George Larson demonstrates a novel approach to AI-powered portfolio interaction by deploying an agent on a $7/month VPS using IRC as its transport layer. Visitors to his portfolio site can ask questions about his projects via an embedded IRC client. Unlike typical resume-rephrasing chatbots, Larson's system uses two distinct agents: the lightweight nullclaw on the public VPS handles basic questions and GitHub repo lookups, while the more powerful ironclaw on a separate box manages complex tasks via Google's A2A protocol.

This architecture ensures the public-facing agent has no access to private data. The public agent runs Haiku 4.5 for quick responses, costing pennies per conversation, while Sonnet 4.6 handles deeper analysis when needed, capped at $2/day to prevent abuse. IRC was chosen for its simplicity, control, and lack of vendor lock-in compared to platforms like Discord.