EngineeringRustMobile
Virya Signal is one app with two trust boundaries
Fans and staff share one mobile shell. Their credentials, permissions and failure modes deliberately do not.
Wojciech Bator
Engineering Notes
Engineering Notes
I write down what I built, what broke, what I measured and what I changed. Mostly Rust, distributed systems, performance and automation.
EngineeringRustDistributed Systems
A retry is not the same as a reissue
Replaying a webhook looked safe until retention had already removed the token that made the event useful.
EngineeringRustSecurity
Proof of fair without putting the product on a blockchain
The draw stays local and deterministic. Rekor only proves that a public commitment existed at a specific time.
EngineeringAutomationAPIs
A concert announcement should not be copied five times
One new concert used to mean Bandsintown, Facebook, email, reminders and several opportunities to forget one of them.
EngineeringAutomationAPIs
Discord stopped being a special node
A convenient integration node became one more hidden dependency, so I replaced it with plain HTTP.
EngineeringRustArchitecture
A QR code is not a ticket
Generating a square image was easy. Proving who may enter, exactly once, was the actual ticketing system.
EngineeringSecurityAutomation
Nineteen workflows and no front door
The event branches were ready. Nothing verified, accepted or routed the events that were supposed to reach them.
EngineeringRustArchitecture
How a referral link grew into CrowdRelay
I wanted a useful backend for independent artists. A smart link grew into campaigns, rewards, concerts, tickets and QR check-ins.
EngineeringRustArchitecture
Weighted draws and the awkward question: why did this person win?
More referrals should mean a better chance, but a draw is only fair when I can explain exactly what went into it.
EngineeringRustArchitecture
A referral counter is never just a counter
I began with counter++. Then I tried to explain where the number came from.
EngineeringAPIsAutomation
The Meta API was connected. Nothing worked.
OAuth was green, the credentials were valid and external profiles still returned nothing. Welcome to integrations.
EngineeringWebArchitecture
VIRYA AREA — a browser game played in the real world
I wanted people to walk into a Virya experience, not just open another subpage.
EngineeringAIArchitecture
AI in the band? Yes, but it doesn't get the keys
AI helps me read, classify and write. It does not run the band or press Send on its own.
EngineeringAutomationAI
Automating outreach without becoming a spam machine
The machine can prepare a good message. A person still decides whether it deserves to be sent.
EngineeringAutomationData
Why Google Sheets stayed
My backend instinct wanted PostgreSQL and an admin panel. The band wanted a table it could actually edit.
EngineeringDevOpsAutomation
Self-hosting n8n — the VM was the cheap part
Caddy, n8n and PostgreSQL fit on one small VM. Owning the recovery path was the expensive part.
EngineeringAutomationAI
How I stopped running Virya from memory
The band already had Sheets, Gmail, Drive and Discord. What it lacked was one process between them.
EngineeringWebAI
Ask my CV — the smallest useful AI assistant
My CV fits in one prompt, so I resisted the heroic urge to build a knowledge platform around it.
EngineeringWebPerformance
Goodbye Gatsby, hello Astro
I moved two mostly static sites and gained the most by deleting JavaScript they never needed.
EngineeringRust
RabbitMQ without Actix — simpler, faster and finally quiet at night
I replaced an actor-heavy generated client with plain Tokio, bounded workers and batched confirms — then measured it in production.
EngineeringWebPerformance
How a band website became a small platform
It began as a fast place for music and concerts. Then I kept adding the things an independent band actually needs.
EngineeringRustRedis
Redis 8 was not the whole optimisation
The upgrade helped, but the real gain came from storing less, batching more and deleting requests.
MusicBands
Refaktor — my new two-man band
A few words about the new project I've joined
MusicBands
Virya
A modern metal band fusing metalcore with unexpected influences
MusicInstrumental
Singularity
Humanity reaching for the edge of what's possible
MusicSolo
The Nightingale — my solo debut
How I cut my way through the jungle as a solo artist and producer
SupportMusic
Patronite — for patrons of the arts
The platform where you can back artists directly
SupportMusic
A few words on Bandcamp
The platform where you can support me by buying the music
Gear
Lootnick Singularity — the axe
The long-awaited Lootnick Singularity guitar is finally here
CollaborationMusic
Scoring for Arkham Radio
Writing the music and sound design for radio plays
Gear
A new tool in the armory
The armory has been getting busy lately with new toys and gear
Career
An artist's résumé
I'm Wojciech Bator — but you probably knew that already. Want a few facts?
No notes match that search.