I like building things, breaking things, understanding why they broke, and then pretending the first part was intentional.

I'm a software engineer who enjoys working across the stack — from frontend interfaces and APIs to databases, infrastructure, developer tooling, and distributed systems.

Currently, I'm spending more time going deeper rather than wider: understanding how large production systems actually work, improving my backend and system-design skills, and getting seriously involved in open source.

I don't just want to use the tools. I want to understand how the tools are built.

• 🔨 Full-stack developer with a strong interest in backend engineering and system design
• 🧠 Currently exploring Go, distributed systems, infrastructure, AI tooling, and large-scale open source projects
• 🐧 Prefer Linux, terminals, self-hosted tools, and open source software whenever there's a good option
• 🧩 I enjoy understanding systems from the inside instead of treating them like black boxes
• 🔐 Interested in secure coding, authentication, authorization, APIs, databases, and application security
• 🛠️ I like building things that are useful enough to make me forget how much time I spent building them
• 🌱 Actively getting involved with open source contribution and large production codebases
• ☕ Powered by coffee, curiosity, and an unreasonable number of terminal tabs

Currently working as a software developer while continuing to sharpen my engineering fundamentals and contribute to projects outside of my day-to-day work.

My older portfolio is available at:

mahaveer1013.vercel.app

Some parts of it are from an earlier stage of my career, so consider it a historical artifact. 😄

I don't believe in having a single "main stack".

I like learning the tool that fits the problem.

Also worked with: React Native, Expo, TanStack Query, Zustand, React Router.

Also worked with: Chi, REST APIs, WebSockets, JWT, RBAC.

Also worked with: Sequelize, SQLAlchemy, Firebase.

Also worked with: Docker Compose, Caddy, Tailscale, Lima, Multipass, UTM, VMware, systemd, cron.

Also exploring: WebSockets, background jobs, event-driven systems, queues, and distributed architectures.

Also part of my daily toolbox: GitHub CLI, GitLab, Cursor, Claude, OpenCode, Postman, DBeaver, Docker CLI.

This is probably the part of software development I'm most excited about right now.

I genuinely prefer using open source software whenever it makes sense.

Not just because it's free.

I like being able to:

use → inspect → understand → modify → contribute

There's something very different about opening the source code of a tool you depend on and realizing:

"Wait... someone actually had to build all of this."

And that's exactly what I want to learn.

• 🐘 Supabase — Postgres, auth, APIs and the ecosystem around it
• 🦊 GitLab — large-scale Ruby on Rails codebase and the engineering behind GitLab
• 🎯 Rundeck — automation and job orchestration
• 🔐 Keycloak — identity and access management
• 🧠 OpenCode — open-source AI coding workflows
• 🦞 OpenClaw — AI agents and automation
• 🤖 Hermes — open-source AI/agent tooling
• 🦙 Ollama — running and experimenting with local LLMs
• 🐳 Docker — because apparently one container is never enough
• 🐧 Linux — the operating system I keep coming back to
• 🌐 PostgreSQL — increasingly one of my favorite pieces of infrastructure

I'm particularly interested in contributing to large, mature projects where I can learn how real engineering teams handle:

Issue
  ↓
Discussion
  ↓
Design
  ↓
Implementation
  ↓
Tests
  ↓
Code Review
  ↓
CI
  ↓
Merge
  ↓
Release
  ↓
Production

Because writing the code is only one part of engineering.

My current interests are moving toward:

Building APIs and services that are:

• secure by default
• observable
• testable
• maintainable
• horizontally scalable

Going deeper into:

• distributed systems
• caching
• queues
• event-driven architecture
• database design
• consistency
• fault tolerance
• service boundaries

Learning how large projects are actually developed:

• navigating unfamiliar codebases
• understanding architectural decisions
• fixing issues
• writing tests
• reviewing code
• participating in technical discussions
• eventually owning larger pieces of functionality

I'm particularly interested in the intersection of:

AI
+
Open Source
+
Developer Tools
+
Local Models
+
Automation

I'm experimenting with local LLMs, AI coding tools, agents, and self-hosted infrastructure because I want to understand what's happening under the abstraction, not just press a button and hope it works.

Somewhere between a useful project and a questionable experiment.

Web Applications
        ↓
APIs
        ↓
Authentication
        ↓
Databases
        ↓
Queues / Events
        ↓
Containers
        ↓
Infrastructure
        ↓
"Can I run this locally?"
        ↓
"Can I automate this?"
        ↓
"Can I open source this?"

I've worked on projects involving:

• SaaS applications
• authentication & authorization
• HR / attendance systems
• OCR & document verification
• automation platforms
• developer tooling
• local AI infrastructure
• database-backed applications
• APIs and real-time systems

I try to keep things simple:

Find something interesting
        ↓
Use it
        ↓
Break it
        ↓
Read the source
        ↓
Understand the architecture
        ↓
Build something similar
        ↓
Contribute upstream
        ↓
Repeat

I don't want to just collect technologies.

I want to understand why they exist, what problems they solve, and where they fall apart.

Full Stack Development
        │
        ├── Backend Engineering
        │       ├── Go
        │       ├── APIs
        │       ├── PostgreSQL
        │       └── Distributed Systems
        │
        ├── Infrastructure
        │       ├── Linux
        │       ├── Docker
        │       ├── Networking
        │       └── Automation
        │
        ├── Security
        │       ├── Authentication
        │       ├── Authorization
        │       └── Secure Coding
        │
        ├── Open Source
        │       ├── Contributions
        │       ├── Code Review
        │       └── Large Codebases
        │
        └── AI Engineering
                ├── Local LLMs
                ├── Agents
                ├── Developer Tools
                └── Automation

The goal isn't to know everything.

It's to become the person who can look at an unfamiliar system and say:

"Give me some time. I'll figure it out."

I'm always interested in:

• Open source projects
• Backend engineering
• System design
• Developer tooling
• AI infrastructure
• Security
• Interesting technical problems
• Contributions that involve actually learning something

If you're working on something interesting, feel free to reach out.

GitHub: @Mahaveer1013

Portfolio: mahaveer1013.vercel.app

I write code.

I read code.

I review code.

Sometimes I even understand code.

And occasionally...

I fix the bug I introduced five minutes ago.

$ git status

nothing to commit, working tree clean

              ↑
        suspicious...

_{Built with curiosity, open source, and an lovely relationship with terminals.}