Backend engineering
PHP, Symfony, Doctrine, SQL, APIs and maintainable service boundaries.
Porto, Portugal · online since 2015
Software, systems and things I publish.
This is my home on the web: software I build and maintain, open-source work, technical notes, talks, books and a small amount of freelance work.
PHP · Symfony · SQL · Linux
Products · infrastructure · research
Open source · talks · books
Product delivery
Requirements, architecture, implementation, documentation and stakeholder communication.
Open systems
ActivityPub, interoperability, accessibility and contributor mentoring.
Linux operations
Nginx, Docker, databases, backups, monitoring and recovery.
About
A little about how I work.
I am a software engineer and computer scientist from Porto. Most of my work sits around backend systems, open source, Linux infrastructure and applied research.
I enjoy taking a problem that is still a little vague, making the trade-offs explicit and leaving behind software that another person can understand and operate. PHP, Symfony, SQL and Linux are the tools I know most deeply, but the common thread is careful engineering rather than a particular stack.
My longer record includes GNU social, internal operational tools, self-hosted services, dependable and spatial systems, teaching, technical writing and a few independent products.
Own the whole problem
Move from unclear requirements to explicit trade-offs, implementation, documentation and an operable result.
Write decisions down
Make architecture, assumptions and risks visible so the work remains understandable after handover.
Build for operation
Treat deployment, backups, monitoring, accessibility and recovery as part of the product.
Share useful knowledge
Use documentation, mentoring and talks to make the next change easier for someone else.
Selected work
A few things I have worked on.
Open-source software, internal tools and the infrastructure needed to keep them useful.
Lead Software Engineer · 2019-2022
GNU social v3
I led work on the EU-funded PHP/Symfony platform: architecture, ActivityPub, accessibility, releases, documentation and contributor mentoring.
Read the case study
Dependable systems
Aerospace software
On-board data handling and software-team supervision in contexts where reliability, coordination and clear interfaces matter.
See related systems work
Field robotics
Ocean operations
Docking, target tracking and field-oriented software for an autonomous surface vehicle at FEUP/LSTS.
See the project archive
Research engineering
Machine perception
Research infrastructure around parametric human-body models, reproducible experiments and reporting at INESC TEC.
See the project archive
Independent product · Public beta
MinuteArc
A focused weekly time and task tracker with goals, reports, exports and team workspaces. I am building it as a small practical product, not just a demo.
Open MinuteArcFrom the logbook
Recent notes.
Longer technical write-ups and the occasional note from outside software.
Introduction to Git: Mastering Version Control
The written version of a one-hour Git workshop for PhD students, researchers and developers.
Dependable Computing: How to Build Systems That Can Be Trusted
Notes on faults, timing, redundancy, safe modes, observability and the discipline behind dependable systems.
Getting to know the Casa da Música
A short portfolio of reflections written for the Music and Society course at the University of Porto.
The longer record
The full archive stays public.
Projects, small apps, FOSS contributions, talks, writing and the CV each keep their own place.