--- title: "Projects" description: "Selected software projects by Matthew Polak." url: "https://matteopolak.com/projects" --- # Stuff I built Selected software projects by Matthew Polak. ## Projects ### Jacket *October 2026 · rust · compiler · web assembly · language tooling* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/jacket) Agent-orchestrated: Compiler implementation and browser tooling developed with coding agents. Jacket is an independent Jai toolchain written in Rust: a compiler with a compile-time interpreter and an LLVM backend, a language server, a formatter and a linter. The compiler and language server also build to WebAssembly and run the in-browser playground. ### minecraft *August 2026 · rust · wasm · agents* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/lodestone) Agent-orchestrated: Opus 5 orchestrated Sonnet 5 subagents; shortly before GPT-6 Astra released, I moved the workflow to Codex with GPT-5.6 Sol and Luna subagents. (models: Claude Opus 5, Claude Sonnet 5, GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Luna) A from-scratch, multi-version recreation of _Minecraft: Java Edition_ covering the latest protocol, vanilla asset and rendering pipelines, multiplayer servers, and self-hosted single-player worlds. ### uoplan.party *March 2026 · react · web scraping · claude code* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/uoplan) · [Website](https://uoplan.party) AI-assisted: I prompted the models directly and reviewed their work myself, iterating without a complete upfront design. (models: Claude Opus 4.6–5, Claude Sonnet 4.6–5, Cursor Composer 2.5, GPT-5.6 Sol) A constraint-aware course planner that extracts University of Ottawa catalogue and degree data, resolves prerequisite chains and completed credits, and generates workable schedules around personal preferences. ### bronify *March 2025 · svelte · typescript · music · capacitor · tauri* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/bronify) · [Website](https://bronify.love) A cross-platform streaming-style catalog for LeBron-themed music with queue-driven playback, synchronized lyrics and karaoke, virtualized collections, and indexed search across tracks, lyrics, artists, albums, and categories. ### owl *February 2025 · c++ · llvm · programming language · compiler* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/owl) A native compiler with parsing, type checking, structures, pointers, optimized code generation, and direct interoperability with existing C and C++ libraries. ### wary *July 2024 · rust · validation · no-std · no-alloc · procedural macros* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/wary) · [Website](https://crates.io/crates/wary) A validation and transformation system spanning `no_std` and allocation-free targets, asynchronous and contextual rules, enums and nested data, and derive macros that respect Serde field semantics. ### splat *July 2024 · rust · wgpu · wgsl · image processing · optimization* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/splat) A GPU-driven image optimizer that approximates a target with blurry ellipses, iteratively perturbs splat parameters, renders candidates, measures pixel error, and rolls back regressions until reaching a configured threshold. ### axum-codec *July 2024 · rust · axum · http · content negotiation · procedural macros · serde* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/axum-codec) · [Website](https://crates.io/crates/axum-codec) A content-negotiation layer that decodes one request type from multiple wire formats, selects response codecs from HTTP headers, supports zero-copy borrowed data, and generates serialization derives through procedural macros. ### grill *July 2024 · python · pytorch · deep learning · computer vision · efficientnet* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/grill) Uses AI as a feature. An end-to-end computer-vision pipeline that trains and serves a food classifier to infer the likely ingredients in a prepared dish from a single photograph. ### ira *June 2024 · rust · game engine · wgpu · wgsl* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/ira) A code-first 3D game engine integrating rendering, physics, asset packaging, multiplayer networking, and dedicated client/server runtimes behind one cohesive API. ### bitcoin miner *April 2024 · rust · blockchain · hashing · wgsl · wgpu* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/miner) A solo miner that assembles block candidates from a Bitcoin Core node, searches the nonce space across processor and graphics hardware, and submits valid work back to the network. ### basket *January 2024 · rust · http · serde* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/basket) A compact HTTP/1.1 