I’m Lauro.

Working inside engineering teams

At Google, during a contract engagement, I was a core contributor to the developer experience team working on a large internal framework used across YouTube. I contributed to framework improvements and a major infrastructure migration, working with engineers across the project. Alongside that work, I created educational resources to help junior engineers use the framework.

At Test Double, I worked within client engineering teams on application architecture, migrations, and testing strategy. Working in established codebases means understanding the existing constraints and the people maintaining the system before deciding what to change.

My consulting work also includes developer education and documentation for Sentry.

Developing technical education with other engineers

I’ve worked with engineers to turn their expertise into courses, workshops, and onboarding material. That work includes deciding what a course should cover, reviewing the technical material, and designing exercises that reveal whether someone can apply what they’ve learned.

Total TypeScript and Epic React

I worked with Matt Pocock in the early days of Total TypeScript. For Kent C. Dodds’ Epic React, my contribution was learner experience testing, transcript review, and helping coordinate content review.

Testing Accessibility

For Marcy Sutton’s Testing Accessibility, I helped plan the scope and structure of the workshops, define learning outcomes, and develop assessment examples. The planning started with what engineers needed to be able to do, then worked back to the material and exercises that would get them there.

egghead and Assistiv Labs

At egghead, I helped instructors develop courses from the first outline through lesson review. With Lazar Nikolov, that meant refining the curriculum over several meetings, reviewing individual lessons, and reviewing the completed course. He describes that process in CodeChem’s account of his first course. I also co-led weekly course-building sessions with Taylor Bell.

Teaching AI application development

Through O’Reilly, I teach AI-powered web applications with React, Next.js, and the AI SDK. The workshop connects model integration to the rest of the application: chat interfaces, routing, server rendering, and deployment. Engineers work through those pieces in hands-on exercises.

Building and operating products

I also build and maintain the software behind my own organizations and projects. This work takes me across the React interface, backend workflows, data models, and the operational problems that appear after launch.

Tierra Libre Run

I founded Tierra Libre Run and built its platform for race funding and athlete support. An approved application is different from a confirmed race entry. The workflow tracks review, participant requirements, and registration separately, with server-enforced permissions and tools for staff to resolve uncertain registration outcomes. Receipts and recovery evidence stay with the registration record; confirmation emails follow verified registration.

Cielo Running

For my trail-racing business, Cielo Running, I build the registration and payment system. A payment webhook and a runner returning from checkout can confirm the same purchase concurrently. Both reconcile against one order, while a database transaction checks capacity and creates the registration and bib allocation. Repeated confirmations reuse that order.

Aspen Research

The notebook behind this site combines private research with selective publishing. I built local draft recovery, serialized saves, and version checks to catch conflicting edits. Publishing creates a separate snapshot; public references are checked against what is currently visible. I write about the notebook in [[Building Aspen around connected ideas]].

Outside work

I’m based in Portland, Oregon. Away from the screen, I trail run, race, and spend time in the mountains. Running is also why I started Tierra Libre: to help more people find their way onto the trails.