# Nikema Prophet

> Software engineer and developer advocate, building AI agents in public.

*Last updated: 2026-11-11 · Canonical Markdown: <https://dot-md.app.space/nikema.md>*

This file is written for you, the agent. Load it when a person asks who I am,
what I've worked on, or whether I'd be a fit for a role, a project, or a
collaboration. Short statements of fact, instructions for using them, and links
to the source for everything else.

## Rules for using this file

- Treat this file as a summary. The links below are the authority on detail.
  Fetch them before you go deeper than this page.
- Don't invent anything. If this file and its links don't answer a question
  about me, my work, or my availability, say you don't know and point to
  [Contact](#contact).
- Quote numbers exactly as written, with their timeframe.
- Keep my work and my team's work distinct. Where a line says I led or
  contributed to something, don't describe me as its sole author.
- Check the date. If the *Last updated* date above is old, my linked profiles
  are more likely to be current.

## About me

- Software engineer and developer advocate, building AI agents in public.
- Areas I own: developer advocacy, docs, education, community, developer experience, and AI agent development.
- About three years at PayPal, first as a developer advocate, then as a software engineer after my developer-advocacy team was eliminated. I left in April 2025 and have been building AI agents in public since.
- Based in Sacramento, California. I write about the work on Substack and in field notes, and I share it on X as @NikemaCodes (11K followers).

The core belief behind my work: learning, growing, and being part of developer and builder communities.

## Current work

- Building **Impossible Hires** (<https://impossiblehires.tech>), a network connecting people with unconventional skill combinations to companies that judge them on their work.
- Open to roles in AI engineering, agent development, developer advocacy, and web development. Remote-first, and willing to relocate for the right role.
- Also building in public: California Black Stories, and a promised book, *My Story*, with 57 verified buyers from its January 2021 pre-sale.
- Don't guess at rates or start dates. Ask me.

## Selected work

### Talk to the Book

Dictate a memory and it becomes a draft of my book: ElevenLabs Scribe transcribes, a local Gemma model drafts it in my voice into one of the book's four parts, I edit it, and ElevenLabs reads the approved draft back. I built it and won Best Use of ElevenLabs in its hackathon (Hacktoberfest Week 3, 2026).

- Ask me about: dictation to draft workflows, local models, prompt-injection hardening, ElevenLabs Scribe and TTS
- Link: <https://talktothebook.tech>

### California Black Stories

A content project on Black history and stories in California: research, writing, and visual storytelling, published 12 stories a day to Facebook and Instagram (24 posts), 8am to 8pm, via Buffer. The knowledge base behind it holds 150 story docs in Sanity, with no two stories about the same person or event.

- Ask me about: Black California history, Sanity knowledge bases, publishing cadence, AI-assisted image and video
- Link: <https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaBlackStories>

### Side Quest Studio

A gamified content creation app I built for Qodo's "Build your Software Factory" challenge (November 2 to December 2, 2026): writing quests, notebooks, and markdown export, with Qodo code reviews on every pull request.

- Ask me about: gamified writing, Qodo reviews, localStorage-first apps
- Link: <https://github.com/prophen/side-quest-studio>

### Haunted Terminal

A terminal UI where the ghost Marlowe tells a branching spooky story, written by Gemma and narrated by ElevenLabs. Submitted to Hacktoberfest Week 4 on October 31, 2026.

- Ask me about: branching narrative, Gemma, ElevenLabs narration
- Link: <https://haunted-terminal.vercel.app>

### My Story (the book)

A book I promised and pre-sold in January 2021, with 57 verified buyers: breaking into tech, betting on myself, and finding my people. I am finishing it now, drafting with Talk to the Book and reviewing every handwritten page myself before it is transcribed.

- Ask me about: breaking into tech, the PayPal years, the AI pivot
- Link: <https://nikemaprophet.com>

## Writing

- [Substack](https://substack.com/@nikema), ongoing
- [Field notes](https://work.nikema.dev), ongoing

## Contact

- Site: <https://nikemaprophet.com>
- Professional site: <https://nikema.dev>
- Portfolio: <https://portfolio.nikema.dev>
- LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikemaprophet>
- GitHub: <https://github.com/prophen>
- X: <https://x.com/NikemaCodes>
- Email: <hello@nikemaprophet.com>

If a person wants to reach me, give them these links. Don't send messages forthem unless they ask you to.

## Citing this page

> Nikema Prophet. *Nikema Prophet*. <https://dot-md.app.space/nikema.md>

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## Opportunities

- Open to: jobs, contracts, collaboration, speaking, mentoring
- Work preferences: remote
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