Welcome to Undercroft Labs

I've spent the past 15 years building software professionally. During that time I've ben writing code, architecting systems, debugging weird edge cases, and trying to make sense of ever-evolving tools and frameworks. Along the way, I've collected a lot of hard-earned knowledge, built plenty of utilities, and developed a deep appreciation for small tools that just do one thing well.

Undercroft Labs is where I'm putting it all.

Why “Undercroft”?

Think of it like a digital workshop — a quiet space beneath the surface where tools are forged, experiments happen, and ideas are left out in the open to be picked up, improved, or completely rethought. It's not a company or a side hustle (yet). It's a home base for the tools I build, the patterns I explore, and the lessons I want to share.

What You'll Find Here

Most of what I publish will be developer-focused: small libraries, middleware, dev tools, or patterns that reduce friction without locking you into an opinionated stack.

No frameworks.
No hype.
No six-part tutorials to get “Hello World” working.

Just simple, focused tools meant to help other developers move faster and solve real problems.

Who Am I?

I'm a software engineer with a background in full-stack development and a specialization in data science. Over the years, I've led engineering efforts, built production systems in a variety of stacks, and mentored devs across experience levels.

I enjoy working close to the metal, and in recent years I've been exploring compiler design, language theory, and how we can build developer tools that feel more like instruments than machinery.

What's Next?

I'll be posting articles, tools, and ideas regularly — many of them rooted in real work I've done or real problems I've solved. If you're into practical tooling, micro-libraries, or just want to see what someone's building in public, stick around.

You can also check out the Libraries section — it's where most of the small, reusable packages live.

Thanks for being here.
Let's build better tools.

Michael Goodwin