5 Projects I'm Building Right Now — And Why Each One Matters

5 Projects I'm Building Right Now — And Why Each One Matters

Everyone talks about side projects. Almost nobody talks about the ones that actually ship.

Here's what's on my workbench right now — five active projects, each solving a real problem I've personally hit. No vaporware. No "coming soon" landing pages. Working code, live users, real feedback loops.

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1. Cortex (YabashaOS)

Cortex is my AI operating system — the backbone that connects models, tools, memory, and workflows into one coherent system. Think of it as the nervous system for AI agents.

Most AI projects treat the LLM as the brain. I treat it as one organ in a larger body. Cortex handles context persistence, tool orchestration, multi-model routing, and session memory. It's what makes an AI assistant actually remember you — not just fake it.

Why it matters: The gap between a demo agent and a production agent is architectural. Cortex is the architecture.

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2. FinTrack

Financial tracking that doesn't make you want to throw your laptop.

FinTrack is built for people who manage money across multiple currencies, banks, and accounts — which is basically everyone in MENA. Real-time tracking, smart categorization, and dashboards that show you where your money actually went.

Why it matters: The existing tools assume you live in the US or Europe. FinTrack doesn't.

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3. AutomotiveAI

AI agents for the automotive industry. Dealers, service centers, inventory management — the whole ecosystem.

The auto industry runs on decades-old software and manual processes. AutomotiveAI brings intelligent automation to quoting, inventory matching, customer follow-ups, and service scheduling.

Why it matters: This industry is ripe for AI disruption, but nobody's doing it right. Most solutions are chatbots with car logos. This is deeper.

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4. Jopal

Quotation and document management. Not glamorous, but incredibly necessary.

Jopal handles the messy middle of business operations — generating quotes, managing document workflows, tracking approvals, and keeping everything audit-ready. Built with Laravel and Next.js.

Why it matters: Every business I've worked with has a spreadsheet disaster for document management. Jopal replaces that chaos with structure.

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5. PixCrush

Image optimization CLI that actually respects your time.

PixCrush compresses, converts, and strips metadata from images in batch. WebP, AVIF, JPEG — whatever format you need. Fast, scriptable, no BS.

Why it matters: I got tired of choosing between "too slow" and "too complicated" for image optimization. So I built the tool I wanted to exist.

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The Thread That Connects Them

Every project above solves a problem I've personally encountered in 20+ years of building software. None of them are experiments — they're tools I use or need.

That's the best filter for a project: Would I use this even if nobody else did?

If the answer is yes, build it. Ship it. Iterate.

The best projects don't start with TAM estimates. They start with frustration.

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What are you building right now? Drop a comment or reach out — I'm always curious what other engineers are working on.