Todd Watts

Software engineer & fractional CTO

Full-stack development & business technology

Todd Watts.

Useful on the surface.
Considered underneath.

I build full-stack software, interfaces and developer tools. My background combines over seven years of software development with experience in marketing and technology leadership.

Through Shell Command, LLC, I work as a fractional CTO and hands-on software engineer for mid-sized service businesses in finance, quant and tax.Open to software engineering roles, contract work and freelance projects.

See selected work Email Todd Read my résumé

A prerecorded clip of Todd Watts, redrawn live in text characters. A static text frame shows the same clip when motion is not available.

Fig. 01 · Todd, in eleven shades of type

Give Pi a clear shell policy and checkpoints before it acts. See the work

From first interaction to what happens next.Selected work

The work behind the work

Engineering with business context.

Explore my experience

2018–2025 / Engineered Tax Services

Developer from the beginning.

Hands-on software work throughout, including early marketing and technology leadership. A dedicated development role as the company grew.

Now / Shell Command, LLC

Fractional CTO. Hands-on engineer.

I help mid-sized service businesses in finance, quant and tax set technical direction, shape system architecture and build the software.

Open to software engineering roles, contract work and freelance projects.

Explore fractional CTO services

Public LinkedIn recommendations

People who know the work.

Perspectives from teammates, a direct manager and clients. Browse short excerpts and summaries, then read their full recommendations on LinkedIn.

LinkedInPeople behind the words
  • ASCII portrait of Ian Miller

    Ian Miller

    ETS teammate

    June 2024
    In their words

    “sharp technical skills, particularly in API development”

    Recommendation summary

    A former ETS teammate highlights API development, creative problem-solving and a collaborative approach to delivering software.

  • ASCII portrait of Julio Gonzalez

    Julio Gonzalez

    Former direct manager

    August 2025
    In their words

    “Easy to work with”

    Recommendation summary

    A former direct manager emphasizes business value, ease of collaboration and making technical ideas understandable.

  • Initials for Daniel Benson

    Daniel Benson, MHA, LNHA

    CEO · Client and colleague

    October 2025
    In their words

    “bridging technical execution with market-facing growth”

    Recommendation summary

    A client and colleague connects full-stack development and API integration with creative marketing and commercial strategy.

  • ASCII portrait of Charina Padilla

    Charina Padilla

    Client and long-term collaborator

    September 2025
    In their words

    “meets deadlines reliably”

    Recommendation summary

    Across a seven-year collaboration, Charina highlights technical adaptability, clear communication and attention to business goals.

A closer look

Selected work

Public-facing client work and independent engineering. Client entries show professional context; open-source work and original experiments make the technical decisions inspectable.

See all work

System in motion

Follow the request.
Feel the consequences.

Travel through the decisions behind an answer. Then change a condition and watch the same journey take a different turn.

Illustrative model / no live requests
One request. Every handoff.01 / 10 events

Request → Gate

Request reaches the policy gate

Output withheld

Enables the site’s motion setting. You can pause at any point.

What happens here

The request asks for a cited summary of public documentation. Its text supplies intent; it cannot grant permission.

The rule that holds

Release follows authorization, a returned tool result and a passed check, in that order. This is a design invariant, not a claim of exactly-once delivery.

The happy path is only the beginning.

Deny permission. Exhaust a retry. Fail a check. The camera follows the consequence.

Eight responsibilities, in plain language
  1. 01Request
  2. 02Gate
  3. 03Orchestrator
  4. 04Agents ×3
  5. 04aTools
  6. 03aMemory
  7. 05Checks
  8. 06Output

Deterministic architecture, not production telemetry. See what MAINFRAME actually implements ↗

Inspect a real policy boundary

The invariant: a blocked command must stop before protected shell execution. MAINFRAME’s Pi hook checks the command and returns a blocking result when policy refuses it.

The regression: a test submits an obfuscated destructive command through that hook and requires the dynamic-executable-word refusal.

Inspect the enforcement hook ↗Read the failure test ↗

Source and test definitions at revision c6a4f639. This page does not run that test. The boundary covers supported Pi shell routes; native write/edit tools and an operating-system sandbox remain outside its scope.

Original engineering experiment

One request. Two ways to fail.

A fictional telescope lending desk. Retry a request, lose a notification and inspect which state should change. All data and scenarios are invented for this site.

Explore the lending lab

Original writing

Read the decisions behind the work.

Work through a build, buy or integrate decision, inspect what an API timeout means, or explore the process behind agentic coding.

Read all engineering and business notes

Project Advisor · a practical starting point

Find the smallest useful build.

Ask Project Advisor. It turns a few project decisions into a scoped plan, a first experiment and a way to tell whether it worked. The guided planner runs in your browser. For a direct route, read my résumé or contact me.

Open Project Advisor