# Sébastien Morel — Chief Technology Officer

> Driving Innovation and accelerating growth through AI-augmented tech leadership

Source: https://sebastien.morel.me — generated Markdown mirror for AI agents.

## About

I'm Sébastien, aka **Plopix**, I live in California, and I come from France. I am a **passionate technologist**, **architect**, and **problem-solver** who has gone all-in on **AI-augmented development**. With a deep focus on **scalability**, **performance**, and **system architecture**, I build and orchestrate **agentic workflows** that multiply engineering output — combining **agents**, **custom skills**, **MCP servers**, and **CLI tools** to push the boundaries of what a team can ship.

This is my space to share my experience, projects, and thoughts on AI-driven engineering and the ever-evolving tech landscape. Welcome!

## AI Workflow & Tooling

Orchestrating 35 agents in parallel with CMUX and a custom RALPH loop on a Bun binary. Agents: Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI.

- **Custom Skills** — Authored agent skills like a **/write-a-prd** that generates structured `PRD.json` file for automated implementation.
- **MCP Servers & CLI Tools** — Remote **MCP servers** to extend agent capabilities and **CLI tools** to streamline agentic workflows.
- **Plugins** — Custom notification plugins that alert me when agents need attention, complete tasks, or hit blockers.
- **Git Worktree Integration** — Agents work in isolated Git worktrees, enabling parallel development without branch conflicts.

Operating as an **AI-augmented engineering team** — shipping faster, with higher quality, across more fronts.


## Experience

### [Crystallize](https://crystallize.com)

**Chief Technology Officer** — Full Time · San Francisco, CA · 2022-03 – Present

Crystallize is the core of your e-commerce Agentic System, including Payments, Checkout, Order Management, Subscriptions, Analytics, and connections to the rest of your Best-of-Breed stack.

- Pushing the boundaries of Internet craftsmanship with AI-augmented engineering workflows
- Leading and scaling the Engineering team
- Owned and drove the architecture and evolution of core platform APIs and developer tooling (Discovery API, Shop API, Mass Operations API, TypeScript SDK, CLI), enabling the full Crystallize ecosystem
- Implemented the MCP server to enable the ecosystem to build on top of Crystallize in a more efficient way
- Enabled AI-augmented development workflows to boost productivity and creativity across the company
- And more...

### [Almavia CX](https://almaviacx.com)

**Chief Technology Officer Web & Mobile** — Full Time · San Francisco, CA · 2020-01 – 2022-03

CTO of the newly born Web & Mobile business unit (~60 persons) after the acquisition of Novactve by Almavia (250 persons).

- Directed a team of 20 - 30 developers and 10 - 15 project managers in France, Ukraine, and the U.S
- Led and supervised engineering activities on a global scale. (~55 active projects)
- Ensured the productivity, efficiency, quality, and security of the projects and engineering activities(DXP, e - commerce, APIs, etc.)
- Secured the innovation strategy to keep winning awards and staying ahead of the competition
- Developed and Maintained the Content Management System(CMS) and Digital eXperience Platform(DXP) leadership worldwide
- Explored and evaluated new technologies to gather more expertise in order to improve the company's overall service offer

### [Novactive](https://almaviacx.com)

**Chief Technology Officer** — Full Time · San Francisco, CA · 2014-05 – 2020-01

- Took charge of the U.S.entity in San Francisco while taking over the CTO position worldwide
- Led, managed, planned, and developed business strategies and operations across the U.S.and on a global scale
- Owned the transition to different technical stacks and processes to improve time - to - market for our clients
- Operational and personnel management
- Budgetary, high - level legal, and company administrative functions
- Supervised a team of 20 - 25 developers in France, Canada, and San Francisco
- Won different innovation awards and the Ibexa best partner of the year 2015

**Head of Innovation** — Full Time · Paris, France · 2011-01 – 2014-05

In charge of all engineering activities, and R&D strategy.

- Enabled the second office abroad in Canada(Montréal)
- Increased engineering productivity by 25 % by automating processes
- Exceeded R & D Tax Credits objectives, attaining around 10 % of the total revenue
- Supervised a team of 15 - 20 developers in France, Tunisia, and Canada
- Recruited, trained, and evaluated teams of Frontend, and Backend developers

**Head of Web Development department** — Full Time · Paris, France · 2008-01 – 2010-12

- Supervised a team of 10 - 15 developers in France and Tunisia
- Enabled the first office abroad in Tunisia
- Recruited, trained, and evaluated teams of Frontend, and Backend developers
- Improved team productivity and efficiency by establishing processes
- Ensured the successful ISO 9001 certification regarding Production, Delivery, and QA processes

**Web Architect** — Full Time · Paris, France · 2005-10 – 2008-01

Web technical project manager, lead developer, and system administrator.

- Led and coordinated the architecture decisions across all the projects
- Performed many technical audits that led to taking over projects
- Owned the eZ Publish practice
- Maintained the technical quality of programming

**Web Developer in learning** — Full Time · Paris, France · 2003-10 – 2005-10

- Introduced PHP5 with Object - Oriented Programming to the company
- Helped and assisted the CTO to architect and industrialize many e - commerce projects
- Ignited the Content Management System expertise with eZ Publish and Spip

### Quickmii

**Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer** — Side Project · San Francisco, CA · 2013-05 – 2018-12

Startup project which allows users to avoid filling out forms online but also offline thanks to their mobile phones.

