Upcoming Project Ideas

With weeks 1 and 2 done (Minimal TypeScript Blockchain and React Native Mobile App), here's the rough plan for the remaining ~28 weeks, running through to September 2026 when uni starts.

The goal is a varied portfolio: systems programming in Rust and Go, AI/ML integrations, games, real-world tools, and some full-stack work that goes beyond my usual Laravel comfort zone.

Full Schedule at a Glance

Week	Project
1 ✅	Minimal TypeScript Blockchain
2 ✅	React Native Mobile App
3 ✅	CLI File Organiser (Rust)
4	Personal Finance Tracker
5	URL Shortener API (Go)
6	AI Commit Message Generator
7	Snake (Terminal)
8	Markdown to HTML Converter (Rust)
9	Dotfiles Manager
10	Local Document Q&A
11	Static Site Generator (Go)
12	Browser Extension
13	Port Scanner (Rust)
14	Pong (Browser)
15	Sentiment Analysis Dashboard
16	System Monitor CLI (Go)
17	Self-Hosted Pastebin
18	Key-Value Store (Rust)
19	GitHub Contribution Analyser
20	AI Code Reviewer
21	TCP Chat Server (Go)
22	Link in Bio Tool
23	HTTP Server from Scratch (Rust)
24	Pomodoro TUI App
25	Roguelike Dungeon Crawler
26	Image Caption Generator
27	Resume/CV Builder
28	Open Source Contribution
29	API Rate Limiter Middleware
30	Capstone: Documentation & Showcase

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A More Detailed Look at Upcoming Projects

🦀 Rust (5 weeks)

Starting simple with file I/O and working up to building an HTTP server from scratch.

Week	Project	What I'll Learn
3	CLI File Organiser; sorts files in a directory by type/date into folders	Rust basics, file I/O, clap for CLI args
8	Markdown to HTML Converter; parse .md files and output static HTML	String parsing, basic AST thinking, iterators
13	Port Scanner; scan a range of ports on a host and report open ones	Networking in Rust, threading, async basics
18	Key-Value Store; a simple persistent KV store written to disk	File I/O, serialisation, basic DB concepts
23	HTTP Server from Scratch; handle GET/POST with no frameworks	TCP, HTTP protocol internals, lifetimes

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🐹 Go (4 weeks)

Go is clean, fast to learn, and great for systems/tooling work. Starting with a basic API and building up to concurrency.

Week	Project	What I'll Learn
5	URL Shortener API; simple REST API with in-memory or file-based storage	Go basics, net/http, JSON
11	Static Site Generator; takes Markdown + templates, outputs HTML	File traversal, templating (html/template)
16	System Monitor CLI; shows CPU, memory, disk usage in the terminal	OS interfaces, goroutines, terminal rendering
21	TCP Chat Server; multi-client chat over raw TCP	Goroutines, channels, concurrency

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🤖 AI / ML (5 weeks)

Mix of consuming APIs and doing real ML work; all in Python since I'm already comfortable there.

Week	Project	What I'll Learn
6	AI Commit Message Generator; git hook that suggests a commit message from your diff	Python + OpenAI/Claude API, git hooks
10	Local Document Q&A; ask questions about a PDF using embeddings + a local LLM	RAG basics, vector search, LangChain/LlamaIndex
15	Sentiment Analysis Dashboard; analyse text and visualise sentiment over time	Python ML (transformers), data viz
20	AI Code Reviewer; CLI tool that reviews a file and gives suggestions	Prompt engineering, streaming API responses
26	Image Caption Generator; upload an image, get a caption + tags	Multimodal models, Python, Flask or FastAPI

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🎮 Games (3 weeks)

A bit of fun; and it turns out game dev teaches you a surprising amount about state management and rendering.

Week	Project	What I'll Learn
7	Snake (Terminal); classic Snake rendered in the terminal	Python curses or Rust terminal libs
14	Pong (Browser); two-player Pong in vanilla JS Canvas	Game loop, collision detection, Canvas API
25	Roguelike Dungeon Crawler; turn-based, procedural maps, simple combat	Procedural generation, game state management

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🛠️ Useful Real-World Tools (7 weeks)

These are the ones I'm most excited to actually use day-to-day.

Week	Project	What I'll Learn
4	Personal Finance Tracker; CSV import, categorise spending, visualise it	Web, JS, Serverless
9	Dev Environment Dotfiles Manager; CLI to sync/backup dotfiles to GitHub	Bash/Python scripting, symlinks, Git API
12	Browser Extension; tab manager, focus timer, or custom new tab page	WebExtension API, JS in a constrained env
17	Self-Hosted Pastebin; create, share, and expire text snippets	Trying Go or Python instead of defaulting to Laravel
19	GitHub Contribution Analyser; visualise your own or anyone's GitHub activity	REST/GraphQL API consumption, data viz
24	Pomodoro TUI App; terminal-based focus timer with sessions + history	Rust or Go, TUI libs like ratatui
27	Resume/CV Builder; input data as JSON/YAML, output a styled PDF	Templating, PDF generation, CLI UX

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🌐 Web / Full-Stack (4 weeks)

Saving some web projects for later; but with a twist each time, no plain Laravel CRUD.

Week	Project	What I'll Learn
22	Link in Bio Tool; self-hosted, customisable Linktree alternative	Trying a new framework (SvelteKit?)
28	Open Source Contribution; pick an active OSS project and submit a real PR	Reading codebases, git workflow, community comms
29	API Rate Limiter Middleware; pluggable middleware package for Node or Laravel	Package design, publishing to npm/Packagist
30	Capstone: Documentation & Showcase; proper READMEs, demos, and a dedicated showcase page on my portfolio for all 29 projects	Technical writing, demo recording, portfolio curation