Polystichum munitum

Sword ferns grow all through the forest here. They stay green all winter and come back every spring.

Specimen

Sword Fern Studios

Software, made by hand. Grows in Cumberland, Vancouver Island.

A one-person software studio. I build and untangle software for small teams, and use AI where it actually helps.

Pencil sketch of the Beaufort Range above a line of trees and sword ferns
Cumberland, BC

Key to the specimens

  1. 1a.You have an idea, or a service that needs to be betterPlate I
  2. 1b.Your process, or the plumbing between your tools, is the problemPlate II
  3. 1c.You want AI to do something useful, without being thoughtless about itPlate III
  4. 1d.None of these, but you think we’d get alongSay hello

Specimens

Pencil sketch of a young fern frond unfurling, beside a measuring ruler

Plate I

Product development

New services, or better versions of the ones you have, built so your users enjoy using them.

Habitat
Small teams and mission-driven orgs with a clear idea and nobody free to build it.
Growth habit
We agree on the outcome, I write a plan you can poke holes in, then I build it end to end, with the tests and docs your team needs to own it after I leave.
Seen at
ticket2pr

not to be confused with: an agency that ships and disappears

Pencil sketch of roots running underground and joining three small boxes, like a fungal network linking tools

Plate II

Systems

Untangling how work gets done, and the software plumbing between your tools, so process stops being the problem.

Habitat
Teams with too many tools, copy-and-paste between them, and integrations nobody finished.
Growth habit
I map how work actually moves, then simplify what I can and connect what’s left.
Seen at
A shared AI tracking service

not to be confused with: more process another tool to manage

Pencil sketch of a hand lens held over a fern sprig, with a small spark beside it

Plate III

AI consulting

Working out where AI is actually useful for you, then putting it in thoughtfully.

Habitat
Teams who are curious about AI but wary of the hype, the cost, or getting it wrong.
Growth habit
Start with the problem, not the model. Try it small, check it with real people, and keep a person reviewing what ships.
See also
Made by hand, with help

not to be confused with: AI for the sake of AI

Field notes

Observed 2026

ticket2pr

A small command-line tool that turns a ticket into a plan you review, then a draft pull request. A two-minute plan review catches a wrong approach before it becomes a 400-line diff.

→ github.com/c4rlz/ticket2pr

Specimen: Product development

Observed 2024–2026

AI topic classification at Moz

Led the cross-team rollout of AI keyword categorization, and designed the API contracts for a shared AI tracking service used across several apps.

Specimen: AI consulting

Made by hand, with help

AI has shortened the distance between an idea and the thing itself. Something that used to take weeks just to try can now be sketched, built and put in front of people far sooner. Truly, we’re only limited by our imagination.

So I let AI do a lot of the heavy lifting. The parts that matter most stay with me: listening to what you actually need, deciding what’s worth making, and caring whether it’s good before it ships.

Pencil sketch of an open notebook with a fern doodle, a pencil, and a small spark

Companion species

If something here sounds like your team, send me a few lines about it. No pitch deck needed, just what’s going on and what you’d like to be different.

Sword Fern Studios is Carly Ewasiuk’s practice. More about me, and my resume →