24.71° N, 46.68° ESince 1998Riyadh

Fahad Alshayaفهد الشايع

TECHNICAL FOUNDER · SYSTEMS ARCHITECT

I build software products and the systems behind them.

I've been writing software since 1998. I design systems, write code, run infrastructure, and build my own products. I work on them from the first idea through deployment and production.

See my workGet in touchRésumé
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Fahad Alshaya

Running in production

MailDock inbox in a dark theme, with demo conversations from fictional senders sorted by application.
Demo workspace · Demo data
MailDock

Demo workspace · Demo data

Email platformLive

MailDock

A self-hosted, multi-domain mail platform that brings mail from many products, domains and mailboxes into one workspace.

45,000+ conversations

For
Running email for many products and domains from one place
Problem
Each product needs its own domains, addresses and integrations without mixing permissions or losing mail.
My architectural focus
Cloudflare Workers inbound, SES/SMTP outbound with per-recipient delivery tracking, Rspamd and ClamAV scanning, Outlook PST migration, and seven bounded WolverineFX/RabbitMQ workers with a durable inbox/outbox.
View in work

Asset governanceLive

EyeRevo

The shared asset platform behind my games and apps. AI agents submit and retrieve content through MCP, and only approved assets ship.

~200,000 files · ~30 GB

For
AI-assisted content production across many products
Problem
AI-generated assets need human approval, and characters and assets need to be shared across games.
My architectural focus
MCP workflows for agent submissions, human review, approved-asset retrieval and cross-product reuse.
View in work
Manaqil story atlas with a map of historical places and a timeline of Saudi history.
Story atlas · Website capture
Manaqil

Story atlas · Website capture

History & storytellingLive

Manaqil

Explore Saudi history through places, timelines and stories told in sound and images.

64 shows · Launched on Saudi National Day 2026

Explore Manaqil

How it connects

One pipeline, many products. Culture, characters, assets and code are built once and reused everywhere.

  1. Manaqilcultural reference
  2. Local 3D Studiocharacters
  3. EyeRevoapproved shared assets
  4. Productsgames, Qasas, Qalam

One .NET · WolverineFX · RabbitMQ backend · Engineering standards · AgentOps · EagleEye

In development

Products I'm building now.

All work
Qanivo customer inbox with a conversation queue and an open demo support conversation.
Customer inbox · Demo data
Qanivo

Customer inbox · Demo data

CommunicationIn development

Qanivo

Messages, publishing and campaigns in one workspace, with AI assistance and people in control.

For
Teams managing communication, publishing and campaigns
Problem
Separate workflows need shared context without handing final authority to AI.
My architectural focus
Product architecture, AI workflows, integrations, identity and operations.
About the project
Qalam tablet app with the next Arabic learning activity and encouragement from a demo family.
Child learning app · Demo data
Qalam

Child learning app · Demo data

LearningIn development

Qalam

Arabic reading and handwriting practice for children, with family encouragement and a parent view of progress.

For
Saudi families and Grades 1–3 learners
Problem
Literacy practice needs to connect handwriting, progress and parent-guided motivation.
My architectural focus
Parent and child experiences, handwriting evaluation, missions and learning progress.
View in work
Qasas Creator Studio with its story creation tools in a synthetic family workspace.
Creator Studio · Demo data
Qasas

Creator Studio · Demo data

Family storytellingIn development

Qasas

A private studio for family stories, recurring characters and illustrated books, with adult-approved viewing for children.

For
Families creating stories for children
Problem
Adult approval and family isolation must protect the child-facing experience.
My architectural focus
Creator and child flows, reusable assets, approval state and asynchronous media jobs.
About the project
Niosk operator portal overview with fleet status, offline kiosks, publishing readiness and visitor activity for a demo tenant.
Operator overview · Demo data
Niosk

Operator overview · Demo data

Kiosks & devicesIn development

Niosk

Guided public services on unattended kiosks, designed to keep working when the network drops.

For
Operators of unattended public-facing kiosks
Problem
Devices must keep working when the network or a nearby person cannot be relied on.
My architectural focus
Edge runtime, synchronization, device management, diagnostics and telemetry.
About the project
Cartostead dashboard with demo spatial workspaces, published layers and background jobs.
Publication dashboard · Demo data
Cartostead

Publication dashboard · Demo data

Maps & spatial dataBuilt

Cartostead

Publish spatial datasets, manage access and serve maps from one place. Implements WMS, WFS, WMTS and OGC API – Features in .NET with GDAL.

For
Teams publishing geospatial datasets
Problem
Data quality, jobs, permissions and serving need one coherent lifecycle.
My architectural focus
Spatial publication, validation, permissions, jobs and map/vector/tile delivery.
About the project
More products and shared tooling

I still like building things myself

I founded Botas IT in 2008. Since then I’ve built web and mobile apps, identity systems, infrastructure and business software.

I’ve led teams and infrastructure work while staying hands-on. Today I build my own products and run the systems behind them.

I work from product decisions through architecture, code, deployment and support.

Beyond software, I run a private cloud and work with 3D printing and fabrication.

The full career story
since 1998
my homelab
3D printing
  1. 1998Started building software
  2. 2008–2020Founder, Botas IT
  3. 2021–2022IT Infrastructure LeadPrisoners Care Committee
  4. 2022–2025Development leadership, NeoSpace
  5. NowProducts, code & infrastructure

How I work

I try to keep the process simple: understand the problem, design the system, build it, and make sure it works properly in production.

AI in development

I use AI agents to research, plan, write code, review changes and test, under standards I wrote. I don't trust the output blindly; gates and review check it.

Research · Planning · Coding · Review

Identity & Security

I build authentication and authorization using OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, passkeys and related standards.

Security is part of the design, not something added later.

OAuth 2.0 · OIDC · FIDO2 · Passkeys

Engineering standards

Four standards (architecture, delivery operations, coding conventions and documentation) govern how my AI coding agents work: pull requests to a protected master, quality gates, architecture tests and human review.

Standards · AI agents · Quality gates · Review

Tools I use

Tools I use regularly. The stack depends on the product.

Languages & application development

  • .NET
  • C#
  • Next.js
  • React
  • TypeScript

Databases, storage & messaging

  • PostgreSQL
  • RabbitMQ
  • Wolverine

Cloud & infrastructure

  • Docker
  • Kubernetes
  • Proxmox

Identity & secrets

  • Authentik

Source control, CI/CD & code quality

  • Git
  • Gitea

Development & AI tools

  • Codex CLI
  • Claude Code
Everything else I work with

Languages & application development

  • Go
  • Vite
  • JavaScript
  • Flutter
  • Unity

Databases, storage & messaging

  • PostGIS
  • MySQL
  • MongoDB
  • Redis
  • SQL Server
  • MinIO
  • RustFS

Cloud & infrastructure

  • Azure
  • Cloudflare
  • Terraform
  • Traefik
  • Nginx
  • OPNsense
  • Linux
  • Windows

Identity & secrets

  • OpenBao
  • HashiCorp Vault

Source control, CI/CD & code quality

  • GitHub
  • GitLab
  • pnpm
  • Azure DevOps
  • SonarQube

Observability & analytics

  • Grafana
  • Prometheus
  • Loki
  • Matomo
  • GA4

Automation

  • n8n

Development & AI tools

  • Grok CLI
  • OpenCode
  • Cursor

Say hi

Working on a product, an internal system or a tricky technical problem? Or just want to say hello? Drop me a few lines.

Open to architecture leadership roles in Riyadh, Dubai or remote, plus advisory work and product collaborations.

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