# Alex Carol

> Software Engineer at Adobe, Basel. Building AI systems, distributed services, and cloud infrastructure.

## [Alex Carol](https://alexcarol.com/)

AI & Software Engineering

Adobe · Basel, Switzerland

[About me](/about/) [Get in touch](/contact/)

## [About](https://alexcarol.com/about/)

I'm a **Software Engineer** at **Adobe** in Basel, Switzerland. My current focus is applied AI, building with LLMs, designing agent workflows, and evaluating where generative AI delivers real value in production systems.

I started out as a backend engineer, building services, APIs, and developer tooling across multiple companies. In recent years I've also done significant frontend work, which means I think about AI products end to end, from backend through to user experience.

In April 2026, I gave a [conference talk](/speaking/) at **[GenAI Zürich](https://www.genaizurich.ch/)** on testing LLM outputs in production. Originally from Barcelona, I've been based in Switzerland for several years.

Currently Adobe

Based Basel, Switzerland

Focus Applied AI - Full-Stack - Backend

Education Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Languages EN - ES - CA - DE (B1)

## Experience

Software Development Engineer

Adobe - Basel, Switzerland

Building applied AI into production systems, from LLM integrations and agent workflows to evaluation pipelines. Working across the full stack, from backend services to frontend and developer tooling.

Present

Software Engineer

Zürich & Barcelona

Backend engineering and infrastructure across multiple companies in Switzerland and Spain. Built automation systems, developer tooling, and backend services. Co-founded Match the Bar, a mobile app helping sports fans find bars showing live matches in Barcelona.

Earlier

## Projects

Match the Bar

Co-founded with Nikki Parsons - Barcelona

A mobile app that helped sports fans find bars showing specific matches in Barcelona. Co-founded with [Nikki Parsons](https://nikkiparsons.com/), I built the iOS and Android apps and the backend. We grew to 50+ active bars and 2,300 downloads before closing the project in 2019.

[Introduction post](https://medium.com/@matchthebar/introducing-match-the-bar-871312a80f67) [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@matchthebar8712/videos)

2018 – 2019

Clicking will load a YouTube embed that may set cookies per [Google's Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy).

## Open source

[promptfoo/promptfoo](https://github.com/promptfoo/promptfoo) 18,238 stars · 2 PRs · TypeScript

[adobe/helix-cli](https://github.com/adobe/helix-cli) 64 stars · 3 PRs · JavaScript

[adobe/aem-boilerplate](https://github.com/adobe/aem-boilerplate) 179 stars · 1 PR · JavaScript

[golang/tools](https://github.com/golang/tools) 7,923 stars · 1 PR · Go

[elastic/elasticsearch-php](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-php) 5,343 stars · 1 PR · PHP

[View all contributions →](/contributions/)

## Technical focus

AI & ML

LLMs, AI Agents, RAG, Evaluation & Evals, Prompt Engineering

Backend & Infrastructure

APIs, Microservices, Databases, CI/CD, Kubernetes, Observability

Frontend & Web

TypeScript, React, Astro, Web APIs, Performance

## [Blog](https://alexcarol.com/blog/)

## Tags

[ai](/blog/tag/ai/)[claude](/blog/tag/claude/)[productivity](/blog/tag/productivity/)

-   [
    
    My Company Holiday Calendar, Claude, and Two Clicks
    
    How I used Claude to turn a PDF holiday calendar into an importable .ics file in seconds.
    
    November 29, 2025
    
    ](/blog/holiday-calendar-ai-win/)
    
    [ai](/blog/tag/ai/)[claude](/blog/tag/claude/)[productivity](/blog/tag/productivity/)

## [My Company Holiday Calendar, Claude, and Two Clicks](https://alexcarol.com/blog/holiday-calendar-ai-win/)

[← Blog](/blog/) November 29, 2025

[ai](/blog/tag/ai/)[claude](/blog/tag/claude/)[productivity](/blog/tag/productivity/)

Every year, I get my company’s holiday calendar as a PDF. And every year, I’ve manually added each date to my personal Google Calendar so my partner knows when I’m off.

This year, I asked Claude for help, and it did not disappoint. It turned the list into an importable .ics file, and two clicks later, all 20 holidays for 2026 were in my calendar.

What’s one low-effort win AI gave you recently?