- Researched and obtained a patent (US20150248394A1) for automatically uploading user profile information

### [Fidall](https://fidall.com)

**Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer** — Side Project · Paris, France · 2010-06 – 2014-01

Startup project which enables users to store their loyalty cards in their mobile phones.

- Designed and developed the iOS application and the architecture
- Won several startups competitions
- Reached the Top 10 in the AppStore in the LifeStyle category. (more than 25k downloads per day) in 2010
- More than 2M users the first year, 800k - 1M active users every weekend
- Engineered a custom Push Notification System able to send around 200k push under a minute

### [EPITA: Ecole d'Ingénieurs en Informatique](https://www.epita.fr)

**iOS Teacher (Specialization in Management & Information Technology)** — seasonal · Paris, France · 2011-01 – 2012-01

EPITA is a french Graduate School of Computer Science and Advanced Technologies.

- Initiated and animated the iOS(3.x) Objective - C class for students in their last(5th) year at university
- Coached and evaluated their work
- Helped them to publish their project in the AppStore

### [France Telecom](https://crystallize.com)

**Web Developer and System administrator in learning** — Internship · Amiens, France · 2003-04 – 2003-07

Web Developer and System administrator in learning.

- Built an intranet tool to help the sales team following and tracking their leads and their conversion rate


## Education

### ITIN

**MSCS, Master's degree, Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications** — Master · Paris, France · 2003-3 – 2005-12

Major in Security, Systems Networking and Telecommunications, Technical Project Management, Team Building, Web Development.

- Work - study program 2 months at university / 2 months in the company
- Wrote a memoir about trojans capabilities on Linux / Unix System
- Presented an internship memoir about project management and project life cycle based on my two - year in the company
- Researched and built an "X11 proxy" to help people with disabilities to zoom their Linux interface as the final project assignment

### [Université de Picardie Jules Verne](https://www.u-picardie.fr)

**HND (DUT), Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications** — DUT · Amiens, France · 2001-09 – 2003-09

Major in Security, Sysadmin, Sofware development, and Networking.

- Two-year university degree in technology


## Certifications

- **Github Foundations** — Github (Mar 2024) — [credential](https://www.credly.com/badges/97455fcd-ae30-44f6-a159-ac03c844dc34/public_url)
- **Symfony 5 Certified Developer (Advanced)** — Symfony (Dec 2021) — [credential](https://connect.symfony.com/profile/plopix)
- **Slack Certified Developer** — Slack (Aug 2021) — [credential](https://badges.slackcertified.com/8267b81f-d24e-42e9-82b2-f2bf66bc2162)
- **Slack Certified Admin** — Slack (Jul 2021) — [credential](https://badges.slackcertified.com/7c8de791-09e6-4e9c-91f6-b293d50b821b)
- **Contentful Certified Professional** — Contentful (Oct 2020)
- **Ibexa DXP Sales Certification** — Ibexa (Jan 2021) — credential ID: CGYDDNDQSY-VGTTZLLQ-XHRWWTYWHM
- **eZ Platform Sales Certification** — eZ Systems (Jan 2020)
- **eZ Platform Developer** — eZ Systems (Sep 2018)
- **eZ Publish 5 Developer** — eZ Systems (Jul 2013)
- **eZ Publish 4.7 Advanced Developer** — eZ Systems (Jul 2013) — credential ID: 120908529
- **eZ Publish 4.4 Developer** — eZ Systems — credential ID: 383618
- **eZ Publish 4.3 Developer** — eZ Systems — credential ID: 346206
- **eZ Publish 4.1 Developer** — eZ Systems — credential ID: 285521
- **eZ Publish 3.8 Developer** — eZ Systems — credential ID: 180010
- **Varnish Admin** — Varnish Software

## Honors & Awards

### Ibexa Best Cloud Provider of the year 2021
*Ibexa · Jan 2021*

Awarded to Novactive's team in France and U.S. for their outstanding skills using and managing customers on Ibexa Cloud.

### Most Successful Co-Marketing Activity of the Year 2020
*eZ Systems · Jan 2020*

Awarded to Novactive's team in France and U.S. for the Most Successful Co-Marketing Activity to sale, promote and propulse eZ Platform Enterprise 2.x

### eZ Connector of the year 2018
*eZ Systems · Jun 2018*

For the innovative idea and implementation of "Novactive eZ Slack Bundle" which is an eZ Platform bundle that provides a complete Slack integration allowing a 2-way communication between your Slack workspace and your eZ Content Repository. You can, for instance, build custom publication workflow and use them from your mobile through Slack!

### eZ Innovation of the Year 2017
*eZ Systems · Jun 2017*

When it comes to developer experience, the most important factor in evaluating and learning new technologies is time to first success. In the CMS world, the first success happens when you get your development environment working and able to create content in the back-office and view it in the front. eZ Launchpad is one of the solutions for making this time as short as possible. Installing and configuring a complete stack for eZ Platform can be challenging and time-consuming if you have not done it many times. With eZ Launchpad you can get this stack up and running, and ready for real development in just a few minutes.

