The interface was still there

Today is 1 August 2026. Around this time of year, I tend to get a little more melancholy.

I think about the team at VTEX, about being younger, and about how many years have passed since those days were simply my everyday life.

I opened the Personal Shopper documentation and recognised the interface I had built there.

There it was. The same UI. In the documentation, it looked unchanged.

I got emotional looking at it. I had carried that time with me in fragments: a place, a few names, a problem I could not solve. Here was a piece of it on a page anyone could open.

For a moment, I was back in my brother’s apartment in Chiquinquirá, with my laptop and his two chihuahuas. Then I was thinking about Maik’s code, the award, and that last day with Paola.

Years had passed. Looking at that screen, they suddenly felt much closer.

Before the long weekend

The beginning still makes me smile.

Jhon asked me to record a video of myself programming something simple. I misunderstood the test and recorded an entire hour of myself writing code. A simple exercise, somehow turned into a full-length episode.

I joined through a third-party company and later became a direct employee. At first, I barely understood what VTEX did, let alone the scale of the company or my work’s impact.

I learned by reading the company’s code and my colleagues’ work, especially Michael’s — Maik, as I call him. No AI assistant. Just other people’s code, and me trying to understand it.

I was learning inside a team before I understood how much I would miss belonging to it.

Three days in Chiquinquirá

In 2021, I spent a month at my brother’s apartment in Chiquinquirá. I was about twenty-one. I had brought my laptop, and his two chihuahuas were there too.

During one of the long holiday weekends — a puente — I sat down for three days and built the core of Personal Shopper.

I designed the automatch: the algorithm that chooses an advisor. Part of the problem was thinking through how assignment would work when there were many advisors. I also worked on the streaming side with the Chime SDK.

That is where the product begins for me: at my brother’s place.

On 24 August 2021, the team named me Colaborador del Sprint 11. I was proud of that recognition. Looking at the photo now, I also see how young I was.

The bug that followed me

I worked on Personal Shopper on my own until I left. There was a transmission problem on a phone: the video would slow down and look terrible.

I spent months with that bug.

I would work on other tasks, but it stayed there, unfinished. Work moved forward; this one problem did not. It took up far too much room in my head. I was stressed, and I was tired of being stressed about it.

By April 2022, I was leaving VTEX. The main reason was financial, but the bug had given me an extra push. A project I was proud of had also become something that could make me miserable.

Then came my last day.

An hour or two with Paola

I was at the VTEX office in Bogotá with Paola, the best product owner I have worked with. It was her and me. I think it took an hour or two.

I fixed the bug.

It came down to a try/catch.

Can you imagine? Months with that bug, and I solved it on my last day.

I left happy. I am still grateful that this is how I get to remember that day.

Now, when I remember those months of frustration, I also remember that hour or two with Paola. The memory has become gentler with the years.

Maik took over Personal Shopper. The person whose code I had read to learn was now looking after the product. We are still great friends.

The product after me

Product context from VTEX’s public documentation.

VTEX still documents Personal Shopper as a paid add-on for one-to-one video shopping: showing products, answering questions and helping customers fill their cart. Product catalogue.

The guide covers instant and scheduled calls, screen sharing, chat, recordings and analytics. Customers can browse with the advisor in a small video window; merchants can manage advisors’ hours and product collections. It lists sixteen countries, four languages — English, Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan — and Standard and Pro plans with monthly streaming minute allowances. Those are availability details, not customer counts. Documentation.

VTEX also publishes a Cetro Máquinas case study: salespeople demonstrating equipment and answering technical questions over video, including questions about smaller items and accessories. Cetro’s experience.

On 16 April 2026, VTEX announced VTEX Storefronts with AI Personal Shopper, combining conversation, semantic search and recommendations. Its Vision page lists FastStore with AI Personal Shopper as Priority Access. These announcements do not establish whether the AI offering shares code with the video-call product. Announcement, VTEX Vision.

Back to that screen

I last asked about the code about two years ago. The connection to VTEX IO had changed; I thought the core might be similar, but could not confirm it.

Recognising the UI does not tell me what changed underneath, or make today’s features all my work.

But I remember making that interface. Seeing it again brought back the pride, along with the sadness of missing those days.

It has been more than four years since I left. I still have not managed to build another team like that one. It was the best I have been part of. Some of my best developer friendships started there.

Sometimes, on calls with candidates, I ask how someone from that team is doing. I have lost some people’s numbers. As far as I know, only three of them are still at VTEX.

I miss the ordinary part of it, too: belonging to that group, learning from the people around me, working on something without yet knowing how much it would mean to me later.

Thank you to Leidy, who managed our group. To Paola, for that last day and for being the best product owner I have worked with. To Maik, whose code I learned from and whose friendship stayed with me. To Jhon, and to everyone I worked with there: thank you.

It is August again. I am older, and so much has changed. But I opened a page about a product and ended up thinking about all of you.

The interface was still there. For a moment, that whole part of my life was there too.

I miss it. I am glad I got to be there.