* * *

Share

[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/?shareActive=true&text=My%20Company%20Holiday%20Calendar%2C%20Claude%2C%20and%20Two%20Clicks%20by%20Alex%20Carol%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Falexcarol.com%2Fblog%2Fholiday-calendar-ai-win%2F) [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/intent/compose?text=My%20Company%20Holiday%20Calendar%2C%20Claude%2C%20and%20Two%20Clicks%20by%20Alex%20Carol%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Falexcarol.com%2Fblog%2Fholiday-calendar-ai-win%2F) Share

## [ai](https://alexcarol.com/blog/tag/ai/)

[← All posts](/blog/)

-   [
    
    My Company Holiday Calendar, Claude, and Two Clicks
    
    How I used Claude to turn a PDF holiday calendar into an importable .ics file in seconds.
    
    November 29, 2025
    
    ](/blog/holiday-calendar-ai-win/)
    
    [ai](/blog/tag/ai/)[claude](/blog/tag/claude/)[productivity](/blog/tag/productivity/)

## [claude](https://alexcarol.com/blog/tag/claude/)

[← All posts](/blog/)

-   [
    
    My Company Holiday Calendar, Claude, and Two Clicks
    
    How I used Claude to turn a PDF holiday calendar into an importable .ics file in seconds.
    
    November 29, 2025
    
    ](/blog/holiday-calendar-ai-win/)
    
    [ai](/blog/tag/ai/)[claude](/blog/tag/claude/)[productivity](/blog/tag/productivity/)

## [productivity](https://alexcarol.com/blog/tag/productivity/)

[← All posts](/blog/)

-   [
    
    My Company Holiday Calendar, Claude, and Two Clicks
    
    How I used Claude to turn a PDF holiday calendar into an importable .ics file in seconds.
    
    November 29, 2025
    
    ](/blog/holiday-calendar-ai-win/)
    
    [ai](/blog/tag/ai/)[claude](/blog/tag/claude/)[productivity](/blog/tag/productivity/)

## [Contact](https://alexcarol.com/contact/)

Email [contact@alexcarol.com](mailto:contact@alexcarol.com)

Open to conversations about AI engineering, conference speaking, and technical collaboration.

[Connect with me on LinkedIn](https://linkedin.com/in/alexcarol)

Let's connect - happy to chat about AI engineering, software development, or speaking opportunities.

Find me online

[Professional LinkedIn /in/alexcarol](https://linkedin.com/in/alexcarol) [Code GitHub @alexcarol](https://github.com/alexcarol)

## [Contributions](https://alexcarol.com/contributions/)

20 Merged PRs

13 Repositories

## By repository

[promptfoo/promptfoo](https://github.com/promptfoo/promptfoo)

Test your prompts, agents, and RAGs. Red teaming/pentesting/vulnerability scanning for AI. Compare performance of GPT, Claude, Gemini, Llama, and more. Simple declarative configs with command line and CI/CD integration. Used by OpenAI and Anthropic.

TypeScript / 18,238 stars

[fix(output): redact exported config secrets and clarify docs](https://github.com/promptfoo/promptfoo/pull/7974) #7974 Mar 2026

[feat(providers): add Claude Agent SDK plugin support](https://github.com/promptfoo/promptfoo/pull/6377) #6377 Nov 2025

[adobe/helix-cli](https://github.com/adobe/helix-cli)

Command-line tools for developing with AEM

JavaScript / 64 stars

[feat(html-folder): Add --html-mount flag to control URL path for html-folder serving](https://github.com/adobe/helix-cli/pull/2697) #2697 Mar 2026

[Remove accept-encoding in proxy call to use nodejs defaults](https://github.com/adobe/helix-cli/pull/2513) #2513 Apr 2025

[Default to main when \`hlx up\` is used on detached head state](https://github.com/adobe/helix-cli/pull/2207) #2207 Jun 2023

[adobe/aem-boilerplate](https://github.com/adobe/aem-boilerplate)

Use this repository template for new AEM projects.

JavaScript / 179 stars

[Add lint:fix script to package.json](https://github.com/adobe/aem-boilerplate/pull/470) #470 Apr 2025

[golang/tools](https://github.com/golang/tools)

Go Tools

Go / 7,923 stars

[present: add speaker notes to the title page](https://github.com/golang/tools/commit/c6efba04dd0d931bb11cd7f556285fa3c9305398) #31396 Oct 2016

[elastic/elasticsearch-php](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-php)

Official PHP client for Elasticsearch.

