Engineering Thoughts
First-person reflections by Faisal Al Isfahani on frontend architecture, framework mental models, custom AI co-pilot workflows, API proxy gateways, and senior engineering trade-offs.
What I Learned Building My Own Portfolio as a Product
I built my portfolio as an interactive conversational product rather than a static resume: ask a question and get authentic answers about my work.
Five Things I Wish I'd Known When I Started as a Frontend Engineer
One: The browser is your runtime. Learn it, not just the frameworks that run in it.
State Management in 2026: When Do You Actually Need It?
Modern frontend state management requires separating server cache from local UI state rather than reaching for heavy global stores.
I Reviewed 200 PRs This Year. Here's What I Look For First.
After reviewing over 200 pull requests this year, here is what I look for first: context clarity, test coverage, and modular boundaries.
Build Tooling: The Invisible Bottleneck
The adoption trajectory of tools like Vite has been dramatic. What started as a fast dev server has become the build tool for most new frontend projects.
Think Fullstack, Even If You Only Ship Frontend
I consider myself a frontend engineer. But the best frontend decisions I've made have come from understanding what's happening on the other side of the API.
When the Software Has Consequences Beyond the Screen
Some software breaks and a button doesn't work. Some software breaks and a doctor doesn't see the right patient data.
Why the Proxy Layer Is the Most Underappreciated Part of Any Architecture
Proxies and API gateways sit quietly between clients and microservices. Here is why centralizing concerns at the proxy layer prevents architectural rot.