Porto, Portugal · 28 years building software
Marcel Schmitz
Software engineer specialising in WordPress, WooCommerce, and native iOS. I run Pluginslab, ship indie iOS apps like Hidgets and DuetCam, and write here about agentic development, security, and the craft.
🇧🇷🇩🇪🇵🇹
Writing
-
Agentic Development: Why WordPress Developers Must Adopt It Now
Discover how agentic development with WordPress MCP transforms plugin development. Learn supervised AI coding with Claude Code to build WordPress plugins 10x faster while maintaining complete control and quality.
/wordpress
-
Hackers Don’t Break In, They Log In: Social Engineering, AI, and “Polite Paranoia” You Can Use Today
Social engineering is how most “hacks” really happen: humans, not firewalls. In this friendly, plain-English guide we unpack what social engineering is, what ethical hackers like Rachel Tobac actually do, and how AI (voice cloning, agentic calls, deepfakes) is changing the game. You’ll learn a simple threat-modeling approach and a “polite paranoia” checklist: passkeys, number […]
/security
-
Vibe Coding: The Two Sides of AI in Software
I want to talk about something I’ve been thinking a lot about as a developer here in Porto: vibe coding. It’s a term you’ve probably heard, and it sounds pretty cool, right? It’s this idea of just chatting with an AI and watching the code appear, almost like magic. But from my perspective, after 25+ years in this game, “vibe coding” isn’t just one thing. It’s actually two completely different ideas, and how we use it, and who uses it, is a really big deal. Let’s dive in and chat about why.
/software
-
What If Every Email Had a Digital Seal? A Friendly Chat About Email Phishing Prevention
Picture this: you get an important email from your bank, your favorite store, or even your boss. But… is it really them? Or is it another sneaky phishing attempt? We’ve all been there, squinting at the “From” address, feeling a little suspicious. Wouldn’t it be amazing if there was a universal way for anyone—techy or […]
/security
-
New Website, New Start
It was about damn time. I needed a new website, one that could introduce me in less than 30 seconds, one that would tell anyone who wanted to know more about me a chance to read about the career so far, the work that I have done, what skill sets I have, and get to know what kind of a person I am.
/personal
Currently
Running Pluginslab, taking selective freelance via Codeable, and shipping side projects.
Going next
WordCamp Portugal (speaker) · WordCamp Europe · performance.now(). See Up Next.
Get in touch
marcel@pluginslab.com. Usually replies within a day.