### eZ Award : Innovation of the year 2016
*eZ Systems · Oct 2016*

We won this award because of the new e-commerce subscription system implementation of "The Economist" using eZ Platform as the Content Marketing CMS, as the journey builder, and as the Product and Campaign tool to empower the Marketing. The implementation also uses the power of Symfony 2.x stack (provided by the CMS) to manage millions of orders and users in a noSQL database. It is our biggest e-commerce project based on eZ, it shows the extensibility of the product and the robustness. The challenges were multiples and what we have done is a small part of a large ecosystem of tools that are used at The Economist to deliver their contents and subscriptions. The project is not done yet and as the CTO of The Economist said before winning this award: "The product is born when the project is launched; it's not finished". A lot more challenges are coming! And we are ready!

### eZ Award : Innovation of the year 2012
*eZ Systems · Feb 2013*

We won this award because of the development of the website "La Nouvelle République". This eZ Publish website was developed in partnership with eZ Systems. We have combined eZ Tags, eZ Find, eZ Flow and eZ Accelerator to manage a high performance website. Also, a big particularity of this combination is the virtual tree of content based on tags (themes and locations), contexts and contents. "La Nouvelle République" is a newspaper website with a lot of contents imported from paper and created via eZ Publish(around 2000 each day).

### 1st Prize of the "Startup Academy" 2011
*Startup Academy · May 2011*

Won with Fidall, we reached the Top 10 in the AppStore in the LifeStyle category. More than 25k downloads per day in 2010! More than 2M users the first year, 800k-1M active users every weekend.

## Patent

**US20150248394A1** — Automatically uploading user profile information (May 2015)

Techniques for automatically transmitting user profile data over a network are provided. In one technique, a browser displays a form and a QR code (or other form of encoded data) on a webpage. A mobile application scans the QR code, which causes the mobile application to identify user profile data (that may be stored locally with respect to the mobile application) and send the user profile data to a Campaign server. The Campaign server causes the form that is displayed by the browser to be filled in with the user profile data. The browser than transmits the filled-in form to a partner server that provides the webpage. In another technique, a mobile application scans a QR code, which may be displayed on a flyer, a poster, a computer screen, or a television screen. The mobile application identifies and transmits user profile data to a Campaign server.


## Stack

### AI & Agentic Tooling

The AI tools and frameworks I use daily to build agentic workflows, MCP servers, and AI-augmented development pipelines.

- **Claude Code** — My daily driver! Anthropic’s agentic coding CLI that turns Claude into an autonomous software engineer, capable of editing files, running commands, and managing entire workflows.
- **CMUX** — Multi-agent orchestration! A terminal multiplexer for coding agents that enables running and managing multiple Claude Code sessions in parallel across isolated worktrees.
- **Codex** — OpenAI’s agent CLI! OpenAI’s open-source agentic coding CLI that runs as a terminal-based agent, executing code changes and shell commands autonomously.
- **Vercel AI SDK** — Build AI apps fast! A TypeScript toolkit for building AI-powered applications with streaming, tool calling, and multi-provider support for LLMs.

### Living on the Edge

This is the fun stack, the cutting-edge tech I experiment with in my free time and, occasionally, at work.

- **Cloudflare** — Just ship it! An all-in-one cloud platform offering security, performance, and scalable infrastructure with Workers, KV storage, and more.
- **Hono JS** — The new kid on the blockt that rocks! A fast, lightweight web framework designed for building APIs and microservices with support for multiple runtimes, including Cloudflare Workers and Bun.
- **Bun** — Fast, Fast, Fast! A fast, modern JavaScript runtime designed for efficiency, supporting TypeScript natively and ideal for CLI tools.
- **React Router v7** — Embrace the platform! A lightweight, intuitive routing library for React, enabling nested routes and progressive enhancement.
- **Astro** — Static, new dynamic! A fast, modern static site builder that optimizes content-driven websites using islands architecture and MDX.
- **Meilisearch** — OSS fast search! An open-source, highly performant, and typo-tolerant search engine designed for fast indexing and querying.

### Professional

The technologies I use exclusively at work. Not always cutting-edge, but reliable and efficient.

- **Nest JS** — I can't say I love it but I use it! A progressive Node.js framework built on top of Express and Fastify, using TypeScript and modular architecture to create scalable and maintainable backend applications.
- **MongoDB** — Database and more! A NoSQL database designed for high performance and scalability, storing data in a flexible, JSON-like format.
- **Next.JS** — (Too) magical frontend? A React framework for full-stack development, offering server-side rendering, static generation, and API routes.
- **AWS** — Everything on it! A leading cloud provider offering scalable computing, storage, networking, and managed services for web applications.

### The Basics

Timeless technologies I use daily or whenever they make sense for a project.

