AI expert & technical advisor

Building better software with AI agents.

I'm Pete Hawkins. I've spent 20+ years building products, co-founded Payhere, and now work as an AI engineer. On YouTube I show how I actually build with agents, from the first prompt to production.

Watch on YouTube Work with me

20+ years building · $35M+ payments processed · 1000s developers taught

I've helped build software used by millions of people

Videos and podcast

How to build with AI, and what to build.

YouTube · For engineers

Formerly Rapid Ruby

AI Engineering with Pete Hawkins

How a Principal AI engineer actually uses agents to ship software. Personal, technical and opinionated, drawn from production work rather than tool reviews.

Agentic coding workflows
Claude Code, Amp, Codex, Conductor, parallel agents and harness engineering.
Building agent systems
MCP, orchestration, tool calling and autonomous workflows with RubyLLM and Rails.
Real-world AI engineering
Architecture, testing, code quality and keeping agents reliable at scale.
Experiments and opinions
What works, what doesn't, and where software development is heading.

3.8k subscribersSubscribe on YouTube

Podcast · For founders

With Scott Wylie

Decanted Execution

Two software founders uncorking the truth about building online businesses, and how AI changes the economics of running them.

Building AI-powered SaaS products and experiments
Using agents for operations, SEO, marketing and support
Behind the scenes of our own businesses
Ideas, mistakes and lessons from small teams doing more

YouTube · SpotifyListen at decanted.fm

Products and ventures

Things I've built.

Products I've founded, co-founded and built.

Payments platform

Payhere

Co-founded the payment platform that makes accepting recurring payments simple, now processing millions for businesses worldwide.

$35M+ processed since 2021payhere.co

Developer education

Rapid Ruby

Ruby on Rails tutorials and courses, growing into a searchable library for AI engineering. Where my YouTube channel started.

Tutorials and coursesrapidruby.com

Customer support

Happi.team

The support tool built by founders for founders. An empathetic alternative to enterprise platforms, designed to help small teams deliver great support.

Supporting small teamshappi.team

AI illustration system

Style Lock

A structured illustration system that locks your brand's visual language, so every AI-generated image stays on-brand.

$199, one-time purchasestylelock.darkforce.dev

Expertise

Where I can help.

Taking ideas to production-ready software, with AI where it earns its place and solid engineering everywhere else.

LLM integration

Putting large language models into production apps, from GPT to Claude, with features that hold up under real use.

AI product strategy

Finding the AI opportunities worth building and turning them into a roadmap your team can deliver.

Full-stack development

End-to-end builds with Ruby on Rails, Hotwire, React and TypeScript, wired to the right AI APIs.

Automation

Systems that take repetitive work off your team's plate and cut operating costs.

Training for teams

Teaching developers and teams to use AI tools well and fold them into how they already work.

Rapid prototyping

Working prototypes that test an idea with real users in weeks, not months.

Tools I use

Claude Code
Amp
Codex
MCP
RubyLLM
OpenAI API
Rails
Hotwire
React
TypeScript
PostgreSQL

About

Hello.

I've spent over 20 years building web and mobile products, and leading the teams that ship them.

As co-founder of Payhere I've helped build payment software that has processed over $35M for businesses, and through Rapid Ruby I've taught developers to build modern Rails apps.

Today I work as an AI engineer, building agent systems and the workflows around them. I share what holds up in production on YouTube, and talk about building businesses with AI on Decanted Execution with Scott Wylie.

Co-founder: Payhere
Creator: Rapid Ruby
Co-host: Decanted

Work with me

Have an AI product in mind?

Tell me what you're building and where you're stuck, and we can work out the next step together.

Email me

hello@darkforce.dev