Daniel Podolsky Portfolio

A performant portfolio website built with React 19 and TypeScript, featuring an AI-powered assistant, premium UI interactions, and theme-aware design.

Live: danielpodolsky.dev

Table of Contents

1. Built With
2. Overview
3. Project Structure
4. Available Scripts
5. Key Features
6. Development Status
7. License
8. Contact
9. Acknowledgments

Built With

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Overview

This portfolio showcases my transition from Combat Medic to Software Engineer through interactive project cards, technical blog posts, and a skills showcase. The site prioritizes performance, accessibility, and modern development patterns that reflect production-grade engineering practices.

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Project Structure

├── api/                 # Vercel serverless functions (RAG chatbot)
├── knowledge/           # AI knowledge base (markdown files)
└── src/
    ├── assets/          # Static images and blog assets
    ├── components/
    │   ├── chat/        # AI chatbot components
    │   ├── layout/      # Layout primitives (Header, Footer, Layout)
    │   ├── sections/    # Page sections (Hero, Projects, Blog, Skills, Contact)
    │   └── ui/          # Reusable UI components (ProjectCard, BlogCard, SpotlightCard)
    ├── contexts/        # React Context providers (ThemeContext)
    ├── data/            # Static data (projects, skills, blog posts)
    ├── hooks/           # Custom React hooks
    ├── lib/             # Utility functions (cn helper)
    └── types/           # TypeScript type definitions

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Available Scripts

Command	Description
npm run dev	Start development server with HMR
npm run build	Type-check and build for production
npm run preview	Preview production build locally
npm run lint	Run ESLint on all files
npm run format	Format code with Prettier
npm run format:check	Check formatting without writing

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Key Features

Performance

• Code splitting via React.lazy and Suspense
• Image optimization with vite-plugin-image-optimizer
• Tailwind CSS v4 automatic tree-shaking
• Lighthouse score: 100

AI Portfolio Assistant

An intelligent chatbot powered by RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) that helps visitors and recruiters learn about my experience:

• Real-time streaming responses via Vercel AI SDK v6
• Claude Haiku 4.5 for fast, accurate responses with strong instruction-following
• Semantic search through Pinecone vector database
• Knowledge base built from curated markdown files covering projects, skills, and background
• Rate limiting via Upstash Redis to prevent abuse

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Development Status

Planned

• Component testing with Vitest
• GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline
• Hero section screenshot/GIF for README

Completed

• Vercel deployment with analytics
• AI-powered portfolio assistant with RAG
• Claude Haiku 4.5 integration with prompt hardening
• Mobile UX optimization (keyboard behavior)

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License

MIT

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Contact

• LinkedIn: daniel-podolsky-341901242
• GitHub: DanielPodolsky
• Email: lambodol76@gmail.com

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Acknowledgments

• Vercel AI SDK - Streaming AI responses
• Anthropic Claude - AI model powering the chatbot
• Pinecone - Vector database for semantic search
• shadcn/ui - UI component library
• GSAP - Premium animations
• Tailwind CSS - Utility-first styling
• Upstash - Serverless Redis for rate limiting

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