- **Typescript** — (Type) safety first! A statically typed superset of JavaScript that improves code quality, maintainability, and developer experience.
- **PostgreSQL** — THE database! A powerful, open-source relational database with advanced features, strong ACID compliance, and extensibility.
- **Redis** — Cache and Pub/Sub in one! An in-memory key-value store optimized for caching, session management, and real-time analytics.
- **SQLite** — The swiss knife of databases! A self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine used in embedded systems and small applications.
- **React JS** — The component Way! A declarative JavaScript library for building component-based user interfaces with a focus on performance and reusability.
- **Tailwind CSS** — I just follow on that one A utility-first CSS framework that enables rapid UI development with a focus on customization and consistency.
- **Docker** — Easy provisioning! A containerization platform that simplifies application deployment and scaling by packaging dependencies together.
- **Git** — What would we do without it? A distributed version control system that enables collaborative development and efficient code management.
- **Github** — Certified and fan boy! A cloud-based Git repository hosting service with collaboration, CI/CD, and project management features.
- **RabbitMQ** — Async is The Way! A message broker that enables asynchronous communication between distributed services.
- **Varnish** — HTTP Cache on Steroids! A high-performance HTTP accelerator that speeds up web applications by caching frequently requested content.
- **Algolia** — (Expensive) fast search! A fast, developer-friendly search-as-a-service platform offering real-time search and instant filtering.
- **Shell** — Because we need it! A command-line interface for executing scripts, automating system tasks, and managing processes efficiently.
- **Makefile** — Can't live without it! A tool used for build automation, dependency tracking, and task execution in development environments.

### My Previous Life - Up to the Late 2010s

The stack I worked with during my PHP web agency days.

- **Ibexa** — Multiple times Certified! A digital experience platform (DXP) providing content management, e-commerce, and personalization capabilities.
- **PHP** — My first love! A server-side scripting language widely used in web development, powering many CMSs and web applications.
- **Symfony** — Certified 5.x, still love it! A modular PHP framework with a vast ecosystem, used for building scalable and maintainable web applications.
- **MySQL** — My first database! A widely-used open-source relational database, known for its reliability, performance, and strong community support.
- **Solr** — Only for the brave! An enterprise-grade open-source search platform built on Apache Lucene, designed for indexing and querying large datasets.
- **Platform SH** — PaaS that rocks! A cloud hosting platform that simplifies application deployment with automatic scaling and Git-based workflows.
- **Travis** — Good old CI! A continuous integration and deployment service that automates software testing and builds.

### Old School

I would not use these technologies today but you never know!

- **Objective-C** — I teached it! A legacy programming language for macOS and iOS applications, replaced by Swift for modern development.
- **Swift** — I miss it! Apple’s modern programming language designed for safety, performance, and seamless integration with iOS and macOS.
- **Ansible** — That was fun! An open-source automation tool used for configuration management, application deployment, and infrastructure orchestration.
- **eZ Platform** — Multiple times Certified! An open-source CMS built on Symfony, designed for structured content management and enterprise web applications.
- **eZ Publish** — Multiple times Certified! A legacy CMS known for its extensibility and structured content approach, widely used in enterprise projects.
- **Memcached** — I would still use it! A distributed memory caching system used to speed up dynamic web applications by reducing database load.


