Hi, I'm Ricardo.

I’m a software developer. I build apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, web services, and open-source terminal tools in Rust. Outside of code I play guitar, make music as @darkfrets, and ride mountain bikes on the trails near my home.

How I got here

My day job has mostly been TypeScript, Rust and some Python and Go along the way.

The apps started as side projects. I wanted tools I would actually use, and the good ones tended to be bloated or came with a subscription I did not want. So I built my own.

What I build, and why

I like small, focused software. A timer should be a timer. A bookmark manager should save a link in one tap.

• Small scope. One job per app, done well.
• Native. I use each platform’s own tools where I can: Swift and SwiftUI on Apple devices, Rust in the terminal.
• Apple ecosystem. Widgets, Apple Watch, iCloud sync and Shortcuts make an app feel like part of the device.

I also like the terminal. Feedo, Tickit, Perch and Hazelnut are Rust apps because I live there and wanted fast, keyboard-driven software.

There are trade-offs. Native apps take longer to build than cross-platform ones, and each platform needs its own work. In my opinion the result is worth it. You can see everything in Projects.

Where am I?

In 2026 my family and I moved to Lavis, a small town in northern 🇮🇹. Before that we lived in Stockholm 🇸🇪 and Dublin 🇮🇪.

I am still learning Italian, and the mountains make up for the paperwork.

Languages

I speak English and Portuguese. Mentoring sessions and consulting calls are in English or Portuguese.

Music

I play guitar and write and produce music as @darkfrets. It is where I put the part of my brain that does not care about shipping schedules. Original songs, a look at the gear and the production side, and the occasional experiment.

My latest release is Edge Protocol. You can listen to it and everything else on the @darkfrets page.

Latest releaseEdge ProtocolListen to it and everything else on the @darkfrets page.

Mountain biking

At weekends I ride trail and enduro on the trails around Lavis and Trento, on an e-MTB. I plan routes in komoot, record rides on a Garmin Edge and keep the data in Apple Health. I even built an app, SyncToHealth, to get my ride files in there. Follow my MTB adventures on instagram.com/@ricardo_emtb

Trails and muddy shoes are about as far from a screen as I get.

Say hello

The easiest way to reach me is email: me@ricardodantas.me. You can also find me on Mastodon, Bluesky, X, GitHub and LinkedIn.

If you want career or AI advice, see Mentoring. If you need something built, see Consulting.