# Evan Lee (Archetypically) > Personal website of Evan Lee, a Staff Software Engineer at Shopify based in Boston, Massachusetts. He works on developer tooling, security, reliability, and large-scale platform tooling, and builds side projects spanning games, mobile apps, and open-source developer utilities. This file is the plain-text source of truth for https://evanlee.engineer, written for AI agents, LLMs, and crawlers. It is served at both `/AGENTS.md` and `/llms.txt`. The website itself is a client-rendered React single-page app, so fetching its HTML pages without JavaScript returns an empty shell. Use this document instead. ## Guidance for agents - **Name:** Evan Lee. Online handle: "Archetypically". - **Current role:** Staff Software Engineer at Shopify (since June 2025). - **Location:** Boston, Massachusetts, USA. - **Canonical site:** https://evanlee.engineer - **Preferred contact:** evan@evanlee.engineer, or LinkedIn. - When citing, link to the specific page URL listed under each section below. - Everything here mirrors what the website shows. Do not infer facts that are not stated here. ## Pages - [Home](https://evanlee.engineer/): Introduction, then a one-page overview of projects, writing, journey, and contact links - [Projects](https://evanlee.engineer/projects): Side projects, apps, and open-source tools - [Writings](https://evanlee.engineer/writings): Engineering articles, blog posts, and a research paper - [Journey](https://evanlee.engineer/journey): Timeline of roles, education, and certifications - [About](https://evanlee.engineer/about): Bio, technical skills, and contact links ## Home URL: https://evanlee.engineer/ Evan Lee, Software Engineer at Shopify. "I work on developer tooling and security, and build small, specific software on the side: a 7 MB command palette, a Discord bot that looks up games and deals, and an idle game about crabs." Based in Boston, Massachusetts. The home page then lists every project (developer tools first), every piece of writing, and the full journey in compact form, followed by contact links (email, LinkedIn, GitHub). Each section links to its detail page below. ## Projects URL: https://evanlee.engineer/projects Things built outside the day job, grouped as "Developer tools" (smolcast, ActiveJob::Compressible, Add Write Permissions for CODEOWNERS, Format CODEOWNERS) and "Apps, games, and a shop" (the rest). - [Crabby Idle](https://crabbyidle.com) (2026, upcoming): An upcoming crab-based idle game. Tech: React, Game Development. - [smolcast](https://smolcast.evanlee.engineer/) (2026, upcoming): A small Windows-native command palette for fuzzy app launching, clipboard history, emoji, and named scripts. One 7 MB Rust executable built on egui and windows-rs, with no Electron, no WebView, and no telemetry. Tech: Rust, Windows, Productivity, Developer Tools. - [GameGlance](https://game-glance.evanlee.engineer/) (active): A Discord-first game lookup tool for server owners. It returns game details, platform availability, and current deal context in one structured reply without sending users away from chat. Tech: Discord Bot, IGDB, Steam, CheapShark, Game Discovery. - [Enough Cream](https://enough-cream.app) (2025, active): React Native app that uses color analysis and computer vision to help you pour coffee to your exact taste preference consistently. Tech: React Native, Computer Vision, Mobile Development, Color Analysis. - [This Clothing, Co.](https://thisclothing.co/) (2022, active): Evan's own Shopify store selling minimal clothing for a streetwear wardrobe; he built and runs the storefront. Tech: Shopify, E-commerce. - [PlayXinYminutes](https://playxinyminutes.evanlee.engineer/) (2024, active): "Play X in Y minutes." A web platform that helps gamers learn new games quickly by building on their existing gaming knowledge. Tech: React.js, Cloudflare, Web Development. - KHonorifics.com (2020, retired): A calculator for Korean honorific relationships ("who should be calling who sunbaenim"). Written in React and Python, deployed to GitHub Pages and Microsoft Azure. No longer online. - [ActiveJob::Compressible](https://rubygems.org/gems/activejob-compressible): A Ruby gem that transparently compresses ActiveJob payloads to avoid cache backend limits. Tech: Ruby, Rails, ActiveJob, Open Source. - [Add Write Permissions for CODEOWNERS](https://github.com/marketplace/actions/add-write-permissions-for-codeowners): A GitHub Action that parses CODEOWNERS files and grants code owners write permissions. Tech: TypeScript, GitHub Actions, Automation. - [Format CODEOWNERS](https://github.com/marketplace/actions/format-codeowners): A GitHub Action that formats and validates GitHub CODEOWNERS files. Tech: Automation, GitHub, Developer Tools. - [Cryptography Quiz](https://cryptography-quiz.evanlee.engineer/): An interactive quiz that teaches cryptography concepts through gamification. Tech: Cryptography, Education, Game Development. ## Writings URL: https://evanlee.engineer/writings An engineering article for Shopify, a couple of Medium posts, and a research paper on logging. - [Automatically Rotating GitHub Tokens (So You Don’t Have