## Talks & Livestreams

### Past

- **Beyond Chat: When AI streams React components! Your cart has ideas!** — [React Norway 2026](https://reactnorway.com) (2026-06-05) · Rockefeller Oslo, Norway — [Watch](https://youtu.be/Ge0DbLf-2R0?t=23593)
  Most AI integrations stop at text. What happens when you give an LLM capabilities to stream UI? In this live demo, we'll see an AI- augmented checkout where recommendations and cart analysis arrive as real React components — streamed, data - bound, and wired with actions.The LLM doesn't just suggest: it renders.
- **Build with Crystallize Using AI — Meet the MCP Server** — [Crystallize Channel](https://www.youtube.com/c/crystallize) (2026-03-19) · Online — [Watch](https://youtube.com/live/gk-oJs-g028)
  See how the Crystallize MCP Server connects your Crystallize tenant directly to AI coding tools like Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and any MCP-compatible client.
- **I got interviewed by the NextDev.fm team!** — [NextDev.fm](https://nextdev.fm/) (2025-03-28) · Youtube Channel — [Watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0jLC1yTqeM)
  They asked Grok to scrap my life and questions about my career, my work and my life.
- **How to build a MCP Server** — [All Things Web](https://www.youtube.com/@allthingsweb-dev) (2025-03-23) · Youtube Channel — [Watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFNPyCWd-MQ)
  We built a MCP server with tools to be able to list and register to an event from any MCP Client!
- **How to build a CLI using React and Bun!** — [All Things Web](https://www.youtube.com/@allthingsweb-dev) (2025-03-02) · Youtube Channel — [Watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg0pvoDeoTU)
  Deep dive into building a CLI using React and Bun! In this livestream, we'll guide you through the setup process, explore the code organization and flow.
- **Introducing the new Crystallize CLI: Streamline your development workflow** — [Crystallize Channel](https://www.youtube.com/c/crystallize) (2025-02-20) · Online — [Watch](https://youtube.com/live/QFD8lAsztkM)
  Explore the new Crystallize CLI and see how it simplifies tenant management, mass operations, and boilerplate setup. We'll demo key features like boilerplate installation, content model dumping, image uploads, and tenant creation to enhance your development experience.
- **Introducing the Discovery API - Powerful Search, Faceting & Filtering in Crystallize** — [Crystallize Channel](https://www.youtube.com/c/crystallize) (2025-02-06) · Online — [Watch](https://youtube.com/live/BZh4E7sqq3c)
  The Discovery API unlocks powerful semantic search, filtering, and faceting capabilities in Crystallize. In this livestream, we walk you through how to use browse, search, and autocomplete queries efficiently. Learn how to optimize data retrieval, implement faceted search, and structure results for better performance.
- **Building a subscription accelerator part 1** — [Crystallize Channel](https://www.youtube.com/c/crystallize) (2025-01-23) · Online — [Watch](https://youtube.com/live/IJH7u7LQMsI)
  Join us for a deep dive into the Crystallize Subscription Commerce Accelerator, powered by Next.js. In this livestream, we'll guide you through the setup process in Crystallize, explore the code organization and flow, and showcase the complete customer journey. Learn how to manage subscription contracts, handle orders, and process payments seamlessly. Don't miss this hands-on demo designed to help you accelerate your subscription commerce chops.
- **Implementing a shopping cart with React 19** — [All Things Web Meetup](https://allthingsweb.dev/2024-08-27-react-bay-area-at-mux#talks) (2024-08-27) · At Mux in San Francisco, USA — [Watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edOxB0lXFmo&t=146s) · [Slides](/slides/cart-react-19.pdf)
  Let's build a shopping cart with the new hooks from React 19. We will start with a simple implementation and slowly iterate our way through different React 19 features and hooks using Next.js.
- **Opening Keynote & Master of Ceremony** — [React Norway 2024](https://reactnorway.com/past-conferences/2024) (2024-06-24) · Farris Bad Hotel in Larvik, Norway — [Watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5WhcX0Q5NU) · [Slides](/slides/rn-2024.pdf)
  React the Viking Way! The 2024 edition of React Norway, we dived into the latest and greatest of the React ecosystem.
- **Prepare for Remix V2** — [Remix Bay Area Meetup](https://www.meetup.com/remix-bay-area/events/295253615) (2023-08-23) · At Mux in San Francisco, USA — [Slides](/slides/remix-bay-area-meetup-aug-2023.pdf)
  Get ready for a compact and insightful discussion on the migration to Remix V2, the upcoming iteration of our favorite BFF. This talk will provide highlights on improved features as well as explain the value it brings. We'll jump into a straightforward guide to migrating from Remix V1 to V2, focusing on practical steps and key changes following the documentation as we should! In the midst of this, we'll sprinkle in valuable tips, tricks, and best practices to help you avoid common hurdles and enhance your migration experience.
- **Opening Keynote & Master of Ceremony** — [React Norway 2023](https://reactnorway.com/past-conferences/2023) (2023-06-16) · Farris Bad Hotel in Larvik, Norway — [Watch](https://youtu.be/zJM3BIev8RI?t=567) · [Slides](/slides/rn-2023.pdf)
  Times are changing and so is React! The 2023 edition of React Norway, we dived into the latest and greatest of the React ecosystem.
- **Opening Keynote of the conference** — [React Norway 2022](https://reactnorway.com/past-conferences/2022) (2022-06-24) · Farris Bad Hotel in Larvik, Norway — [Watch](https://youtu.be/AQRlDs92XFA?t=1174) · [Slides](/slides/rn-2022.pdf)
  All about our first times (of success!)
- **Remix & high performance eCommerce** — [Remix Conf](https://remix.run/conf/2022) (2022-05-24) · Salt Lake City, USA — [Watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCiPjshKzdg&list=PLXoynULbYuEC36XutMMWEuTu9uuh171wx&index=18) · [Slides](/slides/remix-conf-2022.pdf)
  Performances are key. That statement is true for any web application but even more for eCommerce applications that convert performances into revenue. Why are eCommerce projects more complex than others? What are the key topics and the special things that you need to take into account when building an eCommerce application in 2022. In this talk we will deep dive into all the things that must be dynamic and how to achieve performances. All explained with a Remix project example.
- **eZ Platform Cloud and eZ Launchpad** — eZ Conference 2018 (2018-06-20) · Kohln, Germany — [Slides](/slides/ezconf-2018.pdf)
  Learn what's involved in the process of launching a new web project from starting with nothing to having a local development environment shared with your team using eZ Platform, Docker plus Platform.sh and more in just a few hours.
- **Unleash your Symfony projects with eZ Platform** — [SF PHP Meetup](https://www.meetup.com/sf-php/photos/27715630) (2017-03-23) · At Cloudflare in San Francisco, USA — [Slides](/slides/sf-php-meetup.pdf)
  All about he different state of CMSs, and why if you are using Symfony, there are plenty of reasons to get eZ Platform as foundation of your projects.
- **How to integrate FOSUserBundle in eZ Platform to externalize Users in MongoDB** — eZ Conference 2015 (2015-11-05) · New York, USA — [Slides](/slides/ezconf-2015.pdf)
  Working on TheEconomist where we revamped the subscription system. We pushed the limit of the CMS eZ Publish to give the marketing teams the ability to fully customize the buying experience. Technically wise, we have decided to make a clear distinction between “Users“ and “Contents“. The Content Repository of the CMS hosts the data related to building the buyer flow and the marketing campaigns in all the countries, and the noSQL database contains everything that is user related(profile, orders, preferences etc.)
- **eZ Accelerator** (2012-11-14) · Paris, France — [Slides](/slides/ez-accelerator.pdf)
  This presentation discusses using eZ Publish and Varnish together to handle high traffic for news websites. It describes existing solutions like using the native eZ Publish architecture, eZ DFS cluster, or adding a static cache. These have disadvantages like overloading databases or not offering flexible cache management. Introducing eZ Accelerator, a new extension that connects Varnish and eZ Publish. It allows targeted purging of the Varnish cache after publication to achieve instant publishing while maintaining high performance during high traffic.
- **How to optimize your eZ Publish with Varnish** — [eZ Summer Camp 2012](https://2012.ezsummercamp.com/) (2012-09-10) · Bol, Croatia — [Slides](/slides/ezpublish-varnish.pdf)
  This presentation discusses optimizing a website built with eZ Publish through the use of Varnish as a reverse proxy cache, covering topics such as Varnish architecture and configuration, the Varnish request flow, using Edge Side Includes (ESI) and instant publishing techniques, and advanced Varnish techniques and troubleshooting.


