Professional profile
Jakub Płużek
Senior PHP / Full-Stack Developer
I maintain and extend production WordPress sites for Swiss clients. PHP, backend, APIs, integrations, debugging. Cursor, Claude and ChatGPT are in the daily workflow. I still read the diff.
Freelance / B2B, remote, mainly Swiss projects
Poland, remote
About
I have been writing production PHP for over 10 years. Mostly WordPress and backend work.
Most of that time I have been remote, for Swiss agencies and their clients. I started at Webkönig GmbH / Onebyte AG. After Onebyte was acquired by what.AG, I stayed on the same client platforms.
I like existing production systems. Custom PHP, REST APIs, SQL, WooCommerce, Polylang, cache, SMTP. A PM ticket is often vague. My job is to turn it into something safe to ship.
AI is part of the daily workflow: I read existing code faster and automate what repeats.
Experience
Freelance / B2B Senior PHP / Full-Stack Developer
I work with what.digital on Swiss production sites, including platforms I already knew from Onebyte AG. Day to day: WordPress, new features, production bugs, estimates, talking to PMs.
- WordPress on live Swiss sites: new work and the old parts that need keeping alive.
- Production issues: find them, fix them, deploy.
- Cache and performance when a site gets slow.
- SMTP when mail stops landing.
- WooCommerce and payments when something breaks.
- Polylang / multilingual content.
- Estimates and technical notes for PMs, plus daily worklogs and checkout summaries.
Remote Senior PHP / Full-Stack Developer
Long-term remote work for a Swiss agency. PHP and WordPress, existing client platforms, backend integrations, ongoing maintenance. Several of those systems continued with me after Onebyte was acquired by what.AG.
- Earlier WordPress platforms with XML/API data feeds and multi-year production maintenance.
Selected client work at what.AG
For what.AG clients I have worked across hundreds of WordPress pages and subpages — development, maintenance, integrations and production debugging. Below are only a few of the most important long-term examples. The rest of the agency work is summarised in general terms, without naming specific clients.
ACTIV FITNESS / Fitnesspark
Long-term project spanning both Onebyte AG and what.AG.
activfitness.ch fitnesspark.ch
WordPress/PHP platforms for ACTIV FITNESS and Fitnesspark, two Migros-owned Swiss fitness networks. Substantial development responsibility on both. For Fitnesspark I have handled most of the ongoing development myself.
- WordPress/PHP, including APIs and data imports from Migros-ecosystem systems.
- Studio and location functionality, including maps and locator.
- Caching, performance, production debugging and continued development.
- Digital Signage for in-studio screens, currently in testing. Customer feedback has been positive; a wider rollout is expected.
Swiss Cycling
Long-term project spanning both Onebyte AG and what.AG.
A large, long-running WordPress/PHP platform for the Swiss cycling federation. Substantial development together with another developer. Connected to external systems, with a real improvement in stability and performance.
- Integration with the Swiss Cycling Data Center / BegaSoft APIs: competition and result data on the WordPress site.
- Custom PHP and backend work around those integrations.
- Caching at several layers: WordPress Transients, plus coordination with Laravel/Data Center caching before data is exposed through the API.
- Performance work on a previously slow, high-traffic production site. Cloudflare and server/infrastructure work. Production debugging and long-term maintenance.
Other agency work
Beyond the platforms named above I have run dozens of other client sites: WooCommerce shops, new WordPress builds, migrations from older CMSs, multilingual content and day-to-day production care.
- WooCommerce: multi-location ordering, pricing rules, payments and production diagnostics.
- New WordPress sites: custom blocks and components, content structure, frontend based on shared team frameworks.
- Legacy migrations (including older TYPO3) and long-term maintenance afterwards.
- XML/API integrations, Polylang, cache, SMTP, estimates and daily PM ticket work.
- Across the years: hundreds of WordPress pages in different projects — here I only show the ones with the greatest ownership and continuity.
AI in everyday development work
I do not treat AI as a code generator you hand a task and wait for. It is part of the normal workflow — from analysing an existing system, through implementation and debugging, to documentation, tests and automating repetitive processes.
How I work with it
- Cursor as the main working environment — analysing existing code, implementation, refactoring and working with a larger project context.
- ChatGPT and Claude as an extra analysis layer — architecture, finding problems, a second view on harder changes, and sorting out unclear requirements.
- Persistent project context instead of one-off prompts — project-state docs, handoffs, decision history, instructions and specialised workflows let the tools continue without starting from zero every time.
- n8n and MCP for automation — I connect models to mail, APIs, documentation, repositories and my own processes.
- Human-in-the-loop — generated code does not go straight to production. I read the diff, check the impact, run tests and take responsibility for the final solution.
From code suggestions to full workflows
On my own product, QS AlcoRhythm, I use AI more broadly than just while programming. I built a self-hosted n8n workflow that handles the support inbox with a synced knowledge base, automatic message processing and an audit of replies.
I am also automating further parts of the release process and work with the Google Play API. The target workflow runs from a feature idea through impact analysis, implementation, tests, localisations and documentation, through to preparing the release and updating related content.
The greatest value of AI for me is not writing code faster. It is being able to build a process where more of the routine work happens automatically, and my attention stays on technical decisions, exceptions and the quality of the final solution.
Own product and tooling
QS AlcoRhythm
My Flutter Android app. Simple alcohol tracking, no lectures. Offline-first.
- Flutter, Android first.
- Copy in PL, EN, DE, FR, IT.
- Works offline. JSON export/import. Settings persist.
- Google Play testing and the store listing.
- Product page on qba-soft.pl, support mailbox, premium planning.
- Built in Cursor. Docs too, but not unread.
n8n on my NAS
Self-hosted n8n on a Synology. Docker Compose, PostgreSQL. I use it for QS AlcoRhythm support automation and my own workflows.
- Docker Compose on a Synology NAS.
- n8n and PostgreSQL, data survives a reboot.
- HTTPS behind a reverse proxy.
- Support inbox: IMAP in, model processing after that.
- A support knowledge cache and a sketch of weekly reports.