joseferben

  Location: Switzerland
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: No
  Technologies: LLMs (Anthropic, OpenAI), TypeScript, Bun, React, Remix, Next, Node, Django, Python, Tailwind, SQLite, OCaml, Nix
  Résumé/CV: https://joseferben.com/resume.en.pdf
  Email: [email protected]
  Github: https://github.com/joseferben
  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseferben

I have 10+ years of experience as an engineer and 2+ years as CTO. Over the past 2 years I've been shipping agents/LLM-based flows to production using Typescript, React, Bun/Node, Django and Python. I thrive in small and highly autonomous teams with a strong focus on product and go-to-market.

I run my own LLC and I'm open to contract work.

  Location: Switzerland
  Remote: Yes (hybrid or on-site for a good fit)
  Willing to relocate: If it's a a good fit
  Technologies: LLMs (Anthropic, OpenAI), TypeScript, Bun, React, Remix, Next, Node, Django, Python, Tailwind, SQLite, OCaml, Nix
  Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josef-erben-90a002b1/
  Email: [email protected]
  Blog: https://www.joseferben.com/
  Github: https://github.com/joseferben

I have 10+ years of experience as an engineer and 2+ years as CTO. Over the past 2 years I've been shipping agents/LLM-based flows to production using Typescript, React, Bun/Node, Django and Python.

I thrive in small and highly autonomous teams with a strong focus on product and go-to-market.

If you're looking to switch from foundation models to smaller custom models for faster & cheaper inference, I have experience with fine-tuning and reinforcement learning.

I run my own LLC and I'm open to contract work.

  Location: Switzerland
  Remote: Yes (hybrid or on-site for a good fit)
  Willing to relocate: If it's a a good fit
  Technologies: LLMs, TypeScript, Bun, React, Remix, Next, Node, Django, Python, Tailwind, SQLite, OCaml, Nix
  Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josef-erben-90a002b1/
  Email: [email protected]
  Blog: https://www.joseferben.com/
  Github: https://github.com/joseferben

I am currently bootstrapping a product but I am open for employment if it's a great fit. I have over 10 years of experience as engineer and founder. As an engineer I've worked in finance, research (economics & health care), education, real estate, marketing and dev infra.

Recently, I’ve been using Typescript, React, Bun/Node, Django and Python to build web apps and agentic workflows on top of foundation models. I have some experience with fine-tuning and with reinforcement learning, so I’m also interested in work that is closer to research.

I have my own LLC and I am also open to contract work.

If you want to drive Claude Code or OpenAI Codex with code comments this is for you. Make sure to set up a good check command that takes files as arguments, such as eslint. The agent fixes issues in the changed files first, making the feedback loop tight.

the quality of the lib and the docs is really high, kinda crazy you just launched!

congrats on the launch! better-auth is a joy to use. great dx with the type-safe plugin system.

for me i figured out it’s about the body. it’s ok to be lifted up from the body into the thinking mind but i “owe” my body to spend some time there as well.

sometimes all it takes is sitting 20min in the morning just observing sensations in my body, and saying good morning to various organs haha. sounds silly but creates a solid foundation for my day.

for example:

imo it's easier to spot the authn/authz issue here

export default function handler( req: NextApiRequest, res: NextApiResponse<ResponseData> ) { // updating user details without authn/authz }

than here

"use server"

export async function updateUser(email: string, age: number) { // updating user details without authn/authz }

without having read any next docs. engineers got trained to consider authn/authz the moment they see "http route/endpoint", maybe being more explicit about what happens in the api would help?

or next could provide an authn api for server actions that authn providers would implement?

> layout, "server-only", accidentally bundling server code

the main issue i wanted to highlight is that things are not caught at type-check time. maybe vercel could provide eslint plugins? this could codify a lot of the caveats

> There's no way to get around thinking about AuthN/Z with any server APIs

very true! maybe there is a way to make the default secure somehow by making it awkward to publicly expose a POST route by accident. awesome that next.js 15 is doing things in that regard.

thanks for addressing the points leerob, shows the great governance mentioned in the end of the post :)

after building 5 apps with next.js 14 this is our review.

tl;dr

- Next.js 14 is fast, but App Router caveats increase cognitive load

- Server Actions are awesome, once secured

- Everyone is using Next.js, this is its greatest strength

- Vercel as hosting platform is a joy to use and they save us tons of time

while working on a few slack apps and llm agents i couldn't help but notice how chat platforms like slack could be to agents what message brokers (kafka, rabbitmq, sqs) are to services.

what do you think?

excellent points