client and server stack with request parsing, response handling, and built-in serialization for structured data. ### crave *December 2023 · svelte · typescript · drizzle · postgresql · pytorch · trpc* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/crave) · [Website](https://crave.matteopolak.com) Uses AI as a feature. A full recipe publishing and discovery platform with ingredient-aware search, nutritional and preparation filters, and semantic recommendations derived from browsing activity. ### quasi *November 2023 · rust · programming language · web assembly* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/quasi) A complete interpreted-language pipeline with tokenization, parsing, scoped evaluation, functions, and expressions, designed to run both natively and in the browser. ### noteboard *September 2023 · svelte · typescript* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/noteboard) · [Website](https://noteboard.matteopolak.com) A synchronized musical canvas where multiple participants compose in real time by arranging colour-based tiles that map shared visual state into playback. ### statpixel *August 2023 · rust · skia · postgresql · discord · redis · axum · svelte · typescript* [Repository](https://github.com/statpixel-rs/statpixel) · [Website](https://statpixel.xyz) A Discord-native analytics service that ingests and stores Hypixel player history, computes performance changes, and renders dense statistics into shareable visual reports. ### minecraft name index *January 2023 · diesel · rust · svelte · typescript* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/minecraft) A continuously refreshed index that scans 400,000 English words against Minecraft account availability, then ranks and annotates names by frequency, status, and quality. ### baerscript *September 2022 · rust* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/baerscript) A Turing-complete esoteric language whose interpreter moves through a two-dimensional program by applying Collatz-sequence operations to independently mutable columns. ### jukebox *June 2022 · discord · ffmpeg · node.js · typescript* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/jukebox) A Discord audio system that resolves tracks and playlists across several streaming services, processes them into voice playback, and exposes queue and effects controls through an interactive channel. ### thearchon *March 2022 · typescript · minecraft · mineflayer · openai · automation · discord* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/thearchon) Uses AI as a feature. An autonomous Minecraft client that managed fishing loops, inventory and economy actions, staff detection, anti-macro challenges, proxy connections, remote Discord control, and natural-language replies through OpenAI's Davinci model and few-shot examples. ### stock-predict *November 2021 · typescript · tensorflow · lstm · machine learning* [Repository](https://github.com/matteopolak/stock-predict) Uses AI as a feature. A command-line forecasting pipeline that fetches historical market data, constructs sliding price windows, trains a stacked LSTM recurrent network, persists the resulting model, and estimates the next closing price. ## Timeline - **October 2026** — [Jacket](https://matteopolak.com/projects#jai) - **September 29, 2026** — GPT-6.1 Sol released: Released at OpenAI DevDay. [Source](https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-6-1-sol/) - **September 28, 2026** — Claude Sonnet 5.5 released: The second Claude 5.5 model, six days after Opus 5.5. [Source](https://www.anthropic.com/claude/sonnet) - **September 22, 2026** — Claude Opus 5.5 released: The first Claude 5.5 model, released the same day as GPT-6 Luna. [Source](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-opus-5-5) - **September 22, 2026** — GPT-6 Luna released: The lower-cost GPT-6 model. [Source](https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-6-sol-and-luna/) - **September 3, 2026** — GPT-6 Astra released: A marker for my move from a Claude-led workflow to Codex shortly before its release. [Source](https://openai.com/index/gpt-6-astra/) - **August 2026** — [minecraft](https://matteopolak.com/projects#minecraft) - **July 24, 2026** — Claude Opus 5 released: This became the orchestrator model for the Minecraft rewrite. [Source](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-opus-5) - **July 9, 2026** — GPT-5.6 Sol and Luna released: Sol and Luna later handled complementary subagent work when I moved the rewrite to Codex. [Source](https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-6/) - **June 30, 2026** — Claude Sonnet 5 released: Sonnet became the subagent workhorse in the agent-heavy Minecraft