## Open Source Projects

### Current

#### Missive.js
*The Service Bus that you or your agent needed.*

Fully-typed Service Bus for Node.js fueled by fancy Middlewares, Envelopes and Stamps.

- Roles: Creator, Maintainer
- Package: npm `missive.js`
- Docs: https://missive-js.github.io/missive.js/

#### Crystallize JS Api Client
*Crystallize (Java|Type) script Client*

Provides simplifications and helpers to easily fetch data from your Crystallize tenant.

- Roles: Creator, Maintainer
- Package: npm `@crystallize/js-api-client`
- Docs: https://crystallize.com/learn/open-source/sdks-and-libraries/js-api-client
- Sponsors: Crystallize

#### CLIffhanger
*Scripts to MCP Server tool in an instant.*

A CLI that runs your scripts and exposes them as tools through a built-in, extensible MCP server.

- Roles: Creator, Maintainer
- Package: github `cliffhanger`
- Docs: https://sebastien.morel.me/cliffhanger/

#### Better Git
*A better version of Git CLI*

During the "Better Hack" Hackathon at Y Combinator organized by Better Auth. The theme was to make something existing better, we chose Git and we built a wrapper around it to make some command AI-augmented!

- Roles: Creator, Maintainer
- Package: github `bgit`
- Docs: https://bgit.dev/

### Legacy

#### Nova eZ SEO Bundle
*Optimized SEO management for eZ Platform*

Bundle that simplifies your SEO management, metas, sitemaps, robots.txt, etc.

- Roles: Creator
- Package: composer `novactive/ezseobundle`
- Docs: https://novactive.github.io/NovaeZSEOBundle
- Sponsors: Novactive

#### eZ Launchpad
*CLI tool to bootstrap an eZ Platform project Docker stack*

A tool that will help you build an eZ Platform project on top of Docker in less than 5 minutes.

- Roles: Creator, Maintainer
- Package: github `ezsystems/launchpad`
- Docs: https://ezsystems.github.io/launchpad/
- Sponsors: Ibexa

#### Nova eZ Slack Bundle
*Drive your CMS with this complete Slack integration*

Bundle that allows a 2-way communication between your Slack workspace and your eZ Content Repository. Build custom publication workflow and use them from your mobile.

- Roles: Creator
- Package: composer `novactive/ezslackbundle`
- Sponsors: Ibexa, Novactive

#### Nova eZ 2FA Bundle
*Security first!*

Novactive eZ 2FA Bundle is an eZ Platform bundle that provides two-factor authentication for your project.

- Roles: Creator
- Package: composer `novactive/ez2fabundle`
- Sponsors: Novactive

#### Nova eZ Cloudinary Bundle
*Images optimizations and manipulations by Cloudinary on top of variations*

Bundle that brings the power of Cloudinary in your eZ Platform project.

- Roles: Creator
- Package: composer `novactive/ezcloudinarybundle`
- Sponsors: Novactive

#### Nova eZ Fastly Image Optimizer Bundle
*Images optimizations and manipulations by Fastly on top of variations*

Bundle that brings the power of Fastly in your eZ Platform project.

- Roles: Creator
- Package: composer `novactive/ezfastlyiobundle`
- Sponsors: Novactive

#### Nova eZ Protected Content Bundle
*Protect contents via a simple password without changing the Content Type*

Simplest paywall-like mechanism to protect a content using a password. It just works and no session used!

- Roles: Creator
- Package: composer `novactive/ezprotectedcontentbundle`
- Sponsors: Novactive

#### Plopix JS Console
*A beautiful Console.log wrapper*

Wrapper of console.log that enables output depending on a Verbosity level. It also brings color and manage compatibility.

- Roles: Creator, Maintainer
- Package: npm `@plopix/js-console`


## Side Projects

### Endless Chess
*Founder · Spring 2026* · https://endless-chess.com

Gamification layer for chess that turns the games you already play on Chess.com and Lichess into daily quests, streaks, XP, and rivalries. Connect your handle — no password, no game runs through it — and Endless Chess reads your public archives to score five fresh challenges each day (openings to try, tactics to spot, endgames to convert), plus friends races, club leaderboards, and quarterly World seasons with permanent titles. Free to play.

