Writing

Encore Shao

Full-stack Engineer & AI Researcher

Full-stack engineer at Ekohe since 2011. I build AI-powered systems — LLM-integrated products, agentic workflows, and the data infrastructure that keeps them reliable. Open source author with a bias for shipping things that actually get used.

GitHub LinkedIn icmoc.com

AI & Agents

LLMAI AgentsMCPRAGpgvectorMulti-Agent

Engineering

Ruby on RailsPythonPostgreSQLRedisSidekiqREST API

Data & Analysis

Data PipelineData QualityETLAnalytics

11 articles

2 languages

10+ years shipping

5+ open source libs

Shanghai, China

Projects

Things I built and still maintain

bamboohr-mcp MCP · TypeScript

MCP server wrapping BambooHR's API — lets any LLM query HR data in natural language.

Bookmark Dashboard Chrome · AI

Chrome extension that replaces new tab with an AI-powered full-featured bookmark manager.

RanBOT AI Agents · Product

Multi-agent automation platform. Define workflows in natural language, let agents handle execution.

china_regions Ruby · Open Source

Rails engine providing province/city/district models pre-loaded with official CN region data.

Thoughts on engineering, AI, and shipping software

2026

Jun 2026 RailsProduct ~8 min read

More Than a Decade Building a VC Intelligence Platform

What it actually takes to build a venture capital intelligence platform — data quality problems, 30+ integrations, and the infrastructure that makes it run at 3am.

Jun 2026 PostgreSQLInfrastructure ~4 min read

Setting Up PostgreSQL 10 Streaming Replication the Hard Way

What it actually takes to get Postgres streaming replication working between two local VMs — without skipping the parts that matter.

Jun 2026 Open SourceAPI ~4 min read

Building github-trending: From a Cron Script to a React App

I wanted to track what was rising on GitHub each week without manually scrolling. A Node.js script became a full React app — here's what that journey looked like.

Jun 2026 AIMCP ~4 min read

Building bamboohr-mcp: An MCP Server for HR APIs

I wanted to let any LLM talk to BambooHR's API. Three days later I had a production MCP server in TypeScript. Here's exactly what I built and what surprised me along the way.

May 2026 RubyOpen Source ~4 min read

china_regions: Lessons from a Ruby Gem

What I learned shipping a Ruby library for Chinese administrative regions — and why documentation matters more than the code itself.

Apr 2026 AIChrome ~4 min read

AI-Powered Bookmark Dashboard: A Chrome Extension Story

Replacing the new tab page with something actually useful — how I built a bookmark dashboard powered by agentic AI, and what I'd do differently.

Mar 2026 AIAgents ~5 min read

Agentic AI in Production: What I Learned Building RanBOT

Autonomous workflows sound great until they hit the real world. Twelve months of running agentic systems in production, and the lessons I keep coming back to.

2025

Dec 2025 RubyRails ~4 min read

10 Years of Rails: What I Still Reach For Every Day

Not a framework review. A personal account of which Rails patterns aged well, which didn't, and what I've built that I'm still proud of.

Oct 2025 AIProduct ~4 min read

Building TrendShop: When AI Meets Fashion Discovery

How we built a social fashion platform powered by AI recommendation — what worked, what the users actually wanted, and the pivot we almost didn't make.

Sep 2025 RubyOpen Source ~4 min read

Building a Ruby Wrapper for the Crunchbase API

What I learned wrapping a third-party API in idiomatic Ruby — rate limits, authentication flows, model design, and the V3 to V4 migration I didn't see coming.

Jul 2025 RailsProduct ~5 min read

WorkflowPro: Building Office Automation That Actually Gets Used

How I built an approval workflow system for an elevator manufacturer that ran three years without downtime — and what I learned about getting enterprise software right the first time.