Technology consultancy · Lisbon, Portugal
An engineering partner for the AI-native business.
Main Abstraction is a technology consultancy in Lisbon. We embed with your team, design the system, and own the delivery to production: AI and retrieval systems, on-chain products, web and mobile applications, among others.
01 · What we do
what we do
AI products
Retrieval over your own documents, agents that call your own tools, and the product built around them. We ship the whole thing, from the model layer to the interface, and it goes to production.
On-chain products
Contracts, and everything they touch. We write and review Solidity and Rust, build the indexing and analytics that make on-chain activity usable, and put a working application on top of it.
Platforms and web applications
The product itself. TypeScript and React front ends, Node and Python services behind them, Postgres underneath, deployed and monitored. Most of what we build ends up in front of real users.
Data and cloud infrastructure
The layer everything else stands on. Ingestion, scheduling, reprocessing and alerting on GCP and AWS, made to run predictably and cost what you expect.
02 · Specializations
Where we go deep.
- Retrieval and RAG
- Agents and MCP integrations
- Evaluation harnesses
- LLM tracing and observability
- Solidity and the EVM
- Rust and zkVM circuits
- Indexing and subgraphs
- Data pipelines and ETL
- BigQuery and GCP
- PostgreSQL
- Next.js and React
- Flutter and mobile
Retrieval and RAG03 · Work
selected work
Applied AI · verification
A trust contract for generated reports
Every claim in a generated report carries a confidence label computed in code, from the reliability of its source. Not from the model rating its own output.
Read moreApplied AI · retrieval
Retrieval over a closed document collection
Question answering over a fixed corpus where every claim traces back to the passage it came from. Hybrid retrieval, reranking, and three verification checks that run in code after the model has finished.
Read moreBlockchain infrastructure
Access-control libraries for a zkVM execution layer
Two Rust libraries for a zkVM execution layer: an admin authority and a freeze authority. Security-relevant code, proven on-chain for.
Read more04 · Questions
questions
What do you work on?
Data pipelines and cloud infrastructure, and the search and AI systems built on top of them.
Who does the work?
Every engagement is delivered personally by our founder, Gonçalo Traça, a cloud and data engineer with six years in production systems. We share his full CV and code samples on request, and we are happy to complete technical assessments, interviews and reference checks as part of your onboarding.
What capacity can you commit?
One senior engineer, full time, on one engagement at a time. We confirm the start date in writing before contract signature.
Will you sign an NDA?
Yes, before any scoping conversation. Everything you share is treated as confidential by default.
Do you subcontract to consultancies and agencies?
Yes. We deliver under your contract and your brand where needed, on your tools or ours. We sign non-solicitation terms as standard, never approach your client directly, and accept back-to-back terms that mirror your client contract. The client relationship stays yours.
How does an engagement start?
With a short first project at a fixed price, scoped on the first call. We measure what your systems cost and how long they take, fix the worst bottleneck, and hand it over. Longer work continues from there.
What if I do not know what needs fixing?
That is normal, and the first three days answer it. Tell us what you are running and where it hurts.
What do I get at the end?
Working code in your repositories, running in your environment, and a written handover covering what changed and what we chose not to do.
Who decides the technical approach?
We propose, you approve. Anything affecting your platform, budget or security is agreed before it is built.
How do we work together day to day?
A weekly call and a shared channel. You can read the commits as they land.
How does pricing work?
Fixed price per engagement, agreed before we start. Day rates where a project needs them.
Is there a minimum commitment?
No retainer and no minimum term.
Who owns the code?
You do, on final payment. Under a subcontract, all work product and IP vests in you or your end client. Cloud accounts and credentials stay in your name throughout.
Where does the code and data live?
In your cloud, under your accounts. Where personal data is involved we act as a processor under your data processing agreement and process it only inside your environment. No production data on our machines.
What happens after handover?
Two weeks of questions included. Monitoring and a runbook come with the work.
Where are you based?
Lisbon. We work in English and Portuguese on Lisbon time, which overlaps the full working day in Nordic, DACH and Benelux offices, and we travel for a kick-off when it helps.
How do we contract?
Portuguese company, EU VAT registered. Business to business inside the EU is reverse charge.
get in touch
Tell us what you are running, where it is slow or unreliable, and what a useful next step would look like. Twenty minutes on a call is usually enough to say whether we are the right people for it.
Book a callgon@mainabstraction.com