Joel Christner

Joel Christner

Chief Technology Officer, Architect, Open Source Developer

I build infrastructure software and developer tools, with deep expertise in distributed systems, messaging and networking, artificial intelligence, data storage and retrieval, and cloud-native architectures. MS Computer Science from Columbia University. .NET Foundation member with 13M+ package downloads. BJJ black belt. Based in California.

Open Source

13M+
NuGet Downloads
176
Packages
120+
Repositories
2K+
GitHub Stars

Embeddable async RESTful HTTP/HTTPS server for .NET with HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, OpenAPI, and WebSocket support.

C# .NET Foundation HTTP

High-adoption .NET Foundation TCP client/server library with message framing, SSL/TLS, sync/async APIs, and fast disconnect detection.

C# .NET Foundation TCP

Simple, fast WebSocket server and client library for .NET, with a large installed base now folding into WatsonWebserver.

C# WebSocket Real-time

Property graph database with JSON data, relationships, vectors, REST, dashboard, SDKs, and Model Context Protocol integration.

C# Graph Database MCP

S3-compatible object storage server for local, private-cloud, test, and controlled-placement storage deployments.

C# S3 Object Storage

Thread-safe tenant-aware ledgering library for auditable debit/credit workflows, pending entries, commits, and SQL-backed deployments.

C# Ledger Finance

Light, fast library for breaking text, documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, and images into atoms for analysis and AI pipelines.

C# Document Processing AI

Reverse proxy and API gateway for .NET with routing, failover, rate limits, custom auth, and embeddable or standalone deployment.

C# Proxy API Gateway

Self-hosted RAG platform for document-grounded AI assistants, vector embeddings, hybrid search, crawlers, tools, and dashboards.

C# RAG AI

RAG persistence and retrieval layer for embeddings, source content, metadata, hashes, multi-tenant filtering, and hybrid search.

C# RAG Vector Search

Multi-tenant platform for turning text, tables, images, code, and other semantic cells into chunks, summaries, and embeddings.

C# Embeddings Chunking

Model-runner virtualization platform for OpenAI, vLLM, Gemini, and Ollama APIs with tenant isolation and load balancing.

C# AI Orchestration LLM

Workflow automation and dataflow platform with tenant-scoped flows, distributed workers, artifact runtimes, OpenAPI, MCP, and dashboard.

C# Workflow MCP

JSON document store with automatic schema detection, SQL-like queries, indexing, REST APIs, and multiple SQL backends.

C# Document DB JSON

High-performance inverted index and full-text search library with standalone server, REST API, dashboard, scoring, and CLI tooling.

C# Search Indexing

Lightweight .NET implementation of JSON-RPC 2.0, MCP, and A2A protocols with TCP, stdio, HTTP, and WebSocket transports.

C# MCP A2A

Embed local AI models in .NET applications or expose Ollama/OpenAI-compatible inference and embeddings endpoints.

C# AI/ML Local AI

Local-first chat server and dashboard for Ollama, OpenAI, and compatible model runners with tenants, history, feedback, and admin tooling.

C# AI Chat Dashboard

Cross-platform terminal profile manager for launching grouped tab workspaces with per-tab shells, scripts, fonts, and color schemes.

C# Terminal Productivity

Load balancer and model orchestration system for Ollama and OpenAI-compatible infrastructure, superseded by Conductor.

C# AI Load Balancer

FastAPI-like C# API framework now integrated into WatsonWebserver, adding routing, middleware, health checks, and OpenAPI ergonomics.

C# Web API REST

Workload placement and virtualization platform for exactly-one resource ownership patterns in distributed systems.

C# Distributed Placement

Publications & Patents

Deploying Cisco Wide Area Application Services

Cisco Press, 2008 & 2010 (2nd Edition)

Application Acceleration and WAN Optimization Fundamentals

Cisco Press, 2007

Storage Networking Protocol Fundamentals

Cisco Press, 2006 (Editor & Contributor)

Patents

Dozens of patents filed and issued in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data management, distributed systems, compression, serverless computing, and cloud-native architectures.

View patents and citations on Google Scholar →

Industry Leadership

Dell Technologies

Senior Distinguished Engineer

Office of the CTO, previously leading research on AI, data management, next generation storage, and distributed systems. Currently helping modernize one of the world's largest technology companies with AI.

Cisco Systems

Technical Leader

Cross-product architecture for WAN optimization, application acceleration, and data center switching platforms.

Startups

Multiple Startups & Exits

Leadership in multiple ventures acquired by Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Sysco Foods, Rocket Lawyer, and McAfee.

2023 - Present

.NET Foundation Member

Repository and package owner, author, and contributor for the .NET open source ecosystem.

2022 - 2024

SNIA DNA Data Storage Alliance

Chair of Standard CODECs and Rosetta Stone working groups. Authored the first two standards on DNA data storage.