- Turns the Chess.com and Lichess games you already play into daily quests, streaks, and XP
- Deterministic, code-based evaluators read your public game archives — openings, tactics, endgames, accuracy
- Social layer with friends races, club scoreboards, and permanent titles from quarterly World seasons

**Tech:** Cloudflare, Vite, Tailwind CSS, Chess.com API, Lichess API, Plausible Analytics
**Metrics:** 5 new quests daily, 25 weekly, 75 monthly, Works with Chess.com & Lichess, Free to play

### Color Conquest
*Founder · Spring 2026* · https://color-conquest.com

Browser-based, location-aware PvP game where players claim a permanent color identity and stake a real-world location, then battle for territory — winning absorbs an opponent's colors while losing drains your own. A three-stat (Glow, Spark, Heat) rock-paper-scissors combat system, PvE bots for progression, and a daily "counterforce" mechanic keep any single player from dominating forever.

- Location-based PvP — your real-world position sets a 500 km matchmaking arena
- Rock-paper-scissors combat across three stats: Glow, Spark, and Heat
- Self-balancing "counterforce" system drains foreign colors back to your origin every 24h

**Tech:** Cloudflare, Vite, Tailwind CSS, Plausible Analytics
**Metrics:** 16.7M+ unique color identities, MVP

### Shipwire
*Founder · March 2026* · https://shipwire.dev

AI-powered tool that monitors GitHub repositories and delivers concise, automated digests of code changes to teams via Slack or Telegram on a customizable schedule.

- Automated monitoring of GitHub repository changes
- AI-generated concise digests of code changes
- Delivery via Slack or Telegram on customizable schedules

**Tech:** Cloudflare, Hobo JS, GitHub API, Slack API, Telegram Bot API, Better Auth
**Metrics:** 100% asynchronous, MVP, Positive early feedback from users

### Time Capsule
*Co-Founder with my brothers. · Christmas 2025* · https://time-capsule.io

Digital time capsule platform that lets you lock messages, photos, and videos in the present to be revealed to yourself or loved ones at a chosen moment in the future.

- Compose capsules with images, videos, and words for personal, family, or professional use
- AI moderation pipeline to ensure safe, and positive content
- Use cases from birthday gifts to wedding memories to collective legacy

**Tech:** Hono JS, Custom React Island Frontend using Vite plugins, Cloudflare, Better Auth, Stripe
**Metrics:** 1.5M+ sealed hours, > 400 users

### Miape
*Co-Founder with my wife and two teacher friends. · Summer 2025* · https://miape.fr

Educational AI platform created by teachers for teachers, helping educators prepare teaching sequences, implement pedagogical differentiation, and strengthen student learning outcomes. Miape.fr is an improved version of Ok-Wallace focused on all the pedagogical use cases that teachers need, with a more intuitive interface and a better content generation engine for assignments and everything else: flashcards, lesson plans, diagrams, reading, writing, quoting etc.

- Interactive exercise creation from existing teaching materials
- Compliant with official French educational recommendations
- Tools for pedagogical differentiation and inclusive learning

**Tech:** Next.js, OpenAI API, MongoDB, Fly.io
**Metrics:** more than 20 AI tools

### Ok Wallace
*Co-Founder with my French teacher wife. · November 2023, right after OpenAI released the first version of Assistant API.* · https://ok-wallace.com

AI-powered educational platform that enables teachers to effortlessly create tailored and engaging assignments adapted to individual student learning styles and paces.

- AI-driven generation of customized exercises with real-time feedback
- Track student progression and educational milestones
- Partnered with Lycée Français de San Francisco

**Tech:** Remix Run, OpenAI API, MongoDB, Fly.io, Vector search
**Metrics:** > 1000 users, > 300 teachers, > 6000 submitted exercises


## Publications

- **Build Your Crystallize Service API Like a Pro** (2025-09-23) — [Crystallize](https://crystallize.com/blog/build-service-api)
  The article is a practical guide on how to build a Service API (also described as an integration or middleware/service layer) using Crystallize (a headless commerce and PIM-type tool) with modern JavaScript/TypeScript tooling… and, if I'm being honest, it is the one that is long overdue.
  Tags: crystallize, retail, ecommerce, bun, cloudflare, open-source

- **Web Rendering Explained: SSR, CSR & SSG for High-Performance Sites** (2025-01-23) — [Crystallize](https://crystallize.com/blog/web-rendering)
  Server-side Rendering, Static Site Generation, Client-side Rendering. CSR with Prerendering, Progressive Hydration, Partial Pre rendering, etc. The differences, trade-offs, and similarities between most common web rendering solutions and why you should care about them as a developer.
  Tags: crystallize, web, rendering

- **Subscriptions (API) Overview** (2024-11-12) — [Crystallize](https://crystallize.com/blog/subscriptions-api-overview)
  Explore the Crystallize's Subscription API, how it works, and its benefits and differences from some competitors.
  Tags: crystallize, subscription, contracts, api

