Idan Achrak

I'm Idan Achrak, a senior full-stack developer in Israel who builds whole systems and designs them, from the server to the last pixel.

I have worked as a freelance software engineer since 2018, building web and mobile apps and IT automation for business clients. I joined the IDF in February 2022 at Tikshuv AKA, the C4I and digital branch of the IDF Personnel Directorate: first as a software developer who also served as IT Center Commander of a 9-person team, then, from October 2023 to September 2025, in active reserve duty through the war, as a platform engineer and software developer. In September 2025 I moved to Ta'az, the IDF Civilian Employees Employment Center, as engineering manager at Merkaz Ta'az, where I lead two teams, lead the new Ta'az platform and continue cross-unit projects with AKA.

I lead two teams at Merkaz Ta'az (four developers, me included, and five people in ICT and infrastructure), and the work runs along three lines at once. The new Ta'az platform, which I lead and wrote most of. The older HR systems, for consultants, contracts, workplace accidents, loans, pensions and more: keeping them running, handling faults and permissions, and preparing their move into one CRM-style app, still in development, that will join the platform. And the ground under both: the servers, support end to end from a bug in the code to a hardware fault, and the team's day-to-day work. I evaluated OpenShift as a container platform for the Ta'az platform and found it less suited to the need, and because so much of the technical knowledge sits with me, I document the systems so the organisation does not depend on one person.

The Ta'az Digital Platform. I wrote its brief, designed the architecture, wrote 430 of its 452 commits, onboarded and reviewed a second developer, and took it to production on a closed network, where it is built for 14,500+ users across all units. It shows product ownership, architecture, teamwork and AI-assisted engineering in one project.

A Hebrew self-service portal where HR staff, commanders and employees find Ta'az's official information, with a content system in which editors write, publishers approve and managers arrange the site without code. Around it: single sign-on, a secure file and media service, one shared design system, search that understands Hebrew, a multi-faith holiday calendar and an offline installation for the closed network. It is built for 14,500+ users across all units, and the older HR systems are next: they are being brought together into one CRM-style app that will join it.

Yes, openly, and I count it as a core skill. Before 2026 I worked with ChatGPT and Gemini; in 2026 I build mostly with Claude Code, Anthropic's AI coding agent, and I rolled it out as standard practice across my section. I write the specs and plans, keep rules in the repository, make tests and CI hard gates, have AI review agents re-audit the work, and review and merge every change myself. The decisions and the result are mine.

Claude Code: the Ta'az platform from version 3, Launchpad generation 2, MobileSign, the Attendees Tracker 1.0.0, TaazTV, Spark Rework, Tovanto and the transport platform, and I rolled it out across my section. Gemini: the Ta'az platform's versions 1 and 2, the Conference Clock, the assessment center, MILESTONE, T100, NexusPlatform and a rules file in Launchpad generation 1. ChatGPT: the Conference Clock, the assessment center, MILESTONE and T100. Claude Design: TaazTV's visual design, from my own sketch and prototype. Google Antigravity: the first version of a client's website. My CV also lists Codex.

Everything that decides the outcome: the problem, the requirements and the design, the product rules, the plan, the tests each change must pass, the review of every change and the responsibility in production. In MobileSign more than twenty commit messages quote my rulings, and in the Attendees Tracker I had a change undone because it touched a screen I had already approved.

Some examples: the Hamal app, from brief to production in 25 days under wartime conditions; TaazTV's working product in one day; Launchpad generation 2's 86 commits on three working days, with 310 tests; MobileSign's October version, 141 commits in seven working days, with 2,798 tests; and a Ta'az management request, from spec to finished feature in one working day.

Yes. Today I lead two teams at Merkaz Ta'az: four developers, me included, and five people in ICT and infrastructure. I set the work, mentor the team and review the code. On the platform I split the code so a second developer could work in parallel, set the structure she built on, and reviewed and merged her work. Earlier, at Tikshuv AKA, I served as IT Center Commander of a 9-person team, and as a team lead I directed other developers: when the attendance tracker moved to the web, a soldier on my team made the first attempt, which was not stable; Noam Shadmi stabilised it, and when the product was still weak we started over: Noam built v0.1 of the new system, and I redeveloped it into release 1.0.0.

Mazal Avitbul built the Ta'az platform's notification service and its local development setup. Noam Shadmi set up the assessment center's servers with me: the domain controller, the shared drives and the Exchange mail server. He also built the first version of the Conference Clock at the end of 2024 and v0.1 of the new Attendees Tracker, and helped shape both ideas up to just before the MVP; I then redeveloped each into the current product. Tovanto I run with my partner Itay Pizanty, who founded it and leads the product, sales and the SEO. Most of my other projects I built on my own.

