connect()
Make your application AI-ready
I expose an application’s data and actions to AI assistants through MCP, with permissions and guardrails that hold. Also document extraction — the subject of my PhD, now running in production.
// Freelance Tech Lead · TypeScript · Vue/Nuxt · Node · MCP
Business applications that last. And that AI agents can operate.
I lead the build: architecture, delivery and the quality practices that keep a product shippable — from sprint 0 to production, with automated tests and CI/CD in place from the first weeks.
whoami
- name
- Daniel Zuwala
- role
- Freelance Tech Lead
- base
- Mauritius UTC+4
- langs
- French, English
- phd
- LORIA, document recognition
- years shipping production software
- ~20
- years shipping production software
- years running my own practice
- 15+
- years running my own practice
- years on a single engagement (Owello)
- 3+
- years on a single engagement (Owello)
- MCP tools in Klaro
- 70+
- MCP tools in Klaro
01 / services
What I do
Three kinds of engagements, one common thread: business applications a team can keep evolving with confidence — and now, applications an AI agent can work with.
build()
Product engineering, end to end
Architecture, back end (TypeScript / NestJS or PHP / Symfony), Vue.js / Nuxt front end, Docker environments and CI/CD. I set up the foundations in sprint 0 and support the team, junior developers included.
migrate()
Legacy PHP modernisation
Some of these systems have been running for fifteen years. I take them over, upgrade them (PHP 5 → 7 and beyond, Symfony 1 and 2, Zend) and refactor them behind a safety net of tests — without stopping the business.
02 / work
Selected work
A few representative engagements. The rest are on LinkedIn.
2020 – 2023 · 3 years 4 monthsOwelloHealth insurance for expatriatesBuilt and evolved the portal for managing health and protection contracts, used by three audiences: brokers, corporate clients and expatriate employees.detailsSymfonyAPI PlatformVue.jsCypressDockerGitLab CI
Senior Lead Developer
- Project setup: architecture, environments, CI/CD pipeline
- Dedicated journeys for each type of user
- End-to-end testing strategy to ship without regressions
- Mentored 2 junior developers
2024 – 2025 · 1 year 4 monthsDény SecurityBusiness applicationComplete rebuild of a business application as lead developer, from technical scoping to continuous deployment.detailsSymfonyNuxtTypeScriptPHPUnitPlaywrightDockerGitLab CI/CD
Project Lead Developer
- Technical scoping and sprint 0: architecture choices, Docker environments, GitLab CI/CD pipeline
- Symfony back end and Vue.js / Nuxt front end in TypeScript
- Testing strategy: PHPUnit and Playwright end-to-end tests
- Continuous deployment
2019 – 2020, then since May 2025Supermarchés MatchHigh-traffic grocery e-commerceMaintenance and evolution of the Drive (click & collect) website within a team of six. A client who brought me back for a second engagement, five years after the first.detailsPHP 8Symfony 6.4API PlatformNuxt 3PostgreSQLRabbitMQDocker
Senior PHP / Vue.js Developer
- New features: checkout journey, pickup slots, promotions
- Several Symfony APIs and Nuxt front ends, asynchronous processing with Messenger and RabbitMQ
- Performance, version upgrades and refactoring
- Production incident analysis and resolution, code reviews
2019 · 7 monthsFilolabMedical laboratoriesDesigned and built an application tracking blood samples, from collection to arrival at the laboratory.detailsSymfonyAPI PlatformAngularPHPUnitKubernetesRancher
Lead Developer
- Audit of the existing code (static and dynamic analysis)
- Database and architecture design
- Symfony / API Platform API and Angular front end, PHPUnit tests
- Development, staging and production environments on Kubernetes / Rancher, intern supervision
03 / ai & mcp · own product · launching soon
Klaro: a business application that AI agents can operate
Klaro is my own product: an invoicing and tax compliance SaaS for self-employed people in Mauritius. It exposes its features to assistants such as Claude through MCP, so you can ask, in plain language, to draft an invoice or reconcile a bank statement. It is the clearest demonstration of what I do for clients.
If you want your teams — or your customers — to operate your product from an AI assistant, this is the work I do.
klaro.mu› Draft September’s invoice for Studio Corail, 12 days at €450.
- ⚙ klaro_list_customers
- ⚙ klaro_create_draft_invoice
Draft created: €5,400 excl. VAT, 15% VAT computed by Klaro. Shall I send it?
- 70+ MCP tools
- Quotes, invoices, expenses, bank reconciliation, VAT and contribution filings: the agent works on real data.
- Explicit guardrails
- Amounts and tax figures are computed by the application, never by the model. Actions are limited to the user’s permissions.
- Document extraction
- Automatic reading of bank statements and receipts, reviewed by the user before anything is recorded.
- A real production SaaS
- Multi-tenant, Nuxt 4 and NestJS, PostgreSQL, end-to-end tests, CI/CD and containerised deployment.
04 / method
How I work
- step_01
A structured start
Sprint 0, architecture, Docker environments and working CI/CD within the first weeks.
- step_02
Quality from day one
Unit tests (PHPUnit) and end-to-end tests (Playwright, Cypress) written with the code, not bolted on at the end.
- step_03
Remote, on your hours
Based in Mauritius (UTC+4): same time zone as Dubai, four hours behind Singapore, and a full overlap with the European working day. Available to travel for key project phases.
cat stack.yml
- back end:
- TypeScript, NestJS, Node, PHP, Symfony, API Platform
- front end:
- Vue.js, Nuxt, Quasar, Tailwind CSS
- quality:
- Playwright, Cypress, PHPUnit
- devops:
- Docker, Kubernetes, GitLab CI/CD, Cloudflare
- data:
- PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis
- ai:
- MCP, Claude, Document AI
05 / background
Background
git log --oneline
- 2025 – …Supermarchés Match — Drive website (Symfony, Nuxt)
- 2024 – 2025Dény Security — lead on a business application rebuild
- 2023 – 2024Mobilis Family Office — internal social network (Vue.js, Quasar, Kubernetes) · Vallourec — corporate website
- 2020 – 2023Owello — expatriate insurance portal · Swiss Life — internal portal rebuild
- 2019 – 2020Swiss Life (PHP 5 → 7 migration, Symfony 1 and 2) · Filolab · Supermarchés Match · Norauto Foundation
- 2010 – 2020Independent developer — multi-marketplace order aggregator (Amazon, eBay, Cdiscount), e-commerce, Proxmox infrastructure
- 2007 – 2010ILANDE — managing director, websites and web applications for businesses and non-profits
education/
PhD in computer science — LORIA, Nancy (2006)
On-the-fly symbol recognition in graphical documents. 7 papers in international journals, including my master’s research. Taught algorithms and programming during the PhD.
Master’s degree in Optics, Image and Signal — Institut Fresnel, Marseille (2003)
Contrast enhancement of X-ray images to support cancer diagnosis.
Engineering degree — École Centrale de Marseille (ENSPM)
06 / contact
Building something that needs a senior pair of hands?
Available from mid-October 2026, remote from Mauritius (UTC+4) and happy to travel for key phases. Send me a few lines about your context.