rewrite. [Source](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-sonnet-5) - **May 2026** — Started at Microsoft AI - **April 16, 2026** — Claude Opus 4.7 released: Part of the Claude model generation I used while developing uoPlan. [Source](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-opus-4-7) - **March 2026** — [uoplan.party](https://matteopolak.com/projects#uoplan) - **January 18, 2026** — Guard at uOttaHack 8 (Vercel challenge winner): An edge load balancer that combines policy-based routing, live observability, and machine-learning bot detection. [Hackathon](https://devpost.com/software/guard-z42uyb) · [GitHub](https://github.com/teamy2/guard) - **September 2025** — Started at Shopify - **March 2025** — [bronify](https://matteopolak.com/projects#bronify) - **February 24, 2025** — Claude Code entered preview: A useful marker for the terminal-first agent workflow I later used on uoPlan. [Source](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-3-7-sonnet) - **February 2025** — [owl](https://matteopolak.com/projects#owl) - **January 19, 2025** — uOttaType at uOttaHack 7 (Solace challenge winner): A real-time collaborative document editor built around event-driven synchronization, transcription, and AI chat. [Hackathon](https://dorahacks.io/buidl/21638) · [GitHub](https://github.com/95ers/uottatype) - **January 2025** — Started at Solace - **September 29, 2024** — Mound at Hack the Hill II (Ciena challenge winner): A decentralized file-sharing network with chunk replication, checksums, compression, and peer failover. [Hackathon](https://devpost.com/software/mound) · [GitHub](https://github.com/mound-p2p/mound) - **July 2024** — [wary](https://matteopolak.com/projects#wary) - **July 2024** — [splat](https://matteopolak.com/projects#splat) - **July 2024** — [axum-codec](https://matteopolak.com/projects#axum-codec) - **July 2024** — [grill](https://matteopolak.com/projects#grill) - **June 2024** — [ira](https://matteopolak.com/projects#ira) - **April 2024** — [bitcoin miner](https://matteopolak.com/projects#bitcoin-miner) - **January 2024** — [basket](https://matteopolak.com/projects#basket) - **December 2023** — [crave](https://matteopolak.com/projects#crave) - **November 19, 2023** — Wonderbyte at AliceHacks (3rd place overall, Wolfram Alpha award): An image-to-recipe application that uses GPT-4 Vision to identify dishes and ingredients, then generate practical recipes. [Hackathon](https://devpost.com/software/wonderbyte) · [GitHub](https://github.com/teamy2/wonderbyte) - **November 2023** — [quasi](https://matteopolak.com/projects#quasi) - **October 8, 2023** — MoonQwake at NASA Space Apps Challenge — Ottawa (1st place locally): An interactive 3D lunar globe that plots moonquake data and lets viewers scrub through seismic events over time. [Hackathon](https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2023/find-a-team/spacemoonkeys/) · [GitHub](https://github.com/y2space/moonqwake) - **September 2023** — [noteboard](https://matteopolak.com/projects#noteboard) - **August 2023** — [statpixel](https://matteopolak.com/projects#statpixel) - **May 2023** — Started at Ciena - **April 1, 2023** — LocalEyes at MapHacks 2 (1st place overall, Best Sustainable Travel Hack): A location-aware discovery app with live proximity, accessibility filters, and AI-generated quizzes about nearby places. [Hackathon](https://devpost.com/software/tbd-p9xqhv) · [GitHub](https://github.com/localeyes/frontend) - **March 26, 2023** — DataDefender at All In Hackathon (1st place overall): A browser extension that evaluates a site’s security and privacy posture, then explains its risks and safer alternatives. [Hackathon](https://devpost.com/software/cyberguardian-hbeouf) · [GitHub](https://github.com/WilliamUW/MLH-All-In) - **March 5, 2023** — HackTheFeed at Hack the Hill (Ciena challenge winner, Best Developer Experience, Best Cybersecurity Project): A live cybersecurity RSS aggregator with personalized subscriptions and client-encrypted notes attached to articles. [Hackathon](https://devpost.com/software/hackthefeed) · [GitHub](https://github.com/hackthefeed/frontend) - **January 2023** — [minecraft name index](https://matteopolak.com/projects#minecraft-name-index) - **September 2022** — [baerscript](https://matteopolak.com/projects#baerscript) - **June 2022** — [jukebox](https://matteopolak.com/projects#jukebox-music-client) - **March 2022** — [thearchon](https://matteopolak.com/projects#thearchon) - **January 27, 2022** — InstructGPT became OpenAI's API default: A marker for the early OpenAI API generation that preceded the few-shot Davinci integration in TheArchon. [Source](https://openai.com/index/instruction-following/) - **November 2021** — [stock-predict](https://matteopolak.com/projects#stock-predict)