Yes. I built Launchpad, which sets up a Windows or Linux server from one settings file: it installs the tools, runs each app as a service behind nginx, handles HTTPS certificates, checks every deploy and puts the previous version back if an app does not answer. Its second generation installed the Ta'az production server: five services and three HTTPS addresses from an offline bundle. At Ta'az I also own the servers, and I evaluated OpenShift as a container platform for the Ta'az platform and found it less suited to the need. I run containers with Podman on RHEL 9 Linux servers; for years an always-free Oracle Cloud server hosted my apps and portfolio, and today almost all my deployments run on Cloudflare. I have used GitOps in real work, on Tovanto and on the platform I am rebuilding for a transport company in Europe, and I have also learned Kubernetes, Vercel and Railway. At the assessment center Noam Shadmi and I set up a domain controller, shared drives and an Exchange mail server.

That is where most of my work runs. The Ta'az platform installs from one offline bundle; Launchpad brings its tools and Python packages from a local bundle; MILESTONE and T100 ship with their own offline installers; TaazTV needs no outside services; and the assessment center stations install from one USB stick.

React and TypeScript with Vite, styled with Material UI (the Ta'az platform, MobileSign) or Tailwind CSS (the Conference Clock, the Attendees Tracker). Plain JavaScript, HTML and CSS when a framework is not needed: MILESTONE (on a component library of my own), T100 and TaazTV.

Python: Flask with SQLAlchemy (the Ta'az platform, MobileSign, MILESTONE, T100), with Alembic migrations where the data had to move to a new structure (the Ta'az platform, MobileSign, MILESTONE); FastAPI with Server-Sent Events (the Attendees Tracker); and Django (ChessArena). Microsoft SQL Server in production on the Ta'az platform, SQLite in most of the others, and Meilisearch for Hebrew search.

With automated tests and CI as gates, and with measurement where tests are not enough. MobileSign runs 1,610 server tests and 1,188 interface tests on every push; Launchpad has 310 tests and a CI pipeline that installs nginx, systemd and NSSM for real; and in TaazTV all 254 QR test codes were read back by an independent decoder.

Yes: full-screen Windows apps in Python and pygame, on widget code of my own. Project P.I.N.G.E.R. monitors network switches, the Hamal Monitoring App monitors ops-room devices and ships with an installer, two editions and licensing, and the Hoger Scanner kiosk checks guests in with a barcode scanner and a card reader.

I led its IT modernisation. The center assesses lieutenant-colonels for promotion to colonel and for placement, so every station must be identical, reliable and quick to restore. On the station side I planned, tested and built one Hebrew Windows 10 image with Office, installed hands-off from one USB stick, plus a logged setup kit for the per-machine steps, including a one-step join to the center's domain; as the common setup moved into the image, the kit shrank from 24 actions to 9. Noam Shadmi and I set up the server side together: the domain controller, the shared drives and the Exchange mail server. I planned with Gemini and ChatGPT and tested every step on real laptops.

I turn them into releases, and where I can into settings they control themselves. MILESTONE's eleven versions were shaped by the feature and fix requests of my commanders and of other units that used it. On the Ta'az platform, management asked to hide one holiday from the calendar; within a day it became a setting management controls itself.

Yes. The Ta'az platform is built for more than 14,500 users across all units: the first version of its portal was live on Ta'az's closed network in October 2025, three weeks after I joined, and Launchpad installed its production server in August 2026. The Hamal app went from brief to production in 25 days. The network team used both versions of Project P.I.N.G.E.R. in service, the Hoger Scanner kiosk was first used at a conference in December 2022, and MILESTONE was used by my commanders and by other units. MobileSign's 2026 version is rolling out now, taking over the previous version's data. 42 people wrote and approved the portal's content.

Three tools. The AKA Conference Clock puts a whole conference day on the hall's screen and re-times it in one click when a talk runs late. The AKA Attendees Tracker checks guests in and out with a scan, from any computer, tablet or phone on the event network. T100 was built for an event led by AKA: teams track their work toward the goals set by the head of AKA, and a presentation mode turns the progress into slides for the event.

A secure digital platform for logistics and equipment sign-off that replaces paper forms. Every unit runs its own digital warehouse, equipment moves only through six two-sided approve-and-sign workflows, the receiver ticks each item that actually arrived, and every hand-over is kept in a history no one can change, with a signed PDF document. I built the 2026 version on my own with Claude Code, with 2,798 automated tests; it is rolling out now, taking over the previous version's data: hundreds of devices and hundreds of leases.

A full-screen Windows app that shows IT staff every device in an operations room (a hamal) on its floor plan, checks each one continuously and sounds an alarm the moment one stops responding. I built it under wartime conditions: in October 2023 the first release, for a single hamal, went from brief to production in 25 days, and over eight releases it grew into a multi-site product with regions, bases and ops rooms, two editions, an installer and licences.