PHP / 5,343 stars

[Remove deprecated redundant FILTER\_VALIDATE\_URL from ClientBuilder::prependMissingScheme](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch-php/pull/803) #803 Sep 2018

[markbates/grift](https://github.com/markbates/grift)

Go based task runner

Go / 438 stars

[Add .travis.yml](https://github.com/markbates/grift/pull/16) #16 Jul 2017

[Make it explicit that the grifts listed are actually just listed](https://github.com/markbates/grift/pull/15) #15 Jul 2017

[Fix broken test](https://github.com/markbates/grift/pull/14) #14 Jul 2017

[socialpoint-labs/bsk](https://github.com/socialpoint-labs/bsk)

Collection of packages used to build backend services in Golang at Social Point

Go / 25 stars

[Add dispatcher package](https://github.com/socialpoint-labs/bsk/pull/29) #29 Dec 2017

[scopely/kinesis-vcr](https://github.com/scopely/kinesis-vcr)

Record, rewind and replay live Kinesis streams

Java / 58 stars

[Use default-jre instead of oracle-java8-installer](https://github.com/scopely/kinesis-vcr/pull/44) #44 Oct 2019

[scopely/terraform-kubernetes-cluster-autoscaler-aws](https://github.com/scopely/terraform-kubernetes-cluster-autoscaler-aws)

Terraform module for deploying Cluster Autoscaler for AWS to k8s cluster

HCL / 0 stars

[Upgrade cluster-autoscaler default version, image registry and cluster role](https://github.com/scopely/terraform-kubernetes-cluster-autoscaler-aws/pull/4) #4 Oct 2020

[Add required ec2:DescribeLaunchTemplateVersions action to the policy](https://github.com/scopely/terraform-kubernetes-cluster-autoscaler-aws/pull/3) #3 Oct 2020

[Add permission for apigroup storage.k8s.io csinodes resource](https://github.com/scopely/terraform-kubernetes-cluster-autoscaler-aws/pull/2) #2 Aug 2020

[scopely/terraform-kubernetes-alb-ingress-controller](https://github.com/scopely/terraform-kubernetes-alb-ingress-controller)

Terraform module for deploying ALB Ingress Controller to k8s cluster

HCL / 0 stars

[Update policy with the latest requirements](https://github.com/scopely/terraform-kubernetes-alb-ingress-controller/pull/2) #2 Aug 2020

[Allow custom annotations](https://github.com/scopely/terraform-kubernetes-alb-ingress-controller/pull/1) #1 Aug 2020

[scopely/terraform-kubernetes-external-dns-aws](https://github.com/scopely/terraform-kubernetes-external-dns-aws)

Terraform module for deploying External DNS for AWS to k8s cluster

HCL / 0 stars

[Allow custom annotations](https://github.com/scopely/terraform-kubernetes-external-dns-aws/pull/1) #1 Aug 2020

[symfony/symfony](https://github.com/symfony/symfony)

The Symfony PHP framework

PHP / 30,985 stars

[Corrected typo in catalan translation](https://github.com/symfony/symfony/pull/6340) #6340 Dec 2012

[doctrine/orm](https://github.com/doctrine/orm)

Doctrine Object Relational Mapper (ORM)

PHP / 10,172 stars

[Removed unnecessary "<?php" from the docs](https://github.com/doctrine/orm/pull/599) #599 Mar 2013

## [Privacy Policy](https://alexcarol.com/privacy/)

Last updated: March 2026

This website is operated personally by Alex Carol. Only privacy-friendly, cookie-free analytics are used. No tracking pixels or user profiling of any kind is used.

## What we do not collect

This site has no sign-up forms, accounts, or user tracking. No personal data is stored on any server operated by this site.

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This site uses Cloudflare Web Analytics to understand aggregate visitor trends such as page views, referrers, browser and device types, and country of origin. Cloudflare Web Analytics does not use cookies, does not track individual visitors, and does not collect personal data. All data is aggregated and anonymous. For more details, see [Cloudflare's Privacy Policy](https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/).

## Cookies

This site does not set any first-party cookies. However, embedded third-party content (such as YouTube videos) may set cookies on your device. See the "Embedded content" section below for details.

