My Story

Before anything got real, I sketched my visions and inventions in a little book, dreaming about inventing something revolutionary. I realize now that this was the most important part: dreaming about something impossible and being creative.

At age 10 I got my first computer, and with it a book about the visual programming language Scratch. That was my first touch point with software engineering.

After building some things in it, it annoyed me that I could not run these games standalone. That itch spiked my interest in professional software development. My first text based programming language was Python. It taught me all the fundamentals and gave me a basic introduction to this new world.

Soon I explored the ecosystem more and more, but I wanted to make games, which got me into Unity and C#. I soon realized C# was currently too complex for me, so I learned it by creating basic desktop applications, mostly by taking a look at the source-code of other projects on GitHub. In parallel I got invested in web development and created my first frontend, without really understanding what I actually did.

Between first scripts and first clients came the era of building just for the sake of it.

Minecraft server plugins taught me Java, the hard way: config files, stack traces, and a server restarting a hundred times a day.

Around the same time came Discord bots: some useful, most of them pointless, all of them fun. The point was never the bot itself, but that I could build something in the evening and my friends would use it the same night.

Some of those early experiments are still on GitHub, and the icons on these cards are my own designs, drawn by hand in an era before AI design tools.

PlayerPrefs

An easy tool to set / get player preferences for each player in Spigot.

JavaSpigot

Open: PlayerPrefs→

Sound-Bot

A Discord bot that plays sounds or music in a voice channel, indefinitely.

TypeScriptDiscord

Open: Sound-Bot→

EasyMoneySystem

An easy Spigot money system, built on my PlayerPrefs library.

JavaSpigot

Open: EasyMoneySystem→

Step by step I began to actually understand how things work, and I had my first couple of professional paid consulting tasks, helping friends and acquaintances with simple frontend support.

I had my first university experience, doing courses at OpenCampus about Game Development, JavaScript, Marketing and Startups, along with gaining official certificates and my first ECTS points. I also became invested in the startup scene, visiting events like Waterkant and holding my first pitches and speeches. I gave the very first one at 15, at the OpenCampus semester opening. OpenCampus and Waterkant have been among the biggest contributors to my career ever since.

Alongside the code, I was learning to move an audience: 3D Minecraft animations, first in Mine-Imator and later in Blender, grew my TikTok to 97,000 followers: an account that still exists today, dormant but mine.

• Age 15OpenCampus semester openingKiel · Speaker
• Jun 2022Waterkant FestivalKiel · Attendee

Fresco-Kiel Website

The official website for Fresco-Kiel, currently closed.

Static WebsiteHTMLCSS

Open: Fresco-Kiel Website→

Nitrado-Bot

A Discord bot to control your Nitrado gameserver.

TypeScriptDiscord

Open: Nitrado-Bot→

My actual career really lifted off with my first student internship at TypeFox. Here I learned the fundamentals of enterprise-level engineering and version control, and created the SimpleUI-DSL together with a former colleague.

Live - github.com/TypeFox/langium-ui-framework

SimpleUI-DSL

A domain-specific language for describing user interfaces, built with a former colleague during the internship.

LangiumTypeScriptDSL

Open: SimpleUI-DSL→

Soon after, I applied for and landed a "Minijob" role at TypeFox, where I worked for 1.5 years, doing mostly frontend architecture and language engineering. Alongside the job I kept building personal projects, three of which are still online today.

• Jun 2023Waterkant FestivalKiel · Attendee
• Jun 2024Waterkant FestivalKiel · Attendee

Live - github.com/emilkrebs/WatchLock

WatchLock

Lock your phone with your smartwatch. WearOS and Android, built for personal security.

KotlinAndroidWearOS

Open: WatchLock→

Live - langium.org/showcase/minilogo

Langium Showcase

DSL showcases built with Langium: state machines, arithmetic, MiniLogo, and domain models.

LangiumTypeScriptDSLs

Open: Langium Showcase→

Generator-Discord

Create a basic Discord bot, supporting many programming languages.

TypeScriptDiscord

Open: Generator-Discord→

School came to an end along with the final exams, and I mostly did a little freelancing here and there, using the expertise I had gained over the last couple of years with a growing interest in cybersecurity. Two projects from that time are still running today.

VailNote was born in the same transition: development began in my final school years, went public about a year later, and is still in active development today.

Then came a short break from all professionalism; I spent most of my time with friends and nature.

• Jun 2025Waterkant FestivalKiel · Attendee

Live - bipoclimatejusticenetwork.org

BIPoC Climate Justice Conference

The official site for the BIPoC Climate Justice Conference 2024 and 2025, localized and fully markdown-driven.

Next.jsTypeScriptLocalization

Open: BIPoC Climate Justice Conference→

Live - vailnote.com

VailNote

Active

Encrypted note sharing with zero-knowledge encryption and self-destructing notes.

TypeScriptFreshDenoMongoDB

Open: VailNote→

Live - emilkrebs.dev

This site

Active

Static export. No server, no database. Typeset per the spec you are reading.

Next.jsTypeScriptTailwind CSS

Open: This site→

At the start of my first semester, Winter Semester 2025/26, I got back to work and started at TypeFox again, this time in a full professional role, working with clients, large teams and complex projects. All of this while studying full-time for my Bachelor in Computer Science and Sociology. With the rapid rise of AI, I am exploring the ways of empowering humans, and building better developer tooling.

I also keep showing up in person: at Waterkant in Kiel, as every year, and in September 2026 in Shanghai, for AGNTCon + MCPCon China and the opening day of the Inclusion Conference on the Bund. Two days of agent protocols, one day of the AI economy, and many conversations in between. MCP takes its cue from the Language Server Protocol, which I work with every day.

• Jun 2026Waterkant FestivalKiel · Attendee
• Sep 2026AGNTCon + MCPCon ChinaShanghai · Attendee
• Sep 2026Inclusion Conference on the BundShanghai · Attendee

The products I am building today are Prami, Healthstack, and VailNote.

In testing - Prami

Prami

Preview

Active recall and spaced repetition, engineered so the review schedule fades into the background.

Next.jsPWATypeScript

Open: Prami→

Concept Page

Healthstack

Concept

A specialized IDE for lifestyle optimization on Eclipse Theia: biomarker tracking, unit conversion, and a purpose-built DSL for intervention protocols.

TheiaLangiumTypeScriptElectron

Open: Healthstack→