Bryce Watson

Now that AI writes the code, the hard part is everything around it.

Hi, I'm Bryce. I'm an independent engineer (ex-eBay, nearly a decade) who designs production AI systems for teams building with Claude Code and MCP . Sixteen months and 260+ sessions deep in this problem: architecture, quality verification, and knowing when to scrap and rebuild. I take on projects for teams that need to get this right the first time.

See how I work with clients →

What I Do

Production AI systems, not prototypes. Architecture with multi-agent coordination, quality gates, and self-improving memory. My flagship system runs an Etsy shop end-to-end with 34 specialized skills and three tiers of learned memory. I've evaluated and rejected two major orchestration frameworks against real requirements, and designed intent-based skill architectures that cut code 74% while increasing capability. I've also done a full architectural rewrite in 6 days when the original wasn't scaling, and scrapped 2 weeks of Chrome extension work after 8 PRs when a simpler approach was clearly better.

Problems found before they become yours. I've diagnosed undocumented bugs in Google's Gemini SDK, Anthropic's desktop software ( startup freeze , file upload failure , 6 VM failure modes behind one error ), and Electron's multi-monitor DPI handling. When standard troubleshooting fails, I trace root causes through log files, undocumented APIs, and system internals, then publish the fix and file the issue upstream.

Work you can trust. Every deliverable I publish goes through a 4-agent review pipeline (fact-checker, technical reviewer, editorial reviewer, visual QA). I've caught errors in my own drafts, retracted incorrect findings after publishing, and corrected community misinformation that was leading people to wrong fixes. When I'm wrong, I say so.

Featured

ShopForge
Active

Production AI agent that runs an Etsy shop end-to-end: from image generation to published listing to performance-based learning. 34 skills, three-tier memory, 16 months of sustained development.

MCP API Bridge
Released

Turn any REST API into an MCP server for Claude, Cursor, and other AI assistants. Production-quality starter kit with 74 tests.

How I built it →
zen-mcp-server
Active

Open-source MCP server orchestrating 50+ AI models with conversation continuity. 765 commits and growing.

16 months of continuous production AI development
260+ AI-paired development sessions
16 published technical posts
Bugs reported to Google and Anthropic (#32561, #32213)

Latest posts

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Work Experience

Full timeline
  • Jan2025 - Now
    Independent
    Software Developer

    Building production AI services, MCP protocol tooling, and e-commerce platforms as an independent developer. Primary development tool is Claude Code with AI co-authored commits across all projects.

    Current projects include:

    • Stylize MCP Server. Production MCP server on GCP Cloud Run integrating DALL-E 3 with Claude Desktop for AI image stylization. Freemium SaaS with four pricing tiers, abuse prevention, and content safety filtering.
    • ShopForge. Self-improving AI agent that runs an Etsy digital art print shop (ChateaucoreWalls) with three-tier memory, Bayesian confidence scoring, and skill evolution. Evolved from ShopSmith OS, which proved the domain across 86 commits and 37 merged PRs.
    • Bryce Labs Toolkit. Claude Code plugin suite including spec-driven development, session history mining, and cross-platform skill management. Installable from marketplace.
    • MCP API Bridge. Production-quality starter kit that turns any REST API into an MCP server for Claude, Cursor, and other AI assistants. 74 tests, released.
    • Shopify TYOS Migrator. Automated migration of Shopify tracking pixels to the Customer Events API across 8 ad platforms with pixel parity validation.

    Over 1,500 commits across 2025–2026 using a PR-based workflow with conventional commits, Claude Code co-authorship, and automated GPT-based PR review via chatgpt-codex-connector.

  • Mar2015 - Dec2024
    eBay
    Software Engineer

    Contributed to eBay’s mobile web platform used by millions of users daily. Focused on performance optimization, front-end architecture, and building large-scale systems. Worked across mobile web and front-end systems, shipping features that balanced user experience with platform reliability at scale.

  • Jun2012 - Feb2015
    Enterprise Software
    Software Developer

    Built enterprise payments and decision-analytics software. Developed systems for transaction processing, risk assessment, and data-driven decision support in regulated environments.

Recent projects

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