/Tailscale and maintains appliance-focused work like router7 and gokrazy. His expertise spans low-level kernel interfaces (netlink, AF_VSOCK, ioctl), networking protocols (DHCP, DNS, WireGuard) and production reliability features such as hardware watchdog integration. He often focuses on correctness and maintainability—fixing static-analysis issues, handling multipart netlink messages and closed-file-descriptor edge cases, and adding things like Vmsplice support. That combination of systems-level depth and pragmatic engineering shows in both small-home-router projects and in contributions to widely used core infrastructure.
13 years of coding experience
Github Skills (102)
python10
testing10
http10
databases10
bpf10
refactor10
wireguard10
system10
dns10
network-protocol10
netlink10
dhcp10
embedded10
refactoring10
sftp10
Programming languages (14)
Github contributions (5)
mdlayher/netlink
Dec 2016 - Dec 2022
Package netlink provides low-level access to Linux netlink sockets (AF_NETLINK). MIT Licensed.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:18 releases, 12 reviews, 394 commits in 6 years
Contributions summary:Matt primarily contributed to low-level networking code within the `mdlayher/netlink` repository. Their work involved modifications to the `conn_linux` package, including adjustments to how netlink family types were handled and error messages were produced. The user's commits also added support for multi-part netlink messages and improved the reliability of the code by handling edge cases with closed file descriptors. These changes involved direct interaction with the system calls necessary to interact with the Linux kernel's netlink subsystem.
golanglicensedlinuxnetlinknetlink-sockets
digitalocean/go-qemu
Apr 2016 - Nov 2016
Go packages to interact with QEMU using the QEMU Machine Protocol (QMP). Apache 2.0 Licensed.
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:180 commits, 120 PRs, 121 pushes in 7 months
Contributions summary:Matt primarily focused on implementing features related to QEMU Machine Protocol (QMP) communication within the `go-qemu` project. They added a socket monitor for native QMP interaction, introducing `socket.go` and related test files. Additionally, the user made structural changes, including the introduction of a `Driver` interface and refactoring the `Hypervisor` structure, demonstrating a focus on modularity and improving the interaction with QEMU instances.
golanglicensedlibvirtqemuapache
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