whoami

Oleksandr Ostrovskyi

Engineering leader who builds Rust systems, Shopify storefronts, and local-first AI tooling · 12+ years · Lviv, Ukraine.

“Rust is a perfect language for AI, because AI can easily write in complicated languages, but the Rust compiler’s strictness doesn’t let AI make mistakes.”

That’s the thesis I build around. The compiler isn’t friction — it’s a free verifier sitting between intent and behavior. When I direct an agent to implement something non-trivial in Rust, the type system and borrow checker catch the failure modes that would otherwise ship to production. The feedback loop is tighter than any test suite: wrong code doesn’t compile.

Day to day, I work as a conductor. Claude, GPT, and local models do most of the typing; I do the architecture, the taste, the “no, not like that.” The interesting skill isn’t “can you write code” anymore — it’s knowing what to build, how to decompose it, when to push back on a bad suggestion, and how to maintain enough context that a system stays coherent across hundreds of agent interactions.

I’m a learning Rustacean. AI lets me ship Rust systems I couldn’t hand-write yet — but the intent is always to close the gap, not to stay dependent. Every project is a forcing function for the next lesson.

engraph

Local vault intelligence layer for Obsidian. Rust, llama.cpp (Metal GPU), sqlite-vec, 5-lane hybrid search, MCP + HTTP server. Distributed via Homebrew.

Nexus

AI-directed Rust trading system. Event-driven architecture, AI as advisory layer only, deterministic execution. Exchange-agnostic by design.

LLMs.txt Manager

Shopify app. Visual editor for what AI agents — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity — say about a store. React Router v7, Prisma, OpenAI, Polaris.

Taxonomap

Exploring product taxonomy and AI search discoverability on Shopify.

sorta.market

Building a cross-store price aggregator on the side.

Languages
JavaScriptSenior
TypeScriptSenior
PythonExperienced
LiquidExpert
RustLearning
CBeginner
SQLExperienced
Frontend
ReactSenior
Vue / VuexIntermediate
Next.jsExperienced
TailwindCSSSenior
FigmaExperienced
Web ComponentsExperienced
SCSS / CSSSenior
Backend & Infra
Node.jsSenior
NestJSExperienced
GraphQLSenior
DockerExperienced
PostgreSQLExperienced
PrismaExperienced
AWS / Fly.ioExperienced
RedisIntermediate
Shopify Ecosystem
Shopify LiquidExpert
Shopify AppsExpert
Shopify PlusExpert
Polaris / AppBridgeSenior
AI & Machine Learning
AI-augmented devDaily use
Local LLMsIntermediate
OpenAI APIExperienced
PyTorch / MLLearning
Embedded & IoT
PlatformIOBeginner
C (embedded)Beginner
Rust (embedded)Learning
Engineering Manager · Drift.co
2024 — Present
Senior Shopify Engineer · Scentbird → Drift.co
2021 — 2024
Shopify Developer · Domaine
Jun 2022 — Present
Frontend Architect & Shopify Expert · Bounteous
2022
Shopify Technical Lead · Superco
2022
Back-end Developer · Trellis
2020 — 2021
Full Stack Engineer · Weberous
2018 — 2022
Frontend Developer · Shopping Cart Elite
2016 — 2018
Freelance Full Stack Engineer
2014 — 2022
Education
National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”
Bachelor’s in Software Engineering · 2011 — 2015

Three threads off the keyboard.

Games. Multi-platform — PC primary, also PS5, Xbox, Steam Deck. Current rotation: Arc Raiders (built partly in Rust — the thread connects), Grey Zone Warfare, Kerbal Space Program.

Flight sims. IL-2 Battle for Stalingrad on the desk, DCS aspirational. VKB joystick, Virpil throttle, PS5 VR when I want to feel something move.

Electronics. Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Started in C, moved to Rust on embedded. Tinkering, not production.