I'm Mark.

I've been shipping production code for over 25 years, mostly in commerce.

These days I work as an independent forward deployed engineer and solutions architect, helping mid-market companies identify and solve operational problems by embedding AI directly into their business workflows. Cleveland-based, on-site delivery within Northeast Ohio. Senior practitioner work, not slide decks.

Outside of client work, I build open-source tools and write about the craft.

• Marko -- an open-source PHP framework, shaped by years in Magento, Laravel, and real-world application architecture. Heading toward 1.0.
• HCF (Halt and Catch Fire) -- the Claude Code plugin that defines my development workflow architecture. How I ship production apps daily with AI, without the slop.
• docker-magento -- the most popular Magento development environment, refined for over a decade.
• M.academy -- where I teach Magento. 600+ lessons, ongoing.

A mix of open-source projects, developer tools, and experiments pulled from the work I'm doing every day.

Some of it is practical. Some of it is architectural. Some of it is half-finished. That's the point.

• Great software comes from clarity, simplicity, and elegance -- not complexity
• Good teaching helps people understand, not just copy and paste
• AI changes the mechanics of building, but judgment matters more than ever
• Sharing work before it's polished is more useful than waiting until it looks perfect

Open to a small number of architecture and build engagements per year, with mid-market companies embedding AI into their business workflows. Defined discovery, architecture, and build phases. If that's what you need, reach out on LinkedIn.

• YouTube: @MarkShust
• LinkedIn: in/MarkShust
• M.academy: m.academy

• I'm married to my wonderful wife Juliann and we have twin girls 👯‍♂️
• I have a red Nissan 240sx convertible that I love to modify 🏎
• Once, I got lucky and bowled a 300 game 🎳
• In my spare time, I like puzzles, tennis, mind games, and programming some more 👨‍💻
• If you like my OSS work, you can buy me a burrito 🌯