- **Authentication vs. Authorization** (2023-04-15) — [Crystallize](https://crystallize.com/blog/authentication-vs-authorization)
  Dive into the intricacies of authentication vs. authorization and learn how these security measures work in tandem to safeguard systems.
  Tags: crystallize, authorization, authentication, security

- **Retail eCommerce Remix Boilerplate** (2023-01-24) — [Crystallize](https://crystallize.com/blog/free-open-source-remix-retail-store-template)
  Remix and eCommerce go well hand in hand, and we have a free open-source boilerplate for retail storefronts to prove it.
  Tags: crystallize, retail, ecommerce, remix, open-source

- **What Is a Static Site Today?** (2022-10-18) — [Crystallize](https://crystallize.com/blog/what-is-static-site)
  There are numerous approaches to developing a web application that is performant. Going the static site way is just one of them. Pause here. What do we/I mean when we/I say static sites?
  Tags: crystallize, static, rendering

- **Working Locally with HTTPS and All Your Services** (2022-04-21) — [Crystallize](https://crystallize.com/blog/production-like-local-dev-environment)
  Working as a team on a professional setup that implies many “micro/macro” services is challenging and can lead to invisible and unexpected errors if not set up well. Time to market, first time to success, and reducing the feedback loop are important topics for all your teams. This article is about setting up your project for a successful production workflow.
  Tags: crystallize, docker, http

- **Event-Driven HTTP Caching for eCommerce** (2022-03-09) — [Crystallize](https://crystallize.com/blog/event-driven-http-caching)
  Let us dive into the topic typically described as the most complicated topic to learn for developers. Or better, the hardest to master.
  Tags: crystallize, http, cache, cloud

- **A web application and an API with Salesforce Marketing Cloud using AMPScript, SSSJS and, React JS** (2021-07-16) — [Medium](https://medium.com/@plopix/a-web-application-and-an-api-with-salesforce-marketing-cloud-using-ampscript-sssjs-and-react-js-cd13cdedcdd0)
  A journey as a web developer with Data Extensions, Data Filters, Salesforce Objects, and more. From the web development process to a fully integrated Admin Interface in Salesforce Marketing Cloud!
  Tags: reactjs, novactive, sssjs, ampscript, salesforce, cloud

- **Ibexa, Platform.sh and Fastly Image Optimizations** (2020-11-30) — [Medium](https://medium.com/@plopix/ibexa-platform-sh-and-fastly-image-optimisations-a4ef7680c65)
  Ibexa, Platform.sh, and Fastly work together to optimize image delivery for better performance and scalability. This article explores how Fastly's Image Optimizer enhances Ibexa DXP, reducing load times and improving efficiency on Platform.sh.
  Tags: ibexa, novactive, fastly, platform.sh, cloud

- **eZ Accelerator is back!** (2020-07-20) — [Medium](https://medium.com/@plopix/ibexa-platform-sh-and-fastly-image-optimisations-a4ef7680c65)
  eZ Accelerator is back, bringing enhanced performance and async processing to eZ Platform with Symfony Messenger. Discover how it improves scalability, speed, and efficiency in your projects.
  Tags: ibexa, novactive, symfony

- **Symfony Local Server, Docker, and Varnish** (2019-03-21) — [Medium](https://medium.com/@plopix/symfony-local-server-docker-and-varnish-189e5a892439)
  Setting up Symfony Local Server with Docker and Varnish for optimized development and caching. Learn how to streamline your workflow, improve performance, and manage environments efficiently.
  Tags: symfony, novactive, docker

- **Don't host, don't deploy, don't install: just code** (2017-12-04) — [Medium](https://medium.com/@plopix/ez-platform-cloud-and-ez-launchpad-dont-host-don-t-deploy-don-t-install-just-code-6140d75a439d)
  An article that aims to describes how you can get an amazing developer experience as you optimize your teamwork using eZ Launchpad, Docker, eZ Platform (Cloud) and Platform.sh. From the installation to the deployment with no install and no deployment; just focus on your business logic. An article that aims to describes how you can get an amazing developer experience as you optimize your teamwork using eZ Launchpad, Docker, eZ Platform (Cloud) and Platform.sh. From the installation to the deployment with no install and no deployment; just focus on your business logic.
  Tags: ezplatform, novactive, ezlaunchpad, docker, platform.sh, cloud

- **Novactive eZ Platform Cloudinary Connector - Overview** (2017-11-08) — [Cloudinary](https://cloudinary.com/blog/dynamic_image_manipulation_and_optimization_is_ez_er_with_the_novactive_ez_platform_cloudinary_connector1)
  Dynamic Image Manipulation and Optimization is eZ-er with the Novactive eZ Platform Cloudinary Connector. This article is an introduction to the connector between Cloudinary and eZ Platform.
  Tags: ezplatform, cloudinary, image, optimization, manipulation, connector, open-source, novactive


## Socials

### Development

- [GitHub](https://github.com/plopix) — Plopix

### Social Media

- [Linkedin](https://linkedin.com/in/sebastienmorel) — in/sebastienmorel
- [Twitter/X](https://x.com/plopix) — @plopix
- [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/morel.me) — @morel.me

### Instant Messaging

- [Discord](https://discordapp.com/users/plopix) — Plopix

### Games

- [Chess.com](https://www.chess.com/member/plopix) — Plopix