Nelson Lai

Full-stack developer · Melbourne, Australia
Building modern web applications and open-source tools, end to end.

About

I'm a full-stack developer based in Melbourne, Australia, originally from Hong Kong. I build products end to end — interface, API, database and deployment — and publish the tools I use myself as open source.

My working stack is TypeScript, React and TanStack Start on the front end, with back-end work in C# and PostgreSQL. I graduated with a Bachelor of Computer Science from Deakin University in 2023, and I'm most interested in system architecture, developer tooling and pragmatic AI-assisted workflows. Larger projects live under the lst97-oss organisation.

Selected work

Project	What it is	Stack
LAST//OS	The desktop-styled site behind lst97.dev: Payload CMS, a retrieval-augmented assistant over my GitHub and WakaTime data, and a structured contact workflow.	TypeScript, Bun, TanStack Start, React 19
last-comments	Self-hosted comment system for any page: moderation, site-scoped API keys, a plugin pipeline, and drop-in widgets for React, Vue, Angular and plain HTML.	TypeScript, Payload, TanStack Start
Canto101	Cantonese learning platform on a curated lexical corpus: dictionary lookup, word-level karaoke timing, talk lessons and a graded practice loop.	Deno, Hono, Drizzle, PostgreSQL
G-NAF Address Autocomplete	Self-hosted Australian address search over about 16 million G-NAF addresses, under 50 ms p95 on PostgreSQL indexes alone.	TypeScript, Bun, Elysia
Best Maker	Quote-to-cash platform for a custom fabrication and joinery business: split payments, bank reconciliation and a commerce back office.	Next.js, Payload, TanStack Query, Tailwind CSS
claude-code-sub-agents	Collection of specialized AI subagents for Claude Code covering testing, code review, documentation and deployment.	Claude Code

Smaller open-source work: smartplay-hk-oss (Hong Kong public facility availability), CantoCap (Cantonese subtitle generation), bin-time-crawler (Australian bin collection schedules), info-hawker-server (Australian open-data API) and toonconv (TOON converter in Rust).

Tech stack

Languages — TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust, C#, Java, Kotlin, C/C++
Front end — React 19, Next.js, TanStack Start, Vue, Angular, Tailwind CSS
Back end and data — Bun, Deno, Node.js, Hono, Elysia, PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, Payload CMS, .NET
Delivery — Docker, Linux, GitHub Actions, Vercel

Currently

Building last-comments as a self-hosted alternative to hosted comment platforms.
Working in TanStack Start, React 19 and Bun-first tooling.
Writing about engineering with AI at lst97.dev/blog.

GitHub activity

WakaTime coding activity — refreshed daily

🐱 My GitHub Data

📦 412.5 kB Used in GitHub's Storage

🏆 3,684 Contributions in the Year 2026

💼 Opted to Hire

📜 89 Public Repositories

🔑 21 Private Repositories

I'm a Night 🦉

🌞 Morning                169 commits         ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   01.47 % 
🌆 Daytime                2953 commits        ██████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   25.64 % 
🌃 Evening                5396 commits        ████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░   46.84 % 
🌙 Night                  3001 commits        ███████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   26.05 %

📅 I'm Most Productive on Sunday

Monday                   1759 commits        ████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   15.27 % 
Tuesday                  1709 commits        ████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   14.84 % 
Wednesday                1462 commits        ███░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   12.69 % 
Thursday                 1664 commits        ████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   14.45 % 
Friday                   1526 commits        ███░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   13.25 % 
Saturday                 1390 commits        ███░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   12.07 % 
Sunday                   2009 commits        ████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   17.44 %

📊 This Week I Spent My Time On

🕑︎ Time Zone: Australia/Melbourne

💬 Programming Languages: 
Other                    14 hrs 26 mins      █████████████████████░░░░   84.38 % 
Rust                     1 hr 17 mins        ██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   07.50 % 
Image (png)              41 mins             █░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   04.01 % 
Markdown                 14 mins             ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   01.40 % 
JSON                     9 mins              ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   00.92 % 

🔥 Editors: 
Pi                       17 hrs 7 mins       █████████████████████████   100.00 % 

🐱‍💻 Projects: 
cabinet-studio-design    13 hrs 41 mins      ████████████████████░░░░░   79.98 % 
cabinet-studio           1 hr 6 mins         ██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   06.46 % 
last-comments            49 mins             █░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   04.78 % 
last-notifications-widget30 mins             █░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   02.98 % 
last-tanstack-start-templ16 mins             ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   01.57 % 

💻 Operating System: 
Mac                      17 hrs 7 mins       █████████████████████████   100.00 %

🤖 AI Coding This Week

No AI Coding Activity Tracked This Week

I Mostly Code in TypeScript

TypeScript               55 repos            ███████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   44.72 % 
HTML                     10 repos            ██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   08.13 % 
Shell                    4 repos             █░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   03.25 % 
Go                       3 repos             █░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   02.44 % 
Rust                     2 repos             ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   01.63 %

Timeline

Last Updated on 12/11/2026 01:10:39 UTC

Contact

Website — lst97.dev
LinkedIn — linkedin.com/in/lst97
Email — [email protected]
WakaTime — wakatime.com/@lst97

_{Open to collaborations and open-source work.}

GeezerVison

SIO TOU LAI [Nelson] lst97

Achievements