## Hosting

This site is hosted on Cloudflare Workers. When you visit, Cloudflare processes standard connection data (such as your IP address) to serve the pages. This processing is governed by [Cloudflare's Privacy Policy](https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/).

## Embedded content

Some pages include YouTube videos behind a click-to-load placeholder. No data is sent to YouTube until you choose to play the video. Once loaded, YouTube may set cookies and collect data according to [Google's Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy).

## External links

This site links to third-party platforms such as LinkedIn and GitHub. When you follow these links you leave this site and are subject to those platforms' own privacy policies.

## Contact

Questions about this policy? Reach out at [contact@alexcarol.com](mailto:contact@alexcarol.com).

## [Speaking](https://alexcarol.com/speaking/)

On April 2, 2026, I gave a conference talk at [**GenAI Zürich**](https://www.genaizurich.ch/schedule/gaz26-day-2-startup-tech-stage) on testing LLM outputs in production. The talk covered how my team at Adobe went from a simple, testable LLM app to a complex skills-based system where a single change could break everything, and how we built a testing framework to keep it under control.

My background in distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and application development gives me a full-stack perspective on what it takes to ship AI reliably.

Conference inquiries

Available for speaking

Interested in having me speak at your event? Get in touch.

[Contact](/contact/)

## Past Talks

April 2, 2026

## Testing LLM Outputs: Caging the Wind or Just Another Day in the Office?

[GenAI Zürich](https://www.genaizurich.ch/schedule/gaz26-day-2-startup-tech-stage) - April 2, 2026 - Tech & Startup Stage, Volkshaus Zürich - 11:00

As LLM-based applications scale and teams grow, you can no longer rely on intuition. This talk covers Adobe's journey from a simple LLM app to a sophisticated skills-based system, the shift to rigorous testing with Promptfoo, and lessons learned managing systems that feel unpredictable.

[View slides](/talk/testing-llm-outputs/)

Promo

## What I talk about

01

### Building with LLMs

Integrating language models into real products - where they add value, where they don't, and how to make them reliable enough to ship.

02

### AI Agents in Practice

Designing agent workflows that work in production: tool use, error handling, observability, and keeping humans in the loop.

03

### Engineering for AI Products

The infrastructure and dev practices that make AI features maintainable - evals, versioning, deployment, and iteration speed.

## [Testing LLM Outputs: Caging the Wind or Just Another Day in the Office?](https://alexcarol.com/talk/testing-llm-outputs/)

GenAI Zürich 2026

April 2, 2026 - [Tech & Startup Stage](https://www.genaizurich.ch/schedule/gaz26-day-2-startup-tech-stage), Volkshaus Zürich

Slides PDF, GenAI Zürich 2026

[Download slides](/_astro/GenAIZurich_Alex_Carol.D2qm1uMd.pdf)

[Connect with me on LinkedIn](https://linkedin.com/in/alexcarol) [genaizurich@alexcarol.com](mailto:genaizurich@alexcarol.com)

## About this talk

As LLM-based applications scale and teams grow, you can no longer rely on intuition to know if things work. This talk covers Adobe's journey from a simple LLM app to a sophisticated skills-based system, the shift to rigorous testing with Promptfoo, and lessons learned managing systems that feel unpredictable.

## Key takeaways

-   Why testing LLM outputs is different from traditional software testing, and what that means for your workflow
-   How to set up evaluation-driven development with Promptfoo to catch regressions before they reach users
-   Practical patterns for scaling LLM testing as your application grows from a single prompt to a multi-skill system
-   Lessons from running this at Adobe: what worked, what surprised us, and what we'd do differently

## Resources

-   [Promptfoo](https://www.promptfoo.dev/) \- LLM evaluation framework
-   [Claude Agent SDK plugin support](https://github.com/promptfoo/promptfoo/pull/6377) \- promptfoo/promptfoo#6377
-   [Redact exported config secrets](https://github.com/promptfoo/promptfoo/pull/7974) \- promptfoo/promptfoo#7974

## More from me

[About Background, experience, and what I'm working on](/about/) [Speaking Topics I talk about and booking info](/speaking/) [Blog Notes, articles, and things I find interesting](/blog/) [Contact Get in touch](/contact/)

Alex Carol Software Development Engineer at Adobe

[](https://linkedin.com/in/alexcarol)[](https://github.com/alexcarol)