Nandi Independent software developer, Latha Portland, Oregon AT Protocol: @nandi.uk DID: did:plc:ngokl2gnmpbvuvrfckja3g7p

12 August 2026

National Science Foundation Pathways to Enable Secure Open-Source Ecosystems (PESOSE) Program Solicitation NSF 26-506 2415 Eisenhower Avenue Alexandria, Virginia 22314

Re: Letter of collaboration — panproto open-source ecosystem Proposal of Dr. Aaron Steven White, University of Rochester, NSF 26-506

Dear Program Officers:

I am writing as a current user of panproto, the schematic version-control engine developed by Dr. Aaron Steven White, in connection with his proposal to NSF 26-506, Pathways to Enable Secure Open-Source Ecosystems (PESOSE).

Letter writer. Nandi.

Current affiliation. Independent software developer, working through Latha (latha.org), a development lab in Portland, Oregon, focused on AT Protocol tooling, schema translation, and scientific-publishing infrastructure (research.latha.org).

Relationship to the proposing team. I am not a member of the proposing team. I have no employment, appointment, consulting, or funding relationship with Dr. White or the University of Rochester. I am an independent third-party user and community contributor of panproto.

Past contribution. Since April 2026 I have used panproto to translate between schemas in my own AT Protocol work, rather than writing a one-off converter for each pair:

A bidirectional lens between Markdown tables and KaTeX, used in a custom AppView so that articles on Leaflet (leaflet.pub) can include tables.

A lens that converts LaTeX source into the Leaflet lexicon, so existing scientific documents can be published as AT Protocol records.

A tool that renders an arbitrary Personal Data Server (PDS) record as HTML using panproto, so I can inspect AT Protocol records without standing up a full AppView.

On research.latha.org, lenses between MyST Markdown and the Open Exchange Architecture (OXA) scientific-document format, using panproto (including its idiolect component). This work is released as the MIT-licensed package @nandithebull/myst-oxa, which validates OXA records against the lexicon schema via @panproto/core.

Participation in panproto’s community Discord, including discussion of extending these lenses across additional scientific document formats (with oxa.dev as a related effort).

Intent to continue contributing. If the proposal submitted by Dr. White is selected for funding by NSF, I intend to continue using panproto and contributing to the proposed open-source ecosystem as a third-party user: extending lens coverage across scientific document formats on research.latha.org, continuing to use panproto’s theory and lens DSL to translate between AT Protocol lexicons in AppViews I write, and remaining an active participant in the panproto community.

These uses are why I can speak as a current user. panproto is the engine I use for schema translation (Markdown↔KaTeX, LaTeX↔Leaflet, MyST↔OXA, PDS record→HTML). I expect to keep using it in that role.

Sincerely,

Nandi Independent software developer, Latha Portland, Oregon AT Protocol: @nandi.uk DID: did:plc:ngokl2gnmpbvuvrfckja3g7p