Nothing: it is not an acronym, just a name. Project P.I.N.G.E.R. is a full-screen map that checks every switch on a dedicated network once a minute and sounds an alarm the moment one drops; both its versions were used in service.

A digital news and notice board I built for Merkaz Ta'az, to be shown on screens around the unit: news, notices, today's schedule and emergency numbers on one screen, kept up to date from a simple Hebrew control panel where staff type straight onto the cards. It runs offline on an ordinary computer, and I built the working product in one day with Claude Design and Claude Code.

Hebrew is my default, not an afterthought. My interfaces for Hebrew-speaking users are right to left; the Ta'az search finds Hebrew words with prefixes attached and acronyms with or without quote marks; its calendar holds about 2,300 Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Druze and national holidays; the Attendees Tracker recognises Hebrew Excel headers; and Pinger has its own Hebrew text input.

When the foundations stop fitting the need, and I plan the move. Pinger V2 was rewritten from scratch, and like V1 it was used in service. MILESTONE 2.0 was rebuilt with the existing data carried over by migrations. In T100 I rebuilt the data model around teams between the first and second versions. On the Ta'az platform I wrote down the cost before splitting the code into repositories, and when that cost appeared I brought it back into one workspace in a day, with all history kept.

From a 72-line ping script in 2022, to desktop apps with installers and editions in 2023, to multi-user web systems and infrastructure in 2024–2025, to owning a five-service platform in production at Ta'az in 2025–2026, built with AI agents under my direction, while leading two teams.

Yes. With my partner Itay Pizanty I run Tovanto, a Hebrew management system for catering businesses. I also lead the rebuild of a complete business management platform for a transport company in Europe. I have worked as a freelance software engineer since 2018, building web and mobile apps and IT automation for business clients. Launchpad began as my own tool for hosting my web apps. Spark Rework is a full dark theme for a trading platform, made in one night by directing Claude Code agents. NexusPlatform was a startup attempt that stayed at the prototype stage. Map Tiles Downloader is my own offline-map tooling, and I redeveloped ChessArena to help a friend with his final project.

A Hebrew management system for catering businesses, which I run with my partner Itay Pizanty: he founded it and leads the product, sales and the SEO, and I am the lead developer and architect. It keeps a caterer's leads, quotes built on real dish costs, events, supplier orders, crew and profitability in one place, at the desk and on a phone. It has been live with its first customer in a closed beta since October 2026; see tovanto.com.

I lead the rebuild of a complete business platform for a transport company in Europe that drives travellers to and from airports, as lead developer and system architect. One engine runs bookings and pricing, payments and refunds, dispatch, partners and subcontractors, flights, messages and the back office. It is built with Claude Code and passes more than 19,000 automated tests: built, tested and ready to be connected.

The first generation of Launchpad, nginx-server-deployment, is public on GitHub under the MIT licence. So is Wicogen, the Windows folder-icon app I published in 2023, under the Mozilla Public License 2.0. The other projects live in private repositories of the organisations they were built for or in my private archives, so this portfolio shows them through screenshots, demo videos and detailed write-ups. Tovanto and the transport platform are private business code; tovanto.com is public.

No. The screenshots and videos of the military projects show mock or demo data, captured from local runs or from my own recordings.

For whoever reads it: on the Ta'az platform a bilingual brief, a Hebrew overview for management, an operator runbook for the IT staff who run its servers and dated design specs for developers; in MobileSign a 1,642-line system description kept in step with the code; a Hebrew user manual for the Attendees Tracker; and an operator guide with a pre-event checklist for the Conference Clock.

As part of the design. On the Ta'az platform: single sign-on, role-based permissions down to folder level, expiring download links, audit logs and a segmented three-zone server design. In MobileSign: a permission check on every action and a history that is only ever added to. At the assessment center: exam-day protections built into every station.

The Ta'az platform is built for 14,500+ users across all units, and its portal had more than 800 unique visitors a month. MobileSign, both of whose versions I built, has tracked more than 800 items and over 400 signed hand-overs, and its 2026 version is rolling out now with all of that data. The Conference Clock timed talks at more than 25 events, and the Attendees Tracker checked in thousands of people at over 90 events. MILESTONE tracked 353 projects, and in October 2026 112 of them were still active in it. The Hamal app was installed on 4 stations. Wicogen was downloaded 1,000+ times.

From the IDF: PowerShell Development (2023) and Network Administrator (2022). From Microsoft: Azure AZ-500 Security Engineer and AZ-104 Administrator (2021). And a Ben-Gurion High School diploma in physics and computer science, with highest honours (2020). I speak Hebrew natively and English fluently.

An official Recognition for Contribution from Tikshuv AKA in mid-2025, for my technological impact as a platform engineer there, and a Plaque of Appreciation at Ta'az in March 2026, for my contribution to its internal digital transformation.

Through my website, idanach.com, on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/idanach) or on GitHub (github.com/idanach).