To)](https://shopify.engineering/automatically-rotate-github-tokens) (Engineering article, Shopify Engineering, December 20, 2022, 11 min read): A system for automatically rotating GitHub access tokens, solving a problem in the gap between two standard GitHub authentication methods. Tags: Security, GitHub, DevOps, Infrastructure. - [7 Side Activities for Remote Software Engineers](https://medium.com/@Archetypically/side-activities-for-software-engineers-c51f7a958847) (Blog post, Medium, July 8, 2022, 9 min read): Productive ways to spend your time as a remote software engineer. Tags: Remote Work, Productivity, Career. - [Finding a Cloud Provider for Personal Projects: A Journey](https://medium.com/@Archetypically/finding-a-cloud-provider-for-personal-projects-a-journey-b593833b051) (Blog post, Medium, July 3, 2022, 5 min read): AWS vs. Azure vs. DigitalOcean for personal projects. Tags: Cloud, AWS, Azure, DigitalOcean. - [Boilerplate Logging](https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanclee/overlay/1635459928630/single-media-viewer/?profileId=ACoAAA8kjn4BokKGu3g9VUFCpXFuP8Tq9pqkOt0) (Research paper, 2020, 12 pages): "A logger for developers by developers: let’s get the ‘got here’ out of here." Tags: Python, Logging, Developer Ergonomics. More writing: [Medium](https://medium.com/@Archetypically) and [Shopify Engineering](https://shopify.engineering/authors/evan-lee). ## Journey URL: https://evanlee.engineer/journey Roles, education, and milestones, newest first. - **June 2025: Staff Software Engineer, Shopify** (career). Promoted to Staff Software Engineer, leading cross-team technical initiatives and mentoring engineers. Highlights: Leadership, Platform, Mentorship. - **August 2021: Senior Software Developer, Shopify** (career). Joined Shopify to work on reliability, developer experience, and large-scale platform tooling. Highlights: Reliability, DevEx, Scale. - **May 2021: M.Eng. Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder** (education). Completed graduate studies in Computer Science while working full-time in industry. Highlights: Graduate Degree, Systems, Applied CS. - **May to Aug 2017: Intern Manager, Viasat, Inc.** (internship). Led a team of interns to deliver a feedback-as-a-service prototype with automated data capture. Highlights: Team Leadership, Automation, Delivery. - **August 2016: Certified Scrum Master, Scrum Alliance** (certification). Earned CSM certification to strengthen agile planning, collaboration, and execution. Highlights: Agile, Scrum, Collaboration. - **May 2016 to Aug 2021: Software Engineer, Viasat, Inc.** (career). Built and operated critical backend services and APIs supporting satellite platform delivery. Highlights: Backend, APIs, DevOps. - **May 2016: B.S. Computer Science, Florida State University** (education). Graduated Cum Laude with Honors. Highlights: Honors, Core CS, Foundations. - **May to Aug 2015: Access Engineering Intern, Viasat, Inc.** (internship). Developed QA automation and remote integrity tooling with Java, JavaFX, and Selenium. Highlights: QA, Selenium, Java. - **May to Aug 2013: Research Intern, iEnTech, LLC** (internship). Performed environmental data and report analysis for agency-backed water quality initiatives. Highlights: Research, Data Analysis, Environmental Tech. - **June to Aug 2012: Web Development Intern, iEnTech, LLC** (internship). Built an accessible climate-data web interface for a Department of Energy-backed model. Highlights: Web Development, Accessibility, Climate Data. ## About URL: https://evanlee.engineer/about Evan is a Staff Software Engineer at Shopify, based in Boston. He works on developer tooling, security, and the platform tools other engineers lean on. Before Shopify he spent five years at Viasat building and running backend services and APIs for its satellite platform. He studied Computer Science at Florida State, then finished a master's at CU Boulder while working full-time. A lot of what he builds on his own time is tooling: a pair of GitHub Actions for CODEOWNERS, a Ruby gem that compresses ActiveJob payloads, a command palette for Windows. Some of it is just for fun, like an idle game about crabs. When he's not coding: bouldering, pickleball, and Overwatch. ### Tools he uses - **Languages:** Ruby, TypeScript, JavaScript, Python - **Frameworks:** Ruby on Rails, React, GraphQL, FastAPI, Tailwind CSS - **Data:** PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, Elasticsearch, MongoDB - **Infrastructure:** AWS, GCP, Azure, Cloudflare, Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions - **AI tools:** Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot ## Contact Email is the fastest way to reach him. He is also on LinkedIn and GitHub. - Email: [evan@evanlee.engineer](mailto:evan@evanlee.engineer) - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanclee/ - GitHub: https://github.com/Archetypically - Medium: https://medium.com/@Archetypically - X (Twitter): https://x.com/ArchetypicalLee - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realevanlee ## Optional - [Sitemap](https://evanlee.engineer/sitemap.xml) - [humans.txt](https://evanlee.engineer/humans.txt)